Product Description
All the Details on 49 National Parks, Monuments, Preserves, and Seashores

• The best strategies for seeing the parks—so you can make the most of your time and avoid the crowds
• Complete campground guides, from car-accessible campsites to backcountry spots—plus park lodges, gateway motels, and nearby B&Bs and inns
• Adventures for everyone: easy day hikes, backpacking trips, wildlife watching, guided mule and horseback rides, rafting trips, sea kayaking, and biking
• Where to eat and stock up on supplies, both in the parks and in gateway towns
• Everything you need to know to plan the perfect trip—plus detailed maps, advice for families traveling with kids, and more

There isprobably not a question you have that this book doesn't answer: eachpark listing includes tips from park rangers, ideas especially forkids, excellent maps, entrance fee information, the best driving andwalking tours, campground overviews, food and other lodging, contactsfor activities and recreation, and interesting sidebars. --KathrynTrue ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

best book on the subject

I needed help in planning a month long trip to see up to ten National Parks in Utah, Colorado, and Arizona.This book is the answer.It provides all the needed information. Maps, campgrounds, motels, where to eat.Especially useful is a section for each park titled, "what to do if you only have one day".This helped me get a idea of how much time to alot to each park.Also extremly useful is the detailed breakdown of potential hikes for each park.Decribes length, what you'll see, difficulty level, etc..
This book is truely an invaluable resource for planning a trip out west.

Good time saver
An excellent guide for organizing data generally available from the NPS sites, but the data there are all in each parks own format.So Frommer's provides the data in a consistent format, very readable, and gives information on the services in the surrounding area that is usually not available on the NPS sites.

Always A Good Bet
Frommer's is synonymous with good guide books for whereever you want to travel, and if you are looking for a good book about the parks this is worth picking up.Replete with directions and suggestions of where to go, what to see and how to plan what you would like to see based on the length of your visit, it is pretty well covered.Some things change, particularly prices and some places mentioned, so if you have a chance to make a couple of calls ahead of time it is a good idea to double check these things and hours of operation, but still an impressive overall book.

Comprehensive, a little dull
This guide gives comprehensive information and covers all National Parks in the Western United States. Details are given on possible routes, campground locations and even their facilities. However, information is given in a rather boring way, and people searching for nice pictures should definitely look for another title. The photos on front and back cover are the only pictures found in this guide.
The parks are listed alphabetically, which helps finding your information fast.

A good road trip guide.
I bought this book in order to have an informational book about all the National Parks along my road trip from Seattle to San Diego.I have used several guide books and mostly purchase hiking, camping, climbing and fishing books. This was a guide book like those I purchase for international travel and I felt that it served it's purpose well.It gave me the basic rundown on each park, the highlights and where all the important sights were, which is perfect for roadside National Park visiting.It includes maps (although not detailed if you want to do more extensive hiking), lists of campgrounds, some highlight hikes and locations, places to stay and some extra stuff around the park (i.e. towns, eating, hotels).

It seemed to be just enough to get us by and the only time I wished there was more was when I wanted to do backcountry hiking/camping but that isn't something you get in an all around National Park book unless you want it to to be 1,000 pages long with topo maps to boot!I suggest going to the Visitor Centers for more indepth information, park maps and hiking information.The centers are always great resources, along with the roadside and trailside signs, you just have to take the time to read when you are interested.
... Read more

Product Description

In the spring of 2002, the National Baseball Hall of Fame will launch a landmark four-year traveling exhibition that will premier at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and tour to leading museums in nine major cities across the United States. The show will bring the Hall of Fame’s treasures, including rare baseball images and artifacts, to every American in a once-in-a-lifetime celebration of the game that has defined our nation.

Customer Reviews (4)

Baseball as America
The book itself is a treasure!The only flaw with the copy I purchased was that several pages were ripped out.

A baseball book that is like taking a trip to Cooperstown
"Baseball as America: Seeing Ourselves Through Our National Game" was the companion volume the landmark traveling exhibition from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York.As its thesis this book takes Jacques Barzun's declaration "Who ever wants to know the heart and mind of American had better learn baseball."Within these 320 pages you will find yourself exploring every aspect of the American pastime lavishly illustrated and even long time baseball fans will be surprised at how much they will read and see that is new to them.

After an introduction by Jules Tygiel, which features a 1860 Currier and Ives lithograph showing Lincoln and his opponents for the presidency describing their platforms in baseball terms, "Baseball as America" is divided into seven units: Our National Spirit, Ideals and Injustices, Rooting for the Team, Enterprise and Opportunity, Sharing a Common Culture, Invention and Ingenuity, and Weaving Myths.Within these pages you will find Robert K. Adair explaining the science of the curve ball invented by Candy Cummings but first explained by a 23 year old Isaac Newton and Paul Simon explaining to Joe DiMaggio his use of Joltin' Joe's name as an emblematic icon in the song "Mrs. Robinson." There is Dan Shaughnessy's "Obituary of Elizabeth Dooley" the legendary Boston Red Sox fan and Buck O'Neil explaining how the Chicago Cubs traded away future Hall of Famer Lou Brock because the team already had three black outfielders.Then there are the letters Curt Flood and Bowie Kuhn exchanged when the outfielder refused to be traded from the Cardinals to the Phillies.You might remember Flood's letter from Ken Burns' documentary "Baseball," but here we have Kuhn's response.

