The Adirondacks: A History of America's First Wilderness

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The vast Adirondack region of upstate New York is very much a wilderness, but one ringed by towns and close enough to major cities that it is heavily traveled. Long viewed as a natural playground, the Adirondacks were a favorite haunt of transcendentalist philosophers Henry Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, of conservationists such as Franklin Burroughs and Theodore Roosevelt, of bohemians and hippies, and of back-to-the-land types. Still wild enough that wolf reintroduction has been proposed for the Adirondacks, the territory remains a powerfully inspiring place of refuge and recreation. Paul Schneider tells the story of this river-laced, forested land with imagination and a flair for just the right anecdote.

Book Description

A New York Times Notable Book

His book is a romance, a story of first love between Americans and a thing they call "wilderness." For it was in the Adirondacks that masses of non-Native Americans first learned to cherish the wilderness as a place of recreation and solace.

In this lyrical narrative history, the author reveals that the affair between Americans and the Adirondacks was by no means one of love at first sight. And even now, Schneider shows that Americans' relationship with the glorious mountains and rivers of the Adirondacks continues to change. As in every good romance, nothing is as simple as it appears.

Customer Reviews:

New York's Hidden Paradise........2005-10-21

Adirondack Park was created in 1892 to preserve the wild forest land and inhabitants and to keep the 2300 lakes and ponds flowing freely to ensure that the Hudson River will not dry up. It encompasses six million acres in the northeastern portion of New York. Blue Mountain Lake is beautiful on Indian summer days, as is Whiteface Mountain with the autumn foliage of russet maples and golden birches. Soon the brilliance will fade and the foliage will fall away.

Coon Mountain, High Peaks, Mt. Marcy, and Eagle Island are sights to see in the Fall. Sagamore, the camp once owned by the Vanderbilts and had compounds consisting of multiple buildings on the vein of European villages. This one consists of 27 structures, made of spruce. In Cape Cod, the Kennedys have their own compound. On Eagle Island, a family camp was built in 1899 by Benjamin Harrison's vice president, and has been a summer camp for the Girls Scouts since 1937.

"Practically speaking, in the Adirondacks, conservationists have never won a major battle without the support of the trappers and their far more plentiful brethren, the hunters and anglers." Mink and red fox are the favorites of the wealthy. By the mid-1800s, wolves, moose, and panthers had become extremely scarce. A trapper couldn't make a decent full-time living from lynx, fisher, marten, and most of the other furbearers.

At Lake Placid, the mountain resort which hosts the Winter Olympics, you will find the loons with velvety black haeads, ruby eyes, and dagger-like bills. The loon's predator, the bald eagle, does not spook the birds as they float placidly on the pond. But the mercury in the ponds and the acid rain which pollutes the water is making a dent, as the loons' culinary diet comes from the fish, which in turn affects their offspring.

You can see why the Roosevelts chose to go to this wilderness park for their summer outings. Teddy, the hunter, chose to find his trophies there. It borders Vermont and is as large as the state of New Hampshire.

Another Peak.......2004-08-26

Aside from a traditional recount of the important white guys who did everything, Mr. Schneider captures the essence of the people throughout the modern eras. His time with modern trappers, loggers and bureaucrats capture the sense of urgency for anybody involved in the Park. Initially sought as a farming area after the strategic significance of the French and Revolutionary Wars, lumber and mining interests drove the Park after the attempt to cultivate a place with only 10 percent of its land arable. Mining was sort of disaster at first with many tragic elements. The descriptions of the old facilities as they sit or stand now was a pretty neat journalistic trick.

The historical portrayal of notables like Sir William Johnson and John Brown were real page turners. I've seen the signs just outside Lake Placid to John Brown's house and always thought it was the John Brown involved in the early 19th Century, not the infamous abolitionist. The tragic story of Mr. Henderson and his death in front of his eleven year old son was a real gut wrencher for any tough guy. It seems like there were at least half a dozen fellows who spawned the model for Fenimore's Natty Bumppo. Roger's Rangers, famous guides, French Aristocracy's designs and numerous other affairs and plans sets up a lot of good story telling.

I would still like know why places like Pottersville are called what they are. Where the summer camps were located and who went there. Famous painters, philosophers and robber barons are all very interesting. Knowing the issues and their implications of the future is very important too. Beating them to death is certainly something another volume must do. Fortunately this effort doesn't digress too much into any of these arenas without qualifications and genuine purpose. The real gems are the conversations with loggers like John Courtney and trappers like Toby Edwards. Each offer a unique perspective on the lives they have chosen in this region. Death & Taxes and the Price of Otter in China are two of the best chapters in the book.

