People of the Great Plains [Hardcover]

Peter Miller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1996

Photographs and text of the land and the people who live within the ten Great Plains states from Montana and North Dakota to the Texas Panhandle. Interviewed and photographed are farmers, ranchers, wheat whackers, cowboys, well driller, vintners, school teachers, Native Americans and others. The talk about living in a land harsh but free. This is an historical and important document as the Plains, in places, loses its people and recedes into frontier land.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Peter Miller's handsome volume documents a freewheeling investigation into the American heartland, a journey born of curiosity about the rugged, resilient individualists who people the region. The author, a former Life reporter, has a knack for pulling pithy quotes out of interview subjects that equals his finesse with the variety of cameras used to vividly record this odyssey. Along the way we meet a Texas eccentric who believes that the 8 percent of the United States population who live in the flatlands are the only ones who count and a Montana rancher who refused to talk to Miller until she determined that he was not an "environmentalist shyster" like those threatening her way of life.

From Library Journal

Vermont Yankee Miller (Vermont People, Silver Print, 1995) made four trips to the Great Plains, spending seven months and taking 400 rolls of film and 400 pages of typewritten notes there. The result is a lavish and loving tribute to the people who reside in that vast stretch of the Old West running from Montana and North Dakota south into New Mexico and Texas. They emerge as tough, resilient, and suspicious of government, environmentalists, and tourists. Most amazing, perhaps, to the outsider is the juxtaposition of Miller's black-and-white photographs, in large part reflecting a land where civilization has fought a losing war of attrition with the elements, to the contentment shared by a people "rooted to the environment, not as free as the antelope but not as fenced in as cattle." Highly recommended.?Jim G. Burns, Ottumwa P.L. Ia.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Silver Print Pr; 1st edition (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0962806420
• ISBN-13: 978-0962806421
• Product Dimensions: 12 x 9.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,129,183 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where goest thou, America?, September 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: People of the Great Plains (Hardcover)

I am surprised to be the first reader reviewing this book, but accept the honor of setting the table. But why no other reviews? This book is beautiful in every department; Miller's photography is stunning, often provocative, and his portraits of a people shine in the pages, capturing the tenacity, grit, and joy of Great Plains life. Miller wisely lets everyone tell their own stories and saves most of his own remarks for the book's introduction and conclusion. He also rightly includes the stories of our indigenous peoples remaining on the reservations, whose ancestors held their own stories of the land long before Europeans arrived. Plains history includes both beauty and tragedy.

The book deserves its award for visual excellence. Miller includes several panoramic shots, only appropriate considering the ocean-like vastness of the landscape. He also shows us the people in a way that, combined with the text, almost makes you feel you've been introduced to them in person. This book honors them, and if they had the chance to read it I hope they would agree.

Plains people, of course, are no more or less important than anyone else. But if this book were, say, "People of the Strip-Mall Towns," I don't think it would have quite the same appeal. It seems Great Plains life is in many ways endangered, not only its economy but also, more importantly, its ideals. What is it like to have roots, a heritage? What is freedom, good work? These questions beg to be asked as we careen through our microchipped, catch-me-if-you-can Information Age, a beat to which America marches faster each year. The future can never--and should not--be exactly like the past, but nevertheless there are many things worth saving. Read this book and you may understand.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars On the road with Peter Miller, December 10, 1999

By 

Dick Dorworth (Ketchum, Idaho) - See all my reviews

This review is from: People of the Great Plains (Hardcover)

Peter Miller's work is marked by both personal and professional integrity. His writing always is clear, sensitive, funny, sympathetic to the subject unless he isn't, and layered with well researched meaning like a fine painting. His photography is as unwavering as the agreement in an old time Vermont handshake.

When Peter Miller hit the roads of the Great Plains to photograph and write about its people, it was a journey of discovery as much as a quest for stories, information and images. His discoveries are as significant, beautiful and moving as the stories and images in People of the Great Plains. This is a book every reader, every lover of fine photography, every person interested in the soul of America will want to have.

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning visual display!, September 14, 2009

By 

[e-mail] (Hillsboro, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: People of the Great Plains (Hardcover)

Prior reviewers have stated the outstanding presentation of this book. I concur wholeheartedly. Text and photographs are faithful depictions of the Plains. Truly well done artistry!