A Pictorial History of the American Indian

This book has several low ratings, but no reviews. I grew curious about that and began looking at my copy to see if I could quickly determine why. It's too long for me to read it fully right now but here's some things I can share from a quick skimming of the book. (I've moved it up on my reading priority list, and will do a better review at that point.)

My book is the third printing, published in 1957. Chapters include 'They Discovered America'; 'Kings of the South'; Mothers and Tortures'; 'The Old Settlers'; 'Behind the Shining Mountains'; The Non-Vanishing Americans'.

I thought 'Mothers and Tortures' was an odd combination, and read some of that chapter to make sure moms weren't getting tortured. (That would certainly explain the low show more ratings!) I didn't find any mom torturing, but after reading about a warrior being ceremonially tortured to death, I had to stop reading. This is not a bad reflection on the book; I am particularly unsuited for reading things like that. (If you look at my reviews you'll note that most are about cheerful children's books like Diary of a Spider (Diary of a Spider is a great book, by the way.))

The book is filled with photographs of people, items, places, and artwork. It's readable and easy to understand, and none of the places I dipped into for reading were condescending or pompous. The writing of this review was delayed as I read and learned that Sequoyah invented the Cherokee alphabet (nice picture of alphabet shown in the book).

In short, I judge the book to be a worthwhile addition to my library and look forward to reading it in more detail on another day. I hope this sort-of-review is of assistance to anyone reading it. show less

Sent for review for addition to the collection

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