Having told a number of people who frequent the Park about this book. I wish that I could give this book to one of them with assurance that it would be read and passed along. I'm sure this is the exact feeling of those with intimate knowledge and time in this vast area. A little bit of everything and everybody is covered in a well told story that spans centuries. I've yet to find the haunting image of Thomas Cole's Course of Empire. I'm sure that when I do it will serve as a guidepost to all that man is and will be in relation to the massive presence of nature in relation to the foibles of man. Certainly the small amount of time left to me on this planet will afford numerous jaunts to some of the treasures scattered about the six million acres that serves as model to the notion, forever wild.

Well written but not what I expected.......2001-03-10

The title of this book, more than anything else, misses the mark here. "A History of America's First Wilderness" suggests a comprehensive history of key forces that shaped Adirondack geography and culture, and this book doesn't attempt to be that. Paul Schneider is a journalist, not an historian, and this difference in perspective is reflected in his writing. His book consists of a series of anecdotal essays, snapshots in time, with little thematic development, analysis, or reference across chapters. It's enjoyable reading and will give some insight into historical forces that have formed the ongoing battle in the Adirondacks over development, but better regional histories, such as Diana Muir's "Reflections in Bullough's Pond; Economy and Ecosystem in New England" probe deeper than "The Adirondacks" even tries.

shallow.......2000-11-28

Schneider knows his Adirondacks in a superficial way, and after reading his book, so will you. If the topic intrests you, pick up a copy of CONTESTED TERRAIN by Philip Terrie. Contested Terain is as sound as The Adirondacks is shallow. Style, of course is a matter of taste. Many people appear to enjoy Schneider's carefully studied casual prose.

Excellent regional history.......1998-10-29

Paul Schneider's The Adirondacks: A History of America's First Wilderness is both good history and great story-telling. Taking the region that is now the Adirondack Park from the first arrival of whites through the present, Schneider skillfully weaves together both present and past. For example, his chapter "The Prince of Otter China" tells about fur trapping today, and introduces the reader to several living "characters." Neighboring chapters then recount the history of trapping in the Park. Other groupings of chapters do likewise for lumbering, wilderness guiding, and mining. One "chapter" of the Adirondacks which he unfortunately slights are Dr. Trudeau and the tuberculosis "cure cottages" in and around Saranac Lake. This small quibble aside, I recommend this book to readers -- both New Yorkers /Adirondackers and general readers -- who want to learn more both about a specific, fascinating place and time and the idea of the American "wilderness" in general.

Book Description

This street atlas features detailed maps and contains a complete index to streets and places. It also shows airports, hospitals, cemeteries, parks, golf courses, libraries, marinas, shopping centers & malls, post offices, points of interest, major highways and roads and much more. Areas included in this atlas are Aventura, Bal Harbour, Coconut Groove, Coral Gables, Cutler Ridge, Hialeah, Homestead, Kendall, Key Biscayne, Miami, Miami Beach, Miami Springs and Pinecrest.

Book Description

Ravenous is the eagerly anticipated sequel to Insatiable, nominated for Best Books for Young Adults 2002 (Booklist). Ravenous depicts the wide range of difficulties in growing up in America by exploring the journeys of three young women and two young men. Phoebe, the size-sixteen dreamer, finally gets a boyfriend and readers witness her euphoria and her fear during a particularly fragile time of life. Samantha, the anorexic perfectionist, faces difficult challenges with both her boyfriend and her father, and continues to struggle with an inability to eat more than lettuce and apples. Hannah, the bulimic lesbian, has a romantic awakening inviting readers to observe ways in which she holds back and ways in which she grows. Billy and Scott, two young men who appear briefly in Insatiable, play more prominent roles in Ravenous. Eating and body-image still play a part of the story, but are by no means its major focus. In Ravenous, the courageous young heroines and heroes are faced with a broader range of concerns-they face struggles with boyfriends, girlfriends, betrayal, parents, even themselves. Ravenous will be irresistible to any young person who has ever endured a night of loneliness, suffered the trauma and pain of rejection or a crushing disappointment, or despaired over the fear of never fitting in. It is both timely and timeless.

