Ebook507 pages7 hours
The Oregon Trail: sketches of prairie and Rocky-Mountain life
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
()
Read more from Francis Parkman
8 History Classics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5France and England in North America (Vol. 1-7): Collected Historical Narratives Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Oregon Trail Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The California and Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky Mountain Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMontcalm and Wolfe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5France and England in North America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMontcalm and Wolfe Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPioneers of France in the New World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Oregon Trail Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after the Conquest of Canada Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrance and England in North America; a Series of Historical Narratives — Part 3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Half Century of Conflict - Volume I France and England in North America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Oregon Trail Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMontcalm and Wolfe, Volume 2 (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Oregon Trail (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading): Sketches of Prairie and Rocky Mountain Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHistoric Handbook of the Northern Tour: Lakes George and Champlain; Niagara; Montreal; Quebec Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrance and England in North America: Collected Historical Narratives (The Complete Seven Volumes) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Half Century of Conflict Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Book of Roses Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after the Conquest of Canada Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Oregon Trail (Barnes & Noble Digital Library): Sketches of Prairie and Rocky Mountain Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLa Salle and the Discovery of the Great West France and England in North America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie Rocky Mountain Life Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHistoric Handbook of the Northern Tour Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Half-Century of Conflict - Volume II Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFrance and England in North America: Collected Historical Narratives Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMontcalm and Wolfe, Volume 1 (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to The Oregon Trail
Related ebooks
Critters of Michigan: Pocket Guide to Animals in Your State Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Uprising Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5North Fork of the Clearwater River: The Almost Forgotten History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Log School-House on the Columbia Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Missouri Connection: Profiles of the Famous and Infamous Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Trip To Alaska, The Last Arctic Frontier And The Land of The Glaciers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTrue Ghost Stories of the Shoals Vol. 1: Skeletons in the Closet, #1 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsVinton Co, Oh Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHauntings of the Underground Railroad: Ghosts of the Midwest Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Tohopeka: Rethinking the Creek War and the War of 1812 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Blackfeet Tales of Glacier National Park Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBoots and Saddles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAntoine of Oregon A Story of the Oregon Trail Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSix Decades Back Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMountain Men of Idaho Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5War, WV Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Story of Early Ohio Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLansing Correctional Facility Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLexington Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlack Elk Peak: A History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHaunted Anchor Bay, Michigan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWicked Prescott Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArizona Gold Gangster Charles P. Stanton: Truth & Legend in Yavapai’s Dark Days Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeaver River Country: An Adirondack History Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHaunted Mystic Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5What's Great about Missouri? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Daniel Boone, Backwoodsman Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEthnobotany of the Ojibwe Indians Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHidden History of Henderson County, North Carolina Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSecrets of Garrett County: Little-Known Stories & Hidden History of Maryland's Westernmost County Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Reviews for The Oregon Trail
Rating: 3.538793134482759 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
116 ratings8 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This narrative describes 23-year-old Parkman's travels west in with fellow Boston Brahmin Quincy Adams Shaw. Together they travel with settlers adventurers through the future states of of Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, and Kansas (the title is a misnomer as they never go to Oregon), and spend three weeks hunting buffalo with the Ogala Sioux. It's a well-written narrative that captures the flora and fauna of the prairies, the lives of settlers, soldiers, and Native Americans, and the uncertainty of so much change happening in the region at one time. Unfortunately, the huge problem is that Parkman is deeply prejudice against the native peoples, which yes is a characteristic of the time, but there were more sympathetic contemporary white American writers of the time as well. Parkman also is dismissive of a number of white settlers he encounters. I kind of imagine that Parkman and Shaw were like Charles Emerson Winchester haughtily looking down on those around them. So, yes, this is a terrific descriptive narrative, but there are a lot of aspects that will be hard to stomach for modern readers.
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5nonfiction (more journal than history). I got this because it was narrated by Frank Muller (puts me to sleep, in a good way!) and because it was available on playaway from my library.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It's a journal, don't expect this to be of incredible writing - but ignore the lack of writing style and just enjoy reading first hand history! . Highly recommended for anyone who, like me, is in awe of how people survived and even thrived on the frontier. Yeah, Parker was not ahead of his time and the racism of that period is cringe worthy, but the book will add to your understanding of how people coped on the frontier.Audiobook note - very good, engaging narrator.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5I was really looking forward to reading a book about the trip on the Oregon Trail (my kids used to love that computer game very much!), but this was not what this book was about. The author (obviously very well-to-do and East Coast) thought it would be a great adventure to see how the savages live out West. He thought they all were sub-standard and ugly and dirty. He never even made it into the Rocky Mountains and just circled around like a lost sheep before making it back home. He is one of the reasons that the buffaloes almost were extinct.... because there obviously is no greater fun than shooting them, just so you can say that you shot lots of them.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A very interesting and illuminating journal of sorts, written by a 23 year old man looking for adventure in the American West of the 1840s. While one might not agree with his analysis about the native societies, his observations appear valid, and his prose paints a clear picture of his time. Occasionally his narrative timeline was muddled, and I had to turn back a page or two to get my bearings, but the chapters flow well for the most part. The attitude of the author and his companions are sometimes upsetting, but should be viewed in the context of the time and the age of the people involved. Definitely recommended.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Have you ever wondered what it would be like to see the frontier, as a well-educated young Eastern man, in the days when you really would need to worry about Indians taking your scalp, and there were no showers or electricity back home to miss? This book pretty much shows you.The author is a twenty-something Harvard educated man - think of John Adams or Robert Gould Shaw here - in the 1840s, who enthusiastically roams the world in search of adventure and edification and things to write home about. He lies to his mother and tells her he's taking the safe route to Fort Bridger, all he knows about Mormons is that they're really religious and people in Missouri hate them, and his attitude towards hunting buffalo can be summed up with: "they're stupid, you can kill a million of the males and not hurt the species since Indians kill only cows, they're stupid, we're hungry, they're stupid, when they're all dead the Indians will die off too, they're really, really stupid, and killing is fun, whee!" He also, by the way, is really ill for most of his adventures - he details many weeks of lying on the ground unable to function, trying to ride a horse without falling into unconsciousness, and taking drugs he suspects will poison him just because there was a chance it'd make him feel better.The author is judgmental and, from our perspective, remarkably unkind. He's also brutally honest, especially considering that the insults and criticism of fellow Easterners was always written for publication. Later in life, he went back and changed a lot of the things he said in this book - that was after the Civil War, after polygamy scandals and the invention of the telegraph, after he was respected and married and so forth. The Oxford World's Classics edition is pretty much what he first wrote, so it's rougher and there's a lot more "look how smart I am, quoting ancient Latin poetry from memory" silliness than are found in other editions. He became one of the most famous and influential Western historians in the later 19th century.I definitely recommend it for people who are interested in the period, especially since it's first person. Someday everything you write today will be 160 years old; a certain amount of sympathy and understanding will, I promise you, take you a long way.(about the buffalo: no buffalo dies before page 220 or so, that wasn't killed for a good reason and put to the best usage it could be; some of the later stuff is gross and beyond excessive from a 21st century standpoint, but seriously, guys, this was the 1840s, and there were no grocery stores on the plains.)
