- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (Feb 22 2002)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 041592765X
- ISBN-13: 978-0415927659
- Product Dimensions: 21.3 x 15.2 x 2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 358 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #389,164 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Crossing the U.S.-Canadian border today is a simple, uncomplicated process. But as LaDow shows in this earnest and lively account of the frontier during the 19th and early 20th centuries, crossing the border was not always so trivial. LaDow, a historian and commentator for National Public Radio, focuses on a 100-mile stretch between Montana and Saskatchewan, called the "medicine line" by Native American tribes because of its seemingly magical potential to correct wrongs and reverse fortunes. For example, after the Battle of Little Big Horn, LaDow writes, Sioux chief Sitting Bull and many followers fled across the line into Canada, securing the personal freedom and political asylum they lacked in the United States. Nevertheless, because the buffalo were as scarce in Canada as they were to the south, Sitting Bull and his starving tribespeople eventually had no choice but to cross the border again and surrender to U.S. troops. During Prohibition, bootleggers (including the father of Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Wallace Stegner) loaded barrels of Canadian whiskey into model Ts and drove them across the border to thirsty American cities. In the 1880s, tycoon James Hill pushed the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway across the prairie into British Columbia; just a decade later, he crossed the border to build the competing Great Northern Railway just 100 miles south in Montana. LaDow leaves no aspect of life along the medicine line unexamined, addressing everything from folklore and literature to economics and political leadership. Sometimes this leads to an overload of distracting details; on the whole, however, this a well-written and thoroughly researched history uncovers the forgotten dramas that once played out along what is today the most peaceful border on the planet. Illus.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.From Library Journal
A portion of the Montana-Saskatchewan prairie border known as the "medicine line" has been described as "terrible," "sterile," and "unfit for civilized men." LaDow looks beyond these physical shortcomings to investigate its history and reveal the growing pains of two nations. The battle for supremacy between natives and whites on both sides of the line predominates her story of this once-contested land, and native icons such as Sitting Bull and Louis Riel are considered in detail. The rivalries among the United States, Canada, and the Native Americans who lived there are examined as two competing railways are built, redirecting the North American economy from north-south to east-west. And while the British-inspired RCMP patrol the Canadian communities, the American outlaws take pride in challenging authority. Despite the countries' differences, LaDow always comes back to the similarities that transcend this boundary. All settlers share a "speculative spirit," enduring the loneliness, drought, and broken dreams that plague them, while recognizing the cultural interests that bring them together. This scholarly and philosophical study is recommended for large public libraries. Isabel Coates, Boston Consulting Group, Ont.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
George VandeVen nodded toward the broad seascape of Mountain prairie and gave his voice the inflection of someone dismissing a terrible rumor. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
George VandeVen nodded toward the broad seascape of Mountain prairie and gave his voice the inflection of someone dismissing a terrible rumor. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
interesting if a bit academic,
By mike arents (Grand Rapids MI) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Medicine Line: Life and Death on a North American Borderland (Hardcover)
interesting account if a bit dry and academic. led me to Wallace Stegner's "Wolf Willow" which is richer with anecdotes and better writing. also led me to "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" which is a must-read for any Jefferson-loving American. all three titles made me interested in the lives of the Indians before 1800: was their life as brutal when the enemy was other tribes rather than white goldseekers, homesteaders et al? or were they at peace with the earth and each other?
5.0 out of 5 stars
Imaginatively Written Western History,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Medicine Line: Life and Death on a North American Borderland (Hardcover)
This is a lyrical, vividly written narrative history in a style which will appeal to a general audience. The author has closely studied an area along the Montana-Saskathewan border beginning with Sitting Bull's surrender to the U.S. Cavalry in 1881 and ending with the post World War I influenza pandemic. Although largely empty now, in the early 20th Century this vast dry-land prairie was home to many thousands of small-scale homesteaders struggling to wrest a living from an unforgiving landscape. The author includes interviews and correspondence with the late author Wallace Stegner, whose family attempted to make a living on both sides of this borderland. The numerous photos and illustrations are great, and along with the text give the reader an evocative sense of the hard life on the high western plains.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews) 6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Imaginatively Written Western History,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Medicine Line: Life and Death on a North American Borderland (Hardcover)
This is a lyrical, vividly written narrative history in a style which will appeal to a general audience. The author has closely studied an area along the Montana-Saskathewan border beginning with Sitting Bull's surrender to the U.S. Cavalry in 1881 and ending with the post World War I influenza pandemic. Although largely empty now, in the early 20th Century this vast dry-land prairie was home to many thousands of small-scale homesteaders struggling to wrest a living from an unforgiving landscape. The author includes interviews and correspondence with the late author Wallace Stegner, whose family attempted to make a living on both sides of this borderland. The numerous photos and illustrations are great, and along with the text give the reader an evocative sense of the hard life on the high western plains.
0 of 4 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
interesting if a bit academic,
By mike arents - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Medicine Line: Life and Death on a North American Borderland (Hardcover)
interesting account if a bit dry and academic. led me to Wallace Stegner's "Wolf Willow" which is richer with anecdotes and better writing. also led me to "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" which is a must-read for any Jefferson-loving American. all three titles made me interested in the lives of the Indians before 1800: was their life as brutal when the enemy was other tribes rather than white goldseekers, homesteaders et al? or were they at peace with the earth and each other?
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