Customer Reviews:

Ravenous.......2004-12-07

Girls, i know all of you have had some roungh times with boys and school and all that good stuff. Well if you would like to read about some stuff like that then read the book Ravenous.It is a bout these four girls and how they are having turbble with their shool and boys and all the problems teen-age girls go through. It took place in Las Vegas.
This book was defeinately a page turner. i could not put it down. I love to read about stuff that happenes in everyday stuff because it makes me relize what is going on. I think if i was to relate to on of the characters in the book it would probably be billy. The reason i say that is becasue he is very fun but at the same time he is shy. My mind did wonder a little bit. While i was reading i would think about how this was happening to me. I recremend this book to girls over 13, jsut because it delas with some tough stuff and some big words.

dissapointing.......2002-11-30

A poor follow up for an excellent first book, "Insatiable". This book, rather than focusing on it's main subject, continually adresses issues of sexuality more than anything else. True, most of the characters are affected by eating disorders, however the story deals with their relationships instead. If you're looking for a modern (but rather decorated) teenage thrill story, than this is a good read, but don't expect nearly the amount of immense information found in the first.

Book Description

The study of human bipedalism has been overshadowed by many polarized debates. One dispute concerns whether or not australopithecines were wholly terrestrial or retained a degree of arboreality. Another deliberation focuses on the bipedalism of australopithecines compared to modern humans: was it similar, intermediate in nature, or unique? Because of the preoccupation with discussions such as these, the significant fact that modern human walking is more than locomotion on two legs has been underemphasized.
This volume focuses on the pattern and process of the transition to the modern form of human locomotion, with its adaptations for a striding stiff-legged gait, efficiency of running, and economy of resource transport. This emerging group of contributors spanning the fields of anthropology, biology and anatomy debate issues such as:
-When and in what sequence did these morphological traits appear?
-What were the changes in the bio-behavioral complex of hominin locomotor evolution?
-What were the implications for the enhancement and expansion of hominin mobility?

From Biped to Strider The Emergence of Modern Human Walking, Running, and Resource Transport

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From Biped to Strider The Emergence of Modern Human Walking, Running, and Resource Transport
D. Jeffrey (EDT)/ Hilton, Charles E. (EDT)/ American Association of Physical Anthropologists Meeting 2000 San ant (COR) Meldrum
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OSY4ZK

Book Description

Iterative Algebra and Dynamic Modeling links together the use of technology (Excel, Stella) and modern mathematical techniques to explore the interaction of algebra (at the precalculus level) with computer and graphing calculator technology. The book will find use in a variety of college courses, and also in enrichment courses at the high school level.

Customer Reviews:

Useful bite-sized problems.......2003-06-25

This is aimed at the high school level but does an amazingly good job explaining dynamic modeling, difference equations, and scalar contractions at that level. This is good for building intuition since there are a lot of bite-sized problems. The pure mathematical content could be compressed into a book about one-third the size. The author makes interesting connections between classical Greek mathematics and iterative algebra.

Book Description

The twenty-five years after the Second World War were a lively and fertile period for the American novel and an era of momentous transformation in American society. Taking his title from the Kafka parable about the leopards who kept racing into the courtyard of the temple, disrupting the sacrifice, until they were made part of the ritual, Morris Dickstein shows how a daring band of outsiders reshaped the American novel and went on to dominate American fiction for the rest of the century. In fluid prose, offering a social as well as a literary history, Dickstein provides a wide-ranging and frank reassessment of more than twenty key figures--including Jewish writers like Norman Mailer, Saul Bellow, and Philip Roth, African-Americans such as Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin, colorful emigres like Vladimir Nabokov, and avatars of a new youth culture, including J.D. Salinger and Jack Kerouac. Disputing the received wisdom about the culture of the cold war, Dickstein shows why artists turned inward after the war and demonstrates how the writing of the 1960s emerged from the cultural ferment of the preceding decades, including road novels, avant-garde painting, bebop, film, psychoanalysis, and social changes that continue to affect us today.

Morris Dickstein. Leopards in the Temple: the Transformation of American Fiction, 1945-1970.(Book Review): An article from: World Literature Today

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Morris Dickstein. Leopards in the Temple: the Transformation of American Fiction, 1945-1970.(Book Review): An article from: World Literature Today
Bernard F. Dick
Manufacturer: University of Oklahoma
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from World Literature Today, published by University of Oklahoma on October 1, 2003. The length of the article is 510 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Morris Dickstein. Leopards in the Temple: the Transformation of American Fiction, 1945-1970.(Book Review)
Author: Bernard F. Dick
Publication: World Literature Today (Refereed)
Date: October 1, 2003
Publisher: University of Oklahoma
Volume: 77 Issue: 3-4 Page: 100(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Customer Reviews:

The First Female Apostle: Myth and Legacy.......2007-03-23

It was Pope Gregory who began the notion that Mary Magdalene was a fallen woman and the story stuck even after Vatican 2 in 1969. This is a pre-Da Vinci code take on the historical Mary Magdalene. There have been many edits to the Bible, to church history, to the lives of key figures from the earliest origins of Christianity ... and in sorting out fact from fiction ... one must seek to understand the context of teachings first before just blindly believing anything presented to them. Mary Magdalene became an icon of the fallen dangerous women and was used to subjugate women in many levels of church politics. Her history is one of the most controversial topics in the church .... and well worth exploring to understand the intention behind her image.

