Recommendations
Astoria: Astor and Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Tale of Ambition and Survival on the Early American Frontier
2015 400 Pages (Ecco)
DDC: 978 LCC: F884.A8 S73
LCCN: 2015410090 ISBN 13: 9780062218308 ISBN 10: 0062218301
In the tradition of The Lost City of Z and Skeleton in the Zahara, Astoria is the thrilling, true-adventure tale of the 1810 Astor Expedition, an epic, now forgotten, three-year journey to forge an American empire on the Pacific Coast. Peter Stark offers a harrowing saga in which a band of explorers battled nature, starvation, and madness to establish the first American settlement in the Pacific Northwest and opened up what would become the Oregon trail, permanently altering the nation's [...]
In the tradition of The Lost City of Z and Skeleton in the Zahara, Astoria is the thrilling, true-adventure tale of the 1810 Astor Expedition, an epic, now forgotten, three-year journey to forge an American empire on the Pacific Coast. Peter Stark offers a harrowing saga in which a band of explorers battled nature, starvation, and madness to establish the first American settlement in the Pacific Northwest and opened up what would become the Oregon trail, permanently altering the nation's landscape and its global standing.Six years after Lewis and Clark's began their journey to the Pacific Northwest, two of the Eastern establishment's leading figures, John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson, turned their sights to founding a colony akin to Jamestown on the West Coast and transforming the nation into a Pacific trading power. Author and correspondent for Outside magazine Peter Stark recreates this pivotal moment in American history for the first time for modern readers, drawing on original source material to tell the amazing true story of the Astor Expedition.Unfolding over the course of three years, from 1810 to 1813, Astoria is a tale of high adventure and incredible hardship in the wilderness and at sea. Of the more than one hundred-forty members of the two advance parties that reached the West Coast—one crossing the Rockies, the other rounding Cape Horn—nearly half perished by violence. Others went mad. Within one year, the expedition successfully established Fort Astoria, a trading post on the Columbia River. Though the colony would be short-lived, it opened provincial American eyes to the potential of the Western coast and its founders helped blaze the Oregon Trail. [less]
First Oregonians, The
2007 352 Pages (Oregon Council for the Humanities)
DDC: 979.5004 LCC: E78.O6 F57
OCLC: 695692513 LCCN: 2007016618 ISBN 13: 9781880377024 ISBN 10: 1880377020
In 1991, the Oregon Council for the Humanities published The First Oregonians, the only single-volume, comprehensive history of Oregon's Native Americans. A regional bestseller, this collaborative project between the council, Oregon tribes, and scholars served as an invaluable reference for teachers, scholars, and general-interest readers before it went out of print in 1996. Now revised and expanded for a new generation of Oregonians, The First Oregonians provides a comprehensive view of Oregon' [...]
In 1991, the Oregon Council for the Humanities published The First Oregonians, the only single-volume, comprehensive history of Oregon's Native Americans. A regional bestseller, this collaborative project between the council, Oregon tribes, and scholars served as an invaluable reference for teachers, scholars, and general-interest readers before it went out of print in 1996. Now revised and expanded for a new generation of Oregonians, The First Oregonians provides a comprehensive view of Oregon's native peoples from the past to the present. In this remarkable volume, Oregon Indians tell their own stories, with more than half of the book's chapters written by members of Oregon's nine federally recognized tribes. Chapters on each tribe examine lifeways--from the traditional to the present day. Using oral histories and personal recollections, these chapters vividly depict not only a history of decimation and decline, but also a contemporary view of cultural revitalization, renewal, and continuity. The First Oregonians also includes essays exploring geography, federal-Indian relations, language, and art written by prominent Northwest scholars. And, as with the first edition, this new edition is richly illustrated with almost two hundred photographs, maps, and drawings. No other book offers as wide a variety of views and stories about the historical and contemporary experience of Oregon Indians. The First Oregonians is the definitive volume for all Oregonians interested in the fascinating story of Oregon's first peoples. [less]
Landscapes of Conflict
2010 416 Pages (Carnegie Mellon University Press)
DDC: 333.709795 LCC: GE155.O7
OCLC: 618330370 ISBN 13: 9780295990439 ISBN 10: 0295990430
Post-World War II Oregon was a place of optimism and growth, a spectacular natural region from ocean to high desert that seemingly provided opportunity in abundance. With the passing of time, however, Oregon's citizens -- rural and urban -- would find themselves entangled in issues that they had little experience in resolving. The same trees that provided income to timber corporations, small mill owners, loggers, and many small towns in Oregon, also provided a dramatic landscape and a home to [...]
