This was my least favorite (I think more accurate to say, the one I disliked the most) volume in the entire Landmark series that I've read so far, out of several dozen, primarily due to the outright arrogance, pretension and blatant racism of its author, who is an utter judgemental blowhard. I think it's the only one in the series I've given a two-star review to, and I think anything less than a three-star rating, in fact.
And more: I'm frankly concerned about readers who left a four- or five-star review, even if MANY also noted the same issues I did, and who recommended pre-screening for young readers. I would go much further, personally - I wouldn't recommend this for, at least, pre-high-school students at all.
The biography states: "Mr. Adams' amazing knowledge of the history of upper New York State is the result of his lifelong interest in the region in which he was born." He may be knowledgeable about his own region (doubtful, frankly, to judge from the content here), but he knows very little about the Southwest - so, probably best to leave authorship about that to persons who are familiar with it, and leave the tall tales out altogether.
Admittedly, I haven't read any of the author's other books, and, after enduring this one, I'm highly disinclined to do so, on account of his style of writing and personal views. First and foremost, this book is just terribly written, for a number of reasons, so I wouldn't expect much better from anything else he's published.
First, there isn't very much informative content about the Santa Fe Trail at all. It reads like a dime novel, frequently employing colorful language, which isn't necessarily offensive itself (although many of the terms used throughout are), but it just basically amounts to little more than a highly-exaggerated adventure story about Captain William Becknell's wagon train journey west to Santa Fe from Missouri, and a salacious one at that. Becknell's successful ventures resulted in him being hired by the Congress to map the train for traders and the US Army in 1825, leading to him being labeled the Father of the Santa Fe Trail. That said, this could most rightly be called a work of historical fiction, aside from the major events, some of which may or may not have occurred, as there is a great deal of disagreement about whether much of what is described actually happened as it was reported by the "adventurers."
The rest of the text aside from the first chapter is at least readable. That said, however, I think this is the first volume in this series I've read by this particular author, and I hope it's the last. I started writing about all the problems I encountered with this text within the first DOZEN pages, and the hits just kept on coming. The language in this volume is so problematic, in fact, that I wouldn't even recommend it for young children, unless as the instructor, you're prepared to do some serious explaining about racism and prejudice, reflected in the vernacular this author uses throughout.
Alternatively, it's an EXCELLENT example to include in a lesson on UNCONSCIOUS BIAS, with careful attention paid to pointing out the blatantly offensive passages, as well as the author's hypocrisy. These books are certainly a product of their time, and I know that most were published in the decidedly un-PC 1950s, but this one is just beyond the pale, to the point that it's just indecent and highly insulting.
Every racist epithet for Native peoples you can imagine are found within, and not in a sarcastic context, which I've seen with other volumes in this series. Here, the author uncritically and repeatedly calls Native people "savages," "the red man," "red-skinned," "uncivilized," and, of course, frequently employs the obligatory, yet highly offensive term "squaw," used interchangeably to refer to a Native woman - I could keep going, but why bother? You get the idea.
This author makes the inexcusable mistake of pointing the finger at someone else - in this case, primarily the Spanish conquistadors - but fails to take a good long look in the mirror when it comes to racial insensitivity and obvious bias. Another great example of this dude just being straight-up tone deaf: "Doubtless the many cruelties committed by the red-skinned tribes (!) in the following centuries were the natural result of these early Spaniards' crimes against the Indians. The savages were no worse than the apostles of civilization." Just... wow.
Oddly, there is some pretext at criticism of "white supremacy," but the language the author uses makes it sound forced, almost as if he's being required to comment on the atrocities committed by European explorers, but he then purposely goes about it in the most demeaning way possible toward Native people. Example: regarding a massacre of villagers by Coronado near present-day Albuquerque, "more than two hundred savages were slaughtered."
And, apparently, after butchering his way through the Southwest, Coronado, aside from all the "dead Indians," of course, apparently "left the region better off than he found it," for the reason that he graciously set loose a flock of sheep and some horses, which then became fruitful and multiplied, and "grew up" in the country. Yes, dude's serious. What Coronado did, of course, was to effectively introduce severely-damaging invasive species onto a new continent ill-adapted to assimilate them, which permanently altered the environments of the Southwest and beyond.
Santa Fe Trail lore admittedly has some fantastical elements and tales attributed to it, but it's an author's job to bring it and keep it down to earth. Because of all the idiocy (refer to the above example about the "gracious" act of introducing invasive species, and then claiming that left the region better than a Spanish conquistador found it) and blatant racial insensitivity (and I'm pretty hard to offend, in that regard), this book was just painful to read. I just wanted it to be over as soon as possible.
At the end of the day, this guy is just straight-up stupid - utterly ignorant and a purveyor of tall tales and misinformation, like the people he criticizes for doing just that. There are many superior books about this subject, ones that don't read like a cheap, confabulated old-West dime novel, and I'm wondering if that was somewhat the intent.