Of course Ernest L. Thayer's ballad of the republic "Casey at the Bat" will be found here, along with a Charles Schulz "Peanuts" cartoon of Charlie Brown praying to catch a baseball, Bob Newhart's "Nobody Will Every Play Baseball" routine, and excerpts from W.P. Kinsella's "Shoeless Joe."There are photographs of the famous Honus Wagner T206 1909 baseball card, Eddie Gaedel's 1/8 St. Louis Browns jersey, Shoeless Joe Jackson's shoes, Lou Gehrig on the cover of a program from the American baseball tour of Japan in 1931, "Babe Ruth Underwear," and the patent and model for F.W. Thayer's 1878 catcher's mask.Then there is the poster of the elephants playing baseball for the Barnum & Bailey Circus.

Then there is the juxtaposition of words and images: Joe Raposos's lyrics to the Frank Sinatra song "There Used to Be a Ballpark" with a photograph of the demolition of the Polo Grounds.There is an excerpt from Bernard Malamud's "The Natural" with the cowbell Hilda Chester used at Ebbets Field and a photograph of Andre Dawson's final visit to Wrigley Field. A photo of Satchel Paige of the Kansas City Monarchs warming up at Yankee Stadium and Ted Williams' 1966 induction speech at the Hall of Fame where he surprised the crowd with his call to honor the stars of the Negro Leagues. A letter from Fiorello LaGuardia in 1945 about a committee formed to end segregation in baseball opposite a pair of photographs showing black kids and white kids clutching Walter Johnson board games and waiting to meet their favorite baseball star.

The back of the book includes a list of the selections from the collection broken down into baseballs (handmade ball made by Babe Ruth at school), baseball cards (1952 Topps Mickey Mantle), bats (George Brett's "pine tar" bat), books, booklets, and periodicals (comic book "Roy Campanella Baseball Hero"), broadsides, handbills, and posters (handbill urging integration of the New York Yankees), caps (Hideo Nomos no-hitter cap), cartoons ("Base Ball as Viewed by a Muffin" from 1867), communications equipment (Red Barber's first microphone), decorative art (theater lobby card for "The Jackie Robinson Story"), fan art and fine art ("Tom Seaver" by Andy Warhol), games and toys ("darktown battery" cast iron mechanical bank from 1888), gloves and mitts (Yogi Berra's mitt from Don Larsen's perfect World Series game), jerseys and uniforms (1976 Chicago White Sox Bermuda shorts), jewelry (charm bracelet made from championship jewelry given by Lou Gehrig to his wife), letters and documents (All-Star ballot filled out by Casel Stengel), medical-related items (ethyl chloride numbing spray), merchandise (Reggie Bar wrapper), miscellaneous equipment (prototype JUGS Speed Gun), programs and scorecards (program for first Colored World Series), sheet music and records (1908 Edison Wax cylinder record of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and magic lantern slide), shoes (worn by Ty Cobb), souvenirs (1961 button, "I'm for Maris--60 in '61), stadium equipment/artifacts (turnstile from the Polo Grounds), tickets and season passes (ticket to Lou Gehrig Day), and trophies and awards (Cy Young Award given to Sandy Koufax).

So you can get a very good idea of what you missed out from the traveling exhibit.Of course this is a fraction of what was on the tour and while less than half of what is included on these six pages makes its way into "Baseball as America" just looking over the list can be fun.The tour, of course, is long over, but if you have never been to Cooperstown, or if it has been a while since you have been to the Baseball Hall of Fame, then be forewarned because this book will make you want to go and visit all of the baseball treasures on display.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game
From the eye catching cover to the inspired essays and beautiful photographs inside, this book is a delight. All that was missing was the hot dog and beer. A great gift for fellow baseball fanatics! Go White Sox!

It's A Great Book ...
Book is very nicely presented with many great illustrations, pictures, and excerpts from notable authors. Great book for the casual or diehard baseball fan.This book covers the terrific exhibit now showing at New York City's Museum of American History.Check it out.It's very worthwhile. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Text is interesting but a bit schizophrenic, with pretty pictures

In this book, Moul tells a story that needed telling.While we have histories of other types of public lands, I'm not aware of any other history of our National Grasslands (managed, like National Forests, by the Forest Service).With the history, you get a collection of full-color photos that should persuade you of the beauty of these grasslands.

Moul tells the story in three parts.The first part provides a social history of the Great Plains and some economic and political history to the Great Depression and Dust Bowl years.He takes a broad approach, talking about the New Deal in general before moving to the Resettlement Administration that ended up buying the land that eventually became National Grasslands.
He ends this part with the management of the National Grasslands, taking a position very sympathetic to Forest Service's multiple use management.Moul is also very sympathetic to the ranchers who graze their private livestock on the public grasslands, a position that is not really consistent with his position in Part III of the book.

The second part of the book provides a review of each NG, based on interviews with their staff.This might be a useful reference but it reads like a list, and the text never comes alive.

In the third part, Moul lays out three possible futures for the national grasslands: incremental change from the status quo, a return to the grazer-dominated days of the 1940s and 1950s, or a more environmentally-friendly management policy, replacing cattle with bison and other native species.Though his history spoke well of option two, his future sides with option three.

