Pacific University Books

Carlos Schwantes, Pacific Northwest Historian at University of Idaho, and G. Thomas Edwards, American West Historian at Whitman University have co-edited this valuable book. Experiences in a Promised Land explores topics related to the states of Washington and Oregon,from the time of discovery to the modern age. Twenty-three scholarly articles in the book cover a wide range of subjects, including American Indians, women in the West, labor, and the environment. Six of the essays were written specifically for this project; the others have been reprinted from journals. With the exception of a few old classics, the collection of articles represents current scholarship of the region, and a conscious effort to move past the traditional reliance on political and ecoomic history,

A well documented description of the pace and extent of Russian and American exploration in Alaska. The book focuses on reason of growth and lack thereof in the region in the 19th century. Sherwood also explains the difference in growth from the American 'western movement.' Alaskan history is very interesting. If you are at all interested in exploration or the American frontier and its writings, visit this book.

This selection of legends by Wilhelm Ruland, translated by Andrew Mitchell and H.J. Findlay, is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in German legend and lore. The stories themselves are related according to the city on the Rhine and its corresponding story. Of course the most famous legends are included at least in part--Die Neibelungenleid and the Lorelei.
Unfortunately, these stories are greatly condensed and therefore not extrememly literary, but Ruland can be quite lyrical at times. Overall, I recommend the book to anyone who is interested in legends or German culture as a starting point.

Fridthof Nansen in this book did more to bring skiing to the larger world than any other individual. Until his Greenland crossing on skis, few outside of Norway, or Scandinavia at the most, had heard of skiing, although of course it had existed there for centuries. The early chapter of the book on skis and "skilobing" (skiing) is a marvelous account of the sport, and particularly of Sondre Norheim and the Telemarkers who revolutionized it as recreation.
Nansen writes the book in what can only be called a charming tone. He makes the crossing of the icecap seem easy, and indeed, most of the harrowing detail of the expedition relates to the efforts of the party after being dropped off at sea on the east coast of Greenland, through the ice floes with great difficulty, to an eventual landing and a hard climb up to the central ice plateau. There is also considerable detail given about the way of life of the Eskimo and Danish inhabitants of the Greenland west coast, where Nansen and his party overwintered after the crossing.
A classic of "cold exploration" and a lively style and good read after more than a century.

A fascinating discussion of arctic exploration in a dirigible. Although only two authors are listed, other crew members included their accounts of the crossing, including that of HJ. Riiser-Larsen, who gives a fascinating and lucid discussion of the principles of navigation over the ice cap in a dirigible. Never mind that the writing is a bit awkward--English is not the first language for most of these guys.

Unfortunately, the illustrations are absolute disasters. I find it difficult to understand why any publisher (University Press of the Pacific, Honolulu) would release a publication with such shoddy reproduction of not only the photographs, but their virtually unreadable captions. The book would be improved by eliminating these pictures altogether. Most of the pictures are shadowy smudges on the pages, and do great disservice to the writings of these heroic explorers.

This is a beautiful book, with maps, graphs and pictures. It is a well-written history of the salmon industry in Alaska. The author has an impressive bibliography and historical footnotes that lend credibility to the environmental questions posed in this book.

New Mexico has more opportunities than one would imagine for fishing a desert state. However, one typically needs a little help finding the water. Piper's book covers nearly every possible fishing lake, stream, and river in New Mexico with valuable tips on when and how to fish each body of water. Well-organized into the major river drainages, Piper also provides basic maps for each area. The writing is clear and helpful. The only drawback is that the book is now slightly old and some of the details are out of date (access points have closed, new lakes have appeared, etc.). Perhaps a new edition is in the works. The maps could also be a little better, presently they are somewhat cartoonish. Overall, however, this is the best guide to fishing New Mexico.

Cazdyn's book is useful both for giving an overview of what to watch for when approaching one of the selected movies for the first time and he (Cazdyn) also succedes in giving a thought-provoking outer context (ie the transformation of 'capital' in modern japan). it is important to understand that this theory of the films as economic-artefacts (not in a crude cause and effect sense, mind you) is accomplished through the very readings Cazdyn performs on them. The first step is a basic historicism that aims to survey and then go one step past existing Western reactions to key Japanese films. However, we begin to see quite early in our reading (note that i say early in the reading not early in the book, for this is a work that definitely benefits a non-synchonic pursual) that Cazdyn's ability to make these 'new' points as very much indebted to his invocation of a historical-materialist framework. Like Marx's re-read the economy of 18th C England to prove a point, so Cazdyn is rereading the economy of 20th C Japan!

It is therefore very ironic that the non-academic responses to this book so far have focused on how it is full of theory talk. yes, the jargon can seem a little think but Cazdyn is definitely not making po-mo points!

Albert Wendt is the author of novels, short stories and poetry, including, Sons for the Return Home, Flying-Fox in the Freedom Tree, Inside Us Dead, Pouliuli and Leaves of the Banyan Tree. Living in Western Samoa, Wendt recieved a scholarship to continue his studies in New Zealand. Attending Victoria University at Wellington, there he earned his M.A. in history. Wendt's style of written is difficult and a bit foreign if you would, I'm guessing of the different schoolings he had, his style is more aggressive in writing with deep feelings, comedy and tragedy, which makes him a great writer. Flying-fox in the Freedom Tree is a sequel to the Leaves of the Bayan Tree which is focused on a young Samoan boy, Pepe of Sapepe. Throughout the story Pepe is brainwashed by his two mentors, senoir chief, Toasa "Pepe's conscience" and Tagata, a city dwarf condemned of his stature to be an oddity, a flying fox 'with an eagle in the gut'. Torn between these two paradox, Pepe embarks on a life of defiance aganist his father's unholy trinity of God, Money and Success only to find that the precepts and responsiblities Toasa had taught him are impossible to practice.

This is a long overdue book about a region of the country that is generally overlooked by historians. The Southern Plains is defined as western Texas, Oklahoma, and eastern New Mexico. In eight essays by such notable authorities as Elliott West, Dan Flores, John Morris, and Diana Olien the reader is treated to the multi-faceted history of the region.
It's all here, the history of human occupation, exploitation, the climate, land, resources, and the never-ending effort to build a future in an area that resists change. This is a must book for any reader remotely interested in the history and future of an area that occupies the center of the United States but is rarely understood.