Montana State University Books

This is the quintessential non-fiction account of Mann Gulch. It creates the foundation of our study of wild fire behavior. I could not turn the pages fast enough. Many quotable descriptions and observations about the firefighting industry is timelessly captured in this book.

This is a book written about a fire that took place in Montana back in the 1940's during which a group of smoke jumpers lost their lives. It is so well written that I found it difficult to put down. This was the beginning of the study of "fire", and all it's elements, as a science. Fascinating. This particular book is being used as required reading in our local "California Department of Fire" CDF. I read it as an adjunct to the Search and Rescue Team to which I belong. I recommend this to anyone, especially those living in a possible fire danger area.

Any book that I spend a great deal of time checking maps and names, to see who survived, has hooked me. This did. The horror has caused much thought. Check out the song "Cold Missouri Water"

In 1949, sixteen "smokejumpers" were dropped in the remote Gates of the Mountains wilderness in Montana to fight what seemed to be a routine wildfire. Within an hour 13 of them were dead, consumed in a horrific conflagration. MacLean, a college professor and former firefighter himself, became obsessed with the case, and when he retired he spent every summer investigating the tragedy and piecing together what really happened that day in Mann Gulch.

MacLean says that the job of a storyteller is to transform catastrophe into tragedy -- to analyze the series of small screw-ups that lead to disaster and make sense of them. As you go on this journey into the fire with MacLean, you really can't wait to see what he learns next. And when he brings the survivors back to Mann Gulch, he and they discover the limits of what can really be learned and understood in the face of the implacable forces of nature.

MacLean never finished the book. When he died at age 87, his kids recognized the book's quality and had it edited and published. There are some overly literary metaphors from the pen of this former English professor that he might have left out if he had had the chance to look over his own work. This is a really petty matter in the face of the book's overall quality.

In the hands of an ordinary writer and thinker, you might say "Good if you want to know about firefighters," or disasters, or Montana. But this book is so thoughtful about the realities of man as part of nature that it transcends the Mann Gulch tragedy and becomes much more. I'd recommend it to any person of intelligence.

Reviewer: Liz Clare, co-author of "To the Ends of the Earth: The Last Journey of Lewis & Clark"

I was fascinated by this riveting story. The second by second race for survival was amazingly documented. The confusion, physical strength, and wisdom displayed by the men involved was inspiring and yet insufficient to ensure their survival. Maclean brings the story to life. His interviews with the survivors shed facts and details that could not have otherwise been included in the book. As a FF who studies FF fatalities and near miss incidents, the book provided thought provoking information. Ultimately, it's a story of survival and death for a group of young men. Definetly worth the time and $.

Essentially a physicist's interpretation of the Battle of Little Bighorn, author John S. Gray's "Custer's Last Campaign: Mitch Boyer and the Little Bighorn Reconstructed" is a fascinating account of one of the most storied battles ever to take place on American soil. And this was a battle, with more than 350 men, women and children killed in the span of two furious hours on the dusty slopes of 1876 southeast Montana.

This is not a book for beginners of Custer/Montana lore. It can be extremely tedious at times as Gray utilizes time-motion studies to piece together the puzzle of what happened during the Seventh Calvary's final minutes. Since every man of the U.S. Army was killed during this prong of the battle, there are no eyewitness military accounts. Yes, hundreds of Native Americans survived, but few spoke of this battle for fear of punishment and hatred of Anglo historians. Crazy Horse, one of the few Native American leaders during this confrontation, was assassinated a week after arriving on the reservation. So this very important man's account was never taken. Thus, we are left with a hodgepodge of hazy Native American reconstructions.

Visiting the battlefield today, which stretches over several miles, solemn white headstones mark the spot where bodies of the Seventh Calvary were found. The location of these stones are included in Gray's complex, mathematical equations. What he's intricately pieced together, with the help of eyewitness accounts, archaeological digs and his own analytical mind, is a realistic result of this unusual battle. His conclusions are perhaps outside of the realm of what people would consider today.

