This book and it's companion Mountain Directory East are valuable publications to have handy as you travel by RV throughout the USA. They provide the elevation, the % of inclines, the length of the inclline, hidden curves, speed and so much more. Referring to these guides before a mountain pass helps prepare you for the amount of brake usage that will be necessary to reach the bottom safely. Richard has done a great job of researching the varied terrain, referring to the pass information can provide a significant peace of mind to all RV Getaways.

Mountain Directory West was invaluable to me when plotting a course through 17 states from Georgia to Washington State and back again. Another silver haired grandmother and I traveled in my new 31 ft motorhome through mountains of S. Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington, the Oregon and California coasts, Arizona and New Mexico. By knowing what was ahead on our route, we were able to cool our engine and brakes before ascending or descending a particular stretch of highway, and never experienced a moment's trouble.

I highly recommend Mountain Directory West for any RV/Motorhome driver who is planning a trip over any US mountain range west of the Mississippi. The companion Mountain Directory East serves the same purpose for those traveling east of the Mississippi.

The book interested me initially because it was about McClures written by a McClure. I was quite amazed at how closely it resembled my own McClure family's saga. I would very much like to discuss it with the author if she reads these reviews.

My mom is a avid reader and has read the series. She will probably read them again, |But she has a question about the quilt that hangs in Indiana. She would like to see it. Could you tell me where it is at. She is a quilter still at 86. Thank you Ann Bingham

Atkeson & Ross capture the beauty of this state in their photography and words. I lived in Oregon 20 years ago and every time I look through the pictures in this book, I'm reminded of its beauty. I never get tired of looking at these photos. The book is split up into several sections: The Oregon Coast (which in itself is a rare treasure), the Columbia River, the Western Valleys (including Salem & Portland), the Cascades (including a couple shots of Crater Lake), and Central Oregon.

While the only true way to view Oregon's beauty is to visit, this book gives an excellent idea of what it's like to live there. Atkeson has some truly marvelous and at times breathtaking pictures contained in this book.

Oregon III is a gorgeous display of the Oregon coast, waterfalls, fast flowing creeks, brooks,rain and mist. The photographer has sumputuously captured the essence of Oregon: her unending supply of known and hidden bodies of water are a wondrous thing that can be found throughout this stunning state, vividly presented in this outstanding volume. The Pacific Ocean is detailed in all its grandeur of cliffs, jutting rocks, and chilling waters. The undulating coastal beaches offer thousands of rich greens, cool, damp browns, ocean blues and whitecap whites in unending discoveries that take the travelor's breath away at every bend in the road, every view to be found. When a travelor heads inland from the coast, there is the Oregon coastal range to meander through. Off the beaten path are "lost" creeks and water falls that tumble along as they have for thousands of years, all but forgotten unless the travelor stops and walks through the trees, sometimes only a few feet from the highway. Here one may find rich mosses embracing the rocks and boulders, pebbles, and fallen trees that border on a creek hurrying somewhere, laughing with the breezes. So enchanting, one might expect to see fairies or other mystical creatures presiding over a lost kingdom. The photography and text invites the reader to imagine these enticing treasures with deserved pride. The creators of this book take you to the Cascade Range. Don't be surprised to find deep crevices with water trickling from above. If you decide to to traverse such a crevice be wary of the freezing waters that occupy these fissures. The rocks and boulders will be slippery with wet algae or the thousands of years of being splashed on from the falling waters. The coolness will invigorate you as you find yourself succumbing to the pleasure these photographs provide for you. The photography and beautifully written text will take you away momentarily, but you won't find any real satisfaction until you've experienced the reality which is Oregon. When you view this book, you'll know you've had an overwhelming experience, and everytime you open its cover you'll feel Oregon calling, calling. calling..............

Long before such books as "The Enlightened Mind" hit the shelf, this anthology was languishing in obscurity. It has some excellent material from Ramana Maharshi, Francis Thompson, and Richard Rose, among others.

The marvelous thing about this book is that it combines in one volume the highest mystical teachings from several, seemingly disparate religious and metaphysical traditions. And yet while the spiritual "language" and paradigms of each tradition are different, they all point to the same path, that of "dying to the self", from non-attachment to the ego towards realization of the One Eternal Essence. "Profound Writings" contains poetic descriptions of the ego-death (Francis Thompson and Richard Rose), teachings and methods of practice (Ramana Maharshi and Hui-Neng), and precepts (Tibetan teachings, the Upanishads, and Franz Hartmann). There is also a brain-teasing chapter entitled "The Lecture of Questions", formulated by Richard Rose, founder of the TAT Foundation, under whose auspices this book was published. There is so much wisdom to be fathomed in "Profound Writings" that it will provide the spiritual seeker a source of inspiration for meditative and contemplative practice, as well as spiritual guidance, for many years to come.