Back in print.......2006-09-12

Ignore my rating as I have only just begun reading this book but I did not want to alter the overall rating given to date. I have posted this 'review' simply to let it be known on Amazon that the book is back in print and is now published by PIMLICO with the ISBN 1-8459-5004-6.

The best on the Magdalene.......2005-01-30

It's a silly shame that this wonderful book is out-of-print when the Code Mania would sell it like hotcakes. It is, without a competitor, the best all-around book on Mary Magdalene. Buy Karen L. King's translation of the Gospel of Mary if you want an intense but engaging lesson in theology, Jane Schaberg's *The Resurrection of Mary Magdalene* if you want a solid feminist critique, or Margaret Starbird's *The Woman with the Alabaster Jar* if you are looking for New Age speculation, but it's Haskins who pulls it all together.

Tracing the idea of Mary Magdalene from the Biblical (and "heretical") sources to present-day manifestations in film and novel, she provides a survey of the changing role of women and sexuality in Occidental culture, generously illustrated with depictions of the Magdalene. She shows how the "shamed prostitute" myth got its start, examines the claims of connection between Mary and France, and provides a very funny account of the Church supported habit of "relic snatching" that accounts for Mary's "relics" moving here and there from this monastery to that church.

All in all, it is a heavy but interesting read, with no polemic axe to grind. Start here.

deserves 6 stars!.......2002-10-27

This is THE MOST AMAZING book on Mary Magdalen. Susan Haskins goes through the image/personna of the magdalen from the Biblical roots to our pop-culture. The primary references are excellent, it is well put together, it is PERFECT!

An outstanding ýone-stopý resource on Mary Magdalene!.......1999-07-15

Haskins does an excellent job in bringing us virtually every relevant piece of useful information about Mary Magdalene. It's all discussed here -- Mary Magdalene in Scripture, non-canonical Christian literature, artwork, history, myths, and legends. An important work about an important historical and spiritual figure.

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Mary Magdalen: Myth and Metaphor
Susan Haskins
Manufacturer: Konecky & Konecky
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 156852496X

Product Description

using evidence from early christian writers, medievil sermons art and writings of nearly 2000 years, author shows how Mary M merged with other figures to become to epitomy of women in church and society

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Mary Magdalen : Myth and Metaphor
Susan Haskins
Manufacturer: HARCOURT BRACE & COMPANY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OJKHGY

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Mary Magdalen Myth & Metaphor
Susan Haskins
Manufacturer: KONECKY & KONECKY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000UDPGRO

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Mary Magdalen Myth & Metaphor
Susan Haskins
Manufacturer: HARCOURT BRACE & CO@
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000X12K9U

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Mary Magdalen Myth and Metaphor
Susan Haskins
Manufacturer: Konecky
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

History of Ideas | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0002155354

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Mary Magdalen Myth and Metaphor
Susan Haskins
Manufacturer: Konecky
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000K3S0RM

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Mary Magdalen Myth and Metaphor
Susan Haskins
Manufacturer: Konecky
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O8MIY4

Book Description

All too often, histories of Civil War battles concentrate on the events of the battle, ignoring the larger campaign and undervaluing the battle’s impact on subsequent events. This work reveals and explains the vital connection between two epic battles: Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville.

The staggering Confederate victories at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville are seldom treated as part of a coherent strategy, and they have never been presented as a single campaign. Yet, analyzed as a whole, the two battles go far to explain Lee’s military success. At the same time, the failures and bungling that characterized Federal efforts are more intelligible when seen in the light of the political and military circumstances that thrust unprepared and inadequate Union commanders into predicaments they little understood. The eastern theater in the winter of 1862 and spring of 1863 witnessed sudden shifts in northern command and strategy and increasing political intervention. Lincoln despaired of McClellan and sought a general more willing to fight; whatever the ultimate result of this search, it provided opportunities the canny Lee was willing and able to exploit.

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A solid three star - no higher

Fun to read.

It is what it is.