The myth surrounding Custer and Little Bighorn has been shaped by such matinee films as "They Died With Their Boots On," "Little Big Man" and television's "Son of the Morning Star." These films portray Custer as headstrong, vain, heroic and, in one case, a tad insane. But each version, thematically forged by the decade it was filmed, portrays Custer fighting gallantly to the last, standing alone in buckskins while angrily firing his pistol at the approaching Native American hordes. Custer, as if performing the concluding act of Shakespeare's "Hamlet," falls dead to the ground in bloody, poetic, slow motion. It makes for a great painting hanging above the neighborhood bar.

The reality, revealed by Gray's novel, is Custer did indeed have a battle plan rather than making a vain stab at glory. But his forces were simply overwhelmed, chaos ensued, and panicking men were run down like herds of buffalo. It's not very poetic, but has war truly ever been? To understand America's fascination with this battle, one must first read Evan S. Connell's "Son of the Morning Star," one of the greatest historical nonfiction novels ever written.

Gray discards such weighty wisdom like an old blanket, and scientifically gets to the root of what actually happened. A Last Stand does indeed take place on Custer Hill, where Custer's body was found. Survivors panic, some commit suicide, and Boyer and company frantically run west, fighting and killing in a froth-like animal panic. But west is towards the Native American village they were attacking in the first place. They are then desperately cornered in a ravine, a small gully which can be stared at to this very day.

When the U.S. Army rides into a primitive village, shooting defenseless women and children, the primitive man will fight back if for no other reason than to protect their families. Like poking a stick into an ant hill, Custer and his Seventh Calvary were overwhelmed, the sorry battle ending in a ditch. Men attempted to claw their way out, perhaps asking themselves how they ended up in such a remote location, dying the loneliest of deaths.

This battle haunts us for a number of reasons, mainly because of our inhumane treatment of the Native American people. So we obsessively analyze this epic Homerian battle, trying to find a moment of heroism, a brief glimpse to help salve our morally guilty wounds. But all we find in Gray's account is wide-eyed reality, and desperate men crying in a ditch. Gray's novel details these horrors in scientific fashion, and unknowingly provides a glimpse of the dangers of American warrior vanity.

The reader becomes mesmerized and impressed by the thorough and meticulous process of constantly checking witness testimony with known topography and horse/walking/etc. mph rates, then time/motion studies with all possible data examined to see what plausible explanations can be more pushed forward as likely scenarios.

At the center here is the infamous Indian scout, Mitch Boyer and the testimony of the young Curly, survivor with Custer.

Amazing how the evidence Gray presents turns Custer 180o around from what is historically bantered, an aggressive disobiendent hawkish leader. Gray's reconstruction reveals soldier who emphasized and implemented what orders were given to him, to pin the Indians from left flank escape, and all the time awaiting Benteen's company and ammo train, which never arrived in time.

Disappointed that no chronology chain here shown how the followup takes place to discover the battlefield. Possibly Gray's other books on this subject cover that.

Remarkably well written, able to keep this reader's attention easily even with all the careful calculation checks, etc.

After reading the glowing reviews here on this book, I purchased it and went to work on it. I have to say, this is probably the most disappointed I've been in any book in a long time. Yes, the author puts together some impressive time/motion study. And I did gain some insights into both the battle and the causes of the campaign.

However, I found the text very dry. MitchMitch was here. Mitch went there. Mitch did this. Mitch did that. I also was overwhelmed with the details of who was where when. In the middle of all this detail the author has a hard time giving you his main point behind all the statistics.

I also didn't like the huge number of assumptions on speeds he made to arrive at his conclusions. He may well be correct, but anyone can make a theory fit the facts if they toy with the numbers. What is "trotting speed"? What is trotting speed over rough terrain? What is it uphill vs. downhill? Do units trot constantly or make stops now and then? The whole time/motion study thing left me unconvinced. It is at best a theory.