As much as I like this series generally, I would seriously leave this one out. It's reflective of everything that was so wrong with the mentality toward non-White people in that time period, including this Western, "cowboys-and-Indians" trope, which is infuriating to see in a HISTORY book written for, in essence, children.
And more: I'm frankly concerned about readers who left a four- or five-star review, even if MANY also noted the same issues I did, and who recommended pre-screening for young readers. I would go much further, personally - I wouldn't recommend this for, at least, pre-high-school students at all.
The biography states: "Mr. Adams' amazing knowledge of the history of upper New York State is the result of his lifelong interest in the region in which he was born." He may be knowledgeable about his own region (doubtful, frankly, to judge from the content here), but he knows very little about the Southwest - so, probably best to leave authorship about that to persons who are familiar with it, and leave the tall tales out altogether.
Admittedly, I haven't read any of the author's other books, and, after enduring this one, I'm highly disinclined to do so, on account of his style of writing and personal views. First and foremost, this book is just terribly written, for a number of reasons, so I wouldn't expect much better from anything else he's published.
First, there isn't very much informative content about the Santa Fe Trail at all. It reads like a dime novel, frequently employing colorful language, which isn't necessarily offensive itself (although many of the terms used throughout are), but it just basically amounts to little more than a highly-exaggerated adventure story about Captain William Becknell's wagon train journey west to Santa Fe from Missouri, and a salacious one at that. Becknell's successful ventures resulted in him being hired by the Congress to map the train for traders and the US Army in 1825, leading to him being labeled the Father of the Santa Fe Trail. That said, this could most rightly be called a work of historical fiction, aside from the major events, some of which may or may not have occurred, as there is a great deal of disagreement about whether much of what is described actually happened as it was reported by the "adventurers."
The rest of the text aside from the first chapter is at least readable. That said, however, I think this is the first volume in this series I've read by this particular author, and I hope it's the last. I started writing about all the problems I encountered with this text within the first DOZEN pages, and the hits just kept on coming. The language in this volume is so problematic, in fact, that I wouldn't even recommend it for young children, unless as the instructor, you're prepared to do some serious explaining about racism and prejudice, reflected in the vernacular this author uses throughout.
Alternatively, it's an EXCELLENT example to include in a lesson on UNCONSCIOUS BIAS, with careful attention paid to pointing out the blatantly offensive passages, as well as the author's hypocrisy. These books are certainly a product of their time, and I know that most were published in the decidedly un-PC 1950s, but this one is just beyond the pale, to the point that it's just indecent and highly insulting.
Every racist epithet for Native peoples you can imagine are found within, and not in a sarcastic context, which I've seen with other volumes in this series. Here, the author uncritically and repeatedly calls Native people "savages," "the red man," "red-skinned," "uncivilized," and, of course, frequently employs the obligatory, yet highly offensive term "squaw," used interchangeably to refer to a Native woman - I could keep going, but why bother? You get the idea.
This author makes the inexcusable mistake of pointing the finger at someone else - in this case, primarily the Spanish conquistadors - but fails to take a good long look in the mirror when it comes to racial insensitivity and obvious bias. Another great example of this dude just being straight-up tone deaf: "Doubtless the many cruelties committed by the red-skinned tribes (!) in the following centuries were the natural result of these early Spaniards' crimes against the Indians. The savages were no worse than the apostles of civilization." Just... wow.
Oddly, there is some pretext at criticism of "white supremacy," but the language the author uses makes it sound forced, almost as if he's being required to comment on the atrocities committed by European explorers, but he then purposely goes about it in the most demeaning way possible toward Native people. Example: regarding a massacre of villagers by Coronado near present-day Albuquerque, "more than two hundred savages were slaughtered."
And, apparently, after butchering his way through the Southwest, Coronado, aside from all the "dead Indians," of course, apparently "left the region better off than he found it," for the reason that he graciously set loose a flock of sheep and some horses, which then became fruitful and multiplied, and "grew up" in the country. Yes, dude's serious. What Coronado did, of course, was to effectively introduce severely-damaging invasive species onto a new continent ill-adapted to assimilate them, which permanently altered the environments of the Southwest and beyond.
Santa Fe Trail lore admittedly has some fantastical elements and tales attributed to it, but it's an author's job to bring it and keep it down to earth. Because of all the idiocy (refer to the above example about the "gracious" act of introducing invasive species, and then claiming that left the region better than a Spanish conquistador found it) and blatant racial insensitivity (and I'm pretty hard to offend, in that regard), this book was just painful to read. I just wanted it to be over as soon as possible.
At the end of the day, this guy is just straight-up stupid - utterly ignorant and a purveyor of tall tales and misinformation, like the people he criticizes for doing just that. There are many superior books about this subject, ones that don't read like a cheap, confabulated old-West dime novel, and I'm wondering if that was somewhat the intent.
As much as I like this series generally, I would seriously leave this one out. It's reflective of everything that was so wrong with the mentality toward non-White people in that time period, including this Western, "cowboys-and-Indians" trope, which is infuriating to see in a HISTORY book written for, in essence, children.
