Washington University Books

Forrest McDonald is one of the best academic historians of early American political, intellectual, and economic history. I've read several books by him and they've all been very good to excellent, and this book is right up there with them.

One thing to keep in mind: This is NOT a biography. One could even argue that Washington himself is -- in McDonald's narrative -- not really the "star" at all, and that in fact others (such as Madison, Hamilton, & Jefferson) are far more important to driving the events of the early Republic. However, this depiction seems appropriate given Washington's reserved leadership style as President. In McDonald's words, "George Washington was indispensable, but only for what he was [ie, a figurehead everyone respected], not for what he did."

What this book is, is a very good chronicle of the political history of our first presidential administration, covering all the important issues you would expect from the period. It is particularly strong at chronicling the emergence of the United States' first real national political parties.

Though I thought this book was quite good overall, I rated it four rather than five stars for the following reasons:
1. McDonald sometimes throws in a few too many extraneous details which can dilute his points.

2. As he himself admits, some of McDonald's narrative is based on conjecture -- particularly when he describes a trip Jefferson and Madison took together to Lake Champlain. On that trip, McDonald supposes, Madison had an epileptic seizure that Jefferson witnessed, and this revelation of Madison's hidden personal weakness cemented their friendship and alliance. McDonald also engages in psychological analysis of some people -- such as Jefferson -- that comes across as not much more than speculation and conjecture, too.

3. I thought McDonald was a little too biased towards the Hamiltonian/Federalist side of the emerging partisan divide. (Though, to be fair, most historians seem to go to the opposite extreme in praising Jefferson and his faction. Even so, McDonald seemed to always assume the best intentions on the part of the Federalists, and the worst intentions on the part of the Republicans.)

In sum: This is a good scholarly look at the period, but those in search of a general biography of Washington should look elsewhere.

This book is well written and very informative. This is more of an academic history than a page-turner, such as the books by the likes of David McCullough, but then again few books are. This book will appeal to those interested in history, especially American history. It is about the first 8 years of the government of the United States. Because the constitution was not specific on many of the aspects of how the government was to be run, it was necessary for Washington, his Cabinet and the Congress to further define their roles. This book describes how the men involved and the challenges that they faced directed the evolution of the government of the United States. It describes, in detail, Hamilton's financial system, the internal challenges of Indian uprisings and the resistance to the power of the government (as shown by the Whisky Rebellion) and the relations with foreign powers (primarily with Britain, France and Spain). I especially liked the discussion of Hamilton's system of monetizing the debt incurred during the revolution and using this as the basis for a currency system. This is a very complex subject, one that few at the time (or later) understood. This book not only clearly explains his system but also shows that it was based on the British system, thereby making it less mysterious and not a completely original creation of Hamilton's. Much time is also spent on the attempts of the French and Republican politicians, such as Jefferson, to support the French Revolution, even at the risk of war with Britain. In opposition to this were the Federalists, such as Hamilton, who wanted to avoid war with Britain at all costs. A considerable amount of space is therefore spent on the Jay treaty with Britain, and the support and opposition to it. The book also shows how the challenges faced by the US and the rivalries between the men involved helped to lead to the evolution (much to Washington's dismay) of political parties.

While the title is accurate, it is also a bit misleading. This book is not primarily about Washington, in fact, in most of the book he is only in the background, ratifying or rejecting the acts of others. The author's view of Washington really only becomes clear in the last two pages, where he is depicted more of a symbolic presence than a dynamic leader. Nonetheless, the book makes it clear that Washington was more than just a figurehead. He created a stronger president than the weak one desired by Congress. He brought the heads of the departments of the government (State, War and Finance) clearly under the control of the President, reporting to him and not to Congress. He refused to hand over the papers associated with the development of the Jay treaty and refused to acknowledge the Senate's right to prevent him from firing someone they had previously approved. This book thus shows how the presidency of George Washington shaped the history of the Presidency and the US.