Surprisingly, a minority of the book was about the battle itself. I realize the author may feel it's already been covered. But his concentration on who was where when left way too many details of the participants unrevealed. It came off as very dry. Why did Reno do what he did? Or Benteen? The author made assertions about their motives, but gave relatively little foundation for his assertions, relative to the masses of data on less interesting topics.

I think the author did a great job at what he set out to do. It just wasn't as interesting as I expected. And the lack of detailed battle and campaign maps was disappointing. One gets lost in all the names of various coulees, ridges, knolls, hills, fords, and other bodies of water.

I found the time/motion graphs very difficult to read, with some variables on them not even indicated on the legend. But I did figure them out. I think he could have used a much better layout to show the timeline of events. I kept having to page back to reference previous graphs as he added more information. Past a point the mind can't keep it all organized, and more effective visual aids would have helped.

I was left with many unanswered questions about the battle. Topics such as weapon effectiveness, actual tactics used, etc, he seemed to just ignore in favor of his extensive analysis of who was where at what time.

I have read other books that give much better overlays of what happened and why, but lack the depth of this book. I'm hoping to find one that puts it all together.

This book is actually in two parts. The first half is a biography of sorts of the half Sioux, half white scout Mitch Boyer, who served with various military units on the Plains beginning in the 1850s and ended his life with George A. Custer at the Little Big Horn in June 1876. The second half is a detailed, at some points even minute-by-minute, account of Custer's Last Stand. Examining all the evidence (though disregarding but not totally dismissing the archaeological evidence that was just being made known in the 1980s), John S. Gray reconstructs the last week or so of Custer's campaign, concentrating especially on the afternoon of June 25 when Custer and the Seventh Cavalry met their demise.

A scientific historian, Gray introduces time-motion graphs to depict the movements of troops and Indians on the battlefield. More constructive for me are the itinerary tables that do pretty much the same thing but in a different configuration. Gray theorizes a general counter-clockwise movement of Custer's troops from the Medicine Tail Coulee to Calhoun Hill and eventually to Custer Hill where (Custer's) Last Stand occurred. His interpretation follows pretty much the standard one (challenged more recently by archaeological reports which extends troop movements beyond Custer Hill). He believes the testimony of Indian scout Curley, who had been with Custer right up to the early action on Custer Hill and then left the scene about a half hour before the final moments of the fight, was generally accurate and valid, though misinterpreted by interviewers at the time. Gray must be commended for insisting that what happened during the last half hour of the fight must remain conjecture only, since hardcore evidence is lacking.

It's hard to imagine a more thorough examination of events surrounding this single battle could be made (that will not stop others from trying, I'm sure), and Gray's account might be the closest we get to what actually happened (barring the uncovering of future evidence or revelations made by archaeological findings). Too detailed to be one's first book on the Little Big Horn fight, it will surely be devoured by anyone with a strong interest and some already acquired background information concerning the battle. An important study, highly recommended.

This is an outstanding work, and Gray did a great deal of work to piece togather the Indian accounts of the final battle and like his work shows the last stand wasn't on Custer hill, but the rush to the river to escape the attack on Custer hill from behind by Two Moon's force. Two Moon's account doesn't go into much detail and has to be put togather with the other accounts to know Mitch is the one leading the men towards the river after Tom is killed on the Hill by Rain in the Face. Most do agree the last soldier standing at the Custer battlefield was Sgt. Bulter.
The men rushing to the river and death were for the most part E company, Dr. Lord and Mitch Boyer (who was already wounded).

There is only one more mystery of the this battle to be solved and that is the horse found miles away dead and shot in the head by the trooper, with its oat bag full and gear intact (which means someone other than Curly made it out of the battle, which means it had to happen before the final stand and best bet it happen when the horses were chased away from Calhoun and Keogh's command by Crazy Horse's force).

This book is a valuable contribution in refuting the falsehoods spread by the so-called "Christian" Right, and particularly by the far Right Christian Identity movement which is even more extremist. It is a good companion to a wonderful new book titled Real Prophecy Unveiled: Why the Christ Will Not Come Again, And Why the Religious Right Is Wrong, by Joseph J. Adamson. And another good book is A Pilgrim's Path, by John J. Robinson. Thank God for books like these, because they shed light in a world made dark by "religious" bigotry, hypocrisy, and aggression. They give me faith that the humble and meek shall inherit the earth after all.

