Book Description
For nearly two decades Western governments and a growing activist community have been frustrated in their attempts to bring about a freer and more democratic Burma—through sanctions and tourist boycotts—only to see an apparent slide toward even harsher dictatorship. But what do we really know about Burma and its history? And what can Burma’s past tell us about the present and even its future?
In The River of Lost Footsteps, Thant Myint-U tells the story of modern Burma, in part through a telling of his own family’s history, in an interwoven narrative that is by turns lyrical, dramatic, and appalling. His maternal grandfather, U Thant, rose from being the schoolmaster of a small town in the Irrawaddy Delta to become the UN secretary-general in the 1960s. And on his father’s side, the author is descended from a long line of courtiers who served at Burma’s Court of Ava for nearly two centuries. Through their stories and others, he portrays Burma’s rise and decline in the modern world, from the time of Portuguese pirates and renegade Mughal princes through the decades of British colonialism, the devastation of World War II, and a sixty-year civil war that continues today and is the longest-running war anywhere in the world.
The River of Lost Footsteps is a work both personal and global, a distinctive contribution that makes Burma accessible and enthralling.
Customer Reviews:
A brilliant eye opener.......2007-07-25
The message of this book is that there is much more to Burma(Myanmar) than one reads in the newspapers, there is more than the military dictatorship and the cause of 'human rights'. The message is that there is much we can learn about Burma from her history and that the present state of siege is one that ignores her illustrious and rich past.
The past is indeed illustrious. It is made up of Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. Of a number of terrifying wars against England and colonialism. It is made up of powerful kings and rebels and Mughals and Portuguese pirates and Armenian businessman. It is about an exotic kingdom long connected with the world but also partially cut off from it, one that became Buddhist early on and has fought many wars against China and Thailand.
The author is the son of a famous Burmese family whose fortunes included being head of the U.N. and he has an intimate knowledge of not only the history but also the culture, clothing, architecture, smells and whereabouts of the subject he discusses. He weaves himself into the story as well, describing visits to ruined cities and an experience as a young man going to Thailand to protest for Democracy in his homeland.
A very important account and one of the few modern histories of Burma written in the last twenty years, it adds a great deal to an understanding of current Burmese politics and why many have been wrong to judge her for her actions without learning anything about her.
Seth J. Frantzman
A Comprehensive Look At Burma's Situation.......2007-07-08
We Americans tend to forget or ignore the fact that there are deep seeded historical reasons why governments in other countries take certain positions that seem to be inappropriate. Such is the case with Burma, and the xenophobic, anti-democratic actions of its military government. Fortunately, Thant Myint-U has provided a basis for understanding the situation in Burma through his wonderful book, The River of Lost Footsteps.
Thant shows that Burma's current state is mostly the result of its very long history of negative interactions with other countries. He discusses how occupations by the Chinese, British, Japanese, and others have led to a mistrust of foreigners. This mistrust has morphed into a sense of nationalistic self-reliance, in part from several examples (augmented by nostalgia) where a strong Burmese leader has successfully led the country. Thant then discusses how the radical changes that have occurred in Burma over the last 150 years have left the country without a governing class capable of managing it. Given these factors, it's no surprise that the one governmental unit with strong structure, the military, is running the country.
Considering all the care that Thant took to show how Burma came to its current state of affairs, it was a little disappointing to see that he rushed through his conclusions. Beyond saying that the existing international response of economic sanctions won't work, he provides little in the way of possible answers as to how Burma can be integrated into the international community. That response comes across as a little too vague and diplomatic for someone who clearly understands the reasons behind Burma's present circumstances. Still, The River of Lost Footsteps is an important starting point for persons interested in comprehending Burma's situation and developing a policy for addressing its position.
Obligatory read for anyone interested in Burma politics.......2007-05-09
Thant Myint-U tells the story of how Burma became the "poisoned Shangri-la", possibly the second weirdest country after North Korea. At first sight, Burma is a battle between the evil dictature and Aung San Suu Kyi. But Thant Myint-U gives us an infinitely more complicated picture, from thousands of years ago until the present day, with a civil was that has lasted for 60 years. The state-building suffered severely both when the british conquered Burma in 1885, as well as they were thrown out in 1948. But the book is more than just a story lesson. He has a clear message: Boycott is perhaps an easy answer to what to do with the country. Too easy. The dictature is extremely xenophobic, and avoids any influence from outside the country. They would not mind any boycott. Instead one should delicately try to interact more with the country. Thant Myint-U gives no easy fix, but a very sober and well-written overview. I have one minor remark: The map provided in the book should be more informative, many places mentioned in the text are not included.
Must have for anyone interested in modern burma.......2007-03-04
Best writing on modern Burmese politics yet to appear, should be read by all the ostriches with their heads in the sand who believe that sanctions, boycotts, embargoes and the like will have any effect on the junta.
Sanctions that target an entire country, rather than its leaders, are at best ignorantly undertaken and ultimately unethical.
Good read for beginners on Burma.......2007-01-27
This is a great introduction to Burma and its history. It is well written, clear, and sometimes funny. Furthermore, it is not too detailed for novices.
The author's main point is a good one. Discussion of Burma tends to be largely ahistorical. Few consider Burma's history when deciding policy. I wouldn't exactly consider US senators to have this level of sophistication, but it seems that somebody should, especially lobbyists. Through history, the author shows Burma as having been often isolated and torn, with little institutional capacity to govern after the British took over.
I thought the last few pages were a bit glib and not well argued. I disagree with current US policy of isolation, but the author loses his depth of understanding and seems to label the Burma lobby in the same brush as the government of Burma. The truth is, sanctions probably have relatively little effect on Burma. If the author has shown anything, it is the extent to which Burma's government isolates itself from international norms and pressure. While perhaps more aid money and business would go into the country without sanctions, much of it would not go in anyway because of the government's pervasive mismanagement and corruption (Global Fund pulled out because of misuse of its funds; Red Cross was recently expelled).
Despite these last few pages, the book is overall a great read for novices and long-time Burma watchers.
Book Description
William Alexander had a simple dream of having a vegetable garden and small orchard in his backyard. It was a dream that would lead to life-and-death battles with groundhogs, webworms, and weeds; midnight expeditions in the dead of winter to dig up fresh thyme; skirmishes with neighbors who feed the vermin (i.e., deer); the near electrocution of the tree man; and the pity of his wife and children.
When Alexander decided to run a cost-benefit analysis, adding up everything from the Havahart animal trap ($60) to the Velcro tomato wraps ($5) to the steel edging ($1,200), then amortizing it over the life of his garden, it came as quite a shock to learn that it cost him a staggering $64 to grow each tomato.
