The Pacific Northwest: An Interpretive History (Revised and Enlarged Edition)

I just loved this book. It was required to read for a history class. I just loved how the author wrote this book, and added humor into it.I was so interested of what was going to happen next. a good book to read, a good book for any type of reading.It's about the history of "The Pacific NorthWest", for before the time when Lewis and Clark explored the area and reached Astoria on the coast of Oregon. It talks about the Days of Captain cook and the fight for the terriory, and each chapter is broken down into sub-chapters for more clarification.It goes to the history of N.W. to about the mid 1990's. I really enjoyed this book, and learned a lot about the area.

Mr. Schwentes has written a fine example of what an introductory survey of a region should be: broad and sympathetic in scope, with generous quotes, excerpts, and analysis. He doesn't harp on any one group's preeminance but instead shows us the region's social, political and economic fortunes from European discovery to the present, through graphs, photographs, political cartoons. Missing is only a much-needed chapter on pre-historic Native American habitation, but given his even-handed handling of the issue throughout the rest of the book, this is a quibble easily corrected in future editions."The Pacific Northwest" would be a valuable text in a high school or college setting, as well as for the general public.

This book was nice because it didn't just talk about "the complete Native American Experience" or "the complete African American experience" instead, it would talk about an historical event and explains how that effected the masses as well as the Native Americans, African Americans, women, Chicanos/as, Asian Americans, labor, environmentalists, etc. It was quietly inclusive. Plus it discussed all aspects of WA state and NWern history from European exploration to Microsoft and Boeing aircraft. Very complete, used as a textbook for a college class at the U of Washington.