This is a good history of the Christian Identity movement. The biggest fault this book has is it barely touched on the huge influence the old Mormon faith (before it became pc) had on Identity doctrine. As much of a kook religion as it is Identity theology has always fascinated me. I do find it rather odd that some of the biggest foaming at the mouth Jew haters are people who either practice religions that have roots in the Jewish culture or even claim that they are Jews themselves. Its like they have Jew envy or something.

Barkun recites a Talmudic workmanlike account of Identity recent history, but he is intentionally selective in omitting material which is damaging to his worldview, he is a Russian jew living in USA. In the book, Barkun seeks to downplay the real genealogy of (just what he is) an Ashkenaizic "jew". He omits scholarship such as Prof Wexler of Tel Aviv which shows that the Ashkenazi jews are not at all "Bible Jews". This alone verifies the core teaching of Identity preachers: the illusive Identity of the dominant "jewish" group. What else does Barkun, who is clearly a bright fellow, what else does he conceal in his book and which would undercut his thesis? He speaks of Dispensationalism but he never goes on to tell us that Scofield who concocted a very popular Bible commentary ca 1900, was largely funded by Zionist jews such as Schiff. Schiff was the same Russian jew who through his Wall Street brokerage virtually funded the "Russian Revolution" which resulted in the killings by Russian jews of over 50 million Christians in Russia and Ukraine. You could either attribute these deaths (Christians murdered by jews) as being of Satanic or earthly origins, but they clearly are a part of history. The recent book The Black Book of Communism, which is clearly not "an evil Christian Identity book", lavishly documents these crimes.

What else does Barkun selectively omit from his book. He glosses over Identity persons and groups which he apparently realizes are helpful to the cause of jewish zionism. For instance, he says at the outset that he will have little to say about Herbert Armstrong. Any man who lived through the era of 1930 through World War 2 and on through the 1970s surely remembers listening on the radio to The World Tomorrow --Armstrong and his son Garner Ted Armstrong. But, Armstrong clearly taught Identity and Armstrong LOVED the jews. He cheered on Roosevelt and his jewish advisors who faked the "surprise attack at Pearl Harbor" to bring America into WW II and the deaths of many million Christians --all for the benefit of the jews. The reason Barkun has very little to say about Armstrong is because: here was a Christian Identity preacher whom the jews used to advance their goals of eliminating Germany and creating the marxist experimental State called "Israel". Another Identity preacher of today who serves the jews is Pastor Arnold Murray of Arkansas. In fact, the leading Identity preacher now in 2007 is Murray and his Shepherd's Chapel. He is on TV, radio, Internet, and shortwave. There is no stronger supporter of the jews and Israel. No mention of Murray in Barkun's book. Can you guess why? There are several other very significant omissions in this book. And, it is both obvious that Barkun was shrewd both in making conclusions and in failing to connect the dots in many areas.

This book does a very good job of attempting to trace the origin of Chrisitan Identity up to the current day. While it does cover material that is already common knowldege amongst those familiar with Christian Identity, and it doesn't address fully the current members of this right-wing movement, I would suggest this book to anyone who has a rudementary understanding of Christian Identity but who would like to learn more.

While I highly enjoyed this book and found it meticulously, yet engagingly, researched, I will try to refrain from repeating what other reviewers have already stated. What I would like to add, is that I was unexpectedly impressed with the tortuous connections Barkun unearthed between the Identity/British-Israel sects/movements and other strains of Protestants and Pentecostals. I felt that I learned not only about Identity, but also gained a wider perspective on America's colorful religious history. Barkun also did an admirable job of maintaining a degree of objectivity and emotional distance from his subject, preventing a preachy or moralistic tone from overwhelming the book.