A gardener with an existential bent, Alexander gives excellent advice about everything from peaches to leeks, while tackling such questions as What do our gardens tell us about ourselves? Do we get the gardens we deserve? And why does the groundhog have to take one bite from half a dozen tomatoes when any gardener would gladly grant him six bites of just one?
Customer Reviews:
Great book gift for green thumbs (and brown thumbs).......2007-08-09
I HATE gardening, but thoroughly enjoyed reading Alexander's odyssey of his quest to build his dream garden. Very funny account of epic battles with weeds, rodents, and bugs as he tries to prevent his little "hobby" from ruining his life. Your gardening friends will love this book (and non-gardeners will too!)
A tasty little story.......2007-08-02
His wife's insistence on an old fixer-upper of a house means the author can have the garden, orchard, and even meadow he's always dreamed. Once the house is livable--and everyone in town knows it has to be repaired to be livable--the owners start on the grounds. Landscape contractors, who are always late and leave their backhoe to winter in the author's yard, promise a garden to be proud of--and then bring plans for some very ordinary rectangles.
Not to be daunted, Alexander picks heirloom plants to grow his produce. He is determined to have the same fruit and experiences he remembers from his father's gardening. Organic gardening should be easy when he has only four trees and a small garden. He can pluck off the hungry worms and organically protect his crops from predators of all types.
After learning how much time is involved in using the organic bug sprays--first you find the caterpillar, then you spray him--how much it costs to put in something other than grass walkways, and that some animals are not deterred by six thousand volts, he gets down to serious gardening.
His wife and children begin to question his sanity. His plants don't always grow the way he expected. Who knew growing roses would kill the corn? Sitting down to calculate the cost of his succulent heirloom tomatoes gives him a jolt he thought he'd only get from his electric fence. Did his dad really do it this way? Had he been hoodwinked about how much fun this all was? When did the hobby become a second job?
You needn't be a gardener to enjoy the humor in this book. The history of tomatoes and potatoes, and insights on the Anasazi Indians thrown in with ridding the garden of Superchuck, the groundhog, is true fun for the reading. Cultivated entertainment.
Armchair Interview says: Humor and hoeing, planting and waiting, bugs and bug sprays flow together to give you an enjoyable read.
Enjoyable memoir of a man and his garden.......2007-07-26
I am by no means a gardening expert, more of a beginner, but I enjoyed this memoir of one man's obsession with and relationship with his garden. I found it informative and funny. I took as much what not to do, as what to do, from the book. I mean, you can see the excessiveness of his spending and learn from it as much as you can learn from the ways he fights pests on his fruit trees. I read books like this for inspiration and I was inspired by his mistakes and successes. All in all it was an enjoyable light read.
For the Gardening Obsessed.......2007-07-26
This book speaks to every obsessed gardener in America. The majority of the public, however, won't get it. They put in a few pansies, water them when they think of it and go on with their lives. But a few of us have an insatiable drive to work the soil, wage a constant war with the elements and beat off ravaging beasts just so we can be overwhelmed with too much produce.
Our neighbors think we're nuts--why would someone put themselves through all that labor and expense to get something they could buy at the corner market for $0.85 a pound? (Yeah, well I don't get the mountain climbing thing either.)
I like Alexander's writing--it was cute and witty and perfectly illustrated a man trying to work in his career, family and home improvement projects around his gardening obsession. All 2,000 square feet of it.
Although organic gardeners will be disgusted with how often Alexander reaches for the spray can, most will be able to relate to his journey.
A really cute read but I can't review the recipes as I didn't try them out yet.
As an animal lover..........2007-06-28
... I too was distressed by the chapters where the authors obsession defies his place at the top of the food chain and his "logical" abilities. When the local fauna decide that his exorbitantly expensive garden is the local salad bar, he goes on the war path and attempts to destroy everything alive that is not a plant.
While this is somewhat disheartening, it is also illuminating. I place this book alongside ElectroBoy on my bookshelf, and alongside The Omnivore's Dilemma, because it makes such a natural segue between the two.
William Alexander is truly obsessed with his garden. What ought to be a nice, pleasant way to pass time and to get some exercise and food turns into a dangerous obsession, resulting in damage to his finances, his health, his psyche, and his marriage.
It is amusing, in parts, however.
Read it, if only to see what lengths people will go to in order to save their hobby. It is an interesting study, really. Probably not a book I will read again, but it is one that I will think of from time to time.
Harkius
Amazon.com
A stunning architectural tour of 28 abandoned estates that loom as mysterious ruins along the Hudson River between New York City and Albany. Many of the now-faded mansions were designed by Stanford White, the premier architect of New York's gilded age, and were owned by such illustrious families as the Vanderbilts, Astors, and Whitneys. The author's evocative, sepia-tinted photos capture the architectural splendor of these once luxurious homes, as well as the ravages of time, from the houses' crumbling turrets and spires, porticos, columns, gargoyles, and weed-choked courtyards and gazebos, to their interior vaulted ceilings, spacious ballrooms, and huge, empty libraries. Paired with ghost stories and legends about the estates, this book is a haunting reminder of a bygone era and lifestyle.
Book Description
Monica RandallÂ's evocative sepia-tinted photographs capture the architectural splendor of twenty-eight palatial estates—some of them truly castles—that loom as mysterious ruins along the Hudson River. Pairing the visual spectacle of these magnificent ruins of the Hudson with the tales of the ghosts that are said to haunt them, Phantoms of the Hudson Valley celebrates the glamour and mystery of these glorious old estates.
Customer Reviews:
If Only. . ........2006-12-28
I bought this book with much hope and many expectations--having visited soem of the sites personally, I was disappointed in the photographic coverage and the writing. If someone is going to be buy this book in hopes of using it as a reference volume, then pass it by. It serves more as a personal portfolio for Ms. Randall to pose in old costumes, and share some tales in reference to the places she mentions. I found the photos of Wyndcliffe quite compelling, but having photographed it many times now over the last 12 years, I realize what is missing more than anything else.
Don't get me wrong, it's a fine book, for what it is--an amusement for someone not looking for a lot of depth or knowledge on a wonderful subject.
Pretty good, but certainly not great........2006-01-15
Monica Randall is a good writer covering a great subject. I don't need her standing in as a model/ghost in various pictures. The subject is fascinating enough unto itself. Stop with the extra whipped cream on my ecliar!
