Stewart tells us a splendid story. In 1840, California was there to be settled, but how to cross the deserts and mountains to reach it? Beginning with the Bartelson Party in 1841, pioneers blazed ever-better trails that avoided deserts, followed water, and crossed the mountains, especially the forbidding peaks of the Sierras. But even though trails improved, they were still treacherous, as shown by the doomed Donner Party in 1846. We get a fascinating picture of the West, and Stewart even takes on a trip along the California Trail, from Independence, Missouri to Sacramento via Fort Laramie, Wyoming's South Pass, Nevada's Humboldt River, and over Donner Pass. If you enjoy travel or American history, you can spend many, pleasant hours with this book.

Because my family also migrated to California (albiet in 1993) I have been interested in the history of the settling of the American west. This book was wonderfully informative but also very compelling reading. It chronicles the annual human migrations from the Missouri to California, including the ill-fated Donner party (in 1845)and the famous "49ers". The author did a very good job comparing the immigrants mode of travel, unique difficulties faced during each of these migration years, route finding and heroes and villans, and the sweat and tears progress which lead to the wider opening and settlement of the west.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the history of the settlement of the west or anyone who just wants to read a good old-fashioned adventure story based in historical fact.

An exhaustively researched, even-handed account of the Great American Disaster. You know the general story, so the narrative builds with the crescendo drumbeats of inevitable tragedy. But Stewart's done the research better than anybody else and fills in the details. There are heroes and villians, but Stewart is always ready to give the benefit of the doubt, and believe the best in the characters until proven otherwise. What's haunting to me is that the Donner Party families were striking for the American Dream just like everybody else. But the men steered their families (thanks to ignorance, chicanery, and bad luck) into a hell.

This book told the historic story of the Donner party and had excerpts from the diaries of the members (Patrick Breen, and letters from Virginia Reed. VERY GOOD BOOK!

This is another of the "follow the old road" books and gives much insight to the history of predecessor roads as well as the conditions of the highway circa 1949-1950. Although the old US 40 signs are fast disappearing, the book will help you find the old segments off the interstates.

The book was written in 1940. I read it in February 1943 at the U. of Wisconsin. Unaware that I needed glasses, I had been rejected by the Army Air Corps as a possible fighter pilot. I stumbled into weather forecasting as a bad second choice, having no interest at all in weather. This small book, given to me by the Army, instantly converted me into an avid, aspiring meteorologist. I am so glad Amazon.com recently found a used copy for me.

The novel is unusual in its construction. The storm called Maria (this book started the custom of giving storms feminine names) is the all imposing, domineering character in the story. There are 12 chapters, one for each day in the life of the storm. Each chapter has 6-12 subchapters that tell of the two or three dozen human characters who are in the plot. We know most of them by job title, not by name. Maria connects them all together in an ever rising crescendo that reminds me of Ravel's Bolero.

For most, weather happens! It affects our lives in countless ways and sometimes wreaks havoc on them. Unless one personally experiences the sheer violence of weather like a tornado or a hurricane, we go along just being inconvenienced by it and muttering how it forced cancellation of the picnic or the golf game. Stewart's novel is a wonderful story of the seeming innocence of an obscure storm system developing far, far away that eventually will dramatically impact men's and women's lives in western United States. The people stories are poignant and suspensful as each is tied to this relentless and powerful storm as it develops and makes it's way to our shores. One gains tremendous appreciation and respect for the patterns, intensity and often times the unpredictable nature of weather -

A must read for anyone who knows and loves the big california storms- you know who you are. For the rest of you, it chronicles the lifespan of one of the big pacific storms.

The dictionary of names isn't much to write home about. It's thorough and well-done, but doesn't include any statistical depth (e.g. when was a name most popular, where does it 'rank' nowadays, etc). However, the historical background covers some of this information quite well, so that compensates somewhat.