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5While not currently favored by historians, this is one good read. Keep in mind the conceits, prejudices, etc. of the man and his period and all will be well. Sometimes the language is a little too flowery (sp?) but other times you will be captured by the descriptions. Try not to get too upset about the buffalo carnage but again keep in mind the historical times that these people inhabited. The illustrations, mostly early american western painters is up to the usual folio society standards - that is to say excellent.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Written in 1847, this is an eye witness account of the prairie and the natives who lived there. Unlike our romantic view of native life, this is somewhat disdainful, and yet he admires them in a way too. It's hard to swallow the wanton killing of buffalo and other animals, yet this shows the prevailing attitude of the time, right or wrong. Quite an interesting book.
Book preview
The Oregon Trail - Francis Parkman
1^ book_preview_excerpt.html }kW_k`ZuۖWҴ=X%d&_眈R
̴KUd>q??\O7mW_C+͐}WRnzH]Տix8nSy>zCþ ̫w뫺'nW]I퉿ƟUstu;..眖Mm:r?%{\&Vg+~9O~]ܷ 4J//kS?T6/]"y/p4\+}|;k~f,ջ/߾|]Ƿoի777o?~Uy7o~}_`ewsRKM7c~jv[u/]o-}/>Wo~Co}O_|շ/|5>[{>͛㯿YO~&?s;^؟'~>cm=X߾Yߵ¿gE*SϋVFi?~=S~Ƴ;l?ǦJvtr
Jnf~'ku˧ 4
gV4LV~&n5Y/lG8^viw兛sy7wx/p_}OX^aS&vt3g/98Du~ʭ?i=э>[n<ڣikk=x Dܙk8)wt&GG_̛W/-İ-!XN=#oX֝i?|ߌ#6YO黲+l~ٖyOM6Wj!Z<:]q&w!iBό/\ջcrcn~Z3)6m£oT^'FqUõbNnUV}UB~Ay6T
!i2v~j~(VM!S. XmiS!Ɩw:Dt!NqC! s"
$J$"ϱY'r=_it_6;7 )1hEⷦfBtu=B۱hEnyƴmsl'DgQce{,GDw
cd'bU;m=,*
&_V_//mFVQvP&Ѝ'6Ќun~*|
(jۦ*z%wXOON=㌗ 벂wz$?wj|87R˱xeڡz5,qtnUh۰[Y(
^uW
`xt0|ѥ$Hw57ĎBH͔Q0{5x,pWF1O@t93)&x$ZX\%͐/g,k7=E| RM2,TV"ǵhB8')StrMK{_pq=h!7=[ Ooh'ykdmsy\`~;7.,:n:dW-ƵcxɚMĻHi ZJFӅ,b@'xUܢ-o<6EfD9jXi(/Ѝu6t'-qO7\
P*[:22c*1YOmk-gq|ɞٟ BU`YПӯP LpfPz̻F8ѥ5CD~,;c[/\Bb{YFͯf|ۻ>xzȓ,qT\/x
3MP4-~nxB2"eލyY-oA@[~yst]hn"sjAOv/MZCpZjі>`h fuD'F|0Ç-W`l]x2AӣG$%+6HC~\p|!Tb*KiGĖV댵B!~;YFKd
zJGH>7
efSƮ:"[* n-ݱe6ݩeψANv3ʛ?`OKk94
/kMC][a`n)v|;Z
.'
7xbjy70Cnf{?\@ZAC g|k^1M0qGffQZVgME:x_OK4cѓEɬ'lt&}̅-X^ٍ*;wiשIa-nSg~)̘Pi%DlWCIx}+@i\#"{3Is0b Q i*1KL;=\_%06͞^uA8UBctf}2T=" "iqޫR@2^b`ACm!w^cG[N/$q;(@3?as=ՋIg3 Y[^(<L
c}#ĩ3ƴ"t%+DZԉZұkj %*K覎Fɂ>.6ZQЈM*eu!^ĝO_^5I`x!:gy#-;
?c̰-|-NE!N&KK+O&FfX:4cK7"yxYp.teCh,JkcL,"+6Y3->OBEmψ.X-LΡȧCR[s