Oregon’s History: People of the Northwest in the Land of Eden

Reviewed by Sara Lewis, Assistant Professor, Tidewater Community College on 12/31/23

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

"Oregon's History: People of the Northwest in the Land of Eden" reviews the time periods of the expansion of Oregon starting with Native Americans prospering on the land that was interrupted by the migration of Americans into the area due to the Gold Rush. The book reviews migration and roles of different races in Oregon including African Americans, Chinese, Japanese, and women's roles. The book also covers the laws created to encourage migration in the area and laws that limited certain races rights that led to violence. There is a content page in which the book followed precisely with a reference page after each chapter.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The book covers all areas outlined in the contents. The book is broken down in time periods and reviews the expansion of Oregon. With my moderate experience in college history, the book is accurate in all areas including the Gold Rush in Oregon and the racism towards African Americans, Chinese, and Japanese families that immigrated to American trying to make a living. The book also accurately depicted the roles of women in the area that was occurring across American during the different time periods that were reviewed. A majority of the book was focused on social injustices occurring in the 18th and 19th century with different races then briefly reviewing changes that occurred in Oregon post WWII. The book accurately depicted the civil rights movement and ended in the 20th century.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

The book is written to solely depict the changes that occurred in the state of Oregon which can limit its use for certain courses. A history course could not solely use this book if the course is to review America as a whole. Teachers would have to supplement other resources to cover all states unless it is a course specific to the state of Oregon. While the book was focused on the state of Oregon only, many social injustices occurring in the state was also occurring everywhere else in the U.S.A during those time periods. For example, racism, violence towards other races, limited rights for women, civil rights movements, and slavery. This is a great book for students and teachers to use as an additional reference. The history of the book is accurate and will be relevant for many years. Furthermore, the book is arranged by time periods which allows additions to be easily added onto. Since the book ended with the 20th century, the author could easily add on changes occurring in Oregon in the 21st century up to present day.

Clarity rating: 5

The book is straightforward, clear, and concise. The book provides quotes that adds to the comprehension of the material and uses correct terminology. In addition, the book can be downloaded easily by students and teachers.

Consistency rating: 5

The book is written well for consistency by organizing the information by time periods. Topics outlined in the content was reviewed in the chapters. Pictures were added into the book to explain material and help readers visualize the context.

Modularity rating: 5

The formatting of the book allows teachers the capability to assign chapters easily for specific topics being covered during the course. The book is written in chronological order which allows teachers to start in anytime period they wish and allow students to review those specific chapters. The chapters are clearly labelled for readers to find easily. Furthermore, each chapter's material is concluded at the end and does not necessarily rely on the next chapter to conclude the information being received.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The organization of the book was concise and in chronological order making it easy for anyone to follow the book.

Interface rating: 4

This text allows the reader to download book or read the book from the internet browser. I downloaded the book as a pdf in which many students do not have access to pdf, but the website allows readers to view on the website directly allowing access for anyone who has a computer and internet. I was able to scroll through the entire book with no issue. The chapters in the content had links that made it easy to skip to different material. My issue with the book included the pictures. Some pictures came up perfectly fine, but some pictures had low resolution. I understand that many of the images were old, but my personal opinion would be to exclude the images that were unclear and low-quality. For example, one picture was of low quality I could not read the writing.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

The book was free of spelling errors. However, the book had some run on sentences in the first half of the book and extra spaces in the text that distracted me while reading. This did not include direct quotes that cannot be changed.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The book does explain cultural indifferences in Oregon free of bias opinions. The book does touch on many sensitive issues in American history in a respectful way including slavery, suppression of races, injustices, and racism.

Comments

Athanasios Michael has written a college level book that reviews Oregon's history precisely and respectfully. The items I like the most is that it is written in chronological order and is easy to read. Students do not need prior history courses to read and understand this book. Not only has the writer written a book that is easily accessible, but the book is also easily understandable by students at any experience and educational level.

Reviewed by George Zamzow, English Instructor, Portland Community College on 1/12/21

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

For a short text, it’s impressive how well this book covers Oregon’s history. I am not a historian, but, to my knowledge, I believe this book covers key eras, dynamics, and narratives in a balanced way.

In fact, it’s laudable that this book is actually much more comprehensive, and balanced, than books many times longer. The author clearly put thought into how much space to dedicate to different subjects here, by dedicating space to the history of Native Americans pre-contact, and the long history of settler colonialism central to Oregon history. Likewise, the book covers racial exclusion and the oppression of marginalized people, including Black Americans and Asian Americans.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

I’m not a historian, and so I don’t feel I’m qualified to answer this question. That said, here are two observations. First, the author writes with such authority and never appears biased when writing about aspects of Oregon history that I’m familiar with. On the other hand, I would have liked to have seen more sources either cited in-text or mentioned in a “notes” or “further reading” section at the back of the book. Not only would this help the book’s credibility, but would also facilitate further study.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

One of the great strengths of this book is its relevance. I see it staying relevant for years to come.

Clarity rating: 5

This book is impressively clear. The prose is consistently engaging, precise, and readable. In covering such a broad scope, it would be easy for the book to fall into abstraction, but the author includes quotes, examples, and narratives that elucidate the most important concepts.

Consistency rating: 5

Style, terminology, and approach remain consistent throughout.

