Book Reviews : The Pacific Slope: A History of California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah, and Nevada. By EARL POMEROY. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965. Pp. xiii, 404, xvi. $8.95.)

AuthorHerman J. Deutsch
DOI10.1177/106591296601900145
Date01 March 1966
Published date01 March 1966
Subject MatterArticles
189
The
Pacific
Slope:
A
History
of
California,
Oregon,
Washington,
Idaho,
Utah,
and
Nevada.
By
EARL
POMEROY.
(New
York:
Alfred
A.
Knopf,
1965.
Pp.
xiii,
404,
xvi.
$8.95.)
This
excellent
synthesis
achieves
the
supposedly
impossible
because,
instead
of
waiting
for
the
appearance
of
comprehensive
monographs
or
attempting
to
garner
the
inexhaustible
store
of
primary
sources,
the
author
has
gleaned
from
the
historical
journals
and
exploited
to
the
full
the
best
scholarship
in
the
fields
auxiliary
to
history.
He
has
been
equally
pragmatic
in
setting
the
metes
and
bounds
of
his
study.
Chron-
ologically,
it
begins
with
the
1830’s,
provides
a
very
minimum
of
background,
covers
the
early
pioneer
period
and
Civil
War
years
cursorily,
and
thereby
permitted
good
coverage
for
the
last
century,
particularly
its
later
years.
Geographically
he
did
not
attempt
to
encompass
all
of
the
so-called
&dquo;Eleven
Western
States,&dquo;
but
has
confined
himself
to
the
three
on
the
Pacific
Coast,
plus
Idaho,
Utah,
and
Nevada.
Very
properly,
state
lines
were
virtually
ignored
and
accent
has
been
placed
on
such
metropolises
as
San
Francisco,
Los
Angeles,
Seattle,
Portland,
Salt
Lake
City
and
their
respective
orbits.
The
topical
range
includes
almost
all
of
those
facets
which
together
make
up
general
history.
In
the
Far
West,
fur
traders,
missionaries
and
miners
were
as
a
rule,
precursors
of
land-seeking
pioneers.
To
this
circumstance
and
to
the
fact
that
commerce
and
not
land
hunger
was
the
initial
stimulant
to
interest
in
the
region,
can
be
attributed
in
large
part
the
pronounced
urbanness
in
early
as
well
as
later
days.
Dominance
of
the
maritime
and
overland
fur
trades
by
Atlantic
seaboard
interests
was
clearly
established,
but
the
invasions
of
New
England
fishermen
and
New
England,
mid-
western,
and
later
southern
lumbermen
are
not
so
clear.
The
author
also
seems
to
believe
that
more
of
the
wealth
extracted
from
the
Pacific
Coast
states
was
plowed
back
into
the
area’s
economy
than
had
previously
been
recognized.
Similarly,
rail-
road
promoters
and
builders
were
accredited
with
a
greater
concern
for
the
Far
West’s
prosperity
than
they
had
been
heretofore.
The
author’s
broad-gauged
perspectives
and
penetrating
analysis
stand
out
in
the
descriptions
of
the
people
of
the
region.
Early
New
England,
and
somewhat
later,
southern
influences
became
dominant.
Less
numerous
Caucasian
immigrant
groups
were
so
easily
assimilated
into
the
society
of
the old
guard,
that
only
Mexicans
and
Orientals
came
to
be
regarded
as
disparate
minorities.
Geographical
isolation
and
the
immediacy
of
local
problems
prevented
Far
Westerners
from
identifying
themselves
with
divisive
national
issues,
and
the
pro-
nounced
individualism
of
leading
politicians
added
to
the
unorthodoxy
and
apparent
vagaries
of
the
region’s
politics.
The
author,
however,
foregoes
caricatures
of
mav-
ericks
both
in
politics
and
religion.
Commerce
outweighed
agriculture
and
urban
influences
overshadowed
rural.
These
are
the
basic
themes
in
the
treatment
of
the
region’s
society
and
economy.
Recent
Far
Western
trends
reflected
those
of
the
nation
and
exceeded
them
in
the
rate
of
growth.
Certain
steps
in
the
general
development
were
actually
skipped
in
the
race
for
modernity.
Also,
as
elsewere,
the
expansion
during
World
War
II
was
not
followed
by
a
postwar
decline.

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