Montana: An Uncommon Land

By Kenneth Ross Toole

Book Overview

Perhaps once in a generation it is possible for a historian to reinterpret the long sweep of an area and a period in our history. K. Ross Toole has chosen Montana for this purpose, and the brilliant success of his achievement must be apparent to all who read these pages.

He has consciously avoided a systematic presentation of the history of this "uncommon land," Instead, he has chosen to put the great and many of the smaller but significant episodes of a century and a half into new perspective. The record, in its colorful and romantic aspects, stretches from the days of Lewis and Clark; and in its more recent aspects, from the subjugation of the Indian to the predominance of big mining and timber enterprises. The resulting portrait is sharply drawn by a man who knows not only how to interpret the remote and recent past but how to write with great effect.

Montana is best remembered by most Americans as the state in which the Indian played his last dramatic role with the annihilation of General George Armstrong Custer. But it was also the area in which the fur trade had its roots; where the sheepherders and the cattlemen vied with each other for the right to graze the land; where the "honyockers" tried-and often failed to master the land and the seasons; where copper interests have played a powerful role in politics and in the lives of the people; and where, only recently, the oil industry has followed the boom-and-bust cycle so well known in the state. This story of Montana points up particularly the position which is and has been occupied by the state in relation to the nation as a whole.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0806118903
• ISBN13: 9780806118901
• Release Date: March 1984
• Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.11 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Montana History

A good fast read. Nice writing style that grabs you. Written in 1959 but still valid for history up until then. You will finish the book with a nice comprehensive understanding of the history of the state.

The Definitive History of Montana

This book served as the text book for K. Ross Toole's class in Montana History at the University of Montana, Missoula. The class was always packed and had quite a waiting list. No one skipped. Toole has quite deftly interwoven the politics of the era with the economics of Montana. Did you know that a private company forced the Montana legislature into session? That has never happened anywhere else. The same company also controlled the seven major "independent" newspapers in the state. Its all in Toole's book. A definite "must read" for any western history buff.

Before Marketing

This is the benchmark "history" book of the Sate of Montana. Written with a passion for the state and a distain for the changes facing the west,it gives insightful background from Lewis and Clark, to the interaction and conflicts with Native Americans; through the Cattleman and Mining Interests. Today, the state is very attuned to agriculture,energy and recreation all trying to fit into a global economy. This book gives one a prespective on how and why it is where it is with the hope for gaining insight into where it may go in the future.