Modularity rating: 5

Each chapter of this text could stand alone as an assigned reading, which is very much appreciated.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The organization of this text contributes to its flexible modularity. By presenting chapters that are organized around themes, the book avoids the kind of awkward changes in subject that could come from a text attempting to be more strictly chronological.

Interface rating: 4

It would improve the readability of the pdf if there were more whitespace at the headings of the subsections within chapters. Aside from that, it’s very readable in terms of formatting and layout, both in the online book and the pdf. It may be an issue on my end, but, using Chrome, I could not get the hyperlinks for the footnotes to work, either in the pdf or the online book.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

Not only is the book free of grammatical errors -- it’s in a clear, readable style generally free of any wordiness or ambiguity. Very well-written.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

Compared to many other texts about the history of the American West, this book does a much better job of covering the dark history of racial exclusion, white supremacy, settler colonialism and oppression of marginalized people.

Comments

Athanasios Michaels has crafted an excellent book here. I look forward to assigning portions of it to my first-year college writing students, and I’m sure I will return to it in my own personal study of history.

Reviewed by Kiersta Fricke-Gostnell, Department Chair; Full-time Faculty, Rogue Community College, Blue Mountain Community College on 1/6/21

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

This is an insightful overview of national social and cultural history seen through a regional lens. It would be appropriate for a survey U.S. history course with an emphasis on local Oregon history. The textbook explores Oregon history within these general categories: indigenous peoples and landscapes, colonization, Manifest Destiny, the genocide of Native Americans, the white supremacist ideology behind the settler colonization of Oregon, and the West at large, the Civil Rights Movement, the World Wars in Oregon, the Cold War, the counterculture movement, the end of the 20th century and beyond. Well-researched quotes add vivid detail.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The textbook is factually accurate with all sources and quotes cited.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

This book is a much-needed cultural and social history of Oregon as this state, and many others, grapple with its origin myths and racist past. The book accomplishes this in a factual, even-handed manner providing a deep-dive into Oregon history while also elucidating the nation's history. The text will not easily become obsolete or need major updates.

Clarity rating: 5

The text is clear, well-written, and engaging.

Consistency rating: 5

The humanist perspective of the textbook honors the history of various ethnicities and marginalized identities in Oregon, while exposing the racist past of the expansionist, heroic pioneer myth. This perspective, terminology and framework are made clear in the introduction and transparently presented throughout.

Modularity rating: 5

The chapters are sequential and similar in length. The material holds one's attention as a narrative, so could be easily read by a non-major. Individual sections can be presented on their own or to supplement other materials in a course.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The chapters flow clearly and logically. It would be helpful to have more descriptive, bolded, sub-headings within each chapter to bring the reader's attention back to an area to reread or review. In addition, more and various images could be used to illustrate content and context. There was also one caption, under the painting, "American Progress", that could be changed, as it was written in the language of the time, not the language of the textbook.

Interface rating: 5

The PDF version worked well, and the chapters were easy to access from the Table of Contents side bar.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

This textbook is well-written. I noticed only a few minor punctuation errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The text is exemplary in its perspective and inclusion of a variety or races, ethnicities, and backgrounds.

Comments

This is a timely, engaging, relevant book that will be useful for students in a number of disciplines.

Reviewed by Kristi Kowalski, Instructor, Rogue Community College on 1/5/21

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

The author does a good job at providing an overview of Oregon history. While many topics are explored in overview mode, some are covered more in-depth, and I found it to be a fascinating read. You get the big story along with selected tidbits of deeper explanation. There is a search feature which allows the reader to look up topics easily. Some points of regional importance may be missing, but in a book of this type and length, what the author accomplishes is giving the reader an easily digestible and accessible picture of Oregon's history.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

There is an appendix at the end of each chapter. Wording in certain parts indicates some bias, but there is clearly an effort to bring many diverse perspectives into the narrative.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Extremely useful and the first one of its kind that I have seen for Oregon- this text is just what I have been wanting for my GED Social Studies courses. The GED SS test is very broad in scope, focused on US History, and this text would be a wonderful supplement to put history into a more local context for students.

Clarity rating: 5

Very clear and easy to read text. The format is accessible and engaging.

Consistency rating: 5

Text is internally consistent in terms of terminology and framework.

Modularity rating: 5

One of my favorite things about this text is the format and how accessible it is to students. The sections are easily readable and I envision using this text as a supplement to my US History curriculum. It's not overwhelming and has clear subheadings, which when used with the search, would help students navigate easily to particular sections.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

Section titles are clear and presented in chronological order. Subheadings within sections are clearly labeled with topic/key people. Very easy to find information on specific people/places/events.

Interface rating: 5

Contents clearly marked by chapter/section, and a bar pops up along the bottom of the page which allows you to go forward or backward to the next section without scrolling back to the top.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

Very few grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

This text covers very complex and often disturbing history in a respectful way, bringing in stories and voices from a variety of perspectives.

Comments

I plan to use this text as a supplement in my class- I am excited to see a resource of this kind that is Oregon-specific. Students were especially engaged in history when there was a more 'local' connection- discovering New Deal WPA murals in the local post office, learning about the history of local tribes in our area, the person behind the place name, etc. This book will be a great addition to class as we work through US history, providing students with local context. An excellent resource!