The general consensus is that the two greatest US presidents were George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. I firmly believe that and in my opinion, Washington was the greatest. Before he became president he did something very rare in the history of the human race. After the victory in the war of independence, his stature was such that he could have been "elected" king. However, his honor was such that he had to be persuaded to run for president and then re-persuaded to run for a second term. He then thoroughly rejected any thought of a third term.
The nation that he led was still very fragile and every action by Washington or congress that was not explicit in the constitution would establish a precedent. Furthermore, the world was still a dangerous place, with the French revolution and subsequent European war creating a dangerous environment for the new nation. His actions in building the new government and keeping it out of foreign entanglements fully justify the admiration that he receives.
This book kept my attention from the first page as the early years of the new government are described. For this is a book about the Washington administration rather than Washington the man. So many legends in the annals of history were there and setting the tone for over 200 years of continuous government. You also learn of the emergence of political parties, as Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson and Adams among others vie for power and influence. Alexander Hamilton is the most interesting of these giants, as he successfully creates the financial institutions that made the country fiscally sound.
The more I read about Washington and that period of history, the more I am impressed by him. I have no idea what would have happened if he had been different, but it is a sure bet that it would have been worse. It is unfortunate that we teach our children nonsensical myths like the one about the cherry tree. The truth is so much more inspiring, and he truly deserves the accolade of "the father of his country."

"The Presidency of George Washington" is exactly what its title implies. It is the story of the Washington Administration. It is not a biography of George Washington, nor is it even a book which revolves totally around George Washington. It is the story of the people, issues and events which made up the administration of George Washington.

The book starts out with an introduction into the United States of 1789. The regions and interests, as well as the political alignments, which supported and opposed the adoption of the Constitution are explained in some detail. The economy, trade, finance and the neighboring powers of Spain and England all laid the background for America's experiment with its new Constitution.

The first task facing Washington was the establishment of the National Government. While reading this book we come to understand just how little guidance he had from the Constitution. Many of the practices which we take for granted derive, not from the Constitution, but from precedents established by Washington and his successors. The title of address for the President and the role of the heads of the executive departments, which were to become the cabinet, were among the first issues to be addressed. The role of the Senate in granting "advice and consent" on foreign policy matters had to be defined. An early trial occurred when President Washington appeared in the Senate to present his proposals and ask for advise and consent. After this awkward exercise, the practice was established that the executive would formulate policies and negotiate treaties, which would then presented for advice and consent.

The power of removal of executive officers also had to be refined. It was presumed by some that any officer who required Senate confirmation for appointment, also required Senate consent for removal. It was the Washington Administration which established the principle that executive officers could be removed by the President without Congressional approval. This was an issue which was to be resurrected during the impeachment of Andrew Johnson.

Beyond organizational problems, the towering challenge facing the administration was that of finance. The debts of the Continental Congress and the states raised a myriad of issues. Should debts be paid? Should the debts be paid at par? Should payment be made to the bearer, who had often bought the bonds at a discount, or should some or all of the payment be made to the original lender? Should the national government assume the debts of the states? All of these issues had important consequences to the credit worthiness of the government. The assumption of state war debts had unequal impacts, depending on whether the individual state had serviced its debt or let it accumulate. Ultimately the Hamiltonian proposal to assume the war debt of the states and to pay the holders of the bonds was adopted, with the concession of the location of the national capitol in the South to win necessary support.

An issue which would remain controversial until the Administration of Andrew Jackson was the establishment of the Bank of the United States. One of the main reasons for the establishment of the bank was the dearth of banks in the country capable of handling federal deposits.

The domestic issues confronted by the administration introduced the spirit of party into the Administration. The differing views and personalties of Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson brought contention into the administration. It was their personalties, particularly that of Hamilton, which came to be the heart of the Administration, even more than that of Washington himself.

The second term was to be dominated by foreign entanglements and a domestic insurrection. The advancement of the French Revolution and its wars with the powers of Europe brought European problems to America. The continuance or renunciation of America's treaty, made with Royalist France, was a hotly debated issue, as was the ratification of a later treaty with Britain. Acceptance of the Jay Treaty with Britain was, ultimately, decided in a reaction to alleged official corruption. In America's first encounter with Islamic Terrorism, raids against American shipping in the Mediterranean by Barbery Pirates, resulted in, again after heated debate, the establishment of the U.S. Navy.