A massive disappointment.......2005-07-29
If ever there was truth in the saying that a book shouldn't be judged by its cover, it's here. The book cover and the sales info might lead you to expect atmospheric photographic impressions of ruined estates on the banks of the Hudson. Well, that is definitely NOT what you are getting. Wyndcliff, seen on the cover picture, is one of only a very few true "phantoms" represented in this book - most of the houses documented are, on the contrary, in excellent repair and often even open to the public. The "phantom" part seems mainly to refer to the ghosts featuring in the accompanying texts (and, indeed, in several of the photographs - transparant ladies in elaborate ballgowns floating down stairways, that kind of thing). The texts as such are illuminating and have a certain charm, but clearly this book wants to be a photobook first and foremost, and in that respect it is massively disappointing. Just type "Wyndcliff" or "Bannerman's Castle" in your browser and the web will turn up many more pictures of these places than are seen in this book, many that are way more atmospheric than those on offer here, and all for free. Haunting impressions do not depend on sepia tones, unsharpness, and fish-eye lenses (Randall's love of the latter is truly worrying...), let alone Photoshopped apparitions. In fact, what this book basically gives you are unclear, artificially "spooked up" images, of houses that are seen to much better advantage in several other books - mostly ones that are far less expensive, too, than this exorbitantly overpriced publication.
A Wonderful Read!!.......2005-02-17
A very nostalgic and melancholy look at some incredible estates both standing and demolished. The author chose most of her subjects because of interesting "ghost" stories that accompany them. Photographs are eery and of sometimes unimportant things like statutes, but there are beautiful interior and exterior shots as well. This is an enjoyable book preserving some of these homes for posterity, but it's not really meant for anyone interested in architecture. There are no floor plans or detailed descriptions of the architectural elements. This book is just meant to be enjoyed.
Welcome book on a rarely treated topic.......2004-07-12
This volume is dedicated to a subject that, to this day, continues to be underserved by photographers and writers. The reasons for that aren't close to clear. The compelling images and folklore are there. Anyway, I accept this book -a cynic might say charitably- in a spirit that factors in the scarcity of material on the topic.
I was not convinced by some of the staged-looking "ghost" photos. I didn't think the subject required any such reaching. Without this spook show punching-up, the books images of stately homes, long abandoned and encroached upon by the elements (one completely engulfed, with the waters of the Hudson right up to its foundation) is legitimately the stuff of dreams --or nightmares. But a gaffe or two doesn't come close to destroying the experience. If you want to like the book, I think you will have no trouble doing so.
If you have heard of these ruins, but never seen anything more than perhaps an extended magazine article on them, I feel sure you'll enjoy this book. In my opinion, the photography isn't nearly as bad as another reviewer suggests.
Amazon.com
A century ago the place where the Columbia River flows into the Pacific Ocean was a violent cauldron of churning water, all but unnavigable. But the mighty river was tamed by the building of a series of dams, including the colossal Grand Coulee, to provide cheap hydroelectric power and irrigation water. Farms bloomed in the desert; nuclear reactors mushroomed on the river bank. Today barges ply the river, and Lewiston, Idaho, is an inland port. But the negative aspects of human impact are also apparent--the depletion of salmon stocks and the destruction of Native American cultures dependent on the salmon. Washington Post journalist Harden, a Northwest native, returns to examine the changes man has wrought. Harden's enthralling account is balanced and thorough.
Book Description
After a two-decade absence, Washington Post journalist Blaine Harden returned to his small-town birthplace in the Pacific Northwest to follow the rise and fall of the West's most thoroughly conquered river. Harden's hometown, Moses Lake, Washington, could not have existed without massive irrigation schemes. His father, a Depression migrant trained as a welder, helped build dams and later worked at the secret Hanford plutonium plant. Now he and his neighbors, once considered patriots, stand accused of killing the river. As Blaine Harden traveled the Columbia--by barge, car, and sometimes on foot--his past seemed both foreign and familiar. A personal narrative of rediscovery joined a narrative of exploitation: of Native Americans, of endangered salmon, of nuclear waste, and of a once-wild river now tamed to puddled remains. Part history, part memoir, part lament, "this is a brave and precise book," according to the New York Times Book Review. "It must not have been easy for Blaine Harden to find himself turning his journalistic weapons against his own heritage, but he has done the conscience of his homeland a great service."
Customer Reviews:
The River Doesn't Run Through It Anymore.......2005-03-17
This journalistic narrative, written when Blain Harden returned to his Columbia River Basin hometown during a mid-1990s sabbatical from the Washington Post, summarizes the history of the massive U.S. Government funded hydroelectric, irrigation and nuclear energy development of the Columbia River system in eastern Washington and adjacent parts of Idaho and Oregon. Harden's approach is a well crafted, articulate chronology of events interspersed among interviews with then-still-living civil engineers and workers who built the dams (including the author's father), self-described redneck barge crews, American Indians, irrigator farmers, nuclear engineers, supposed "downwind" victims of nuclear engineers, wildlife management officials and environmental activists. Oddly, he never interviews any significant politician, and he describes the actions of civil service engineers and bureaucrats as if they built this multi-billion dollar project over forty years on their own fanatic authority, sort of like renegade CIA agents supposedly taking over a jungle-clad third world country without anyone telling them to.
The gist of A River Lost is that beginning in 1933 and ending in the 1970s, Federal and quasi-Federal agencies, acting under the direction of six presidents, converted one of the world's largest and wildest rivers into an all-but-completely tamed series of lakes behind hydroelectric dams. The result is a massive amount of inexpensive electricity, irrigation for more than 500,000 acres of farmland, an economical means to transport commodities from an interior desert toward Asian markets and, totally unplanned by its originators, a means to produce plutonium for atomic bombs that ended World War II and armed the U.S. in the Cold War. The most negative side effect was the virtual destruction of the Columbia's unimaginably immense migrating salmon population along with a traumatically negative impact on remnant groups of American Indians dependent on the salmon for sustenance and culture.
Harden makes a pretty good case that farmers and industries who benefited from the Columbia River industrialization only repaid a small fraction of the cost, Indians were not consulted, respected or compensated, billions of dollars were lost on an ill-conceived nuclear power project and there's been a lot of environmental damage, primarily to salmon and other fish populations, as well as possible damage to human health. As unpleasant as it may be for some of the "bad guys" in this saga to acknowledge I think the basic story is accurate. But as for Harden's exposé of unfairness, corruption, self dealing and unforeseen or unconsidered negative impacts... and from a government program!... how shocking!
Well, not really. A similar narrative could be constructed about virtually every large-scale government economic development and social engineering project since the 1930s: other river development schemes, so-called urban renewal, interstate highways, War on Poverty, public education system, etc., etc., etc. All of those programs have winners, losers and, typically, unintended, unacknowledged or uncompensated environmental, health or social costs. Such is the nature of government programs, but nobody seems able to resist them.
To me the most interesting aspect of this book is how Harden characterizes, or declines to characterize, the political affiliation of key players.