Post-World War II Oregon was a place of optimism and growth, a spectacular natural region from ocean to high desert that seemingly provided opportunity in abundance. With the passing of time, however, Oregon's citizens -- rural and urban -- would find themselves entangled in issues that they had little experience in resolving. The same trees that provided income to timber corporations, small mill owners, loggers, and many small towns in Oregon, also provided a dramatic landscape and a home to creatures at risk. The rivers whose harnessing created power for industries that helped sustain Oregon's growth -- and were dumping grounds for municipal and industrial wastes -- also provided passageways to spawning grounds for fish, domestic water sources, and recreational space for everyday Oregonians. The story of Oregon's accommodation to these divergent interests is a divisive story between those interested in economic growth and perceived stability and citizens concerned with exercising good stewardship towards the state's natural resources and preserving the state's livability. In his second volume of Oregon's environmental history, William Robbins addresses efforts by individuals and groups within and outside the state to resolve these conflicts. Among the people who have had roles in this process, journalists and politicians Richard Neuberger and Tom McCall left substantial legacies and demonstrated the ambiguities inherent in the issues they confronted. [less]
Landscapes of Promise: The Oregon Story, 1800-1940 (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books)
1999 416 Pages (University of Washington Press)
DDC: 333.709795 LCC: GE155.O7
OCLC: 913700822 LCCN: 97016531 ISBN 13: 9780295979014 ISBN 10: 0295979011
Landscapes of Promise is the first comprehensive environmental history of the early years of a state that has long been associated with environmental protection. Covering the period from early human habitation to the end of World War II, William Robbins shows that the reality of Oregon's environmental history involves far more than a discussion of timber cutting and land-use planning.Robbins demonstrates that ecological change is not only a creation of modern industrial society. Native Americans [...]
Landscapes of Promise is the first comprehensive environmental history of the early years of a state that has long been associated with environmental protection. Covering the period from early human habitation to the end of World War II, William Robbins shows that the reality of Oregon's environmental history involves far more than a discussion of timber cutting and land-use planning.Robbins demonstrates that ecological change is not only a creation of modern industrial society. Native Americans altered their environment in a number of ways, including the planned annual burning of grasslands and light-burning of understory forest debris. Early Euro-American settlers who thought they were taming a virgin wilderness were merely imposing a new set of alterations on an already modified landscape.Beginning with the first 18th-century traders on the Pacific Coast, alterations to Oregon's landscape were closely linked to the interests of global market forces. Robbins uses period speeches and publications to document the increasing commodification of the landscape and its products. "Environment melts before the man who is in earnest," wrote one Oregon booster in 1905, reflecting prevailing ways of thinking.In an impressive synthesis of primary sources and historical analysis, Robbins traces the transformation of the Oregon landscape and the evolution of our attitudes toward the natural world. [less]
Oregon's Promise: An Interpretive History
2003 320 Pages (Oregon State University Press)
DDC: 979.5 LCC: F876.3
OCLC: 52214877 LCCN: 2003007845 ISBN 13: 9780870715587 ISBN 10: 0870715585
A concise and compelling general history, "Oregon's Promise" explores familiar and neglected people and movements in the state's history, while challenging readers to view Oregon's past, present, and future in a new way. The first new history of Oregon to appear in twenty-five years, "Oregon's Promise" spans the period from that of the region's earliest inhabitants to the present. Praised as a "People's History of Oregon," the book is concerned with the events that most profoundly affected the [...]
A concise and compelling general history, "Oregon's Promise" explores familiar and neglected people and movements in the state's history, while challenging readers to view Oregon's past, present, and future in a new way. The first new history of Oregon to appear in twenty-five years, "Oregon's Promise" spans the period from that of the region's earliest inhabitants to the present. Praised as a "People's History of Oregon," the book is concerned with the events that most profoundly affected the everyday lives of ordinary Oregonians. The words "Oregon history" conjure up images of Lewis and Clark and rugged pioneers. In "Oregon's Promise," David Peterson del Mar shows that the explorers' impact was both different from and less significant than commonly assumed, and that the state's settlers were much more varied, contentious, complicated, and interesting than conventional heroic stereotypes would suggest. The book's many themes revolve around Peterson del Mar's consideration of how Oregonians have attempted to build a prosperous and just society. He examines both the traditional center of Oregon history and its often overlooked margins-the people who have struggled to be included in Oregon's promise. Each chapter includes brief biographies of noteworthy Oregonians. The author is both a respected historian and an engaging writer, with a talent for explaining Oregon's past in a way that will appeal to all readers, from natives to newcomers, from students to scholars. [less]
Portland in Three Centuries: The Place and the People
2011 192 Pages (Oregon State University Press)
DDC: 979.549 LCC: F884.P857
OCLC: 726620700 LCCN: 2011019520 ISBN 13: 9780870716133 ISBN 10: 0870716131
A compact and comprehensive history of Portland from first European contact to the twenty-first century, Portland in Three Centuries/ introduces the women and men who have shaped Oregon's largest city. The expected politicians and business leaders appear in Portland in Three Centuries--William Ladd and Edgar Kaiser, George Baker and Vera Katz. But Carl Abbott also highlights workers and immigrants, union members and dissenters, women at work and in the public realm, artists and activists, [...]
