Pacific University Books

Global, US national, and local forces are finely articulated in this rich study of the literatures of Hawai'i and the counter-canons of Pacific possibility. While drenched in academic discourse and theory-speak, Wilson's wry humor and lyricism come through in chapter after chapter revealing the contestatory forces of an American Pacific coming unglued in the post-imperial era. This is an important work, deftly wrought, building upon and transforming what cultural studies can be in the trajectories of Birmingham into Asia/Pacific contexts.

to cultural poetics in timely, disjunctive, and importan ways from the interviews with Clifford and Said to the poems and stories and essays by indigenous peoples, settlers, interlopers, disciplinarians and a cast of thousands. I have used this text in a postcolonial writing course at Santa Cruz and it worked quite well to prod theory reflection and to thicken Pacific dimensionality. It is a well wrought text, finely made by editor and UH Press deserving broad circulation and use

Trafzer and Scheuerman's Renegade Tribe is a highly informative and interesting history of the Palouse Indians of eastern Washington. The book begins with Lewis and Clark's first contact with the tribe. It then covers each major conflict that occurred between whites and the Indians over the next century. It includes the early interactions with trappers and merchants, outbreaks of disease, the Whitman killings, the Walla Walla Council, the Yakima War, the Jesuit influence, the strengthening of the Washani (Ghost Dance) faith, the Col. Steptoe boondoggle, the Col. Wright campaigns (Battle of Four Lakes, killing of the horses, hanging of Indians, etc.), the dividing of the land into reservations, the Nez Perce War, the Indians' transition into homesteading, and the final, sad outcome of the Indians being almost entirely removed from their ancestral homelands by the early 1900s.

The Palouse Indians shared a language, family ties, and frequent interaction with other neighboring tribes (Yakima, Nez Perce, Umatilla, Spokane, Coeur d'Alene, etc.). Therefore, the book also covers a lot of information about these other tribes. There's a lot of information about the lives and fates of such Indian leaders such as Kamiakin, Tilcoax (Wolf Necklace), Peopeo Moxmox (Yellow Bird), Chief Joseph, and others. There's also some discussion about internal tribal politics and the factions that cemented and divided the tribes throughout the period.

The scholarship is first-rate. It is clear that the authors have thoroughly and meticulously researched their work. The 150 page text has an additional 50 pages of footnotes that include hundreds of sources. The citations boggle the mind. These guys really dug deep to get their story, and it seems like they confirmed everything they wrote with multiple sources, including oral histories from the Indians themselves. The illustrations and 10 pages of maps are also helpful for orienting the reader and following the action. Finally, many of the footnotes provide interesting anecdotes that help paint a larger picture.

If you have an interest in Native Americans, or early Northwest history (Washington, Idaho, Oregon and western Montana), then please add this to your reading list. While it is a terribly sad story, it is a fascinating one. And it is certainly a story that deserves to be told.

These days, celebrity authors earn thousands of dollars for a speech, but back in the 1880s, Ralph Waldo Emerson, the first American author known to receive payment for delivering a talk, was paid $5 and oats for his horse.

Meg Strathmann (and her colleagues) put together a wonderful reference book that is a must-have item for anyone doing work on the reproductive biology or larval biology of marine invertebrate animals along the Pacific coast of the North America. This book is also a great source of reference material for invertebrate biologists anywhere in the world.

This book includes information about methods, and hints about culturing and maintaining marine invertebrate larvae. It also contains published or unpublished (but documented) observations on the reproduction and development of marine invertebrates of the northern Pacific coast.

The book is divided into chapters devoted to different invertebrate phyla, including methods for culturing their larvae, as well as information on the timing of spawning and development of as many Pacific NW species as have been studied.

The book, published in 1987, is now approaching its 15th year in publication. Even though some parts of it are slowing slipping out of date, this book remains the best reference book on this topic.

Absolutely top notch reference material, 5-stars!

Alan Holyoak Dept of Biology Manchester College, IN

This novel paints a realistic and believable portrait of Cook, his protege Bligh (of Mutiny on the Bounty fame), and the events of Captain Cook's final voyage. It is an interesting and rivetting read, and kept me up for a few nights. The conflict between Cook, the practical-minded captain, and the religious Bligh, is at the heart of the book, and the author takes no sides in the argument, allowing the reader to draw his/her own conclusions from the tragedy that ensues. I heartily recommend this novel to all who are interested in well-researched historical fiction.

