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OT: Book recommendations early settlers, westward US expansion, trapping, etc.

JMORC2003

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Dec 22, 2008
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In the spirit of the season, I’ve been interested lately in the stories of early American settlers and Westward expansion of America. I’m reading Undaunted Courage, but looking for more books, movies, documentaries about the time period, trapping and the mountain men, pioneers and explorers of that era. Anything good??
 
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There is a book about Lewis and Clark that was supposed to be great. My brother recommended it to me but I never got around to reading it.

I will call him and get the title.
 
In the spirit of the season, I’ve been interested lately in the stories of early American settlers and Westward expansion of America. I’m reading Undaunted Courage, but looking for more books, movies, documentaries about the time period, trapping and the mountain men, pioneers and explorers of that era. Anything good??
Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose
 
In the spirit of the season, I’ve been interested lately in the stories of early American settlers and Westward expansion of America. I’m reading Undaunted Courage, but looking for more books, movies, documentaries about the time period, trapping and the mountain men, pioneers and explorers of that era. Anything good??
Sorry I just went back and read your entire opening post
 
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Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose

Did anyone else take History of the Cold War taught by Ambrose when he was a visiting scholar at RU? He was here because of our oral history program.
 
Did anyone else take History of the Cold War taught by Ambrose when he was a visiting scholar at RU? He was here because of our oral history program.
What year. I took a mini course — history of the Cold War that was fantastic around 1984-1985.
 
Thanks all. This is a good list. I’m working my way through undaunted courage, but it’s pretty dense, especially in the early going. I find this stuff fascinating though.
 
A bit of the flipside story of western expansion, but Black Elk Speaks by John Neihardt.
 
Ordeal by Hunger - about the Donner Party. When people hear Donner Party they immediately think " cannibalism" but that was barely a footnote in the actual story. About a month ago the wife and I took a 2,000 mi road trip from Oregon to CA and NV and back. We visited the Donner Party State Park near Truckee CA right outside Tahoe where most of the 80+ settlers wintered in 1846-47 stuck in 20 ft of snow. What's amazing is we visited at the same time of year (early-mid Oct) and it was 80 degrees at 5,000 ft.
Anyway, great book about amazing courage and determination.
 
"Nothing Like it in the World" also by Ambrose. About the building of the transcontinental railroad.
 
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I am in the middle of reading “The Pioneers” and it is excellent!
Have also read the Ambrose book on Lewis and Clark which I also recommend.
Besides the book Boone already mentioned, John Faragher also wrote a book on Boone with the intelligent title of “Daniel Boone”. 😀
While a little dry, it provided me so much new info on Boone I never knew, both good and bad.
For those of us at a certain age, forget all about Fess Parker portrayal.
 
looking up some historical fiction in this area.. I have come across

The Crossing by Winston Churchill (no, not THAT Winston Chruchhill).. it is old enough to be public (aka free on kindles etc). People writing at turn of the century lived a lot closer to the land than we do today.. so may not be as descriptive of certain aspects of the pioneer life as they may assume certain knowledge of their readers.

Reminds me of one of my favorite TV show lines from a show that went one season.. NBC's "Surface" (some time ago). Female lead asks the guy if he has a knife. He answers, "I'm wearing pants, ain't i?"
 
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