Written more than 30 years ago this novel shows Burke's descriptive
writing bursting with hyperbole. The beautiful Montana scenery
is described in terms so rich as to defy human experience. The
drunkenness, mental aberrations and senseless violence of ordinary
people leave a lump in your throat, and an unwillingness ever to
venture past the state line. It has a Jack Kerouac magnetism but
lacks any positive or redeeming message or insight at the end.

It's been twenty years since James Lee Burke's THE LOST GET-BACK BOOGIE first saw print, and it hasn't lost an ounce of impact in all that time. The man's writing talent never ceases to amaze me.

Iry Paret, just out of Angola Prison for manslaughter, heads for Montana and the safe refuge and a job promised by a prison pal and fellow musician, Buddy Riordan. What Buddy has neglected to mention is significant: his father has filed a lawsuit and an injunction against one of the largest companies in town, and that lawsuit has the potential to put an awful lot of people out of work.

As with just about any James Lee Burke novel, one can see the train wreck coming. We know it won't be pretty. Burke is such a compelling writer that one keeps reading anyway, no matter how ugly it gets. Yes, Burke writes with great love and subtlety about the beauty of Montana or the ugliness of Angola. But it's his characters that keep drawing us back into the novel. They are so very human, and make such bad choices, choices that we as readers want to tell them to avoid . . . but they don't. Because they are so truly real.

I must say that the final chapter was something of a disappointment, and certainly not what I expected, based on all the other Burke novels I've read. Skip it, and the book is worth every minute spent reading it.

Korean War veteran turned country-and-western musician Iry Paret spent a couple of years in Angola for manslaughter. He survived prison by staying on lethal alert knowing that the guards and the inmates are dangerous to anyone who depends only on hope, prayer, or drugs. Upon his release, Iry heads to New Orleans where he plans to play the honky tonk and drown his life with alcohol.

However, the haze of drink does not keep Iry from feeling depressed. He concludes he needs to leave Louisiana if he to get back his lost boogie. He treks to Milltown, Montana near Missoula where his jazz playing former cell mate Buddy Riordan's father Frank owns a ranch by the Bitterroot River. Once there, he observes Buddy is always on LSD while Frank wars with the local pulp mill that is polluting the area. However, Iry finds himself attracted to Buddy's slightly overweight estranged wife, Beth, who wants both men to go straight, drop the drugs and booze and stay out of Frank's war. Iry can do two out of three, but feels obligated to be at Frank's side as David's sidekick against the goliath lumber companies.

This is a reprint of a terrific early James lee Burke thriller that brings to life the 1960s through mostly the downtrodden Iry. Frank, Buddy and Beth are fabulous support characters who enable the audience to understand what motivates the lead protagonist. With the backdrop of development vs. environment debate before Nixon established EPA, fans obtain a fabsulous thriller wondering which side the antihero will join.

Harriet Klausner

The novel is told entirely from the point of view of its protagonist, who epitomizes the US western hero: good with guns, in love with the outdoor life, a big drinker and bar room dweller, but very decent. While he wouldn't provoke a fight, he won't back down from one, no matter the cost. He happens to be from the South, but moves to Montana, depicted as a land of great beauty, but under the thumb of companies destroying the environment. The novel and character grew on me: while manly, he is also reflective, and a musician to boot. Burke relies on very fine detail, more than metaphor and analogy, to get his descriptions across. Perhaps because the closest I normally get to Western literature is Larry McMurtry, but I felt this book really expanded my horizons with its insight into an important sub-culture

I have read nearly every thing that James Lee Burke has written. I like and admire his use of descriptive words. This book, however, was not nearly as good as his Dave Robicheaux books. His discriptions were just as poetic, his intensity just as good, but I guess I just didn't like the story as much and couldn't relate to the characters as well as with his other books. But it was an interesting read and if you are a Burke fan, I would recommend this one.

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.

A good fast read. Nice writing style that grabs you. Written in 1959 but still valid for history up until then. You will finish the book with a nice comprehensive understanding of the history of the state.