Part of the disjuncture here reflects the fact that, throughout the book, Moul is never critical of the players, agencies, or policies. Since those have changed over time, it sometimes seems that he's uncritically supporting contradictory visions of our grasslands. ... Read more

Product Description
A study of the growing interest in celebrating Christmas from the Puritan age, when this was forbidden, through the present ... Read more

Product Description
The Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, Columbus Day, Labor Day, Martin Luther King’s Birthday, and other celebrations matter to Americans and reflect the state of American local and national politics. Commemorations of cataclysmic events and light, apparently trivial observances mirror American political and cultural life. Both reveal much about the material conditions of the United States and its citizens’ identities, historical consciousness, and political attitudes. Lying dormant within these festivals is the potential for political consequence, controversy, even transformation. American political fetes remain works in progress, as Americans use historical celebrations as occasions to reinvent themselves and their nation, often with surprising results. In six engaging chapters—assaying particular political holidays over the course of their histories, Red, White, and Blue Letter Days examines how Americans have shaped and been shaped by their calendar.

Matthew Dennis explores this vast political and cultural terrain, charting how Americans defined their identities through celebration. Independence Day invited African Americans to demand the equality promised in the Declaration of Independence, for example, just as Columbus Day—celebrating the Italian, Catholic explorer—helped immigrants proclaim their legitimacy as Americans. Native Americans too could use public holidays, such as Thanksgiving or Veterans Day, to express dissent or demonstrate their claims to citizenship. Merchants and advertisers colonized the American calendar, moving in to sell their products by linking them, often tenuously, with holiday occasions or casting consumption as a patriotic act. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

America through our holidays
There are many American histories out there, but in this one, the author Dennis traces our history through our holidays. Looking at our national holidays chronologically as they were adopted, he shows how these holidays developed and changed over time, as they were called into play for various civic and political reasons.A good example of this is Columbus Day, where he traces the legacy of Christopher Columbus as an icon and a demon for different groups including Catholics, immigrants and later the American Indian movement. All the while the invocation of Columbus' name could be seen in such events as the founding of the Knights of Columbus and other Columbian groups. Other holidays produce similar tracing of our national history, such as a brief look at the labor movement for Labor Day, the politics of reconciliation after the Civil War with Memorial Day and the politics of iconography with President's Day celebrating Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays. The writing at times can get dry, but the reader gains new insights into our history and will not view a day off quite the same again.

Historical Examination from All Perspectives
Matthew Dennis looks at the American Calendar in Red, White, and Blue Letter Days.This book examines the distinctively American holidays of Indepndence Day, Thanksgiving, Columbus Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day.The author traces the origins and development of these holidays in an interesting, informative and thorough manner.The delight in this book, though, is the inclusive nature of its treatments.The examination of the Indian reaction to these holidays is wonderfully illuminating.In fact, the most important aspect of this book is the ways in which it demonstrates how all shades of the political spectrum and all peoples within the United States have used and developed these holidays.Eventually all of these holidays become drained of meaning but this road to complacency, as shown in this book, is fascinating and varied. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (47)

A So So Look at Paris by a So So Author
I picked this book up after my most recent visit to Paris, hoping to learn a little more about some of the experiences I had there, including spending time with a Parisian friend. While the book did offer small, insignificant, and personal insights into what it is like for this particular author to live in Paris, it opened the window only a crack on Parisian culture and life. This book could have been so much more. The author annoyed me with her Iowan perspectives, chatting endlessly about how she and her American friends guffaw loudly together, how she generally slinks away rather than stands up to French insults, and of course, how her sons are moderately perfect. The real problem though, was her lack of wit in writing this small, simple tome -- I found it rather prosaic, amateur, repetitive and dull. It was actually difficult to finish this book, although I regularly read much weightier material with gusto -- if you want a few small insights, offered by an annoying Iowan who seems to think all Americans avoided the "hard" subjects in high school like math, chemistry and physics, as she did, you might enjoy this book. I didn't. But I read it for what little I could glean of Parisian culture and now off to the Goodwill it goes.

Very Funny, Quick Read, Quite Insightful
I thoroughly enjoyed the book and appreciated Mrs. Rochefort's balance of self-deprecating humor and instinctive cultural retrenchment. I read "French Toast" after browsing the website on French culture that she and her husband maintain (which is incredibly good too). Their website certainly does not betray a sense of superficiality or negativity that critics of the book found in her writing. And as should be apparent from her book, her views sometimes more accurately describe French urbanites.

I found particularly fascinating her descriptions of traditional French families and their views on childrearing, education, food, and "Americanness." As an Asian-American, I found that a great deal of these descriptions describe very accurately the families in which I and other Asian-Americans are raised--to the point that the classic "American" values that she described seemed more foreign to me than the "French" ones! As a New Yorker, I found her contrasts between small-town American culture and Parisian urban culture hilarious. New Yorkers would likely identify more with the latter. I'm curious to read French reactions to her story.

Since the book is already 10 years old and the forces of McDo et al have made more inroads in French society, I would be interested to see what she personally thinks has seen the most change since the time of her writing.

I enjoyed French Toast so much, I started reading "French Fried" the same day.

Fun, funny, and oh so right on the mark
I am also an American woman living in Paris. Before I picked up this book I thought it was going to be a typical, steroetype reinforcing, superficial romp down the Champs-Elysees. Not at all! Its really funny, and works as much as a memoir as an introduction to the culture. My experiences in France are not identical to that of the author because my circumstances (marriage, neighborhood, age) are not the same. However, everything she says rings true. Ah, France! I am hoping there will be a sequel!

Cross-cultural Conflicts
I am neither American nor French. As an Asian woman, I lived in the United States for more than a decade, and I have been living in France for exactly one decade. I had been married to an American and now to a European. With my former training in cross-cultural psychotherapy, and having lived and worked with people of various racial backgrounds, I have a great interest in inter-cultural relationships.