1794 saw resistance to federal taxation on whiskey erupt into the Whiskey Rebellion. The assertion of Federal authority lead to the raising of the militia for the suppression of the rebellion. The declaration of the Rebellion and its suppression may have had more to do with Hamilton's desire to crush his political opponents and brand them as traitors than it did with any actual insurrection.

Washington's ultimate gift to the nation was his retirement and transfer of power to an elected successor at the conclusion of his second term.

This book is recommended to anyone desiring an understanding of the personalities who made up our first national administration, the challenges which confronted them, their responses to those challenges and their legacies to our country.

Forrest McDonald is an excellent writer. He produced a wonderful full length bio of Alexander Hamilton that I recommend to anyone interested learning about our government's start and the role played by the man second only to Washington in ensuring that these United States succeeded in laying a firm foundation for self government.

This book is one of McDonald's two contributions to the Univ. of KA's "Presidency Series." It is splendid.

McDonald concisely explores the challenges presenting themselves and issues demanding attention from our new and untested government. In just under two hundred pages, the author does an excellent job of boiling down the topics to their essentials and describing how the nascent government struggled to define its role, the meaning of it's constitutional structure, the balance of factions and America's relation to warring European giants.

His book accomplishes this with brevity, clear and concise writing and in an interesting manner. Along the way are fascinating tidbits. For example, neither Washington nor the Senate knew what "advise and consent" meant regarding treaties. About to send negotiators to several indian tribes, Washington walked down to the Senate to seek their advice on instructions for his agents. As the Senate sat dumbfounded, and then finally began to debate the seven points Washington sought advice on, it became clear how impractical legislative micro management of treaty making would be. Washington turned on his heels and left in disgust when it became obvious the Senate could not give him clear and definative advice. Thereafter, it was mutually agreed that the Senate's role would revolve mainly around "consent" and come when the President presented negotiatied treaties to that body for consideration and not before the treaty making in the form of advice. And thus has it been, evermore.

This is a very good book that will inform those interested in learning how our government got up and running and how important Washington and the players around him were in charting the course for our young government.

To read someone's most intimate thoughts can seem an invasion -- unless they publish them as a book. At times I still felt as though I was invading the author's privacy but this was an unexpected look into the very intimate details of a "place in time" for this young woman. Very interesting read.

an interesting book. Memoirs by their very nature lack perspective and balance and this one is no different. It has a certain effervesence to it and you admire her perseverence through all her challenges - many self inflicted. It sure isn't a advertisement for the benefits of therapy though.

It's difficult to easily categorize This Is How I Speak: The Diary Of A Young Woman. It is somewhere between a diary, biography, literary memoir and confessional lies a captivating story of one woman's winning literary achievements and her recovery from a sexual assault. Her diary is filled with insight, from her work in the arts to her blossoming skills and identity. This Is How I Speak is an absorbing, high-impact coverage.

The Diary of Anais Nin meets The Paper Chase is this intimate, entertaining and moving portrait of an ambitious dancer turned writer coping with love, loss, sex, competition, endless Seattle rain, and a bad therapist at one of the nation's leading creative writing programs. THIS IS HOW I SPEAK offers a little bit of something for everyone--stories about relationships, about ambition, about the pain of sexual assault, about healing, about finding one's own voice in a world already filled with the voices of others.

The author, then 25, finds her place as a dancer and a writer as she struggles to overcome a sexual assault set up by a close friend. The diary form maintains the youthful voice with its passions and questions in a way that an older, wiser narrator-looking-back could not. Written with aching clarity, the book captures what it is to be 25, to be violated and to find one's strength for the first time.

An engaging and captivating read. I sure wish someone like Mr. Pierce had taught history at my high school! This guy breaths life into history with humor, passion and brilliant insights. Pierce obviously loves history and manages to make it all come alive through his deft wordsmithing. As I delved deeper into the book, it became obvious that before ever writing a word, Pierce must have spent many months doing his research (including tracking down, across the Northwest and around the country, living descendents of his historic, eccentric characters.It is also a friendly read. Each eveninig before bed I'd devour another chapter. Sadly, after I finished the book I found myself foraging through the table of contents, like a depleted tin of almond roca, in hopes that just possibly I had overlooked a morsel or even a crumb of his delightful tales of Seattle's historic characters, charlatans, swindlers, realtors and hustlers. Bravo Mr. Pierce!