I collect name books, and can recommend for purchase only a scant few. One, by Britons Leslie Dunkling and William Gosling, has been published under at least two different names. The other such book is "American Given Names".

Both books tell you not only the meaning and derivation of the name, but when it entered the English language, when it became popular, disappeared, and came back into fashion, which segments of the populace used the name most-- and the reasons behind it all. Next to these two, almost all other name books available in the U.S. today are junk.

Whereas Dunkling/Gosling has many more names (and is much, much cheaper!), Stewart sticks to fewer and goes into more depth on many. He also concentrates on American practice, rather than the entire English-speaking world. There are quite a few Puritan names here (ever heard of Preserved Fish?), making this especially useful for U.S. genealogists.

Finally, every literate person should have a name dictionary on his reference shelf next to the regular dictionary and the thesaurus. If you just want to name your next kid, Dunkling/Gosling is good enough, but if you're a student, writer, historian or genealogist, get Stewart's too. It's worth it.

I found it great. I decided to come here because I thought u would be the best of the best. I was doing a project for my school about my name and it's history and what is meant so I thought maybe this book would help, and that maybe I could check it out on-line.

The Donner Party's ill-fated trek to California is a fairly well known story. This book satisfactorily covers all the details. However, if anyone wants to get behind the lurid headlines of cannibalism & try to understand the nature of the folk that made the perilous crossings of the US in the 19th century, then this could be the right book for you. It's a faithful, well reseached & readable account of a group of people banded together for a journey that, whilst knowing it was going to be tough, actually expected that they might enjoy the experience. Not a fanciful notion considering that the vast majority of settlers of that time came through the passage with few major problems. The Donners, sadly, were different! Their ordeal was exceptional in it's harshness & suffering & there is an awful inexoribility about the events & circumstances that lead them to their ultimate terrible fate in an unforgiving wilderness. They were probably the typical mix of backgrounds & personalities one might expect from casual travellers united for mutual protection. They had their full share of heroes & villians, brave hearts & cowards, stalwarts & slackers, rich & poor. For each admirable behaviour example, like Reed, Stanton & Eddy, is a contrasting character like the sinister Keseburg or the nefarious Woodworth. The author is totally non-judgemental & deals with all of them with laudable objectivity. I found this an emotional read. Ultimately an uplifting experience. The way most of the chidren, especially the toddlers, respond & bear up to their hardships is extremely moving. Recommended! One point deducted (as mentioned by previous reviewers) for annoying, unreadable maps. Not sure why, but this is a common failing in so many books?

This account of the doomed Donner party reads like a thriller, especially if you use a map to follow its route. There is something of the Titanic in reading of their descent toward death. They could have survived one mistake, but they made many. They started late to cross the country. They moved slowly. Taking bad advice, they had to blaze a new route through the Wasatch Mountains. They came apart trying to cross the desert west of Great Salt Lake. Finally reaching the eastern slope of the Sierra Range, they rested too long and were trapped by deep snows at the crossing we now call Donner Pass. Their subsequent starvation and cannibalism gets most attention when you hear about the Donner party, but the real story is what happens when well-meaning people make mistakes, due to lack of knowledge. There is also tremendous heroism as families try to survive and rescuers from California try to reach the marooned people. Stewart tells a masterful story.

I read this book pretty rapidly because it was so unbelievable. The experience of the Donner Party is one that is impossible for most of us to imagine. If you are familiar with the book (or movie) Alive, by Piers Paul Read, then you will have some sense of what takes place. Many passages brought tears to my eyes.

If you are not familiar with the story of the Donner Party, they were a group of 87 pioneers who set out for California from Illinois in the spring of 1846. They traveled via a passage (which was essentially untried at that time) that was being hawked by a man named Hastings. The trail led them through an ordeal that included near death from thirst, marauding Indians, at least one murder, and, finally, their entrapment in the Sierra Nevada through the worst-ever recorded winter in that region. Sadly, most of the party that survived did so by yielding to the necessity of cannibalism. About half of the original party got out alive.

