Customer Reviews

The Grand Canyon: Native People and Early Visitors (Images of America: Arizona)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Kenneth Shields Jr., The Grand Canyon: Native People and Early Visitors (Arcadia, 2000)

There are two ways to approach a review of this book: the photographs and the text. I cannot claim any sort of unbiased review of the photographs, as the majority of those that appear in this volume were taken by my wife's great-grandfather, and they are treasured possessions of her family. I was familiar with them long before I read this book, and I knew how wonderful they were. So I'm left with the text. And that, I have to say, is sorely lacking in places.

Kenneth Shields, Jr., who authored the book's text, writes as if he transcribed his speech from a tour of the Canyon. (The "About the Author" section does indeed confirm that Shields has acted as tourguide.) That in itself probably wouldn't be bad; photo captions are often best when they're simply a description of what's going on in the photo. What got to me was the oft-repeated use of "Note the..." as the last sentence, as if the viewer needed to be pointed to certain parts of the image, rather than Shields simply describing them.

If you're at all interested in the history of the settlement of the Grand Canyon region, you want a copy of this book; that said, the old saw that a picture is worth a thousand words may have never held more true than it does here. ***