January Magazine crime fiction editor J. Kingston Pierce takes us on an effervescent journey through Seattle's ... er ... eccentric history in his latest history-related book, "Eccentric Seattle." In his introduction, Pierce describes how Seattle came to be. "Thus the city was born," writes Pierce. "It would prove to be a fast-growing but troubled child, which didn't always play well with others." This troubled-child aspect is where Pierce leads us. We learn about mail-order brides, a nutty Pulitzer Prize-winning Seattle poet; anti-Communist witch hunts in McCarthy-era Seattle; the first woman mayor of a large American city; rumrunning during Prohibition and so much more. Pierce, the author of "America's Historic Trails with Tom Bodett" and "San Francisco, You're History," has written extensively on history in general and the history of Seattle in particular, so, in "Eccentric Seattle," we believe him when he tells us that he learned "long ago that history isn't merely about dates, places, and statistics; what gives it life are the people who charted its course, whether they were empire builders or avaricious businessmen, eristic newspaper editors or erratic preachers, artists or murderers." In "Eccentric Seattle," Pierce introduces us to all of them. -- from January Magazine, December 2003

Eccentric Seattle: Pillars And Pariahs Who Made The City Not Such A Boring Place After All by longtime Seattle editor and author J. Kingston Pierce is an engaging regional history of the great city of Seattle, Washington. Kingston Pierce's keen interest in unusual aspects of history are reflected in the sometimes bizarre anecdotes (mothers urging their children to stuff salt up their noses, scores of proper Victorian ladies forced to climb 8 to 30 foot high ladders) he's gathered and included in Eccentric Seattle, stories stretching through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to present a rollicking composite picture. Eccentric Seattle is a fun and informative collection for tourists or residents of Seattle to read through, and a highly recommended contribution to American Regional History.

Seattle's current self-indulgent concept of itself is of a comfortable, jets-rain-and-flannel-shirts backwater now finally being forced to wrestle with the fact that it's become a "big city." But as J. Kingston Pierce's subtitle suggests -- and his interesting and entertaining history reveals -- that vision of Seattle's past, if it was ever accurate, was at best only an interlude between the Emerald City's rowdy origins and the fast-paced *urbs* we are today.

For much of its early history, Seattle was a quintessential frontier town. And from that standpoint, many of the people to whom the author introduces us didn't really strike me as that "eccentric" at all. On the contrary, they seemed like the fairly standard character types one found in many American frontier settlements: the brothel keepers, the moralists, the criminals on the lam, the get-rich-quick artists, the Horatio Algers determined to make a fortune through hard work, the people who failed Back East and came west to start over, and, inevitably, the politicians.

Though these characters are familiar, Pierce does a fine job weaving them into the interesting tapestry that is Seattle history, and showing how they continued to affect the city even after its frontier days were long dead.

I for one can hardly wander through a city without wondering what kind of history took place there, what it looked like 100 years ago, and how it became what it is. The "sense of place" is very important to me. I understand Seattle a lot better for having read this book. Pierce has given faces and stories to many of the names that stare back at us from building fronts and street signs, uncovered important landmarks (literal and figurative) in the city's history, and generally done a good job proving the argument his subtitle asserts.

If, as Winston Churchill suggested, how clearly you see the past shapes how clearly you'll see the future, anyone interested in the future of Seattle (or, less pretentiously, anyone simply interested in some entertaining true stories about places that may already be familiar to you) should definitely get to know this book.

I became interested in learning more about the CCC when so many of the National and State parks that I visit had displays lauding the accomplishments of the CCC. Over 65 years later we're still enjoying the fruits of their labor! This book was my first attempt at reading more about them and I wasn't disappointed.

Mr. Hill does a very good job describing his own personal experiences, those of his personal CCC buddies, and adds several other brief first-person accounts at the end. All together, the reader gets a good overall taste for what camp life was like and the tremendous accomplishments of this civilian army (some examples: 38,087 vehicle bridges, 83,548 miles of telephone lines, 5.9 million erosion check dams, 2.2 billion trees planted, 6.3 million mandays fighting forest fires). Woven throughout is a sense of just how brillant this government program was during the desperate times of the Depression--the CCC was simply a spectacular win-win for everyone.

