ARKANSAS: A Narrative History

Reviews

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-11-29
Summary: "Arkansas history - brief"

A really good book that tells of Arkansas history in a brief form but enough to wet my interest so much that I researched more detailed information through the internet. Which added to all of the information my teacher, Dr. Bridges, gave us during our college course.

Well worth the purchase.

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2009-11-21
Summary: "Terrific"

I loved this book. It is a great read. It's a history lesson told as a story. Gives great insight into the people, their lives, accomplishments, and failers of the Arkansas and Louisiana frontier. Offers several interesting and sometimes funny situations of our past. Very well written book.

Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2002-09-12
Summary: "The Banana Republic"

History books from provincial history departments frequently suffer from effusions of PC revisionism. This one is unusual in that despite its ghastly book jacket, soberly approaches (perhaps too soberly) the most colorful region of the United States. The Wild West of film and pulp westerns lasted only about fifteen years while the Arkansas Wild West has extended from the 1820s until the present day. But, it is also more than a history of scoundrels in elected office, corrupt fundamentalist preachers, bozos, ... and bumpkins. It chronicles a society that produced ..., local Rockefeller philanthropy, the triumph over hookworm and pellagra. Indeed, the only place in America that Bill Clinton could be from is Arkansas. Nobody would ever believe it if this were a movie.
On the down side, the text is uneven, and often stilted. There are references to African Americans but none to Anglo Americans, Teutonic Americans or Mongrel Americans. In short this is a relatively good history for the times.