This is a great book that everyone of all ages should read! (No heavy duty reading, but great photos and descriptive text.) An article about racial issues in a parents' magazine prompted me to find this book, because it -is- possible for children of multi-racial backgrounds to grow up harmoniously together! I grew up in Hawaii with friends of all colors, lived on both coasts of the mainland (Continental U.S.), returned to Hawaii, and realized that while growing up, we rarely had to deal with serious racial issues. As Mr. Fassler and Mr. Frank DeLima so eloquently state in the text and foreword, as kids we acknowledged our differences, likenesses, and even poked fun at each other and ourselves (thanks to wonderful comedians like Mr. DeLima!). We were still able to live side-by-side with each other -- probably from an ingrained attitude that when one lives on an island, you have to get along to survive! There is hope! Aloha and Mahalo for a great book that aptly illustrates this!

The title of this book truly describes Hawaii's children. In no other place in the world will you find the mixtures of races as you do in Hawaii. This book, utilizing pictures of children, show the rest of the world the racial harmony does exist. The pictures of the "golden children", where east meets west, are beautiful and enchanting. Being a "local" made me homesick but also very proud of my heritage as one of these kids. Copies of this book should be placed in school and public libraries across the country as a testimonial that a multi-racial society can and does exist in beautiful Hawaii. Aloha and Mahalo to Mr Fassler who did a wonderful job.

If you truly want to understand American culture this book is essential. It's erudite, detailed, patient, yet lively, examination of the themes of early American life and literature are revelatory. I have no doubt it will become a "classic" of American scholarship.

Slotkin analyzes the popular texts of early American life--"capitivity narratives" of women abducted by Native Americans, dime novels, etc.--to show how early Americans came to rationalize the gap between their religious ideology and the reality of the wilderness they were meant to transform into the "city on the hill." His careful study of the documents seems almost academic at first, and is sometimes rough going, but when I let his argument sink in (as a student in Slotkin's undergraduate class which used this book as its text), it profoundly and permanently transformed the way I saw American culture and history. This book is revelatory for anyone interested in "American Studies," the creation of our national mythology, and in what makes America America.

Roadside History of Nevada is part of a growing series of books on roadside history published by Mountain Press. To date there are roadside histories available for sixteen states and Yellowstone Park. These books will make valuable traveling companions any time you take a trip and have time to enjoy the historical or geological sites along the way.

The Roadside History of Nevada is a well-written and interesting book. Moreno spends the first chapter reviewing the history of Nevada from its geologic and human prehistory through recorded history to the present time. He then uses the rest of the book to discuss the various roadways and the Nevada towns that were and are inhabited. The book is organized, logically, along the roadways and is divided into six chapters: Interstate 80 (The Emigrant Trail), Reno and the Lake Tahoe Area, US 50 (The Loneliest Road in America), US 95 and US 6 (The Silver Trails), US 93 (The Mormon Trail), and The Las Vegas Area. Within each section, discussion proceeds along the lines of the main highways and the other highways and byways that connect with them. A map of the roads precedes each chapter, but be careful of the Highway 50 map (page 118). It has the highway going into Idaho, not Utah! The book includes 140 photographs which include buildings still standing, ruins of buildings, and pictographs from the earliest humans in the area. There is also a selected bibliography and an excellent index which includes areas, events and people.

If you ever wanted to know how a place got its name or why it was settled, then this is the book for you. This book isn't just about places; it is also about the people who populated them. As I read this book, I found myself wishing that I had had it along on the many trips I have taken through Nevada. As I finished each section of the book, I was ready to get into the car and go exploring the places that Moreno discusses.

Who should read this book? Anyone who has an interest in Nevada and/or western history in general. And anyone who enjoys seeing where history was made. Academic and public librarians will find this book, as well as the series, a good addition to their collections, either as historical information or for description and travel information.

If you find this book interesting, I would recommend other books Richard Moreno has written on outings a person can take throughout Nevada: The Backyard Traveler and The Backyard Traveler Returns. Also consider other books in the Roadside History... and Roadside Geology... series, depending on where your travels take you. The geology series includes twenty-three titles. Unfortunately at the present time Nevada doesn't have the companion roadside geology book, but since Nevada has mining as a major part of its history, it is possible that Roadside History of Nevada and the book Geology Underfoot in Central Nevada can fill the gap for now.

