Customer Reviews

The Pacific Northwest: An Interpretive History (Revised and Enlarged Edition)

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

 

 

Bought in Portland, read it during my week long visit to the Northwest. As a resident of California who has visited Washington (Seattle), Oregon (Portland, Bend) and Idaho (Boise, Sun Valley), I decided to get this book because it treats the three states as a region. I figured it would be more efficient then reading seperate histories of the three states. I wasn't dissapointed.

Schwanter does a good job differentiating the three states while at the same time making the case for the area's treatment as a region. Most of the writing is workmanlike. Rarely did I find myself transported to a different time and place.

The most interesting sections were the early settlement of Oregon and the section dealing with the politics of Oregon in the twentieth century.

Good introduction to the history of the area, but it didn't compel me to do any follow up reading. Kind of seems like a community college text book at times.

This book was nice because it didn't just talk about "the complete Native American Experience" or "the complete African American experience" instead, it would talk about an historical event and explains how that effected the masses as well as the Native Americans, African Americans, women, Chicanos/as, Asian Americans, labor, environmentalists, etc. It was quietly inclusive. Plus it discussed all aspects of WA state and NWern history from European exploration to Microsoft and Boeing aircraft. Very complete, used as a textbook for a college class at the U of Washington.

I just loved this book. It was required to read for a history class. I just loved how the author wrote this book, and added humor into it.

I was so interested of what was going to happen next. a good book to read, a good book for any type of reading.

It's about the history of "The Pacific NorthWest", for before the time when Lewis and Clark explored the area and reached Astoria on the coast of Oregon. It talks about the Days of Captain cook and the fight for the terriory, and each chapter is broken down into sub-chapters for more clarification.

It goes to the history of N.W. to about the mid 1990's.

I really enjoyed this book, and learned a lot about the area.

I've used this as a textbook for a college level history class, and I've enjoyed it quite a bit. Schwantes' writing flows, and reads more like a story rather than a textbook. I could and probably would read this book on my own time as a source of entertainment. He does not dig very deep into the subject, but as stated above, he simply gives a brief oversite of the history of the region. If you have a casual interest in the PNW, buy this book. You may find it cheaper in a book store though. I paid less in a college bookstore!!!

Mr. Schwentes has written a fine example of what an introductory survey of a region should be: broad and sympathetic in scope, with generous quotes, excerpts, and analysis. He doesn't harp on any one group's preeminance but instead shows us the region's social, political and economic fortunes from European discovery to the present, through graphs, photographs, political cartoons. Missing is only a much-needed chapter on pre-historic Native American habitation, but given his even-handed handling of the issue throughout the rest of the book, this is a quibble easily corrected in future editions.

"The Pacific Northwest" would be a valuable text in a high school or college setting, as well as for the general public.

Its good quality, I recommend everybody use this product. the book is clean and no paper is missing. I very satisfy woth the item

not a good read. this book is for school and i dropped that class. hated it and the book. this book is scattered and unorganized with tons of information that is irrelevant to the subject

Amazing stories of the scuffles and scuttlebutts in the Pacific Northwest. I often thought of how balanced this book is, making other history books appear a little "skewed" towards certain topics. This book is more like an overview, but also gives you a great deal of little "nuggets" of information for stories to tell your friends and children. The way it's written makes it easier to understand but it can be dry at times. The parts of Dr. McLoughin, the Cayuse people and the relations between natives/settlers are my favorites. There is much told in other books about the awful things about these relationships but everyone should know that it's not ALL bad. There were mostly accounts of settlers and natives living peacefully amongst each other, trading and helping each other. Unfortunately, this didn't always happen and many people were killed because of it. This book discusses this as well, but also mentions about the peaceful times. All of this is very important in understanding the clash between one culture, and many other cultures within a few hundred years....There is also an emphasis on railroads and of course the English settlers we all know so well (one in particular who was killed in Hawaii later). If you are willing to accept a relatively balanced book for history, this might be one of the best books out there.
I know that it's not the most in depth history of the PNW but I hope you still can enjoy as much as I have!

The book is a nice (not great and not engaging) read written by someone who loves the Pacific Northwest and has given the area everything he has in researching it's history. But used as a textbook for a course-fail.The writing style is dry but the information is valuable redeeming it enough to claim a place on my bookshelf. It is little more than a AAA Road Book with annotations as far as I am concerned.