The initial Grande Coulee project and its unthinking destruction of salmon runs and Indian culture in the name of New Deal progress, and later the atomic city at Hanford, all occurred under President Franklin Roosevelt. Harden tells us that after WWII the remainder of the dam building, salmon and Indian destruction, sweetheart deals for farmers, barge operators, electrical utilities, et al, were driven through Congress, no matter who was president, by two powerful Washington senators, Magnuson and Jackson. The two senators were each in office about 40 years, and Harden refers to them ten times, asserting they abetted much sweetheart dealing, environmental damage and so forth. But Harden doesn't identify Roosevelt, Magnuson or Jackson as Democrats.
Then, with all the dams built, all the subsidies enshrined, all the salmon dying and Magnuson and Jackson gone from the scene, an environmentalist-led "Salmon War" heats up in the early 1980s. That's when newly elected Washington Senator Gorton appears in the same paragraph where Harden refers to "evil... political games" and - finally! - Harden fearlessly dares put a name to regressive forces that refuse to right wrongs wrought by half a century of dam, irrigation and atomic energy programs. We learn Senator Gorton is a... a... a... Republican!!!!! And when Gorton reappears in the story Harden tells us once again, in case we missed it, that Gorton is (still!) a Republican.
Things get worse again for salmon because, as Harden tells it, a mean Republican is elected to replace a nice Democrat as governor of neighboring Idaho. Apparently it's no problem, because its unmentioned by Harden, that Democrats almost always governed much larger Washington where most of the salmon's problem is located. Anyway, we learn that although Democrats controlled congress for about 56 of the first 60 years of the Columbia River development things only become hopeless for the fish when, just before Harden completes the book, Republicans take control of Congress in 1994. Did I mention Harden is a Washington Post reporter?
My own postscript is that in the ten years since Harden wrote A River Lost irrigators' fortunes declined as foreign producers undercut even their subsidized costs. The aluminum industry imploded. Communities Harden characterizes as terminally whitebread are increasingly dominated by Mexican immigrants. The Colville Indians who lost prime fishing grounds to Grand Coulee Dam now benefit from its cheap electricity because they own the largest lumber processing mill in Okanogan County as well as three well-lit casinos in the Columbia Basin. And some Eastern Washington counties now spend more on fish habitat restoration than human health care.
A River Lost has excellent sketch maps throughout each section that help place people and events. There are nine pages of footnotes and sources and thirteen pages of index. But as far as I can tell there's no mention to which political party Franklin Roosevelt, the guy who started the whole thing, belonged.
So much good information.......2003-10-10
A full and complete modern history of the Columbia River. At times sad, always intriging. Harden has done an excellent job of combining interviews with research that makes an excellent read.
Highly recommmended.
Wonderful writing. Interesting points of view........2002-04-06
Once in a great while a book comes along that is so beautifully written, with stories so well told, that the subject matter seems secondary to the writer's ability to sustain interest. For me, with little interest in the northwest (I've been there twice), this was such a book. It is from Harden's exceptional skill as a writer and narrator of stories that the Columbia River suddenly became of great interest as I turned his pages.
"A River Lost" tells the story and history of the Columbia River and the environmental, economic and aesthetic impact of daming that river in the first half of the last century. Especially interesting are the stories and points of view of those who work and live on its shores, the fate of the native indians who have lived in the region for hundreds of years and the differences in culture between the Starbucks yuppies west of the Cascades and the blue collar workers so dependant on the water and its billions in federally subsidized benefits to the east.
Highly praised in reviews by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, the Village Voice, The Seattle Times and Publishers Weekly, it is a great read for the information, for the writing, for a piece of American history.
Wonderful writing. Interesting points of view........2002-04-06
Once in a great while a book comes along that is so beautifully written, with stories so well told, that the subject matter seems secondary to the writer's ability to sustain interest. For me, with little interest in the northwest (I've been there twice), this was such a book. It is from Harden's exceptional skill as a writer and narrator of stories that the Columbia River suddenly became of great interest as I turned his pages.
"A River Lost" tells the story and history of the Columbia River and the environmental, economic and aesthetic impact of daming that river in the first half of the last century. Especially interesting are the stories and points of view of those who work and live on its shores, the fate of the native indians who have lived in the region for hundreds of years and the differences in culture between the Starbucks yuppies east of the Cascades and the blue collar workers so dependant on the water and its billions in federally subsidized benefits to the west.
Highly praised in reviews by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, the Village Voice, The Seattle Times and Publishers Weekly, it is a great read for the information, for the writing, for a piece of American history.
An eye opener........2002-03-06
I grew up in the Tri-Cities and spent the first 19 years of my life living just blocks away from the Columbia River and there was a lot of information told in this book that I never knew. Harden does a wonderful job of relating the history of the Columbia River and the effects that the many dams built on the river had on the land, the people, the nation, and the economy. I thoroughly enjoyed his story and felt he handled well the many issues important to preservationists, politicians, and farmers.
I recommend this to anyone who lives in the state of Washington and is interested in man's permanent effects on this land.
Book Description
The fate of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel has fascinated Jews and Christians throughout the ages. Hillel Halkin, a distinguished writer and translator, has long been intrigued by the old legend that the tribes still exist in distant corners of the earth -- a legend that, like nearly all contemporary investigators of the subject, he considered to lack all factual basis. In 1998, he accompanied a Jerusalem rabbi and dedicated Lost Tribes hunter to China, Thailand, and northeast India in search of traces of the biblical Israelites who disappeared in the eighth century B.C.E. The journey ended among a little-known ethnic group living along the India-Burma border who had themselves been swept in recent years by Lost Tribe fever. Halkin returned twice more to the Indian states of Mizoram and Manipur for a deeper look. Gradually, despite his initial skepticism, he became convinced that this remote group is -- incredible as it may seem -- historically linked to the ancient biblical tribe of Manasseh. Across the Sabbath River is the compulsively readable account of Halkin's experiences in arriving at this conviction. A superb writer, he effortlessly interweaves the biblical and historical backgrounds of this centuries-old quest with a captivating account, both funny and poignant, of his own adventures. In vivid, engaging portraits, he introduces us to a wide and memorable range of characters at once alien and familiar, while transporting us to an exotic society obsessed with the enigma of its own identity. Piece by piece, as in a tantalizing detective story, he amasses the evidence that finally persuades him, and will persuade many of his readers, that, for the first time in history, a living remnant of a lost biblical tribe has been found.
Customer Reviews:
How far Can a Wandering Jew wander, if he Could Wander Anywhere.......2007-01-19
Hillel Halkin has done a marvelous job of consolidating the knowledge of a lost people and weeded out myth, superstition and misplaced information.
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DON'T READ PAST HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO FIND OUT THE CONCLUSIONS THAT HALKIN CAME TO IN THE END.