I had read French Toast the first time in 1999, shortly after moving to France, and I was quite amused at the author's descriptions of the French. I read the book again very recently and her account has confirmed my own observations of both the Americans and the French. She said that she had only a "bird eye's view" of the French during those past twenty years. To me, her bird eye's view was remarkable. What had struck me the most when I first arrived in the United States more than thirty years ago was the "individual" versus the "family'.The author has lived through and felt that experience. As an American woman living in France and being married to a Frenchman, she talked about the cultural gap getting bigger and not smaller, and how deeply cultural differences run below the surface. I myself can certainly identify with those dilemmas.

The author has a fabulous sense of humor. Very few books addressing cultural conflicts can be written with such tolerance. What I really admire in her book is her ability to laugh at herself and at her own mistakes. Very few of us can do that.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in understanding French behavior, whether they are tourists or planning to be long-term residents in this country. Reading this book is both entertaining and enlightening. I also think the book cover design is quite charming.

The Frenchness of Toast
French Toast by Harriet Welty Rochefort

This book has three virtues. Setting out to explain `the maddening mysteries of the French' to people from other cultures- and especially to their diametric opposites the Americans - it rests on decades of immersion. The author, who emerged into French life after growing up in small-town Iowa, has a French husband, passport, children, and household. She also works there. This depth of familiarity is an advance on that gained by most anthropologists engaged with similar cultural puzzles. Secondly, she has a sense of humour, an absolute requirement for such a brave venture, where the natives are not always friendly, and maps not always clear. Thirdly, she has a most engaging style of writing. This rests on knowing what needs to be explained, and bringing the topics alive with vivid anecdotes - almost all of which - although related with humour and tolerance, are nevertheless underpinned by a profound coming to terms with difference, and a search for the harmonies and things to celebrate. French Toast is an elegant couterbalance to the simple-mindedness of freedom fries. ... Read more

Product Description
Fed up with fast food? Tired of the boring chain restaurant scene? Why not please your palate, nourish your mind and enjoy a bit of unique American history?From a wind-swept beach experience, to a magnificent mansion on a wooded hillside, to a serene lake setting, the rich fabric of America has been preserved and is available to diners in some of the best restaurants in the country. Recipes from Historic America combines stories from the past with enticing recipes and information for visiting or contacting the establishments.

This volume is an effort to help visitors, locals, and gourmands enjoy some of the finest food and the most interesting restaurants in our country. Simply choose an area in one of the seven regions and decide which historic restaurant to visit. Pictures of the properties are included along with a page or more of history for each. The locations and methods of contact are also offered and several of the chef’s favorite recipes, which are on the menu, are included. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Nice Pictures
Let me state up front that I bought this book for the pictures, the recipes were secondary.

I have always wanted to go to Mt Washington Hotel in NH and got that opportunity to this past fall.When I saw this book with the Mt Washington Hotel on the cover, I had to purchase it as a memento.I noticed it in the gift shop but knew I could get it on Amazon when I returned home.As a side note, the hotel did not disappoint!!

I am a pretty good cook so did read the book in it's entirety to browse the recipes for keepers and to see if I had been to any of the hotels featured.I had been to several of the hotels so that was fun and I made notes in the book.However, I didn't find any recipes that were of interest.

Tomato Juice Invented Here
I really like the story about the invention of tomato juice...but then I wrote it. :) ... Read more

Product Description

Setting out with her infant daughter and the baby’s father, an Ojibwe spiritual leader and guide, Louise Erdrich embarks on an evocative journey to the islands of her forebearers in southern Ontario. She arrives in a small boat on Lake of the Woods to visit powerful, centuries-old rock paintings that are still read by contemporary Ojibwe as “teaching and dream guides” and are appreciated as art works as well.

Erdrich expertly weaves the oral traditions of her ancestors into the account of her trip, integrating Ojibwe rituals and language. Her odyssey offers numerous history lessons unheard of in American textbooks. Erdrich, perhaps best known for her novel Love Medicine, once again reveals territory unfamiliar to--and untouched by--most of the outside world. One of Erdrich's last stops is on an island estate that belonged to explorer Ernest Oberholtzer, a friend of the Ojibwes. Ober’s island, as Erdrich calls it, is home to more than 11,000 books. Erdrich delights in her surroundings, but admits she is in "somewhat uneasy agreement with the spirit of the island, which is to let the books exist as they were meant to exist, to be read, to be found and then unfound. To have their own life." It is a striking analogy to the American West and its Native people. Ultimately, Erdrich concludes that books should be preserved--and share! d. It is their presence that ensures she will find comfort and companionship. --C.J. Carrillo ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

The Ojibwe, Ernest Oberholtzer, and "Austerlitz"
Of the six or so I have read, this is one of the better entries in the National Geographic Directions series, probably because Louise Erdrich is one of the better, more congenial writers.It is a light and charming book, which should provide a pleasant two hours of reading.It probably will be appreciated more by those interested in matters relating to Native Americans.

In BOOKS AND ISLANDS IN OJIBWE COUNTRY, Erdrich writes about her two obsessions:books and islands, of course.The islands are specific ones - islands in the Lake of the Woods just over the Minnesota border into Ontario and for centuries home territory of the Ojibwe Indians.Many of the islands are decorated with rock paintings (a practice dating back to 2000 B.C.).How are those rock paintings books?"So we can talk to you even though we are dead."