Overall, there seems to be a lack of good detailed histories and first-person accounts about the CCC. I cannot figure out why--so many lives were benefically influenced by the CCC and their successes are almost innumerable. "In the Shadow" was a great place to start learning more about the "We can take it" boys and has only whetted my appetite for more.

Mr. Hill does an excellent job of weaving the personal narratives of the "We Can Take It" boys with the potentially dry historical subject of the Civilian Conservation Corps. Not only do I now understand how the boys lived, what they did, how they felt, etc., but also how, why, and when the program began. It's a rich part of our history and one that each generation should know about. This is a book each family needs to include in their family library!

Although expecting a technical manual on the role of the Civilian Conservations Corps in the "New Deal" era, I was pleasently surprised at the direction this book takes. "In the Shadow of the Mountain" is a first person narative of life in two separate CCC camps, one on the east coast and one on the west. This book provides plenty of insight into the accomplishments of the CCC and of the daily life of its members. I highly recommend this book to those interested in the political and economic history of the Great Depression and beyond.

This book should be required reading for every high school student. In the Shadow of the Mountain gives our generation an appreciation for the price that was paid by a great generation before us.
JER

The depth of information provided in this remarkable book trasncends the test of time.

In 1864, George P. Marsh explained how civilizations create ecological disasters. His central thesis is that cutting down forests desrupts otherwise stable hydrological cycles, thereby causing erosion and degrading plant and animal habitats. The book is vaste, creative and detailed. An American from Vermont, Marsh also lived in Turkey and Italy, and pursued numerous careers, as diplomat, lawyer, businessman, and professor. His intense love of language and history merged with direct obersvations here and abroad to generate a remarkable breadth of knowlegde and a strong desire to communicate. In Man and Nature, Marsh is not only inspired, he is also happy to digress, particularly in the abundant footnotes.

Although a dipolmat by profession, Marsh was the first environmentalist to describe the interrelationships between environment and culture. Today he is best remembered for his key work, "Man and Nature." In that classic work, he was the first to suggest that human agency constituted a major element in landscape change. The accepted view held by prominent geographers and geologists of his day was that the physical aspects of the earth were entirely the result of natural process and phenomena, including topography, geological materials, erosion, weathering, climate, etc. Before Marsh, no one had ever thought to study the earth in ways that it was changed by human actions. After his pioneering work, no serious environmentalist or geoscientist can afford to overlook the consequences of those actions on the land. A well-read copy of this book belongs in the personal library of every earth scientist, environmentalist, and conservationist. Marsh's book is a MUST READ for anyone concerned about what people are doing to the earth.

Originally published in 1864, Marsh explains in wonderful detail the consequences of humankind's manipulation of earth's resources. Truly an enlightened thinker.

Michael Malone, who has since passed away, was a great scholar. As with his previous writings there is some overlap, but plenty of new material, as well. Other great books include Emmons' book which is also first class. Thus, I would recommend both Malone's early writings and Emmons book. The "Copper Camp" written during the Works project is another book worth looking at; but keep it in historical perspective. It seemed rather racist to me, particularly in the manner in which it deals with the Native American population.

This is what most people would call the "definitive" one-volume history of Montana, and I'd have to agree. Written primarily to serve as a testbook for college-level history courses, this is a comprehensive, balanced, and detailed overview of Montana's fascinating history. All three authors knew the state extraordinarily well, and clearly loved its past. (Both Malone and Roeder taught history at Montana State University, and Malone later served as the school's president; Lang edited the Montana Historical Society's journal.)

Still, it's difficult to recommend this book to the casual reader. By striving so diligently for completeness and balance, the authors created a product that is weighty, dense, and largely without style. Montana's vibrant, spirited history has been rendered lifeless here, and reading this book can be very slow going. As a professional historian, I find it to be a great reference tool, but its not something that most folks will want to read for fun. Instead, you might consider these two evocative and beautifully-written histories of the state: Joseph Kinsey Howard's "Montana: High, Wide, and Handsome" and K. Ross Toole's "Montana: An Uncommon Land." Both are classics in their field, and are wonderful reads.

