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Book reviews for "Dick,_Everett" sorted by average review score:

Encyclopedia of the Central West
Published in Hardcover by Facts on File, Inc. (1990)
Authors: Allan Carpenter and Carl Provorse
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Not your Little House on the Prairie
At 550 pages, this classic social history of the first decades of settlement in Nebraska, Kansas, and the Dakotas is informative, entertaining, sometimes poignant, and one heck of a read. For anyone whose knowledge of this period is as limited as mine, it's also full of surprises -- lots of them. Historian Everett Dick dips into a substantial collection of documents, listed in his 10-page bibliography, and organizes what he's found into 35 chapters, each on a different subject, including the sod house of the title, homesteading, prairie towns, vigilante justice, farmers vs. cattlemen, extremes of weather, Indians, hunting and trapping, the railroad, sports, education, the church, journalism, doctors, lawyers, and entertainment. And that covers only about half of them.

Settlement moved quickly and furiously across the Missouri River, while the federal government was still negotiating the relocation of the current residents, i.e. Native Americans, then spread across the territories in a surge of speculation and rapid development in a series of booms and busts. Cliches and stereotypes from movies and television quickly fall left, right, and center, as the author revels in the rich tapestry of human endeavors portrayed against a raw, still alien landscape. Law and order were virtually nonexistent, and a recurring theme in the book is the frequency of scams, fraud, graft, and chicanery of all kinds that were the order of the day. In such an environment, the carrying of weapons was universal, and differences of opinion were normally settled with bloodshed and no questions asked afterwards.

There is the land rush, featuring claim jumpers and speculators with no interest in tilling the soil or putting down roots but turning a quick buck, usually in total violation of whatever law existed at the time. There are the wild cat banks, printing their own money, all of it eventually worthless to those left holding it. There are the crooked investment schemes that raised capital for towns that were never built. Prairie communities lure railroad companies to build lines in their direction with outlays of cash. Elections are rigged, bribes paid, and blood spilled over the location of county seats. Phony local governments elect themselves into office and after borrowing money for public projects abscond with the funds and leave the area's legitimate settlers under a crushing load of debt. And on and on. It's a fascinating account of the frontier as a kind of bonfire of vanities.

But this is only one theme in the book. There are many others, and much to relish in descriptions of the daily life of more ordinary folks who are typically jacks of all trades, short of cash, either hard-working or hard-drinking, often overwhelmed by the isolation of their circumstances. It's a delight, for instance, to read of country and small town pastimes and pleasures from baseball to dances that go until sunup.

Given the book's origins in the 1930s, it tends to neglect the lives of women (an oversight that has been corrected in many more recent books), and while it seems to want to give a balanced view of Indians, it tends to focus its interests elsewhere. Unfortunately, the treatment of African Americans is somewhat condescending. Those faults aside, the book is a page-turner, especially for anyone who, as I did, grew up in this part of the world with only a glimmer of an idea of its actual history.

A definitive, readable history of real pioneers
This is an excellent account of how our forefathers dealt with the day-to-day struggles in the frontier. Excellent as history, entertaining as drama, it's hard to put down.


Conquering the Great American Desert : Nebraska
Published in Hardcover by Nebraska State Historical Society (01 January, 1975)
Author: Everett Dick
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Introduction to Exceptional Children
Published in Paperback by McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages (1982)
Authors: William R. Van Osdol and Don G. Shane
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The Dixie Frontier: A Social History of the Southern Frontier from the First Transmontane Beginnings to the Civil War
Published in Paperback by Univ of Oklahoma Pr (Txt) (1993)
Author: Everett Newfon Dick
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The Dixie Frontier: A Social History of the Southern Frontier from the Transmontane Beginnings to the Civil War
Published in Hardcover by Octagon Books (1974)
Author: Everett Newfon Dick
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Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism
Published in Paperback by Snow Lion Pubns (1995)
Author: John Powers
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The Multimedia Handbook (Blueprint)
Published in Library Binding by Routledge (19 November, 1996)
Authors: A. E. Cawkell and Tony Cawkell
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People of the Plains and Mountains: Essays in the History of the West Dedicated to Everett Dick (Contributions in American History)
Published in Hardcover by Greenwood Publishing Group (1973)
Author: Ray Allen Billington
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The Sod-House Frontier, 1854-1890: A Social History of the Northern Plains from the Creation of Kansas and Nebraska to the Admission of the Dakotas
Published in Hardcover by Univ of Nebraska Pr (1989)
Author: Everett Dick
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The Sod-House Frontier: Everyday Life in Kansas, Nebraska and Dakota, 1854-1890
Published in Hardcover by J. & L. Lee Company (2001)
Author: Everett Dick
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