BOOKS AND ISLANDS revolves around a trip that Erdrich, then 48, took in 2002 to the Lake of the Woods with her 18-month-old daughter.She visits rock-painting islands and tells of many other things Ojibwe, including the Ojibwe language, Ojibwemowin, one of the most difficult languages in the world to learn (two-thirds of the words are verbs, and for each verb there can be as many as six thousand forms).The other highlight of her trip is the island and home of Ernest Oberholtzer in Rainy Lake.I had not previously known about Oberholtzer, but I learned that I am indebted to him for being instrumental in the preservation of the Boundary Waters, or Quetico-Superior wilderness, where I spent one of the best weeks of my life.He also accumulated books, of which 11,000 remain on his island, along with his quirky, hand-crafted house.Erdrich's trip, and the book, ends back at her bookstore in Minneapolis, Birchbark Books.

In one of those curious coincidences of life, I read BOOKS AND ISLANDS three weeks after finishing W.G. Sebald's "Austerlitz".The coincidence?"Austerlitz" is the book that Erdrich takes with her and reads during her trip and then discusses off and on during her book.

A wonderful book
Anyone who loves books should read this one; you'll be able to relate to the author. I personally could't put it down once I started it. It's a light read, I would even describe it as a 'comfort book', something one would read to relax and get his/her mind off of stressful sitations in life.

Women are more likely to enjoy it than men; it is very emotional and personal. It combines a mother's experience of travelling with her baby, an author's passion for books, and a young woman's love and pride for her native culture.

The book also contains an intimate insight into a foreign culture (for me, as a European), which complemented the book very well.

It was definitly not what I expected of the book, in a good way.

An interesting journey
This was the first book by Louise Erdrich that I read, and I really loved it. It's a literary tour around Ojibwe country, some of which she takes with her baby's father, a spiritual leader, and of course, her baby, who the animals seem intrigued by. It's an unusual, hard to describe book - not quite a mere travelogue, but also a glimpse into the Ojibwe life, a survey of the land, a little about her family, and the efforts of a man to bring more books to the reservation. This effort continues today, and in LE's view is a vital endeavor. I totally agree.

Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country
Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country documents Erdrich's journey to the Lake of the Woods region on the Ontario/Minnesota border, the traditional home of some of her ancestors.For the most part, I found the book enlightening, and although at first somewhat flustered by the author's style, soon was drawn into her story.The author seemed to me to be quite sincere about her intents and although only part Ojibwe on her mother's side, I felt that she had much appreciation for this heriatge.I feel, therefore, that D. Sander's review is quite harsh and seemingly motivated by other unspecified factors, and is not an accurate assessment of what the reader will derive from this book.

Out of her depth
First, the disclaimer: I am a great admirer of Louise Erdrich's fiction work and consider her one of America's greatest living storytellers. "Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country," however, left me early and never came back.Her tone throughout this self-congratulatory road trip memoir is stingy and smug while her observations are, at best, shallow to the edge of banality; despite her torrent of words and phrases, one almost never sees what she's seeing or trusts that we're truly feeling what she's feeling, the test of great landscape writing and a surprise, given it is one of her fictional gifts. At her worst, Ms. Erdrich's words convey an emotional immaturity and lack of generosity that betray her age and experience, not to mention her Anishinabeg roots (although it's a separate conversation best held among Indian people, it's worth noting here that this Ojibwa found some of her subjects, particularly those involving the sacred, uncomfortably close to a line of exploitation we should never cross). This book, which impressed me as little more than an exercise in boastful foolishness and a sad and futile attempt, perhaps, at some sort of self-healing by suggestion, was a great disappointment that verges sadly close to disaster. ... Read more

Product Description

Treasures of Alaska celebrates the many lives and unique landscapes that make up the vast and storied land in this latest addition to the National Geographic Destinations series. From the beauty and solitude of Alaska’s mountain ranges and lush forests to the awesome power of its glaciers and volcanoes, this book offers an astonishing combination of prose and photographs that fires the imagination and seizes the eye.

From grizzlies to glaciers, fishing boats to northern lights, Treasures of Alaska uncovers the wild heart and the endless challenge that make Alaska a land of enduring beauty and undying dreams. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Treasure Book
Very, very interesting book with breathtaking photographs.If you are an Alaska fan, get this book!!

Beautiful writing.Stunning photography.Fitting of Alaska.
I picked this book/magazine up on my second trip to Alaska.Although my travels have been business driven, I have built in free time with both trips to experience some of the slendor and solitude described in Treasures of Alaska.I knew my two visits had not demonstrated all that is Alaska, but after reading this it became evident that they did not comprise even the full tip of the iceberg.While reading on my departure flight and looking out the airplane window to the wilderness below I felt the urge to demand they turn the plane around.

I think this book/magazine deserves inclusion as one of the Treasures of Alaska.

The Last Great American Wilderness
Alaska represents 20% of the land area of the United States, yet its entire population is less than that of most major cities in the "lower 48" and huge swaths of the state aren't on any road system.Animal species in short supply elsewhere roam freely in Alaska.Wildness is here in abundance.This National Geographic special magazine captures that wildness with a collection of its usual superb photography wrapped around a short narrative capturing selected vignettes of the state.

In Alaska, it is still possible to experience a variety of dramatic natural landscapes and wildlife in isolation.This magazine is highly recommended as a preview for those who seek that experience.