A compact and comprehensive history of Portland from first European contact to the twenty-first century, Portland in Three Centuries/ introduces the women and men who have shaped Oregon's largest city. The expected politicians and business leaders appear in Portland in Three Centuries--William Ladd and Edgar Kaiser, George Baker and Vera Katz. But Carl Abbott also highlights workers and immigrants, union members and dissenters, women at work and in the public realm, artists and activists, and other movers and shakers. Incorporating social history and contemporary scholarship in his narrative, Abbott examines current metropolitan character and issues, giving close attention to historical background. He explores the context of opportunities and problems that have helped to shape the rich mosaic that is Portland. A highly readable character study of a city, and enhanced by more than sixty historic and contemporary images, Portland in Three Centuries will appeal to readers interested in Portland, in Oregon, and in Pacific Northwest history. [less]
So Rugged and Mountainous
2018 484 Pages (University of Oklahoma Press)
OCLC: 1009055549 ISBN 13: 9780806159799 ISBN 10: 0806159790
The story of America's westward migration is a powerful blend of fact and fable. Over the course of three decades, almost a million eager fortune-hunters, pioneers, and visionaries transformed the face of a continent--and displaced its previous inhabitants. The people who made the long and perilous journey over the Oregon and California trails drove this swift and astonishing change. In this magisterial volume, Will Bagley tells why and how this massive emigration began. While many previous [...]
The story of America's westward migration is a powerful blend of fact and fable. Over the course of three decades, almost a million eager fortune-hunters, pioneers, and visionaries transformed the face of a continent--and displaced its previous inhabitants. The people who made the long and perilous journey over the Oregon and California trails drove this swift and astonishing change. In this magisterial volume, Will Bagley tells why and how this massive emigration began. While many previous authors have told parts of this story, Bagley has recast it in its entirety for modern readers. Drawing on research he conducted for the National Park Service's Long Distance Trails Office, he has woven a wealth of primary sources--personal letters and journals, government documents, newspaper reports, and folk accounts--into a compelling narrative that reinterprets the first years of overland migration. Illustrated with photographs and historical maps, So Rugged and Mountainous is the first of a projected four-volume history, Overland West: The Story of the Oregon and California Trails. This sweeping series describes how the "Road across the Plains" transformed the American West and became an enduring part of its legacy. And by showing that overland emigration would not have been possible without the cooperation of Native peoples and tribes, it places American Indians at the center of trail history, not on its margins. [less]
UNDAUNTED COURAGE.
(Simon & Schuster)
DDC: 917.8042 LCC: F592.7
OCLC: 36887028 LCCN: 95037146 ISBN 13: 9780684826974 ISBN 10: 0684826976
In this sweeping adventure story, Stephen E. Ambrose, the bestselling author od D-Day, presents the definitive account of one of the most momentous journeys in American history. Ambrose follows the Lewis and Clark Expedition from Thomas Jefferson's hope of finding a waterway to the Pacific, through the heart-stopping moments of the actual trip, to Lewis's lonely demise on the Natchez Trace. Along the way, Ambrose shows us the American West as Lewis saw it -- wild, awsome, and pristinely [...]
In this sweeping adventure story, Stephen E. Ambrose, the bestselling author od D-Day, presents the definitive account of one of the most momentous journeys in American history. Ambrose follows the Lewis and Clark Expedition from Thomas Jefferson's hope of finding a waterway to the Pacific, through the heart-stopping moments of the actual trip, to Lewis's lonely demise on the Natchez Trace. Along the way, Ambrose shows us the American West as Lewis saw it -- wild, awsome, and pristinely beautiful. Undaunted Courage is a stunningly told action tale that will delight readers for generations. [less]
