Book Notes

Oregon Historical Quarterly volunteers and staff created these Book Notes by drawing on publishers' descriptions.

Resilience Through Writing: A Bibliographic Guide to Indigenous-Authored Publications in the Pacific Northwest before 1960 by Robert E. Walls edited by Darby C. Stapp Northwest Anthropology LLC, Richland, Washington, 2020. Illustrations. 499 pages. $34.95 paper.

In this large volume, author Robert Wells has compiled a body of literature from across the Pacific Northwest that consists of nearly 2,000 entries by over 700 individuals, 29 percent of whom are women. Published as part of the Journal of Northwest Anthropology's "Memoir Series," Walls's research includes almost any type of engagement with alphabetic literacy in which Native authors designated their writing for publication for general readers. Resilience Through Writing provides new perspectives on Native American and First Nations cultures in the Pacific Northwest. As such, it is a useful research tool for tribal members, tribal historians, and scholars of Indigenous literature, political science, and culture change.

Endless Pressure Endlessly Applied: The Autobiography of an Eco-Warrior by Brock Evans with George Venn Wake-Robin Press, LaGrande, Oregon, 2020. Illustrations and photographs. 491 pages. $75.00 paper.

For many years, Brock Evans has been described as one of America's most inspirational leaders in the fight to protect the nation's environment and wildlife. He is renowned for his decades of experience strategically battling against developers to save forestland, preserve clean water and air, and defend the lives of vulnerable plants and animals. An attorney by training, Evans was the Sierra Club's Northwest Representative during the struggle against Snake River dams and was the organization's chief lobbyist in Washington, D.C., during final passage of the Hells Canyon National Recreation Act bill. After helping to save over fourteen million acres of green space over thirty years, he received the Sierra Club's highest honor, the John Muir Award. In this coffee-table-sized autobiographical book, written with the help of editor George Venn, Evans documents eight distinct periods of his life through hundreds of speeches, conservation documents, diaries, testimonies, essays, letters, and articles. Photographs illustrate stories and events from Evans's personal life as well as the many places he helped save.

The Mills That Built Coos Bay, Oregon, and the Men Who Made It Happen by William A. Lansing Bridge View Publishing, North Bend, Oregon, 2020. Photographs, maps, notes, index. 574 pages. $82.95 cloth.

In this large-format book, author William A. "Bill" Lansing tells the story of the scores of mills that populated the shores of Coos Bay, Oregon, from the 1850s through about 2020. In 1947, the Oregonian named Coos Bay the "Lumber Capital of the World," situating it in central threads of Oregon's historical narrative—logging and the great forests of the Pacific Northwest. Through historical photographs, Lansing documents how these mills came into existence—and then drifted into history—and the entrepreneurs who made it happen. Lansing is retired from the wood products industry and has written other volumes about the local history of southwestern Oregon.

Rivoli: The Rise of Pendleton's Halls, Opera Houses, and Theaters, Amid Saloons, Gambling Halls, Brothels, and Opium Dens, 1864–1981 by Victor J. Kucera Introduction by William F. Willingham Pacific Star Press, Green Valley, Arizona, 2020. Illustrations, maps, tables, notes, bibliography, index. 532 pages. $29.95 paper.

Few towns in the Northwest can boast as colorful a history as Pendleton, Oregon. Rivoli traces the backstory of the town's early years, when open-town policies ruled, killings sometimes happened, and "commercialized vice" bankrolled the city government. It was during this rowdy era that an entertainment industry of over thirty venues scratched out a toehold. Over 300 images help illustrate how saloons, gambling, prostitution, and opium dens affected the economic development of theaters alongside social reforms such as Prohibition, suffrage, and law-enforcement raids. The author's in-depth research on his hometown provides a comprehensive narrative about the changing nature of public entertainment in America's small towns over the past 150 years.

William S. U'ren: Oregon Father of the Initiative, Referendum, and Recall by Richard W. Etulain Chaparral Books, Portland, Oregon...