Awesome magazine
I recently graduated college, and this was given to me as a gift.Previous to receiving it as a gift, a friend had the same magazine, and I enjoyed looking at it.I have the opportunity to say that I live in the one of the most beautiful places on earth, Alaska.I have lived here for 9 years and I have done and seen a lot of Alaska.But reading the magazine articles and looking at the beautiful photographs made me realize that there is so much more of Alaska that I have not seen, and that I am dying to get to see.I have see and read lots of book on Alaska, but up until this one, none of them done Alaska justice.Everytime family or friends come over and we start to talk about what we are going to do this summer, I pull out this magazine. ... Read more

Product Description
When TV celebrity Dinah Shore sang "See the USA in your Chevrolet," 1950s America took her to heart. Every summer, parents piled the kids in the back seat, threw the luggage in the trunk, and took to the open highway. Chronicling this innately American ritual, Susan Rugh presents a cultural history of the American middle-class family vacation from 1945 to 1973, tracing its evolution from the establishment of this summer tradition to its decline.

The first in-depth look at post-World War II family travel, Rugh's study recounts how postwar prosperity and mass consumption--abetted by paid vacation leave, car ownership, and the new interstate highway system--forged the ritual of the family road trip and how that ritual became entwined with what it meant to be an American. With each car a safe haven from the Cold War, vacations became a means of strengthening family bonds and educating children in parental values, national heritage, and citizenship.

Rugh's history looks closely at specific types of trips, from adventures in the Wild West to camping vacations in national parks to summers at Catskill resorts. It also highlights changing patterns of family life, such as the relationship between work and play, the increase in the number of working women, and the generation gap of the sixties.

Distinctively, Rugh also plumbs NAACP archives and travel guides marketed specifically to blacks to examine the racial boundaries of road trips in light of segregated public accommodations that forced many black families to sleep in cars--a humiliation that helped spark the civil rights struggle. In addition, she explains how the experience of family camping predisposed baby boomers toward a strong environmental consciousness.

Until the 1970s recession ended three decades of prosperity and the traditional nuclear family began to splinter, these family vacations were securely woven into the fabric of American life. Rugh's book allows readers to relive those wondrous wanderings across the American landscape and to better understand how they helped define an essential aspect of American culture. Notwithstanding the rueful memories of discomforts and squabbles in a crowded car, those were magical times for many of the nation's families.

This book is part of the CultureAmerica series. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Misleading ? Title & Cover
From the cover & title, I expected this book to be more Bill Bryson-esqe, full of interesting anecdotes.Instead, it was a heavily foot-noted & researched (cannot speak for the accuracy of the research) and humorless - more like a disertation.It was still interesting, just not "light" reading like the title would imply (with the exception of the last chapter).

more like a business trip than a vacation
With its snappy title, I expected a lively, conversational work in the spirit of Erma Bombeck or Dave Barry, perhaps with a few celebrity reminiscences or interviews with retired tourist attraction operators mixed in with a broad discussion of the vacation trends that waxed and waned during the period in question (1947-1973). What we have instead is a college history professor who has taken her unedited research notes and thrown them on the page. There is not even the most rudimentary attempt to shape a narrative - reading this is literally like reading 184 pages of footnotes, with all the tedium that implies.

Rife with Errors, But Not without Value
Although I found Rugh's summaries of complaint letters received by the NAACP and National Park Service to be captivating, her book is riddled with minor errors, inconsistencies in argument, claims beyond the scope of her compiled evidence (mostly secondary sources), and outright incorrect citing of sources.These errors overshadow the amount of decent research performed.

The book is not well-edited.Rugh confuses the plural with the singular as "camping materials" becomes "it" (p. 144) or "park operators" becomes "he" (p. 148).She becomes lost in her summaries as sources seem to overlap and stories and pronouns become confused (see pp. 157-158 in her discussion of the Gilmans' resort and mixing it up with Ryan's narrative).She states that Sinking Spring Farm is in Rockport, Indiana, when it is actually located near Hodgenville, Kentucky (p. 54).The New England Thruway becomes "The New England thruway" (p. 75).She refers to "The phenomenon of 30,000 motels" (p. 36) when just mentioning that the number of motels peaked at 51,000 (p. 35).These types of errors pepper her book.

Her arguments are not consistent through the book.At the beginning, she is careful to state that the family ideal in the 1950s did not really exist according to historians (p. 6), but then says she focused on families that fit the ideal (p. 11) and then makes assumptions about postwar reality based upon advertising, and other popular culture (see pp. 125-126 for an example regarding camping).She draws all sorts of generalizations about reality from advertising and popular culture when such research should have been presented as how businesses viewed the needs of the public (i.e. not a portrayal of what exactly was occurring in families).

At one point, she refers to how the United States became a multicultural mosaic in the 1970s, rather than a country defined by cartographers as a collection of regions (p. 54).However, later in the book, Rugh relies on defining various regions of the United States, sometimes poorly (see pp. 156-157 for an example: "Visitors were usually from the Midwest, but less than a third came from Minnesota, with 20 percent from Illinois, 18 percent from Iowa and about 5 percent each from Indiana, Missouri and Nebraska."Compare p. 74 where Indiana is in the Midwest.How does she define these regions?).The layers of inconsistency are confusing to the reader.

Her terms are ill-defined, such as "class" and even "vacation."Her "middle class" (the class she decided to focus on) included herself, the daughter of a Harvard-educated father, a Radcliffe alum, and a woman whose family could afford a two-week excursion including airfare and rented car.At different times in the book she both accepts and dismisses weekend trips as part of her focus (i.e. writes of people traveling from New York City to the Catskills by expressway, but then laments how weekend trips are supposedly becoming more common nowadays).This lack of definition hampers her discussion, especially when she's trying to answer questions as broad as: "How did this madness get started?" (p. 2).

