The Oregon Trail: Sketches Of Prairie And Mountain

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The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Mountain Life By Francis Parkman Jr. The book I have chosen to perform a history book analysis over is a book titled The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky Mountain Life. This book was written by Francis Parkman. The book was first published in twenty-one parts in Knickerbocker’s Magazine and was published as book in 1849. I chose this book simply because I wanted to find out more about the Oregon Trail. The book was somewhat misleading though as it did not exactly describe the common experiences that were made by many emigrants on the Oregon Trail. Parkman’s firsthand experience was somewhat spoiled. The supplies and conditions under which he traveled were not nearly what I had expected from what I had heard in the past. The struggle for survival and the author’s well-being was not a problem in this book. The author’s point of view was developed from his first-hand experiences on his travels on the Oregon Trail. Parkman had been born into a wealthy family so his trip could have easily considered to have been luxurious in comparison to other regular people who had made the full trip. Parkman’s trip was also very short. His trip ended at the Rocky Mountains, only traveling about a third or a half of the real Oregon Trail. Parkman’s thesis in the book is hard to make out due to the book being full of observations. Parkman trek on the Oregon Trail is met with many observations. Particularly, his crude descriptions of Indians during the time he spent with them gives the reader a hint of his hatred that he held towards them. “These men were thorough savages. Neither their manners nor their ideas were in the slightest degree modified by contact with civilization. They knew nothing of the power and real character of the white men, and their children would scream in terror at the sight of me.” (142) Parkman

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