When I recently asked at the Montana Historical Association about the best history of Montana, this was the book recommended. Having read many books about Montana, I agree. The current edition, published in 1991, is authored by Malone, Roeder, and Lang. An earlier publication in 1976 was by Malone and Roeder alone, and the newer revision is significantly updated.

While acknowledging that Montana's history dates back thousands of years before white Europeans first appeared on the scene, this text primarily deals with history since the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1805-1806.

Fur traders and mountain men followed quickly after Lewis and Clark. They explored the land but didn't settle anywhere for long. The populating of Montana began in the western part of the territory in the 1860s with the development of the gold and silver mining districts. Geographically, western and eastern Montana differ greatly. Cattlemen were the first developers of eastern Montana, primarily after 1880, and were followed after 1900 by the farmers of the homestead era. "A History of Two Centuries" is one of the few books to treat development of the entire state evenly.

Gold, cattle, mining, homesteading, railroads, economics, drought, and the evolution from frontier to integration into the United States are all elements of Montana's history. Each of these ingredients caused Montanans to compete forcefully against the natural world and one another. Many of the ingredients have spawned individual books. No other single book covers them all so well.

A lot of the Montana's history is at the heart of America's "Wild West." Few writers have the discipline to describe Montana without getting caught up in the romance of the myth. That is unfortunate since the facts provide ample romance. The reader of this text will find plenty of "wild west" in the people, development, and politics of Montana. It is a worthy successor to "Montana: High, Wide, and Handsome," which for years served Montanans as the best account of their state's history.

The chapters are roughly chronological and the authors provide an extensive bibliography for each chapter.

I am from Montana and have never really learned the history. I became interested after seeing a Montana Historical Society art showing. They recommended this book as the best general review out there. It is rare that any author can capture Montana's extrordinary beauty with words, but Mr. Malone does that surprisingly well. I would have to agree with the Historical Society that this is a great book for people unfamilier with Montana's diverse and amazing history.

With great respect for indigenous peoples and sometimes contemptuous humor aimed squarely at Whites who took the land (in order to refashion it according to "God's plan"), Thrush weaves an intricate blend of stories into a history often invoked but seldom understood. The book does not follow a traditional Euro "beginning-to-end" narrative which may pose problems for more linear-minded folks. Instead, the stories follow a basic timeline of the region's ecological and industrial development, complementing each other. Thrush does a good job of revealing how the perspectives of those in power shape the history we learn in school -- and that's almost never the whole story. I would love to see a book like this covering the colonial disruption of each displaced group of indigenous people on the planet.

This is a great book. I met Dr. Thrush once when he was a tour leader for one of the Museum of History and Industry's tours of the Ballard Locks. His insights really come through in this book.

Essentially another book about Puget Indians written by a college professor with no understanding or respect for tribal culture. The first thing that struck me was the lack of Native sources. Thrush mentions that he had a hard time finding Natives to interview for this book, esp Duwamish Tribal members. Perhaps then he should have held off writing the book until he developed relationships with his subjects?

The writing was also terrible. His thesis is mentioned literally almost very other paragraph; take this out and there is probably only 3 or 4 pages of "history".

I also found that using the translated version of Indian place names, sometimes without explaining the Native name or etymology, was extremely disrespectful to Native-Americans.

In the foreword Thrush compared the problems he's faced because of his sexual orientation with the plight of Puget Indians. With statements like that, I can understand why few natives would work with him for this book.

The only redeeming part of the book is the Section on the update of Waterman's native place names in Seattle, which wasn't written by Thrush.


To summarize, poorly written, no information or history, and extremely condescending and disrespectful to Puget Indians...