Although first written in 1856 the author applies a spell-binding style to tell the gruesome history of the birth of the Dutch nation from the unrelenting suppression of the religious and political aspirations of a sophisticated and rich people. In Volume I Motley covers the period from Emporer Charles V to the appointment of Count Alva as military overlord of the Netherlands. In Volume II he continues to describe in great detail the circumstances, personages, and intrigues that so painfully come together and nearly destroy the industrial and economic powerhouse in the low countries. He excellently explains the motives and actions of William of Orange, the follies of his noble friends and their destruction, the cruelty of the Spanish Inquisition, and, eventually, the rising of the people against the hated Alva and his mercenary murderers. It is the start of the 80 Year War of which this book covers the first seven bloody years.
Since I found this series in my father's book case and started reading I have not been able to put it down. The series take the reader to live the period and understand the human drama and the hope and perseverance that lift a population to found the most powerful nation in the world.

This book is an extremely well constructed, balanced perspective about the problems with the Lower Snake River dams. The writing is clear and consise, which is crucial when explaining such a complex issue. The author does not use emotional arguments to outrage the reader. Rather, he presents the facts that surround the issue and uses those to draw a well thought out conclusion. We have much to gain by preserving salmon in the Northwest.

I have never seen a river and it's surrounding land look so wonderful.William truely has an eye for the natural beauty of the area. I can hardly wait for his next book.

This book details the history of Australian Mining, but don't be put off by the seemingly dry subject-it is anything but dry. Stories are told of the romantic gold rushes, the lucky, the unlucky, the schemes, plots, the deceptions, the clouded histories, the despair of the many, and the fortune of the few. For students of both human nature and history it has interesting insights, such as how plain luck plays a significant part in human events, and how apparently small innocuous irrelevancies can lead to profound outcomes.

An interesting example is that of the Mount Morgan Mine in Queensland. Black boulders, which cattle shied from, formed a low hill in the ranges. There was a gold rush a few miles away, but nobody thought to test the black hill, as the rocks were all wrong. Farmers sold the useless land the cattle didn't like. A lazy miner was sacked from his job, his wife pleaded for his re-employment, in return for the locale of a "silver mine" in the hills. A few savvy mine managers wandered into a black innocuous hill. They chipped away, took out leases over the whole hill (a wise move), kept it very quiet (another wise move). When samples were broken, there was more gold than black earth-it was assumed it wasn't gold but something else. They began to mine quietly away until a local newspaper noticed there was a phenomenal amount of gold leaving a nearby town. The word was out. Mount Morgan -the "freak lode" as described by geologists at the time-became one of the richest and mightiest gold mines on earth. It defied virtually everything known about gold mines at the time. Geologists were perplexed, but as long as shares repaid 413,000% of their value, the owners didn't care. The copper that got "in the way" of gold processing eventually amounted to about 250,000t of copper. It was mined for around 100 years, and money that came from the mine was used to find oil in the Middle East, which eventually formed the company BP. Mine owners declared in World War 1, that Mount Morgan money was used to fight the Germans. In the 1950s over half of Great Britain's revenue came from oil discoveries that were originally financed by one small black hill in the outback of Australia.

The world's largest resource of lead and zinc-the Broken Hill Lode-is another case in point. For some years in the 1800s a large, jagged hill of black boulders more than a mile long and 500 feet wide was ignored by local prospectors at the nearby silver rushes at Silverton. A surveyor's fence was put across it. A trig station crowned the summit. Samples were chipped which came back high in uninteresting lead, but little else. It wasn't near any main thoroughfares. The owner of the land wasn't interested in prospectors. It was too big to be a lode. A good lode was said to be five feet wide, Broken Hill was over 500 feet wide. The rocks were wrong. So numerous hopefuls mined the molehills, whilst the mountain was ignored.

When people finally got around to examining it, a few speculators bought and sold shares, making a few bucks, as the hill guarded its riches. Finally, when a shaft was sunk on the wrong rock type-white kaolin-bonanza silver assays came back and the hill was born. The first 48 tons produced about 36,000oz of silver, which in the 1880s, was a lot of dough. The ensuing stock market mania and mining development transformed Australian history. Over $AUS 70 billion has been taken from the hill to the 1990s.

There are many other similar tales, twists and turns- the vagaries and tides of history. Curiously and well written, it is recommended for those interested in history, particularly Australian, or those simply interested in curious human anecdotes of life.