On a trip to NorthEast India, Halkin was bit by the "Lost Tribe" bug that has had Jews looking all over the world for the northern tribes of Israel who were exiled by Assyrian Empire in the 7th century b.c.e. Where did they go? Based on this study by Hillel, part of the tribe of Manasseh migrated across central asia, past Tibet and into the Burma/India border area.
He studied the stories told by " the old people " who predated the Kuki-Mizo-Chin migration into the Mizoram/Assam area of northeast India. Once the area was under British protectorship in the late nineteenth century, many of the stories/storytellers were lost because of the proselytizing of Christian missionaries. The missionaries did their best to destroy the old religion, and force people not to teach it or the language of the priesthood to the next generation.
Luckily, Hillel was able to find one man, who himself was quite elderly, who had spent forty years, collecting and documenting the old stories and religious rites. What he was able to prove in the end was that included in the old stories were parts of stories from the Old Testament that had been passed down in families prior to the OT being translated into the indigenous language or taught by the missionaries (many who considered the OT to be too Hebraic and not 'christian' oriented).
Though these families had 'israelite' traditions, they were a hodgepodge of stories that had been enbedded with local history and myth. Halkin was able to establish the authenticity of the stories. But, it need study by Forensic Anthropologists to prove how much of the story was OT and how much was passed on from another (members of a lost tribe?) people.
You don't have to be Jewish to love this book.......2004-09-06
This is an enormously enjoyable book that is both educational and thrilling. In 1999, Israeli journalist Hillel Halkin accompanied the eccentric Rabbi Avichail to Mizoram (in Northeast India near the Burma border) in order to investigate whether the Mizo people who lived there were indeed the descendants of one of the "Lost Tribes of Israel." Halkin is skeptical and constantly has to challenge Rabbi Avichail's fanatic true-believer mindset. Then Halkin's own investigative methods begin to reveal surprising things. This is a fascinating scientific mystery. Halkin entertainingly gives a clear history of the lost tribes as well as the many theories about what happened to them that have been posited by others over the centuries (including the once popular notion that the Lost Tribes wound up in North America, in which belief the Mormon Church is rooted). The Mizo people believe that they are Jews and want to get back to their true roots. They also want to immigrate to Israel for a better life. As a result they throw themselves into the study of Judaism with the zeal of Holy Rollers at a revival meeting. Rival synagogues are founded that try to incorporate Jesus into Jewish teaching. Rabbi Avichail has his hands full when he tries to explain to them that they cannot do that. The Mizo people had thrown off their indigenous religion in favor of Fundamentalist Christianity at the beginning of the 20th Century. There are very few people among them who remember anything about the former religion. Halkin tries to find out what, if anything, their former religion had in common with Judaism. His efforts are hampered, Halkin realizes, by his third-rate con man translator, who is not above creating phony evidence and altering existing evidence. His investigations hit mostly dead ends until several tantalizing clues and his non-academic approach seemingly solve the mystery in which there were next to no clues. Journalist, linguist and scientist, Halkin is a brilliant man who has written a brilliant book. I found ACROSS THE SABBATH RIVER a very satisfying reading experience. Highly recommended. Five Stars.
Scholarly Work Flawed by Few Graphics.......2003-01-06
"Sabbath River" is well researched and well written, but it suffers from the absence of graphics: maps, timelines, and tables. Halkin would better serve his 21st century audience with visuals. Call me intellectually lazy, but I would have been fully on-board this "great adventure" had the author used graphics. As it was, I read the first half and thumbed through the latter half-unable to trudge through the details that could have been fleshed-out graphically. For example, in the final chapters much is made of various obscure texts, but these are never put into perspective on a graphic that shows their temporal and spatial context. In another case, the author cites a "lost," then "found" will of questionable provenance. I wanted to see the picture of the will-a picture of the will with arrows pointing to all its questionable features. This books is attractive to the curious, but it suffers from an insufficient number of graphics.
A Great Narrative.......2002-12-26
Hillel Harkin's study of the fabled 10 lost tribes of Israel succeeds because he is not an anthropologist or biblical scholar. Indeed, if one is looking for an in depth study of the lost tribes and their hypothetical present locations, this probably is not the best place to go. However, if you are looking for a story rooted in history, told by a world traveler who writes sweeping narratives and locale descriptions, than this is your best bet.
The story of the lost tribes is a fascinating one. It is so interesting that thousands of anthropologists and explorers have spent their whole life looking for this group of ancient Jews. The story is as mysterious as it is educational. In the 8th century BC, the Assyrians conquered northern Israel. The ten tribes of Jews that inhabited the area were mostly uprooted and moved, east, to the vast areas of the Assyrian Empire. After that, no one is sure where they ended up. It would be a good guess that wherever they settled, they were assimilated into the native culture, but influenced the natives greatly, possibly with their monotheist religion. This may seem to many as a curious historical footnote, but to some in the Jewish religion, it is one of the most important factors in the fulfillment of biblical prophecy. The location and return of the 10 northern tribes is an integral part of Jewish tradition, even if many have cast it off as a relic of the past.
Harkin story follows the travels of one Rabbi Avichail, an eccentric but dedicated Jewish scholar. Avichail firmly believes that the tribes and their culture can still be found, in former Assyrian areas such as India, Central Asia, and China. Now, just years ago, this was deemed almost absurd. However, with recent technological and genetic discoveries, the lineage of some of these groups is no longer hypothetical. Roman genes in China and Greek genes in Afghanistan have been discovered, pointing to ancient connections. Avichail believes that he can find these groups, and return them to the promise land. Harkin is skeptical at first, mainly because the often shaky evidence Avichail provides, and the fruitless tribe search in southern China. However, he, and the reader, soon become fascinated by the Mizo people of northeastern India. They passionately claim lineage to the Manasseh, one of the lost tribes. They share some intriguing similarities, such as one God known as Ya (Yahweh), an old song of the Red Sea, and ritual circumcision. The Mizo are constantly split from within, as Christianity and cultural strife strain the relationship between them and their old ways. Avichail and his party, including Harkin, are quickly wrapped up into this intriguing cultural and religious situation.
The book benefits from Harkins insightful eye, which look into almost every facet of Avichail, the Mizo, and their claims. The sweeping descriptions of the areas the party visits and the surrounding political situations are vivid and entertaining. It is a remarkable hybrid of a travel, history, and religious narrative that synthesizes very well.
