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The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey
Author:
Buck, Rinker
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Class:
978
Age: Adult
Language: English
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LC: F597
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ISBN-13: 9781451659160
LCCN: 2015001159
Imprint: Simon & Schuster
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Pub Date: 06/30/2015
Availability: Out of Stock Indefinitely
List: $28.00
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Hardcover
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Physical Description:
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450 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
H 9.25",
D 1.4",
1.65 lbs.
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LC Series:
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Brodart Sources:
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Brodart's Insight Catalog: Adult
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Bibliographies:
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Los Angeles Times Bestsellers List
New York Times Bestsellers List
New York Times Bestsellers: Adult Nonfiction
Public Library Core Collection: Nonfiction, 16th ed.
Public Library Core Collection: Nonfiction, 17th ed.
Publishers Weekly Bestsellers
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Awards:
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Kirkus Starred Reviews
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Starred Reviews:
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Kirkus Reviews
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TIPS Subjects:
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History, American--1776-1860
Travel/Tourism
Western U. S.
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BISAC Subjects: |
HISTORY / Expeditions & Discoveries
HISTORY / United States / General
TRAVEL / Essays & Travelogues
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LC Subjects:
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Buck, Rinker,, 1950-, Travel, Oregon National Historic Trail
Frontier and pioneer life, West (U.S.)
Oregon National Historic Trail
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SEARS Subjects: |
Buck, Rinker,, 1950-, Travel
Frontier and pioneer life, West (U.S.)
Oregon Trail
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Reading Programs: |
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| Annotations |
| Publisher Annotations | 11/24/2014 |
| In the bestselling tradition of Bill Bryson and Tony Horwitz, Rinker Buck's The Oregon Trail is a major work of participatory history: an epic account of traveling the entire 2,000-mile length of the Oregon Trail the old-fashioned way, in a covered wagon with a team of mules-which hasn't been done in a century-that also tells the rich history of the trail, the people who made the migration, and its significance to the country. Spanning 2,000 miles and traversing six states from Missouri to the Pacific Ocean, the Oregon Trail is the route that made America. In the fifteen years before the Civil War, when 400,000 pioneers used it to emigrate West-historians still regard this as the largest land migration of all time-the trail united the coasts, doubled the size of the country, and laid the groundwork for the railroads. The trail years also solidified the American character: our plucky determination in the face of adversity, our impetuous cycle of financial bubbles and busts, the fractious clash of ethnic populations competing for the same jobs and space. Today, amazingly, the trail is all but forgotten. Rinker Buck is no stranger to grand adventures. 'The New Yorker' described his first travel narrative, 'Flight of Passage,' as 'a funny, cocky gem of a book,' and with 'The Oregon Trail' he seeks to bring the most important road in American history back to life. At once a majestic American journey, a significant work of history, and a personal saga reminiscent of bestsellers by Bill Bryson and Cheryl Strayed, the book tells the story of Buck's 2,000-mile expedition across the plains with tremendous humor and heart. He was accompanied by three cantankerous mules, his boisterous brother, Nick, and an 'incurably filthy' Jack Russell terrier named Olive Oyl. Along the way, Buck dodges thunderstorms in Nebraska, chases his runaway mules across miles of Wyoming plains, scouts more than five hundred miles of nearly vanished trail on foot, crosses the Rockies, makes desperate fifty-mile forced marches for water, and repairs so many broken wheels and axels that he nearly reinvents the art of wagon travel itself. Apart from charting his own geographical and emotional adventure, Buck introduces readers to the evangelists, shysters, natives, trailblazers, and everyday dreamers who were among the first of the pioneers to make the journey west. With a rare narrative power, a refreshing candor about his own weakness and mistakes, and an extremely attractive obsession for history and travel, 'The Oregon Trail' draws readers into the journey of a lifetime. |
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| Starred Reviews: |
| Kirkus Reviews | 06/01/2015 |
| A crazy whim of a trip on a covered wagon turns into an inspired exploration of American identity. Journalist Buck (Shane Comes Home, 2005, etc.) chronicles his summerlong journey across the "Great American Desert" in a covered wagon, an arduous, astonishing journey that traced the same exodus of more than 400,000 pioneers across the Oregon Trail in the 15 years before the Civil War. The author and his brother had the knowledge and wherewithal to make such an ambitious journey largely because of their upbringing in rural New Jersey, where their father, a Look magazine editor and former pilot, kept horses and wagons and took the family of 11 children on a similar, though shorter, journey into Pennsylvania in the summer of 1958. Once Buck realized he could not manage three mules and a wagon all by himself, he enlisted his big, enormously capable brother, and the two procured the authentic 19th-century Peter Schuttler wagon and three specially bred American mules (each with its own wonderfully eccentric personality) and all the necessary equipment for breakdowns and repairs. The preparations were daunting, and Buck fascinatingly walks readers through all of them, all with an eye to how the early settlers made the actual journey, from St. Joseph, Missouri, to the Willamette Valley, Oregon: 2,000-plus miles of carefully plotted trail, encompassing high desert and mountains, rivers and shaky bridges, thunderstorms, scant water, and patches of no road. Throughout, the travelers were, by necessity, required to frequently jettison supplies. "See America Slowly" was the theme of the men's boyhood trip, a theme resurrected sweetly for this one. The journey encouraged delighted observers to shelter and feed the men and mules, often in the towns' communal rodeo grounds, and allowed the brothers to reconnect over childhood memories and with the American land they cherished. By turns frankly hilarious, historically elucidating, emotionally touching, and deeply informative. 448pg. KIRKUS MEDIA LLC, c2015. |