If you are as fascinated by true tales of extreme survival as I am, then this book will certainly prove gripping. One is reminded of the story of Shackleton's Endurance, or of the Uruguayan rugby team which suffered a plane crash in the Andes of South America. I recommend it without reservation to anyone who can stand it - but it is a most depressing saga.

This book is simply the best for students of the battle. Stewart brings the reader along through a journey in time with his unbiased, simple narrative. It's an informal read that will tempt the reader for more. Along with Harry Pfanz and Edwin Coddington, an excellent addition for that Gettysburg library.

This fine book goes into detail about what has become known as "Pickett's Charge" without becoming boring. There is complete coverage of the connonade which preceded the charge and a discussion of the damage which was done. We learn of the different types of artillary and ammunition used by both sides in the canonade and the placement of these guns. The author also gives detailed coverage of the placement of troops and how they marched in formation. Ultimately, under heavy fire, the Confederate formations break up and in the ultimate "charge" it became almost impossible to map out where each regiment was as they fell apart. Therefore, to a great extent, the Confederate army on Cemetary Ridge was each man for himself.

Although we know the outcome in advance, the narrative is still thrilling as we read about Confederate troops breaking through and penetrating the Union defenses. Through the author's masterful story telling, the outcome, for a while, almost seems to be in doubt. In addition to documenting, almost regiment by regiment, the action which occured, the author provides many interesting, and often amusing, annecdotal tales of individual experiences. The carnage was terrible and the Confederate army suffered a horrific loss of officers, including generals.

The author also gets us into the heads of the key players in this event. He gives a lot of coverage to Lee's steadfastness in ordering the charge and Longstreet's serious misgivings. Written in the elegant, highly readable style of other Civil War historians of that era (the late 1950s), such as Bruce Catton, this is historical writing which almost reads like a novel. I highly recommend this classic history of this key event in American history.

Having been a Civil W buff for years, and having read many of the more common titles dealing with Gettysburg in particular I found this to be the most detailed book I have read. Opinions are expressed, and backed with explanations, yet never placing blame. After having read this book, if you had been there, even knowing what you do today and that the charge was going to be a tragic failure, agreeing with Longstreet that, "no 15,000 men ever lived could break that line", you would still have giving the orders to make the charge.

I first read this book when it was published in 1984 and was very impressed with the author's creativity and originality. I have never read anything quite like it in the years since then, although if you liked Stephen King's The Stand you will LOVE this one. The author's descriptive power makes the situations so real you truly cannot put the book down. With the millenium so close, this is a timely and chilling read!

This was one of the best books I have read, that scared me and made me look over my shoulder whenever I heard a sound. This book is the "ONE" "READ IT, WILL SCARE YOU FOREVER".

If you liked Stephen King's "The Stand", you'll love this book. I couldn't put the book down. The way that it all comes together in the end is frighteningly brilliant. I have recommended this book to many people. All agree it has a unique storyline that makes it so captivating.

When I write "one of the most memorable books I've read," that's saying something, because I've kept up a pace of reading at least four books a week since before entering Kindergarten and am now 67. I borrowed EARTH ABIDES from the library a year after it came out, in 1950, when I was a 14-year-old high school sophomore, reading everything and anything labeled "science fiction." I didn't own the book until fairly recently, but it stayed vividly in my memory. I could call up characters like fussy Maureen, stolid George, loyal Em and the tragic genius child, Joey. I remembered the fascinating journey across America, the vague frustration I felt (even so young) over Ish's passive character and the generally negative slide of the tribe from scavenging off civilization into what appeared almost to be an Upper Paleolithic lifestyle at the novel's end--not even qualifying as barbarism.

