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socraticgadfly's review
4.0
This is the keystone book of DeVoto's trilogy of American growth and expansion. I've read the two follow-ups, "Across the Wide Missouri" and "The Year of Decision," and own this one, as the best of the three. Yes, "Across the Wide Missouri" won the Pulitzer, but it built on the recognition this book had achieved.
This book also has more information about early non English/British/American exploration than in your high school textbook. More of what's in the other two volumes is accessible elsewhere. That's the main reason I kept this.
But, it's dated, and it was a bit dated by the time Wallace Stegner wrote the note that became the introduction for the 1980 reprint I have. We've got more information today, or rediscovered more information, on some of those old explorers. We've also puzzled together more information on American Indian movements before whenever various groups first contacted whites, and in the first generations after.
Speaking of?
The biggest failing is something that's close to cultural essentialism. It's not quite that, in its normal sense, and so, it's far short of racism. But, observations such as "All Crows X" or "All Sioux Y" are a sub-ethnic version of cultural essentialism.
A lesser failing? The maps, in this edition, aren't conducive to following exploration trails well. The Lewis and Clark routes, notably, get lost in how mountains and rivers are drawn.
This book also has more information about early non English/British/American exploration than in your high school textbook. More of what's in the other two volumes is accessible elsewhere. That's the main reason I kept this.
But, it's dated, and it was a bit dated by the time Wallace Stegner wrote the note that became the introduction for the 1980 reprint I have. We've got more information today, or rediscovered more information, on some of those old explorers. We've also puzzled together more information on American Indian movements before whenever various groups first contacted whites, and in the first generations after.
Speaking of?
The biggest failing is something that's close to cultural essentialism. It's not quite that, in its normal sense, and so, it's far short of racism. But, observations such as "All Crows X" or "All Sioux Y" are a sub-ethnic version of cultural essentialism.
A lesser failing? The maps, in this edition, aren't conducive to following exploration trails well. The Lewis and Clark routes, notably, get lost in how mountains and rivers are drawn.
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