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| Journal Reviews |
| BookPage | 07/01/2015 |
| For another contemporary adventurer, wanderlust was bred into his bones. When Rinker Buck was young, his father took the whole family on a covered-wagon trip from New Jersey to Pennsylvania. At age 17, Buck and his 15-year-old brother rebuilt a Piper Cub and became the youngest aviators to fly coast to coast. In 2011, Buck decided to travel the 2,000-mile Oregon Trail from Missouri to Oregon in a restored covered wagon pulled by three mules. He chronicles his "completely lunatic notion" in the wonderfully engaging The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey. He's accompanied by his brother, Nick, an expert horseman and mechanic. Nick is seemingly the ideal partner, except that he and Buck are the quintessential Odd Couple, with Buck being fastidious Felix and Nick sloppy Oscar . Throughout, Buck skillfully weaves historical anecdotes into their misadventures, such as the story of Narcissa Whitman, the first white woman to cross the Rockies, whom Buck regards as his "guardian angel of the trail." Buck definitely needs an angel, sheepishly admitting after the first night that the wagon is overloaded, forcing him to leave behind cherished items like his Brooks Brothers bathrobe, bocce balls and shoeshine kit. Buck set out "to learn to live with uncertainty," and in the end he and his brother fully embrace the experience, beautifully navigating a pioneer expedition on 21st-century terms. Alice Cary. 464. BOOKPAGE, c2015. |
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| Booklist | 07/01/2015 |
| The Oregon Trail still exists. More than a century after the vast land migration that expanded American settlement across the continent and earned a mythic place in history, the trail lives on in the form of the highways and infrastructure, ranches and mines that sprang up along the route. Journalist and author Buck looked to trace both the physical trail and its enduring legacy by setting out with his brother in a covered wagon for Oregon. Their trip adds a good dose of reality to romanticized notions of the trail, detailing the many challenges faced by pioneers, from cheating outfitters looking to make a buck to the deadly threat of cholera, which lurked even in the most scenic landscapes. Buck's use of original pioneer journals and scholarly research gives historical depth and context to his journey. While he has no patience for ignorant Americans sightseeing from well-appointed RVs, Buck's love of the trail--and the mules, the helpful strangers, and the boastful brother who aided him along the way--will capture the imagination of any greenhorn. Thoreson, Bridget. 480p. AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, c2015. |
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| Library Journal | 04/15/2015 |
| Award-winning journalist and author Buck (Flight of Passage) has ostensibly written a book about his experiences retrekking the 2,000-mile Oregon Trail from St. Joseph, MO, to Baker City, OR, in a mule-drawn covered wagon with his brother Nick and Nick's dog Olive Oyl. As romantic as the adventure sounds, this is not a casual summer endeavour--don't try to imitate it. There's a second, parallel story, a description of another covered wagon trip he took at age seven in 1958 with his father and siblings. The family set out from central Jersey across the Delaware River to south central Pennsylvania for a monthlong "see America slowly" expedition. This adventure, tamer than the Oregon one, is now as much a part of Buck as his DNA. The Oregon trip is fraught with mishaps, near-death experiences, and plain bad luck. But there were also angels along the way helping them get through and guiding Jake and the other two mules. The parallel story is, at times, more compelling than the contemporary one, and the book could have been cut by a quarter and still be a solid read. It shouldn't take longer to read the book than to actually cross the Oregon Trail. VERDICT Recommended for folk interested in the Oregon Trail, pioneer history, or mules. [See Prepub Alert, 2/23/15.]. Lee Arnold, Historical Soc. of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. 480p. LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2015. |
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| Library Journal Prepub Alert | 02/23/2015 |
| In the years 1845-1860, 400,000 pioneers traveled west along the Oregon Trail, moving 2,000 miles from Missouri to the Pacific in what has come to be regarded as the largest land migration in history. Buck, an award-winning journalist whose Flight of Passage recalls the summer when he and his brother became the youngest duo to fly across America, tells the history of the trail. He also recalls traveling it himself-the way the pioneers had, in a covered wagon with a team of cranky mules, though doubtless none of the original trekkers had a Jack Russell terrier named Olive Oyl along for the ride. Participatory history, so join in; with an eight-city tour. Barbara Hoffert. 432p. LJ Prepub Alert Online Review. LIBRARY JOURNAL, c2015. |
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| Publishers Weekly | 04/20/2015 |
| Despite growing up on the East Coast, Buck's (Flight of Passage) fondest childhood memories are of going on family trips with his eccentric father, who insisted on "seeing America slowly" by traveling and camping out in a covered wagon. These trips ignited a lust for travel and history that stuck with Buck, and that came roaring back when he found out that the Oregon Trail is meticulously preserved and traversable. Buck and his foul-mouthed handyman brother, Nick, set out to follow the 2,000-mile path, with only a covered wagon and mule team as their mode of transportation. The ensuing tale combines the brothers' personal narrative with the remarkable history of the trail, including written accounts from the pioneers who braved it. What could have been a set of rote diary entries is anything but, as Buck's enthusiasm for the often arduous trip, coupled with his honest assessment of poor judgments and mistakes along the way, makes for an entertaining and enlightening account of one of America's most legendary migrations. Even readers who don't know a horse from a mule will find themselves swept up in this inspiring and masterful tale of perseverance and the pioneer spirit. Illus. Agent: Sloan Harris, ICM. (July). 480p. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, c2015. |
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