This book served as the text book for K. Ross Toole's class in Montana History at the University of Montana, Missoula. The class was always packed and had quite a waiting list. No one skipped. Toole has quite deftly interwoven the politics of the era with the economics of Montana. Did you know that a private company forced the Montana legislature into session? That has never happened anywhere else. The same company also controlled the seven major "independent" newspapers in the state. Its all in Toole's book. A definite "must read" for any western history buff.

This is the benchmark "history" book of the Sate of Montana. Written with a passion for the state and a distain for the changes facing the west,it gives insightful background from Lewis and Clark, to the interaction and conflicts with Native Americans; through the Cattleman and Mining Interests. Today, the state is very attuned to agriculture,energy and recreation all trying to fit into a global economy. This book gives one a prespective on how and why it is where it is with the hope for gaining insight into where it may go in the future.

This is a highly readable and well-researched account of what must be one of the most fascinating towns in the United States. As anyone who has visited Butte can attest, the town possesses a cultural richness and idiosyncratic character unmatched anywhere in the US west, maybe the whole country, and Malone's book captures this nicely. I particularly enjoyed the discussion of political machinations in Montana around the turn of the century, which make today's politics look anemic by comparison. If you have any interest at all in Montana/western history, political economy, mining or politics, I couldn't recommend this book more highly.

Butte, Montana, has a rich history with stories that just seem too preposterous to be true! ("Copper Camp" written in 1930's is good example).

Michael Malone, a historian at Montana State in Bozeman, must have felt the same way. He did some good, scholarly research, and found out that many of the wild tales WERE true!

The book is VERY readable, almost like a novel, filled with some wild stories about how the three "Copper Kings" (Butte's version of "Robber Barons") worked, wheeled, dealed, cheated, competed and conspired to make as much money as they could from "the richest hill on earth."

In the mix are many stories about the everyday Butte residents, who, to this day, are actually friendly, big-hearted people...who put their hearts and backs into the building of the town.

Butte, Montana truly is "as ugly as sin" (quickly verified by any who has been there), "and just as fascinating."

This is a fascinating look at changing manners and mores in a major industrial community during the two decades between the two World Wars. The city which Murphy dissects, Butte (Mt.), adds its own quirky character to this study. But you don't need to know much about Butte or mining to enjoy Murphy's engaging style, entertaining anecdotes, and keen insights about a turbulent period of social and economic change in urban America.

Probably no book can do full justice to Butte, Montana which, for 50 years up to the start of World War II, was the most interesting city in America. While Butte was a wide open, boisterous mining town with illegal gambling and prostitution operating openly and unabashedly, it had vast flocks of fervent church goers and it managed to nourish its small pockets of refined culture and art. Butte had its millionaires, its poor, its highly diversified foreign cultures yet proudly asserting it Grand Americanism.

With all of that, Butte was ugly, seared grey by acid fumes from smelters; it perched on a hillside spiked by mines gallows and blemished by countless yellowish mounds of ore tailings as if the earth had spilled out its guts like vomit.

Mary Murphy's book, Mining Cultures; Men, Women and Leisure in Butte, 1914-41 does an admirable job of touring around the edges of what was Butte during those years. She got at only the edges for those are the limits she set for herself. Well researched and documented, she was careful not to report her numbers in boring, mind-numbing detail and she served them up garnished by an assortment of interesting and revealing anecdotes.

Ms. Murphy's book is a valuable addition to a pitifully small collection of works on a city which deserves greater study.

Mr. Stiller has completed a formidable task in combining the corporate, regulatory, and environmental viewpoints of Montana's mining history. This book provides a solid technical understanding of hard-rock mining (and its environmental aftermath) in Western Montana, yet it covers the historical development, operation, and degradation of the area in human terms as well. If you like the style of John McPhee, you'll appreciate this read. Just about anyone with a general interest in Western U.S. history, economic geology, or environmental policy as it applies to federal mining law, state regulation, or environmental remediation should appreciate Stiller's prose. I imagine that many similar texts could be written about numerous localities in Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California, etc. But, as a geologist myself, I also hope that this book will bring home some of the reality of mining's impacts in a country that so voraciously demands (and wastes) the finite resources of our earth.