Rich Moreno is one of the most talented travel writers in the West. His knowledge of Nevada's farthest reaches and the unusual history of each place may be unmatched. In "Roadside History of Nevada," Moreno captures what's best of Nevada, and shows his talents off in a remarkable way.

In "Sugar and Slaves," Richard Dunn shows not only the brutality of the West Indies slave trade that revolved around sugar, but also how slave owners "created a society...radically different from the one they left at home." He notes that while these planters brought with them to the islands their laws, church and social institutions, these settlers early on "developed their own lifestyle...bent by their eager embrace of African slavery." (46) Dunn persuasively argues that European planters who came to the West Indies traveled literally and figuratively "beyond the line" of normal, British social conventions, and created a world in which "everything goes," particularly the exploitation of slaves and natives in the creation of a dominant master class. These rapacious men, he argues, quickly adapted to harsh climatic conditions by abandoning the use of lower class but white indentured servants in favor of exploitable, controllable Negroes once the sugar boom created a demand. "The rape's progress was fatally easy," Dunn notes: "from exploiting the English poor to abusing colonial bondservants to ensnaring kidnaps and convicts to enslaving black Africans." (73) Unlike his Chesapeake or Lowcountry counterpart, the West Indies sugar lord produced nothing but his staple crop, and relied instead on imports for all other necessities. "In short, the English sugar planter was more strictly a businessman than the senhor de engenho of Brazil." (65) This was a marked difference from other English settlement and colonization patterns, which Dunn concludes is evidence of the atypical class of planter the Caribbean islands fashioned.

Richard S. Dunn examines the British colonialization of the West Indies. Dunn considers numerous colonies, but Barbados takes early preeminence. Dunn discusses the adventurers of the first twenty years, mostly small-scale farmers; the cavalier-planters of the 1640s and '50s, Royalist exiles who fled the English Civil War; and the slaves who became a majority of the population in the period Dunn considers.

Dunn offers a detailed contrast between the lives of the planter elite and the enslaved majority. This is a landmark work in the history of plantation agriculture in the West Indies.

The work should also interest readers of Southern history. Dunn compares the rise of a cavalier elite in Barbados to the same development in Virginia. Planters from the West Indies, especially Barbados, dominated the early years of the colony of (South) Carolina.

Other works on this period of West Indian history are Richard Sheridan's Sugar and Slavery and Gary Puckrein's Little England. Works by Hilary Beckles examine the lives of women and Blacks in this period of West Indian history.

This account of one of the most fascinating eras and places in Old West history thrills the reader more than fiction could possibly do. I read this book as a kid and it remains one of my all time favorites. (Studying the Old West is my hobby, and I teach high school history.) The characters Mr. Langford presents from his own observations are more colorful than any invented by Zane Gray, for example. I'm surprised that no feature film has be made on Henry Plummer. His duel role as sheriff and bad man has been depicted several times stereotypically in Western movies, but no actual account of his life in the early gold-rush towns of western Montana has yet been done. Dimsdale's "The Vigilantes of Montana" is the most well-known primary source of vigilante action in Montana, but his was written much later after the fact. Mr. Langford's book came fresh from his memory of his own participation in the dealings of vigilante justice to "clean up" the commonplace violence in old Virginia City and Bannock, Montana.

If you want to read about the rise and demise Henry Plummer and his band of cutthroats, this is the best book I can recommend to you. Langford was the executive secretary of the Virginia City MT vigilence committee and he "tells it like it was". This book's dust jacket says in effect the book's victorian prose is worth wading through to hear a stirring first person account of the MT vigilante's activity - and that comment is nonsense. Langford's tale may ramble on occasion and his prose may be stilted on occasion. However, you will probably feel your sphincter tighten as the good guys start kicking dry goods boxes out from under cutthroats who, unlike today's criminals, knew justice was being served with dispatch. It's history, but a moving story told like no one else could.

Richard Dillons book was helpful since generally people dont need a key word and it is quite useful to look up by author or subject because generally people are looking for an author or a subject and not just one word... this was an extremely helpful book.

I was in need of a book with western quotations for a report and Richard DIllon had any quote that I could ever want about the west! Mr. Dillon is an amazing writer as I found out when I read his other book, Arizonas Amazing Towns. What a wonderful author