Montana State University Books

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.

What makes an American Indian and Indian, and why is it important? These are the two overarching questions which inform Professor Harmon's study of the tribes of the Puget Sound region in Washington State from the beginning of the nineteenth century to the present. Combining a narrative description of the events which led to the relative subjugation of tribes and their negotiation of their members status as government wards and American citizens with a legal and economic analysis of the part that native peoples played in Washington state, Harmon goes a good way towards showing how the Amer-Indian identity came to be, why it did. Furthermore, Harmon's study goes a long way in showing how interplay between natives and whites created the situation in which most Indians live today.

This is not only a book about the interplay between whites and Indians though. By showing the intermingling of the various tribes before, during and after their subjugation by the American government, Harmon goes a long way in explaining how Indian identity was created not only by the dominant white societies over generalizing of difference and government sponsored attempts to assimilate most natives, but by the overlapping kinship between tribes (and later with whites). This fact, besides having important legal ramifications that Harmon found herself dealing with as an attorney for the Suquamish tribe in a boundary dispute with the state of Washington in 1980, has extreme relevance for the study of how native peoples in the west have negotiated their existence as both groups and individuals. Also, by exploring the cultural norms of the tribes as they came into contact, Harmon shows how native peoples were able to take advantage of opportunities which the economic development brought in its wake to advance many traditional values associated with having wealth and status. For the natives of the Puget Sound region, as opposed to those on the Prairies or in the East, the expansion was not an unmitigated disaster--though it certainly was not a dinner party either.

Harmon's analysis of Indian history involves creative use of anthropology and historical documentation. In her recreation of life in the Puget Sound region while it was still considered the frontier, Harmon shows a world in which of whites and natives from other areas of North America were seen through the lenses of opportunity, apprehension and simple curiosity. As Harmon explains with regard to the British fur traders--known among the tribes who would come into contact with them as King George men--who came to the region in early nineteenth century, "[a]ccording to local folklore, Europeans at first seemed so different from known humans that Indians supposed them to be animals or creatures from myth time," but, "by the 1820's, natives plainly recognized the King George men as fellow humans, candidates for incorporation into the regional network of human relations (17)." Harmon further demonstrates that for much of the nineteenth century, traders, and later settlers had to acclimate themselves to many of the expectations and values of the native peoples because of the lack of many institutional forms of coercion that would not invite retaliation. Differing attitudes about crime, work habits, spiritual matters, and what to do with the fruits of labor are among the many conflicts that shaped Indian and non-Indian relations during this period and helped to create an Indian identity.

During the twentieth century, most natives came into coercive contact with American institutions in ways that would further advance an Indian identity, and also advance its utility for natives. Most younger Indians found themselves at least for some time at federally backed schools and mission schools with government backing in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Though the goals of these schools was to assimilate natives, they had the unintentional effect of placing a large number of people together whose only unifying feature was their native descent. Harmon writes, "the pupils' interaction helped them formulate a common Indian identity. Diverse as they were, the children were at the schools because the administrators regarded them all as Indians (156)." As much as many of the children and their parents may have, rightfully, resented the treatment that was meted out at these schools, it was unavoidable that the children would gain a sense of identity as non-whites--possibly with divergent or oppositional interests.

It was not inevitable that native peoples' would form an identity that became in some important respects oppositional to the dominant culture. Harmon shows that the native peoples were largely integrated into the economy of Washington state and that discrimination against Indian workers was not a problem until the late 1920's. This was not actually what precipitated the creation of the myriad organizations which would come to represent native interests, nor the reactions of Bureau of Indian Affairs under the tutelage of John Collier--the so called "Indian New Deal"--but these three forces combined to further enforce an Indian sense of difference by way of the dominant society. With World War II uprooting thousands of Indian men for both military service and economic reasons and Washington state's post-war attempts to abrogate treaty rights of several tribes using the (often specious) argument that the tribal entities the treaties were negotiated with no longer existed, Indian identity further crystallized around an understanding of being unfairly exempted from the American dream and being further stripped of rights legally accorded them--rights that many depended on to earn or augment their livelihoods.