Throughout the book, her claims are inadequately supported by the cites provided.She makes the claim that more middle-class Americans could afford to go to Europe at some point after her "Golden Age" (whenever that was--the exact end of the study period is unclear) and cites a 1954 Gallup poll, a 1962 outdoor recreation survey, and the entire book, "The Conquest of Cool" by Thomas Frank (p. 6).The statement that "...as a result of intense competition from the Arab oil embargo, by 1980 gas stations found they no longer needed maps to attract motorists" is "supported" by a book on road map art and a publication by Rand McNally on free road maps dated "ca. 1972-1973" (p. 45).She uses a single, three-page article from the Ladies' Home Journal to argue that vacations came to be viewed as a threat to the family (pp. 178-179).Even the number of interviews and other transcripts used to characterize the postwar road trip was woefully small for her subsequent conclusions (especially when considering that millions of surviving baby boomers provide an accessible pool of valuable memories).The list of broad claims being flimsily supported by their associated cites is quite long.

And then there are cites that are completely wrong altogether.In another mention of the Arab oil embargo's negative effect, she uses a 1946 Gallup Poll (p. 12, Note 25). The claim that "The rapid resumption of pleasure travel surprised everyone in its scale" is supported by President Truman's travel logs (p. 3, Note 5)."A postwar map and guide" was actually published during the war circa 1942 (p. 59, Note 39).Perhaps the most frustrating is a cite that refers to pages of the 1962 outdoor recreation survey that cover sporting events, rather than a host of statistics regarding national park visitation and camper registration (p. 120, Note 6).

Basing her claims in more primary sources would have helped this book tremendously.This is why her research of the letters sent to the NAACP and NPS were the best parts of the book (her review of oral histories regarding Minnesota resorts a close second).She ignored data that would have helped strengthen or amend her claims regarding this era of travel (most notably U.S. Department of Transportation's Nationwide Personal Transportation Survey) and instead opted for easier, weaker ways out (newspaper articles, advertising, popular culture, etc.).In short, the book was very disappointing due to all of the errors and concerns I have mentioned here.
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Product Description

In 1846, before he became the first great chronicler of the American frontier, Francis Parkman headed West to follow the trail of the pioneers making their way to Oregon and California. When he got to the Rocky Mountains, Parkman and his party of two turned south, traveled down the Front Range, and came back via the Santa Fe Trail to Missouri. The Oregon Trail recounts a trove of page-turning adventures along the way. Parkman frequently was lost, very nearly starved, narrowly escaped Indian war parties—and clearly had the time of his life. “A month ago,” he writes along the way, “I should have thought it rather a startling affair to have an acquaintance ride out in the morning and lose his scalp before night, but here it seems the most natural thing in the world.”

The Oregon Trail, ranked number 31 on Adventure’s top 100 classics list, remains a popular favorite a century and a half after publication. Accessible and handsomely designed, this new edition also features an exclusive introduction by adventure historian Anthony Brandt that illuminates the text with details about Parkman’s role in popularizing the American West to a generation of pioneers as well as his vast influence on subsequent historians and writers.

Customer Reviews (20)

The Oregon Trail

Francis Parkman lived from 1823 to 1893. The Oregon Trail, an account of his travels in 1846, was his first published book. Parkman's journey would have been much easier to follow if the book had a map tracing his route.

My reading edition of The Oregon Trail is that in The Library of America volume [53] containing both The Oregon Trail and Parkman's The Conspiracy of Pontiac; but since I haven't yet read the book on Pontiac, I'm placing my review under the present volume. The Library of America edition of The Oregon Trail (TLA.OT) is of Parkman's 1849 first edition published by George P. Putnam, with a correction of the title, restoring it to Parkman's intention. The book was revised and reprinted several times, the last edition, illustrated by Frederick Remington, in 1892.

The year 1846 is also the year of the Donner Party's attempt to reach California. In chapter 10 of the Oregon Trail, Parkman mentions them, although not by name. He has stopped at a place he calls Richard's trading-house (TLA.OT: 118) near Fort Laramie. A group of emigrants on their way to California are there, and Parkman is introduced to a Colonel R----- who is the emigrants' erstwhile leader.

"Fearful was the fate that months after overtook some of the members of that party. General Kearny, on his late return from California, brought in the account how they were interrupted by the deep snows among the mountains, and maddened by cold and hunger, fed upon each other's flesh!" (TLA.OT:121)

If Parkman actually talked with or recalled the face of anyone from the Donner Party, he doesn't mention it, and the above quotation is all he says of them. The Colonel R------ is William Henry Russell (1802-1873). The Donner Party was, in fact, part of the Russell Party before going off on its own via the Hastings Cut-Off after crossing the Continental Divide through the South Pass. At the time Parkman is speaking with him, Russell has been deposed as leader, but the Donner Party has not yet split off. "His men, he [Russell] said, had mutinied and deposed him; but still he exercised over them the influence of a superior mind; in all but the name he was yet their chief." (TLA.OT:121) Lilburn Boggs eventually took over leadership of the Russell Party (see, for example, Ethan Rarick's Deparate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West, page 51), but Parkman does not mention Boggs. This narrative of Parkman's experiences on the Oregon Trail can then be read as concurrent (up to a time) with the tragic experiences of the Donner Party.

