The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 51, July 1947 - April, 1948 Page: 286
406 p. : ill., ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
hardships and strife of the Reconstruction era, with the Brooks-
Baxter war coming in for special attention.
The closing pages of Arkansas are not of the same quality as
the earlier sections. Perhaps that is because there is less of
history and more of Mr. Fletcher in them. The author states
that much he has depicted of present-day life falls "well within
my own experience." In general it seems unfortunate he did
not choose to stick more closely to historical research. But, in
this field, too, Mr. Fletcher runs into obvious difficulties since
he uses figures gleaned from reports-some of them questionable
-of the depression era of the 1930's to prove that present-
day Arkansas tenant farmers have an average annual income
of approximately two hundred dollars, that Arkansas teachers
are the lowest paid in the nation, and that the state spends
less per pupil than any other state in the Union. On even less
authority he depicts the Ozarks as a place where superstition
and ignorance are rampant, and where "flowers go unnoticed"
by the inhabitants who have changed little during the past hun-
dred years, except that they have succumbed to the lures of
near-by stores and mail-order houses, and thus have almost com-
pletely lost the ability to shift for themselves.
Despite these flaws-or even because of them-the book will
be widely read. For those who know of Arkansas only through
the medium of radio comedians and widely-told stories, much
in the book will confirm their conceptions. For those who know
better there is enough left over that is true and helpful to make
the reading worth while. In the meantime those who love Arkan-
sas can continue to hope that there will be other-and fairer-
versions of life as it is today.
GILBERT GRANT
Weatherford Junior College
Rocky Mountain Tales. By Levette J. Davidson and Forrester
Blake (eds.). Norman (University of Oklahoma Press),
1947. Pp. xiv+302. Illustrations. $3.oo.
Like a sleeping giant the Rocky Mountain region sprawls
across the western United States. His head is pillowed on the
snowy breast of the Teton Mountains in Wyoming, he warms286
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 51, July 1947 - April, 1948, periodical, 1948; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101119/m1/354/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.