Harmon's study is not easy reading--not because of its subject matter or because of any fault of her's as a writer, but because of the amount of knowledge about native history it presumes on the part of the reader. For the reader unfamiliar with native history and western history more specifically, much of this book is difficult fare. Beyond that minor flaw, a flaw unavoidable to any specialized study, the work is an insightful look at what it is to be an Amer-Indian.

Indians in the Making is a comprehensive study of the complicated and ambiguous development of ethnic identity among Indian groups in the Puget Sound region of Washington State. The scope of this work is approximately the early 1800s to 1975, and examines the social, economic, religious, and political developments and entities that attempted to define the native population of this region. Before European contact, Indians saw no need to categorize themselves, and had no basis for comparison. With the influx of traders and, more importantly, immigrants to the region in the mid 19th century, Americans saw the need to sort Indians into groups and separate them from non-Indians. For the first time, Indians found themselves ascribed a certain identity from outside forces. Americans believed it was this ascribed identity that would determine what place Indians would have in the American world. However, due to factors such as constant mobility, intermarriage, intermingling, and dispersed settlements, the distinction between Indians and non-Indians became blurred. Ironically, since the 1880s, U.S. officials "set the parameters of Indian identity for purposes of political and property relations, but they have never monopolized the process of defining `Indian' or `tribe.'" (247) Indians in the Puget Sound region have historically refused to define themselves solely in the terms suggested by their American colonizers. Thus, the historically divergent interests and beliefs of various Indian groups in this region have made efforts to consolidate a Puget Sound Indian identity extremely difficult. In the 20th century, the debate about century old treaty fishing rights helped forge a historical and cultural link between these diverse groups. The "treaty-reserved right to fish became the best expression of their relation to non-Indians, and thus, a cardinal symbol of their own Indianness." (218) However, the idea of what it is to be Indian in this region remains a dynamic process.
Indians in the Making presents a unique study on the idea of "identity." Harmon allows the reader to process events as they were processed by the Indians of Puget Sound. The differences between the ways in which Americans viewed certain actions or relationships and the Indian interpretation are clearly spelled out. This approach provides the other side to the story that is so often missing in Indian History. One aspect that could have been explored further was gender relations. Harmon focused on the interaction between groups of men far more than women, except when discussing intermarriage. Harmon conducted extensive research for this book, and offers almost 100 pages of notes after the text. The historical factors that contributed to Puget Sound Indian identity are thoroughly explored, but the account isn't too laden with details. Harmon examines the Indian identity for what it is, as well as for what it is not. Too often, ethnic identity is defined by the policy makers, but in this case, the author examines the ways in which a group has sought to define themselves.

Dr. Harmon has written a wonderfully crafted work which will be important for future historians of the Pacific Northwest. The story is quite simply about the history of Indian people in the Puget Sound area. Unfortunately, after reading this book, you will no longer see the history of Puget Sound tribes as simple. The history is very complex as the Native peoples and the white explorerers and settlers try to distinguish themselves from each other. In the beginning, George Vancouver could draw a line in the sand to separate the races. It only went downhill from that point especially as the number of interracial marriages began to increase. Who is eligible to be a tribal member? Who can live on the reservation? Are the Indians who live off the reservation truly "Indian"? These are a few of the numerous questions that are raised in this book.