A fascinating read.
intriguing adventure that mixes mystery, travel and religion.......2002-09-30
First, before starting this book, I recommend that you take a look at the authorýs two page guide to pronunciation, to better understand the Hebrew, Mizo, Thado, and Burmese words in the text. Halkin, a well known translator of Hebrew books, posits that a little-known ethnic group living along the Indian-Burmese border is descended from the ancient Jewish tribe of Manasseh. The fate of the ten lost tribes of Israel has haunted Jewish and Christian imaginations throughout the ages. Hillel Halkin has long been intrigued by the subject. And why not? Many American Jews of a certain age dreamed of an aboriginal, strong, warrior Jew, the type who could win fistfights on the way to and from junior high school. And so, Halkin embarked on a journey. In 1998, he accompanied a Jerusalem rabbi and dedicated lost-tribes hunter to China, Thailand, and northeast India, where the rabbi hoped to discover traces of the lost tribes. Halkin went with a very healthy dose of skepticism. Most look at Rabbi Avichail as a well meaning crackpot. Whatever the Rabbi is, he makes for an interesting story, having traveled to Marranos in Portugal, Karens in Burma, Tatars in Dagestan, Kananites in Kerala, and ýIndiansý in Manipur and Mizoram. The book captures your interest from its first paragraph. The Sabbath is approaching as Halkin and the rabbi are searching out the non-Chinese Chiangýs in Western Szechuan. Then the police arrive at their hotel. Youýll have to read the book to find out what happens. After a variety of adventures and misadventures, Halkin returned several times to the Indian states of Manipur and Mizoram, where 5000 people belive they are a lost tribe of Hebrews. Are these people the victims of a mass cultural delusion, having accepted a myth to promote and reinforce their distinct cultural identity? Or are the actually descendants of some Bnai Menashe? Are these Kuki-Chin-Mizo people, living along the Indian-Burmese border, descended from the ancient biblical tribe of Manasseh. Halkin isnýt a scholar, linguist, or ethnographer, but neither am I, and the story is still fascinating. Why do they have a song about crossing the Red Sea while living in Northeast India, a song they have sung prior to any missionaries showing up and one that contains ancient words? Why do they have a god named Yah(za), a history of brit milah circumcision on the eighth day after birth, a mourning period of 7 days, a Spring festival of unleavened bread (among rice eaters), and the use of the word ýselah.ý There are some who broke away and even started a competing shul (if thatýs not Jewish, what is?) Whatever you decide, the book is an exciting, mysterious and enlightening read. Sign me up for a Bnai Menashe kippah?
Product Description
A discovery bible study book. For many bible students, the book of Esther is a puzzle. It seems to be out of place. There is no mention of the name of God; there is no reference to worship or to faith; there is no allusion to heaven or hell- in short, there is nothing "religious" about it, at least on the surface. But by viewing the book of Esther as God's visual aid to us, by laying Old Testament types and parables alongside New Testament truths, Ray Stedman makes it come alive with new significance and deep spiritual meaning. He shows that, far from being an insipid slice of secular history, the book is a vivid showcase foreshadowing the last supper, the crucifixtion, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and other gospel events.
Amazon.com
Lost is a resonant title for this direct, intense, true adventure story. Stephen Kirkpatrick is lost in his attempt to maintain closeness and trust in his post-divorce relationship with his three sons. Lost as an ex-husband in the painful aftermath of that broken marriage, and finally in a literal form, a photographer lost deep in the Amazon, who can only count one remaining possession -- his faith. What is faith, really, when everything else is gone? Is it a solace and anchor, sustaining hope? Stephen Kirkpatrick's story provides a case study for just that sort of faith. Not particularly liturgical, doctrinal or objective; it's an experiential faith that wavers, struggles and is almost lost completely at times, but like Kirkpatrick himself, it somehow holds on.
Kirkpatrick works freelance -- and one gets the impression that the world of freelance photography is as brutal and unforgiving as the jungle he plunges into. To sustain a career where there are no steady paychecks or benefit plans, it's necessary to keep going for the prize -- unique images, perhaps ones of wildlife never seen before. His spirit may be sustained by a higher faith, but the fulfillment of Kirkpatrick's earthly hopes would be more tangible -- a National Geographic cover. This need to find good material is so paramount it pushes Kirkpatrick's expedition to start out with questionable maps (a fact realized of course, only in retrospect), and with only a general idea of the route that will lead them to the planned pick-up point.
As things go wrong, and then very wrong, and eventually get worse, we see that Kirkpatrick takes the idea of journaling-as-therapy to heart. At one point he journals "I still have faith. I'm praying and putting my trust in God. But I have to be realistic. Christians die just like everyone else." This is essentially Kirkpatrick's central meditation -- the realization that faith is what sustains him, but always with the understanding that it gives no guarantee as to the outcome of the journey.--Ed Dobeas
Customer Reviews:
Hick in the Amazon.......2007-08-14
Just imagine the martial-arts blowhard from Napoleon Dynamite boring everybody to death with the story of how God saved him from having to walk in the rain for a few days. That's this book. The author manages to embody all the worst of hick America; he's weepy, bombastic, swaggering, ignorant and self-important all at once. It's something of a feat, I suppose, but one hardly deserving praise.
If you want to see how much better the Brits do this sort of thing, read Benedict Allen's book Through Jaguar Eyes, a funny, understated and literate account of a much braver journey through the same part of the world.
If Only He Actually Became Lost.......2007-07-14
As I read the book I continued to wish that the author had been eaten by a jaguar or left on the tree. DON'T believe the title. I'm guessing the author could become lost in the local Wal-Mart if he didn't have his guides. He never was lost in this "adventure".
Really, really bad.......2007-06-11
If they have a worst book contest, this one will be a contender. Save your money.
Not Credible From the Start.......2007-01-29
The book starts with a prologue that purports to be in the middle of the epic struggle advertised on the book jacket. You later learn the author was not really alone and never in real danger. I learned this from skimming the book because after the second chapter, the author was just too insufferable for me to continue reading. Twice in the first chapter he mentions how the fathers of his sons' friends went to work at the bank or a law office, he (the mighty hero) went to work in the swamp or the mountains or the jungle. The second chapter begins in the Peruvian city of Inquitos, where he immediately demonstrates his arrogance: "On the corner, a vendor peddled torillas I wouldn't have eaten on a bet." Not only are tortillas not eaten in Peru, but he shows his complete disregard for the Peruvian people and their culture with that snide remark. He's there to take pretty pictures of animals, not to learn about the culture or interact with the people in anything other than a superficial manner. Then there is his religion. Ah, yes. As he puts it, "Christians die like everyone else." Is that a revelation? I'm not sure, but it seems to be to him. There are truly great adventure books out there. This is not one of them.
All Hail Ashuco!!!.......2006-12-15
Stephen's first trip to the Amazon was a difficult one, but don't let the title of the book mislead you - the majority of his struggles are internal. Between throwing temper tantrums when his photography equipment malfunctions and praying when the going got tough, I didn't find much to empathize with here. I kept waiting for the book to shift into high gear, but it never quite makes it until the epilogue. Stephen finds himself in a couple of scary situations, but the reliable and loyal Ashuco always shows up to save him with his trademark call of "Esteve!". Which brings me to the greatest reason to read this book - Ashuco is a true hero and comes across as a remarkable person, and the reader is left wanting to learn more about him and his life. The final 3 or 4 pages are easily the best of the entire book, Stephen triumphantly returns to the Amazon for many successful expeditions and his reunions with Ashuco warrant a book of their own. Perhaps Stephen, Marlo, and Ashuco will all get together and help Ashuco write his own autobiography.