A different China then the one we thought it would be

A Sad Book for a Sad China

Losing the New China: A Story of American Commerce, Desire and Betrayal
Ethan Gutmann
Manufacturer: Encounter Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Economic Policy & Development | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
International | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Relations | International | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
General | Political Science | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 189355483X

Book Description

This book reveals how and why U.S. corporations helped replace the Goddess of Democracy that once stood in Tiananmen Square with the Gods of Mammon and Mars that dominate China today.

Customer Reviews:

A solid three star - no higher.......2007-06-20

Whatever Gutmann is now, at the time this was written he was clearly nothing more than a freelance journalist riding on the coattails of his web designer wife who soujourned for a while in China while working on web projects. This book recounts Gutmann's experiences, which are limited, and relies heavily on second hand accounts furnished by friends, contacts, aquaintances. What redeems this book is Gutmann's lucid expose of everything he saw and heard. All told this book is a worthwhile contribution to the mounting volumes on life in China, and what her interaction with the West, and America in particular, is having on the respective societies. A downer for me was the last chapter where Gutmann provides unneccessary detail about American expatriot involvement with what he describes as China's "sexual revolution". Moreover he opines that Americans who visit China and show restraint in being faithful to their wives or girlfriends receive no "pat on the back" from him. I guess marriage vows or faithfulness are just passe' for enlightened tomes like author Gutmann.

Fun to read........2007-01-28

Although the author seems to have many an ax to grind with the Chinese, this book is an important contribution to the growing China-America literature. This book revolves as much around China as it does around its author. Personally, I enjoy these type of accounts because they are seldom boring. The author touches on many aspects of the Chinese society like, for example, current sexual mores, the highly censored Internet that most Chinese experience, Chinese military doctrine, lack of individual liberties, etc. The undertow seems to be "do not be fooled by the Chinese mirage, watch out!". If you do not mind a somewhat biased tone on a book, read this book by all means.

It is what it is........2006-12-16

This book delivers what the Author wanted to deliver. An insightful book that looks at doing business in China.

Wake up and smell the tea. China will again rise as the worlds factory. Yes, it will be built on the backs of the poor. It is what it is. To impose western idealism onto the Chinese is foolish thinking. More likely, as is already happening, US companies will begin lobbying to include practices in their business model in the US that they learned in China. China will change the world, not the other way around.

A different China then the one we thought it would be .......2006-07-04

The major claims of this book are:
1) The United States naively thought that economic liberalization and capitalistic prosperity would lead to democratic freedom in China Reality has proven very un -Fukuyama like in this regard and the Chinese totalitarian - state has been strengthened inadvertently by U.S. help.
2) US businesses cooperate with the Chinese government in suppressing the freedom of the Chinese people. These businesses include among others, the Internet giant Google.
3) It is difficult for an outside business person to make money in China unless he adopts the corrupt practices of the Chinese.
4) China is not an inward-looking Middle Kingdom but rather an aggressive potentially dangerous adversary to the free world, first in the economic realm but also increasingly in the military realm.
5) The corruption of Chinese society is also present in the thriving pay- for- play sex business.
6) China is thus not the model for a future world living in prosperity, democracy and freedom, and the personal dignity of the individual.

A Sad Book for a Sad China.......2005-12-27

This is very sad book in its content and tone. Let me spoil the party by summarizing the main points of the book, and my comment in bracket:

1) Very few American companies really making money in China [True];
2) China is a bottomless hole for foreign investors, because China doesn't play by "normal" economic rules; instead its totally corrupted government and business practices decide the success or failure of a company [True];
3) The only way to make money, or "succeed" in China is to a) Following the Party; b)Bribery; c) cater to government desires [True];
4) China has a lot of prostitutes [True but irrelevant for the bigger topics we are discussing here].

This is a sad book for American companies aspiring to make it in China, but more sad for Chinese society. Right now in China, it's rotten from inside out, and bottom up. Money is everything - integrity, character, morality, honor don't mean a thing there. The only thing China can provide is cheap labor. But current Chinese economy growth is real, American companies CAN make money. The most important quality you need is to be blind and deaf to the things you are accustomed to based on the Western value. And if you like, you can certainly enjoy the money you will make there and many fine women there as well. Once again, it's more sad for China than for foreign countries.

I am a Chinese American who was born and raised in China, and have been going back to China very often. I lost a small fortune in China trying to do things the American way. Then made a small fortune doing things in Chinese ways. After every while working in China, I feel compelled to come back to the States to sanitize my soul. Some people call me successful, but deep in my heart, I know that's because I have sold my integrity, ruined my character. I feel no honor and powerless in following my own moral guidance in Chinese business world. But I have a couple of dollars in my packet and once in while sleep with some women who are not my wife. Make your own decison what kind of life is this? But that is what doing business in China is all about.

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