Dr. Harmon has presented a thorough and carefully written work. I would highly recommend it to any student of PNW history or indigenous history buffs. Future historians will have a new benchmark to base their works on. Dr. Harmon provides a wonderful bibliography which is rich with information. This book deserves a home in your library.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

THE LOST GET-BACK BOOGIE by James Lee Burke was nominated for a Pulitzer prize for fiction. Fine literary prose writing in commercial fiction is a rare achievement that is Burke's forte.
Ex-convict Ivy Paret heads to Montana to find a new life for himself and his music. What he finds are complex relationships mixed with hatred, alcohol insanity, and betrayal.
New friends and old enemies keep pace with his efforts to regain his life and the music in his soul.
James Lee Burke is a fine read, who continues to deliver pleasure book after book.
Writing as a Small BusinessSins of the Fathers: A Brewster County NovelUnder the Liberty Oak

After pages and pages of descriptive phrases of the flora and fauna from Louisiana to Missoula, Montana we finally arrive. We arrive to endless cigarettes, Camels, Lucky Strikes, roll yer own and pot. This is mostly accompanied by many six packs of beer and booze of various brands. The stench of unwashed bodies and the nasty odors of jails prevails. Tiresome adjectives and adverbial phrases, which were interesting the first ten novels, are now old. You'd think an English professor could pick up some new ones from his students. Who cares about any of these shiftless characters.
I, for one, am putting down this book and taking a bath.
This not one of Burke's best.

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

This is a very interesting and engrossing analysis of the skeletal remains from the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The authors have handled their material well, except for the repetitiveness. It's as if each wrote something for the book and everything was then used somewhere in it instead of being edited to produce a comprehensive whole book. The section on comparison of the skeletal remains from the Battle with skeletons from other contexts from the Old West was a bit of a drag and perhaps overanalyzed. I didn't see how it was terribly relevant to the who or the what of the Battle bones. But the authors are good writers and this was worth the read. I would have liked to know more about the Native casualties, but this receives short shrift in a couple of paragraphs. Also there was no discussion about the remains of G. A. Custer and the other officers or how their bodies was identified.

Among all of the books I have on the archeaology of the Little Bighorn, my library would not be complete with out this one concerning the findings from those digs.

It is well written. It is very technical and not the kind of book a causual reader would enjoy. It is , however, the kind of book a very serious student of the subject will enjoy. Although I was not present for any of the digs as a volunteer, I have kept up with them by purchasing many other books related. I have visted the battlefield several times of the years and even met a few of the poeple mentioned in the book. This all of course, makes it of special interest to me. I would highly reccomend this book to anyone with a very serious interest in the anthropology concerning the members of the 7th U.S. Cavalry who participated in the battle in 1876. There are some very important comparisons with other remains that were studied from several other areas of the Western expansion to arrive at a picture of what these men were really like. As the book concludes, this was not a period that was quite so romantic as many people have imagined. It was a very tough life in a harsh environment. For the advanced "Custer Buff" or historian, this is a must have book.

Very interesting book. Learned a lot. Some information was repeated (word for word) in different sections of the book. Seemed like it was added just to stretch the size of the book, or at least someone wasn't paying attention. What was new was interesting, what was repeated was boring. I would recommend this book, it is definitely worth reading.

Who knew that old bones could give us as such quantities of information?
This book is a captivating and absorbing account of many of the cavelrymen who rode against the Sioux at Little Bighorn.
I enjoyed the little snippets of their lives that were discovered by comparing historical documents with the anthopological evidence found on site. A good addition to my library.

A very good book and recommended. It does however fall short with its look at Lt. Henry Harrington, commander of Company C during the battle. The forensic reconstruction figure on page 172 is Lt. Harrington, one of the long missing officers whose remains were not found after the battle. The authors are not alone in missing the resemblance to the 1872 West Point graduate whose remains have lain in the Smithsonian Institution for more than a century.

This oversight by historians and anthropologists alike is corrected in the book "Custer's Lost Officer the Search for Lieutenant Henry Moore Harrington, 7th U.S. Cavalry by Walt Cross. I recommend that if you purchase this book you also purchase the Cross book ISBN: 0-9771926-1-X. In "Custer's Lost Officer" Harrington is identified as the soldier the Sioux called "The bravest man the Sioux ever fought."