Book Description
Upstream from Moab on the Colorado River, near Utah's eastern border, there is a relatively short, deep canyon that has become one of the most popular river-running destinations in America. The canyon is known as Westwater. Its popularity is largely due to the thrill provided by one of the most dangerous and challenging stretches of white water on the Colorado, especially Skull Rapid. Near the head of the canyon are the remnants of the village of Westwater, which has had an interesting and eventful history of its own because of the river and canyon, the railroad that passes through, and especially its remoteness. Over the years this place has attracted more than its fair share of colorful characters—explorers and surveyors, boosters and get-rich-quick dreamers, cattle and sheep men, outlaws and bootleggers, and, of course, river runners. Mike Milligan, who came to know the area as a river guide, has written a thorough history of this out-of-the-way place. While its lively history is interesting in and of itself, Westwater's significance derives more from a phenomenon of the modern West—thousands of adventurous river recreationists. They have pushed a backwater place into the foreground of the West's popular culture. Westwater's history cycled through use by Native Americans; late exploration and settlement by non-Indians; brief ranching and farming success; other sporadic, unsuccessful attempts at development; and renewed obscurity. Modern rediscovery through outdoors recreation has brought a great number of people into thousands of similarly remote corners of the West. Mike Milligan has captured the still developing story of one of those remote, but no longer secluded, corners of the Colorado Plateau.
Customer Reviews:
Regional book review by a person in the region.......2007-05-15
This book is written by a rafting guide who was captivated by Westwater Canyon, on the Colorado River, close to the Colorado border. This canyon has a treacherous section called Skull rapids, where my own cousin drowned in a rafting accident. The author, after guiding for 5 years, took his mother on a trip through Westwater Canyon, and lost her when their raft overturned (yes, she drowned). At that point his relationship with the canyon became more complicated. During an exodus from the area after that accident, he continued to be obcessed with the subject, and continued working on his book about it. This is not just a book on rafting the canyon. It starts with the early history of the region, from Native Americans, to the little town of Westwater that sprung up as a railroad town. In addition to the history of pioneer rafters, it covers farmers, outlaws, miners, cattlemen and sheepmen. As a native of the eastern Colorado, western Utah region this story takes place in, and a local history buff, I would give this book a good rating on all counts. Having also lost a relative in Westwater canyon, my bond with the author may be stronger than the normal reader.
Customer Reviews:
Read "Killing Mr. Watson" first.......2006-12-20
This is the second book of a trilogy that begins with "Killing Mr. Watson," and ends with "Bone by Bone." If you read Killing Mr. Watson, and were fascinated by it, as many readers and critics have been, you'll be tempted to read the rest of the trilogy. Dead Man's River begins many years after E.J. Watson's death. Watson's son, Lucius, is struggling to reconstruct his father's life and death. You might have noticed in Killing Mr. Watson that the story, told by those who knew Watson, contains gaps, ambiguities, contradictions and mysteries. There's plenty of room for sequels.
Lucius finds some answers, and also uncovers new mysteries and contradictions. Along the way, you'll learn more about the many fascinating characters you first encountered as narrators in "Killing Mr. Watson." The final book in the trilogy, "Bone by Bone," tells the tale again, from the point of view of Mr. Watson.
The Mr. Watson trilogy is reminiscent of the well-known film, Rashomon, by Akira Kurosawa. It re-tells the same tale several times, from different perspectives. This is a gutsy kind of trilogy to write. A lesser author would burden the reader with repetition and excessive detail. Mathiessen, one of few authors ever to win one National Book Awards for fiction, and another for nonfiction, is up to the task, if anyone is.
Dead Man's River suffers from the usual problems found in the second book in a trilogy. It doesn't begin the story, nor end it, and it's nearly incomprehensible if you haven't read the first book. Consider, who would enjoy "The Two Towers," the second book of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, if he or she had not first read "The Fellowship of the Ring," and did not intend to read "Return of the King"?
If, after reading Killing Mr. Watson, you're eager to know about Mr. Watson and the other pioneer families of that time and place, read the rest of the trilogy, in sequence. I think you'll be glad you did. I certainly am glad that I did. Matthiessen is a master of so many things -- pioneer history of Florida, diverse cultures, nature writing, environmentalism, character development, historical accuracy and detail, dead-on vernacular dialog, inventive style, and, in this trilogy, compelling mystery.
Also, in this trilogy, Mathiessen explores the nature of truth itself, as the same story is retold several times by people who all think they know the truth, though their understanding is filtered by their own perspectives, limited knowledge and vested interests.
On the other hand, if Killing Mr. Watson filled your cup, you might want to stop there. It works very well as a stand-alone novel.
Truthful fiction.......2006-08-24
Matthiessen's Killing Mr. Watson trilogy, of which Lost Man's River is the middle part, is to me an excellent example of how fiction describes reality better, more intensely, and in a way that is hard to explain, more truthfully, than, let's say, a factual report by a newspaper (or the police, for that matter).
Matthiessen's Mastery of Voice.......2005-06-25
I read "Lost Man's River" nearly 10 years ago, and finished the trilogy immediately following the release of #3. I've been a repeat reader of "Snow Leopard" and "Nine Headed Dragon River" and when I saw an unknown (to me) Matthiessen title I bought it on reflex, dug in, slogged, and followed in short-order to consume "Killing Mr. Watson" and wait impatiently for "Bone by Bone." When talking with anyone in whom I detect the slightest to be a reader I'm off and gone on the magnificience of Matthiessen's capacity to immerse the reader in the heat of the swamp and stubborn mind of man. It is an ultimate fly-on-the-wall experience. You buzz around, land for a moment, flash a restless, comforting blink through hundreds of lenses, and flashing with fear, hunger and frantic sleepy nervous energy, flick to another elbow, eyebrow, lampshade, another hall of mirrors inside someone's mind. And onto the next. Endless strings of POV. Not an easy read. It's at least as confusing as any of the most critical reviewers has let on. If your expectation is smooth narrative with crisp transitions and a baggage-free punchline at the end of a perfectly dissembled string of interleaving "Arthur Hailey-esqe" sub-plots, well, no, this isn't it. Peter hasn't named it "Lost Man's River" for nothing. It's the heat. Sweltering, oppressive, unrelenting, weaving inside and out of the mind's eye of dozens of characters, dozens and dozens by the time you get through all three books, each of whom is utterly certain that they've got the story right. This is a long yarn where everybody is telling the truth. Probably in much the same way, as say, Tom DeLay is certain that he is always telling the truth. Matthiessen's accomplishment as a craftsman is the voice, the vernacular. You learn to read with a drawl quick enough, which gets to be like a buzzing in your head. Books 1 & 3 are by the far easier reads. The experience of #2 being very similar to Thomas Pynchon's "V" where the candy for the mind is in the tone, weight and timbre of language, the music of the prose, where the narrative line is possibly only be found by surrendering your search. Matthiessen's achievement is brilliant, extraordinary, precious and impossibly rare.