Author Dave Stiller's book about hard-rock mining in Montana is a story full of the history of men's migration to the west to find their fortune in the elusive mountains and hills of mineral ores. At the same time it is well tempered to lead us through the often colorful federal and state political scene that played such an important part in mining development. It is also about mining's true risks, rewards, frustrations, and as well about good old-fashioned work ethic. It is one fine read.

Stiller's description is clear, easy to understand and most educational for the uninitiated in mining terminology. Those looking for a human story will not be disappointed. His character analysis of George and "Rosie" Kornec penetrates deeply into our desires and emotions to see them gain an upper hand in their struggle. Stiller's delivery stays fair and impartial as he explores the drives and motivations of the environmentalists versus the major mining corporations. His style touches on that of John McPhee with a little Colin Fletcher thrown in from time to time. In the end, after all the ups and downs at the Mike Horse Mine, after the clean-up appears to be in order, the reader realizes just how well Stiller has brought us through this complex subject and how well he stayed focused. Certainly we leave this book with our own hope that considerably more attention will be paid on a continuous basis to the other 500,000 neglected mines in the west needing similar action.

As an avid non-fiction reader, I come across many books written in a typical journalistic style. I also come across many clunky, personal exposes that never culminate in any larger message about humanity. Tom Groenberg not only avoids these styles, but approaches his adventure with the most beautiful, clear, prose I have read in ages. The topic matter has so much potential to be a cliche, but he deftly avoids falling this trap. I savored this book like a good meal, and I dare anyone with emotional depth to find not find something in it that rings deeply true to the modern human experience. Thanks, Tom. You inspire me to write more.

I feel that this book was quite refreshing.I really enjoyed the book in the end, but at first I thought it read somewhat slow. I was very suprised at the way Groneberg pulled me in by displaying such a well written description of his life. Mr. Groneberg is a strong writer who keeps my attention, displays good organization/structure, however he could do a better job of giving definitions on certain "cowboy" terms that those from the city may not know or understand. Mr. Groneberg establishes his credibilty in this book by explaining that he has lived and worked on cattle ranches. He does a good job of giving descriptive details, personal experiences and observations, and examples and illustrations. Mr. Groneberg's book is recent and more applicable to this generation of "wannabe" cowboys. I enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in the cowboy way of life.

As you may have gathered from the other reviews, this book may not be what you are expecting. But in the end, you may well find its something more.

It is not so much that its romantic, poetic, or any of the other 'literary' virtues you may associate with the American West.

It is something bigger, something better: its true. Not merely in an autobiographical sense, but in a universal, human way that will touch you deeply if you let it.

Truth is its skin and skeleton, and the sinews that hold it together. If that isn't enough for you, if you can't see the poetry and romance in the triumphs and tradgedies of life on the land told with utter honesty, then your mind is too small for this book.

And much too small for Montana: I've lived and worked on ranches here for 25 years, and we seriously don't need more people looking for sequined cowboys or photo ops with 'old salts'...

But there will always be room for Tom Groneberg, and people like him.

Can a city guy go from college to wrangler, ranch hand and ranch owner? Can he live through the Montana winters? Will he give it up and take up accounting in his home town? The author is brutally honest as he answers these questions. The angst is hard on the reader, but you want to follow him through his tough decisions. Many of the characterizations are memorable. I look forward to reading the next installment and seeing where this continuing experiment in ranch life takes him.

Once you get started reading, this book appears to be the real thing. Although it may be a true life experience, it becomes very hard to keep your attention and rambles on concerning some big dreams financed by his father's forture, only to become a total failure. To top the story, he must to turn to medication to keep his senses and continue to " dream " about being a cowboy. After reading this, I wonder what would have been the true outcome if he didn't have parents to finance his way, and stay away from the mood-altering drugs. Don't waste your money on this one, that is, unless, daddy is paying for it