... even former Presidents and their First Ladies, as Jimmy and Rosalynn show us in this, their entry in the self-improvement / retirement advice category.

Of course, anybody who's not a Dem is likely to be unwilling to take any such advice from the self-styled peanut farmer and his wife. So, I'm going over my stock of acquaintances, trying to remember who voted for Carter.

The book would make a great gift not just for recent retirees, but also those whose life has just gone through change, whether it be a layoff, a disabling illness, or the death of a spouse.

Sure wish my father had read it, twelve years ago, when my mother died -- so many ideas for him! Instead, he simply curled up in front of the TV.

Jimmy and Rosalynn show how devastated they were by their 1980 defeat, then, step by step, how they rebuilt. Parts of the book delve too far into global health and other policy issues, but chapter after chapter, they introduce new activities, like a flower opening!

If you're tired of fist-pounding self-improvement tomes, here is one that feels like a gentle friend, sitting beside you, arm around your shoulders, sharing the same problems you're having, and showing you several ways out of the "box" you've built for yourself. Read it and relax, then, go out and make the most of the rest of your life -- whether it's the next ten or next fifty years.

As Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter left the White House in early 1981 they faced an uncertain future. Like many people who retire, they just weren't sure what to do with themselves and all of their free time. To make matters worse, they still had to deal with the hurt they felt after having lost the 1980 election. The decisions they made about their future have vaulted Jimmy Carter from having lost his bid for reelection in a decisive manner to one of the most beloved figures in the United States. In 1984 President Carter was no where to be seen at the Democratic National Convention, twenty years later Democratic Presidential candidates beat a path to Plains, Georgia to try and obtain his blessing. Along the way the Carter's learned many valuable lessons that apply to anyone who may feel that their productive years have passed. This book is the story of what they learned.

This book was published in 1987 and was I believe President Carter's third post-Presidential book and Mrs. Carter's second book and both of them had become quite good writers. They are both open and honest about their feelings and concerns, especially Rosalynn and because of this their narrative reaches the reader on a very personal level. Many of the activities they describe were only possible of course because of the office Mr. Carter held and because of the Carter Center but they go to great lengths to point out many worthwhile activities that anyone can participate in. Reading this book will definitely make you stop and think about all of the things you could be doing to help others and I think that was the Carter's goal.

Part travelogue and part handbook for volunteerism this book will give you the warm fuzzies all over. You will feel sad with the Carter's and laugh with the Carter's and you will feel as if you had known this former first couple for years. You will in fact feel like you have traveled with the Carter's and maybe even helped them build a Habitat house. If you are looking for a retirement gift for anyone, this would be a perfect choice!

Despite the fact that this nearly broke up their marriage, this book is not what I hoped for when I picked it up and began reading. I missed the old Mrs Carter who had a wry story about her life on the campaign trail. I will never forget the many adventures that she detailed in "First Lady from Plains" which is a superior book in every way. The time she was trapped in bathroom stall and had to crawl out of it. Then there was the time when she had to cut her way out when trapped in a car by her seatbelt. Funny stuff and real human interest. If bizarre things can happen to the first lady of the land the can happen to anyone, can't they? The book I wanted to read was a kind of sequel to the masterful "First Lady from Plains." This clearly is not that book, though I hope Mrs. Carter will consider writing it one day real soon.

Collaboratively written by former American President and winner of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize Jimmy Carter, and his beloved wife and former First Lady, Rosalynn Carter, Everything To Gain: Making The Most Of The Rest Of Your Life is a revealing and inspiring memoir about personal challenges they've had to face and overcome; the satisfaction of their work with Habitat for Humanity; their struggles to promote peace and human rights; and the personal steps they've taken to enjoy physical and spiritual health at home. Everything To Gain is enthusiastically recommended as a deeply rewarding and heartfelt encouragement to living our lives to the fullest.