The Mangrove Novel.......2004-12-04
Living in southwest Florida in the area of much of the locale of this story I was constantly reminded of the tangle of the mangrove forests which are typical of the coastal waters of this part of the world and the Ten Thousand Islands in particular. Virtually impenetrable. So was the confusing mass of cracker family detail piled on the reader. One has to force one's way through it and the result is a pretty thin story at the end. However the author's tidbits of history about the area and the spoilation of the Everglades is of interest for those having some knowledge of and curiosity about the subjects. I also felt that this New York born writer carries a lot of his Yankee baggage with him which causes him to unload the usual northern liberal unsympathetic, vulgar, racist stereotyping of southern life of the past on the readers. Way overdone.
Bogged Down in an Impenetrable Swamp.......2004-05-31
I sat down to read this book with a sense of eager anticipation, having greatly enjoyed Peter Matthiessen's first book in the Watson trilogy, "Killing Mr Watson". I put it down, nearly a month later, with a sense of profound disappointment. "Lost Man's River" is not a book in the same class as its predecessor.
"Killing Mr Watson" told the story of Edgar Watson's life in Southern Florida and his eventual death at the hands of a posse of his neighbours. "Lost Man's River" tells the story of Watson's son Lucius, a historian with both an academic and an emotional interest in finding out the truth about his father's life. (Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that, while Lucius's academic interest lies in finding out the truth about his father's life, his emotional interest lies in confirming his own preconceived ideas about his father's life). By the time of the events narrated in the book (around 1960) Lucius is an elderly man. The book follows his journeys around Florida and his meetings with the surviving few people who remember Edgar Watson, including his reunion with his long-lost brother Rob.
The sentimental journeyings of a septuagenarian historian do not make for an enthralling plot; indeed, the book has a loose, episodic structure and very little in the way of coherent plot at all. In "Killing Mister Watson" the characters were vividly drawn, especially the dominating figure of Watson himself. In "Lost Man's River" there is much less in the way of characterisation. Although Watson is an ever-present thought in Lucius's mind, he obviously cannot be introduced as a character in his own right as he has been dead for fifty years. Lucius is merely a bore, and the other characters are stiff and lifeless. The old people's reminiscences of the past are tedious and confusing, and tend to get bogged down in an excess of genealogical detail. In an attempt to add to the interest of the plot, Matthiessen provides a brief love-interest for Lucius in the form of a much younger woman, but this episode struck me as very unconvincing.
Not everything about the book is bad. There are some vivid descriptions of the natural beauty of the Everglades. There is also some sharp commentary about the way in which that natural beauty has been despoiled by the modern world, and about Southern racism. Unlike most of what has preceded it, the ending is genuinely gripping, as old feuds end in violence and Lucius makes an unwelcome discovery which forces him to reassess his view of the past. Unfortunately, to get to the ending one has to wade through some very tedious passages; like some of the characters, I often felt that I was bogged down in an impenetrable swamp.
Book Description
Richard Evans Schultes (1915-2001) was probably the greatest explorer of the Amazon, and regarded among anthropologists and seekers alike as the "father of ethnobotany." Taking what was meant to be a short leave from Harvard in 1941, he surveyed the Amazon basin almost continuously for twelve years, during which time he lived among two dozen different Indian tribes, mapped rivers, secretly sought sources of rubber for the US government during WWII, and collected and classified 30,000 botanical specimens, including 2,000 new medicinal plants. Schultes chronicled his stay there in hundreds of remarkable photographs of the tribes and the land, evocative of the great documentary photographers such as Edward Sheriff Curtis. Published to coincide with a traveling exhibition to debut at the Govinda Gallery in Washington, D.C., The Lost Amazon is the first major publication to examine the work of Dr. Schultes, as seen through his photographs and field notes. With text by Schultes's protege and fellow explorer, Wade Davis, this impressive document takes armchair travelers where they've never gone before.
Customer Reviews:
PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNEY OF RICHARD EVANS SCHULTES.......2006-08-06
Schultes was perhaps the greatest ethnobotanists of all time and definitely the father of the subject. In this book, his pupil (and today famed explorer) Wade Davis puts together a sampling of his photographs throughout his life in the Amazon, providing a visual context to the story about the great scientist and explorer.
Schultes lived among indians for many years in the northwestern Amazon, in search for knowledge about its plants and their secrets. He uncovered many hallucinogenic plants in the process, which earned him a cult status in the 1970s. During his time with the indians, he was able to build strong relationships with the natives, which earned a position of respect and gave him the ability to explore their land and knowledge deeply.
Schultes is one of the last great explorers who disconnected himself from the outside world for years in order to collect new specimens and search for more knowledge. Such figures are rare, if at existent in the modern world. He wrote many books about his travels, which would also make interesting reading, especially as they relat ehte knowledge he gathered. This is more of a coffee table type of book, with many pictures and less story. Having read one of his books, I appreciated seeing the pictures of his time in the Amazon.
Book Description
The La Salle Expedition on the Mississippi River presents the definitive English translation of Nicolas de La Salle's diary account of René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle's 1682 discovery expedition of the Mississippi River from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. This previously unknown manuscript copy was discovered recently in the collection of rare books in the Texas State Archives.
It provides the most complete and authoritative account available of this historic North American adventure and territorial claim. By careful cross-document analysis, Foster projects an extended expedition chronology that adds about two weeks to the journey, corrects the date that La Salle's claim was announced, and revises erroneous interpretations made by most contemporary French and American scholars. The work includes maps prepared by the noted Southwest cartographer John V. Cotter.
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- The War of the World: Twentieth-Century Conflict and the Descent of the West
- The World Is Flat [Updated and Expanded]: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century
- Traditions And Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past
- Twentieth-Century American Art (Oxford History of Art)
- Watchdogs of Democracy?: The Waning Washington Press Corps and How It Has Failed the Public
- Western Civilization: Volume II: Since 1500
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Books Index
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General
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Land of a Thousand Eyes: The Subtle Pleasures of Everyday Life in Myanmar
From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey
Lonely Planet Myanmar (Burma)
Finding George Orwell in Burma
Burmese Days: A Novel