With regard to the beginnings of the city of Seattle, the local Native Americans were not part of what was called the "Vanishing Race" of Native Americans from the westward growth of America. Native Americans played a large, vital, and conspicuous role in the founding and early growth of Seattle. Thrush, an assistant professor of history at the University of British Columbia, makes the point that the role of Native Americans regarding other cities is worth looking into as well. In Seattle, Native American men and women provided the large majority of the manual labor in such work as sawmills and fishing; and many started small businesses. By intermarriage, some Native Americans, particularly women, assumed prominent and influential positions in the community. The other side of the Native Americans' experience with Seattle is their being supplanted as more and more whites came to Seattle in the latter years of the 19th century. Subject to discrimination, racism, oppression, and demonization, the Native Americans lost their position in the city's economy and social structure. They were, for instance, labeled as "hostile," and said to be unable to adjust to urban life; the women were considered prostitutes. In recent years, the fundamental role of local Native Americans in Seattle's origins and the impression this had on the character of the city are being given their due. Numbers of Native Americans, showing an entrepreneurial spirit and media savvy equal to any big-city dweller, are finding places in today's Seattle. Thrush writes the full story of the changing social relationship of Native Americans to Seattle. Central to his perspective--noted in the "Foreword"--is the false, unsubstantiated dichotomy between "civilized" and "uncivilized" peoples. Following the text is an "Atlas of Indigenous Seattle" containing maps and Native American terms evidencing the prevalence of the Native Americans through the Puget Sound area, how much they had developed this area already through use of its resources, and the place of the Native American culture in the origins and development of Seattle.

The shipping was fairly fast. The book was in mint condition.

I knew next to nothing about the Pacific Northwest, having only spent a few days there as a kid for the Spokane World's Fair. William Dietrich's Northwest Passage: The Great Columbia River filled much of my knowledge gap with a fascinating and well-told story. Dietrich recounts the history of the Columbia, from its original creation through geologic forces and its discovery by Lewis and Clark and other explorers, to development of the river and the region by forestry, fishing, and industrial interests, harnessing of the river through multiple dams (including the huge Grand Coulee dam), decimation of the salmon population and later attempts by environmental and Native American interests to revive the salmons, and turf wars between various interest groups. Dietrich's book is extremely well researched and annotated, but reads not like laborious scholarship but like a labor of love. He clearly loves the region he writes about and is troubled by its many changes; he conveys both his enthusiasm and in-depth knowledge through this graceful book.

Really enjoyed reading the numerous stories of Columbia River history and the competing uses of the river. Towards the end the author gets a little too dramatic about wild salmon and native Americans and seems to lose the balanced views presented thoughout most of the book.

I have taught Pacific Northwest History at high school and college levels, and found this book one of the best regional histories published. Although focused on the Columbia River, it presents more of the general history of the interior Northwest (east of the Interstate 5 corridor) than any other history of the region. Of course, the Columbia River and its tributaries are central to Northwest history from the fish that archaeologists discovered to be the core of Kennewick Man's diet to the present Kaiser Steelworkers lockout and the controversy over Snake River dams.

The story of human modification of the Columbia River is one of heroism and greed, boom and bust, promotion and fraud, and the winners and losers that go along with the competition among interest groups. Dietrich tells the story with drama, fairness to competing interests, and the kind of focus that requires a point of view. His history is honest, rather than objective; committed, rather than unbiased. It is rich in details, but doesn't lose sight of the big picture. This is newspaper-style feature writing at its best.

At the core of this book is a story of a peoples' faith in progress, the achievement this faith enabled, and the blind spots this faith nurtured. Immense benefits and enormous failures have resulted from this faith. Now, as Dietrich makes clear, we must reexamine our basic assumptions and redetermine our priorities.

Not every reader will agree with Dietrich's priorities and perspectives, but few can identify critical points that he missed. His facts are sound. My only complaint is that too little accommodation is made for readers who want to track down and verify some of his statements of fact. The book has a bibliography and index, but no endnotes. It is published by a university press, but lacks the usual scholarly apparatus.

My Peace Corps experience was in Dominican Republic -- Susan Lowerre writes like an angel about her difficult, frustrating, wonderful time in Senegal. The physical [including health] challenges she depicts about her service in Senegal reminded me that I had served in a relatively "easy" Peace Corps country. Despite her travails in-country, what comes shining through in her account is her headlong embrace of life and her love for Senegal and its people. It's an unforgettable story.

I recommend this book to anyone -- especially, of course, former, present, and potential Peace Corps Volunteers -- with an interest in understanding other cultures.

