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Title: Across the Wide Missouri by Bernard DeVoto ISBN: 0-395-92497-9 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 01 September, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.89 (9 reviews)
Rating: 2
Summary: Not Too Good.
Comment: This book won the Pulitzer Prize. You have to wonder why.
If the author had stuck to his original premise, the Rocky Mountain fur trade in the mid to late 1830's, he would have had a winner. But only selected portions of that era seem to be here. Worse, Bernard DeVoto overlays so much extraneous information on what is here, in such a dense fashion, that this work becomes incredibly difficult to follow. It really is a very odd book. Many, far too many passages move beyond opaque; they become indecipherable. The reader winds up spending more time trying to understand the relevance of certain passages than he or she spends on the story itself.
This book was written 57 years ago and literary styles have certainly changed. However, I think it is fair to say the author has a difficult time adequately communicating with his reader. The first half of the book is acceptable, but the last half reads like it was written by Edgar Allen Poe. DeVoto continuously makes up his own names for people, places and organizations. The result is a circuitous, nonsensical ramble much more based on myth than fact.
I was very eager to read this work and have really liked other works by Bernard DeVoto. Having read it, I feel cheated. I hope you have much more luck with it than I did.
Rating: 3
Summary: Detailed catalog of names/dates/locations--not a good read!
Comment: If you are doing historical research you will love this book. It is an extensive listing of names, locations and dates. However, I'm not sure what the point is of knowing that so-and-so was at xxx creek on a certain day. I would have liked more insight on individuals, more character development, a better understanding of what their lives and daily challenges were.
The book doesn't flow--it is a collection of facts that are not well synthesized.
Although the characterization of the Indians is certainly not politically correct today, it does reflect the experiences and attitudes of the time. It makes it clear that relations between Indians and the frontiersmen varied greatly by tribe, the individuals, and circumstances.
Rating: 5
Summary: This is the one that got me going
Comment: Whereas Ambrose's "Undaunted Courage" got me interested in the early exploration of the American West, "Across the Wide Missouri" got me interested in the actual lives of the mountain man and fur trapper/traders, and how they also explored unknown regions of the west. Their day to day existence and survival amongst the Indians, dealing with the forces of nature, the early stages of Manifest Destiny, etc. were all to me mind boggling. DeVoto brings to life the fur trade at the peak of its industry. I must agree with a couple reviewers though on how the text does get somewhat wordy and complex, the list of characters involved is quite lengthy and one is always flipping back and forth to the maps and notes. But this is what it takes to tell the whole story. From his bibliography one can pick and choose which books are of interest to the reader and take it from there, that's what I have done. I would recommend this book to those of you that are interested in this time period.
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Title: The Course of Empire by Bernard DeVoto ISBN: 0395924987 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 01 September, 1998 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: The Year of Decision 1846 by Bernard DeVoto, Stephen E. Ambrose ISBN: 0312267940 Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin Pub. Date: 05 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Journals of Lewis and Clark by Bernard DeVoto ISBN: 0395859964 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 30 April, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Jedediah Smith and the Opening of the West by Dale Lowell Morgan ISBN: 0803251386 Publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr Pub. Date: December, 1964 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Mark Twain's America by Bernard Augustine De Voto, M. J. Gallagher, Bernard Devoto, Louis J. Budd ISBN: 0803266073 Publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr Pub. Date: April, 1997 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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