Robert L. Breeden (1925–2013)

Reviewed August 2007

I just had to read something about Alaska, I know so little about the place we are about to cruise in. The author breaks up his narrative by region, the slate is so diverse it is amazing. I was surprised at the diversity. I was very interested in learning about battles fought during WWII in Alaska. Even more so after mom told us her brother Doss was stationed in Dutch Harbor during the war and was shelled there. I also found the story of Keating and his photographer show more George Mobley being stranded on Little Dromede for 11 days, starving until the village shot a walrus. The foods he ate in the Northern most part of Alaska were disgusting. They say people are the same everywhere and after listening in between the lines of what the locals told Keating. You can see the locals were upset about non-locals coming into town, buying up property and changing the town. I have heard this same lament all over during my travels also.

18-2007 show less

fascinating. so many cultures, always some dying when in competition with technology of all kinds. religion really does kill a lot of cultures, leaving very little in its wake.

A fascinating book, as most National Geo books are. It tends to be a bit vague, but it'll certainly spark your curiosity. I was on Wikipedia all day after reading this book.

This is a coffee table book, having just a few short coverages of widely seperated events and travels of early North America post European immigration. Most of the pages are photos with the text usually limited to photo captions and a few paragraphs of unrelated history. The photos were not taken with any correspondence to the editors of the stories, so do not normally relate to the stories they are within. However the ilustrator did communicate with the editor so illustrations do support show more the text, including some maps.

Photos are nice, story too clipped to accomplish much, and too unrelated to the photos chosen to rank as a keeper. Just enjoy the pictures independently from the short illustrated history. It is a photo book with long illustrated captions. Since the events occurred before photography, the photos are not of the events or people, but they are artistically good graphics. show less