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24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The real Boone, November 5, 2004
This review is from: Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer (An Owl Book) (Paperback)
Here is your chance to read a very fair assessment on the life of Daniel Boone. Dr. Faragher does a wonderful job in debunking the myths while still preserving the relevance of Boone's life.
Boone's life was remarkable in its contrast to today's society. It was not unusual for Boone to go on a long hunt and not see his family for 3 months. Living on the frontier created chalenges taht would be unimaginable to todays "Civilization". Boone, for example, had his share struggles with local Indian Tribes, but Faragher refutes the myth that Boone was an Indian hater/killer. He was simply a man who tried to live a life on the frontier.
In general, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in Boone or the pioneers of the frontier. Be warned, however, this is an academic approach to Boone's life. Some readers may be turned off by Faragher balanced look at Boone's life that seperates fact from myth. If you are looking for tall tales about the Boone legend you may want to keep on searching.
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17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good biography, June 11, 2002
This review is from: Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer (An Owl Book) (Paperback)
Although a member of the Revolutionary generation, Daniel Boone was not really a figure in the Revolution. Spending most of his life in the frontier, the war had only an indirect effect on him. Boone's contributions to history were to lie elsewhere. Faragher writes a good - sometimes exciting, sometimes slow - chronicle of a life that is almost as much myth as fact. Boone is depicted as a generally even-tempered and intelligent (though not well-educated) man who acted as a leader in the colonization of Kentucky. His true significance is more based on myth, however, as he became the subject of a contemporary biography aimed at encouraging people to move to Kentucky. In this fashion, Boone becomes a semi-legendary figure, alongside other Americans such as Davy Crockett and Kit Carson, for whom the fiction is more important than the fact. Faragher does show that the real Boone was a relatively admirable person, though not without his faults. One final thing I enjoyed about this biography is that Faragher includes a final chapter that acts as an epilogue and shows Boone's impact after his death. I like these sorts of epilogues and find them too rare in biographies. For a different look at U.S. history, this book is a good way to go.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Faragher Revives Boone the Man Not the Legend, July 10, 2004
This review is from: Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer (An Owl Book) (Paperback)
Restoring Boone to his times, Faragher dutifully dethrones the legend and shows us a man full of contradictions, a man that is ambivalent, and a man who epitomizes the American pioneer. Faragher shows us a complex man who has been born into a struggling society. Eighteenth Century America was laden with hypocrisies: divorce was grounds for excommunication from church and community, while adultery was viewed as fashionable; the United States struggled to identify itself as a democratic nation, while the federalists aimed to centralize a strong government; and, I would be remiss to mention the human beings in the nation proclaiming freedom who were enslaved. Boone, too, was tumultuous in trying to find himself. The friend of the native Americans displaced tribes by leading settlers onto sacred hunting grounds. The patriarch of a family of 12 spent months on end practicing "long hunts." The loving husband even forgave his wife when he discovered that he had been cuckolded, and she carried another man's child. The independent recluse couldn't even stay out of the tightly controlled military, and rose to the rank of colonel. Faragher does an outstanding job separating myths from facts, all the while displaying Daniel Boone in a way we may more fully enjoy, which is up close, personal, and, most importantly, fallible. Like an archeologist, Faragher brushes away the debris from the relic. And, like an artist, he paints a picture we can not only appreciate, but a picture with which we can identify and to which we can relate.
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