But it's Stewart's refusal to tread the usual Golden Age sci-fi path and make Ish a superscience hero that makes the novel very special. Ish may be a scientist, he's academically bright, but like many people he's low in energy, street-smarts, and foresight. By and large his motley clan possesses even lower survival skills. They aren't much different from the Valley Girls in another good story in the end-of-the-world genre, the movie NIGHT OF THE COMET. Both are based on an understanding that if the human race's average IQ is 100, half the people who are likely to survive a major disaster aren't going to be awfully competent. Stewart certainly knew that, and it provided both the uncanny realism and the rather depressing pessimism of this story. It's fascinating to note that the other reviewers have noted both aspects of EARTH ABIDES.

George R. Stewart weaves at once a beautiful and hauntingly believable tale with this novel, one that I've never been able to forget...or wanted to. Once considered dated, with the lessening of global nuclear tensions, the scenario Mr. Stewart envisions for a possible worldwide catastrophe, one brought about not by bombs but disease, has once again come to the forefront and become the most plausible ingredient in mankind's demise. More even than the fact that this is a truly enjoyable read is the deeper message Earth Abides shares with the reader as it reaches down and touches our very hearts, defining what it means to be human in an inhuman environment. The symbolism involved in Isherwood Williams' desire to keep a hammer with him for the future as a tie to the past is obviously an unconscious comment on his personal hope of rebuilding a fallen civilization. A hope that goes unfulfilled in his life time and maybe many lifetimes to follow. The insight into the human psyche that Mr. Stewart demonstates as he carries Isherwood from his youth at the beginning of the book to old age and finally death at the end and Isherwood's subtle change of attitude during that process, rings exceedingly true and speaks volumes about Mr. Stewart's keen and perhaps unique ability to put into words what it really means, or at least should mean, to be human. I've rarely read a book more than once because I just don't have the time, but I've read Earth Abides several times since I was a teen and I know I'll read it several more times before I too reach that stage in my life that Isherwood assures us won't be the calamity our youth oriented culture would have us to believe.

First published in 1949, this novel won the 1951 International Fantasy Award in Fiction (the first one awarded) even though this is not a true fantasy novel. The International Fantasy Awards were originated by four British science fiction and fantasy fans (Leslie Flood, John Beynon Harris, G. Ken Chapman, and Frank A. Cooper) for the 1951 British science fiction convention. The awards lasted between 1951 and 1957. George R. Stewart (1895-1980) was a Professor of English at the University of California in Berkeley. This well-read novel is about life after a plague has killed all but a few people on Earth. Isherwood Williams, a graduate student in geography, returns from a trip to the mountains to find everyone dead. He travels throughout the land and finds a female survivor. They settle down in the Bay Area around San Francisco and a small community grows around them. As time goes by, Isherwood tries to teach the children reading and the knowledge of the past. As the decades go by, he discovers that he is the only one who recalls the greatness of the past. Humans have become a band of hunter-gatherers. History has come full circle. "...men go and come, but earth abides." Carl Sandburg considered it one of the best novels of its time. It is regarded by many as a masterpiece and was a precursor for many later disaster novels (note that one of the voters of the International Fantasy Award was J. B. Harris, whose pseudonym was John Wyndham and author of another classic disaster novel, "The Day of the Triffids." One of the earlier reviewers suggested that Wyndham was a better disaster writer. But, "Triffids" came out in 1951, and Wyndham still chose "Earth Abides."). The name "Isherwood" is a direct reference to Ishi, the last surviving member of a California Indian tribe who was brought to the University by Kroeber of the Anthropology Department (many science fiction enthusiasts are very familiar with Kroeber's daughter, Ursula K. Le Guin). Ishi is still quite famous in the study of native American cultures. This book has had such an impact in the development of the science fiction genre that it is now required reading for all serious students of science fiction and speculative literature.

I have used The Pioneers Go West as a literature set in my 5th grade classroom for two years now and will continue to do so. The students like the realism and adventure of the story. It was also a good supplement to our study of the Westward Movement. I recommend it to any teacher or student of history!