California emigrants took the Oregon Trail until after crossing the Continental Divide through the South Pass, and so spent part of their journey with emigrants to Oregon; but Parkman was not on the Oregon Trail as an emigrant at all. In fact, he doesn't appear to have even reached the Continental Divide. The book has no map of his travels, and he's not always clear, but he seems to have gotten only as far on the Oregon Trail as Fort Laramie. While there he learns of an upcoming gathering of "Dahcotah" Indians, waging war against the Snake Indians. An "Ogillallah" chief, called the Whirlwind, has lost a son in battle, and he is determined to "chastise the Snakes". Parkman learns that the gathering will take place "at 'La Bonte's Camp,' on the Platte. Here their warlike rites were to be celebrated with more than ordinary solemnity, and a thousand warriors, as it was said, were to set out for the enemy's country." (TLA.OT: 110-11) Parkman is overjoyed.

"I was greatly rejoiced to hear of it. I had come into the country almost exclusively with a view of observing the Indian character. Having from childhood felt a curiosity on this subject, and having failed completely to gratify it by reading, I resolved to have recourse to observation. I wished to satisfy myself with regard to the position of the Indians among the races of men; the vices and the virtues that have sprung from their innate character and from their modes of life, their government, their superstitions, and their domestic situation. To accomplish my purpose it was necessary to live in the midst of them, and become, as it were, one of them. I proposed to join a village, and make myself an inmate of one of their lodges; and henceforward this narrative, so far as I am concerned, will be chiefly a record of the progress of this design, apparently so easy of accomplishment, and the unexpected impediments that opposed it." (TLA.OT:111)

So Parkman resolves to be at 'La Bonte's Camp' for the upcoming Dahcotah rendezvous. Several chapters cover his journey there and his adventures with the Dahcotah, including a buffalo hunt and time spent in the Black Hills. He and his companions eventually return to Fort Laramie and from there head south, down to Bent's Fort on the Santa Fe Trail. They hunt buffalo along the Arkansas river, and journey east towards Fort Leavenworth and civilization, essentially completing their circuit.

"We had met with signal good fortune. Although for five months we had been traveling with an insufficient force through a country where were were at any moment liable to depredation, not a single animal had been stolen from us. And our only loss had been one old mule bitten to death by a rattlesnake. Three weeks after we reached the frontier [by which he means the western edge of the United States as it stood in the midst of the Mexican War of 1846], the Pawnees and the Camanches [sic] began a regular series of hostilities on the Arkansas trail, killing men and driving off horses. They attacked, without exception, every party, large or small, that passed during the next six months." (TLA.OT: 337)

Hardly the Oregon Trail
This book was a disappointment to me and I should have researched it more before purchasing it. It was my hope to read about the settlers moving West on the old Oregon Trail but this book had nothing to do with that. Instead, it was an account of Parkman's experiences as he traveled in some of the Western areas of the U.S. (Wyoming area, Black Hills, etc.) Much of his time was spent with the various Indian tribes as he befriended them and learned much of their culture. He also spent a great deal of time hunting. My real problem with his story is that it was so repetitive. Many of the accounts were similar and it seemed like we were going over and over the same thing. I read almost every thing I can find on Western adventure and exploration but this one is sure not on the top of my list.

An Excellent Book - but misnamed
This is an excellent book giving the reader a first person view of the Frontier in the 1840s.The details make the reader feel as if they were living the adventure themselves.

If you are looking for a book that tells of a journey on the Oregon Trail, this is NOT the book for you.A better for the book title might have been "A Summer On The Frontier: Life Among The Indians and Explorers."The author follows the Oregon Trail until he reaches Fort Laramie, and then spends the rest of his time among the indians who inhabited the plains and badlands at the time.

If you are looking for vivid picture of life among the indians, buffaloes, and explorers, this IS the book for you!

Just what I expected
I ordered this book based on the film, " The Oregan Trail," which I enjoyed watching. The book is a good follow-up to the movie, making much of the content even more real for me.

The Wild West
Parkman's travelogue on the Great Plains is a major work of life among the Native Americans.His descriptions are honest and capture a society that was fading even while he was writing.The book had a major impact on the way that non-westerners saw the Great Plains.This was both good and bad.Parkman wrote through the lens of a Boston aristocrat and was full of prejudices against those who did not meet his standards.This was dangerous in that many who read about the "backwardness" of the Native Americans used this as justification for "civilizing" them.Although this was probably not Parkman's intention, it was a consequence of his writing.In addition, he promoted the hunting of buffalo for sport, which led to the decimation of the buffalo heards on the Plains.

Another major issue with this book is that, in spite of its title, it is not about the Oregon Trail.Parkman went no further than the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and he did all in his power to dissociate himself from the pioneers moving along the Oregon Trail.If you are looking for a history of the trail, this book will not satisfy your needs.

However, in spite of the misleading title and the prejudices that surface throughout the book, it is still a fine piece of writing that opens up a world that has been lost to today's readers.Read it and enjoy your travels into another time and place.
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Examines the history, purposes, design, and impact of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. ... Read more

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Celebrates the Year of Highland Culture, as 2007 has been designated; accompanies a touring exhibition. ... Read more

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Spanning 14,000 years, this handsome volume describes how settlements and cities evolved--vital developments in human history. Thoughtful text, complemented by haunting color photos, explores mysteries and recent discoveries. ... Read more

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The Travel Historic America series takes travelers back in time with in-depth coverage of historical sights, attractions, and events as well as historic places to stay and eat. It also includes driving tours, overviews, timelines, and a handy resource chapter.Covering both the historical era and geographical region through which Lewis and Clark traveled, this guide shows modern-day discoverers how to retrace the steps of the expedition starting in St. Louis and onward to the Missouri River to the Discovery Passage and down the Columbia River. Includes Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Fodor's Lewis & Clark Trail review
We followed the trail and used the book and found it very useful and packed with good info. ... Read more