I enjoyed this book in the beginning. You can certainly tell that Susan is not a writer, but she gets her point across. The reader is presented with a vivid picture of her life in Africa, the challenges she faces, decisions and judgements she makes along the way. Eventually, though, it gets to the point where you grow weary of her self-congratulatory comments. Over and over you read, "That woman wouldn't survive a day in my village," or "Senegal is where I belong, not in this clean, plastic world (America)."

Also, unless you care to read a whole lot about fisheries and the work done in them, there is not a whole lot of dimension to the work. She comes across and bitter, angry and self-righteous much of the time, and it gets old.

Peace Corps is a choice for a way of life. I, she and several thousand have chosen it now and in the past. Though it is challenging and difficult at times, it's a choice. I see no need to condescend others for making a different lifestyle choice.

An okay story, but I recommend "Mango Elephants in the Sun" hands down over this one.

Not a glorified look at the Peace Corps but a realistic, gritty account of both the trials and tribulations of serving in the Corps. Lowerre tells how her romantic expectations of life in Africa contrasted with the reality she soon encountered- the heat, the hard life and even the parasites that invaded her body. Even so, she finds herself becoming attached to the people she lives among, to the country and a life that is far different than the one she expected. An excellent, honest memoir.

I am a two time Peace Corps volunteer and "Under the Neem Tree" truely captures the Peace Corps experience of many volunteers. The small accomplishments, the major disappoint- ments, the challenge of trying to stay physically as well as mentally healthy are all part of this volunteers story.

A Cree leader named, Harold Cardinal, gives a cutting renunciation to Jean Chretien's White Paper, in his book, "The Unjust Society". Originally published in 1969.This book continues to be one of the most vital books ever published in North America regarding First Nations people struggle for their identity. Radical changes in policy are exemplified in this compelling book that describes the Aboriginal Rights, Social Programs and Economic Development. Continuing, Cardinal gives an account about the Governments assimilation program: Indian Act, Transfer of Indian affairs to the provinces and Elimination of separate legal status for native people.
"Cardinal summed up the government's approach as "The only good Indian is a non-Indian." He make up the term "buckskin curtain". This was his way to describe the obstructions that had been positioned in the way of his people.
"The Unjust Society" can be a sign of a change in the political camouflage regarding First Nations fight for justice.

In, Harold Cardinal's book, "The Unjust Society", is best summed up in the first chapter on page two. "It sometimes seems to Indians that Canada shows more interest in preserving its rare whooping cranes than its Indians. And Canada, the Indian notes, does not ask its cranes to become Canada geese. It just wants to preserve them as the whooping cranes. Indians hold no grudge against the big, beautiful, nearly extinct birds, but we would like to know how they managed their deal. Whooping cranes can remain whooping cranes, but Indians are to become brown white men." With this in mind, the Canadian government has continued with their double standards towards First Nation across the country. The Canadian government portrayal of having clean hands have dealt the so called, " Indian Problem", on to the Provincial governments. With this attitude, First Nations continue to build a stronger resistant their promises.

In, Harold Cardinal's book, "The Unjust Society", is best summed up in the first chapter on page two. "It sometimes seems to Indians that Canada shows more interest in preserving its rare whooping cranes than its Indians. And Canada, the Indian notes, does not ask its cranes to become Canada geese. It just wants to preserve them as the whooping cranes. Indians hold no grudge against the big, beautiful, nearly extinct birds, but we would like to know how they managed their deal. Whooping cranes can remain whooping cranes, but Indians are to become brown white men." With this in mind, the Canadian government has continued with their double standards towards First Nation across the country. The Canadian government portrayal of having clean hands have dealt the so called, " Indian Problem", on to the Provincial governments. With this attitude, First Nations continue to build a stronger resistant their promises.

The arguments used in this book are typical of the political correctness much in vogue in Canada when multiculturalism was triumphant. Times are gradually changing now. People are starting to realize that segregation in order to preserve indian identity is in the long run a dead end for the well-being of Americans of indian descent. Latin American immigrants, of similar genetic characters, are integrating much more successfully in the modern society. Indian natives should receive for what they do, not for what they are, otherwise they will develop a victimist mentality which will make them bitter and dependant.