Oregon's landscape boasts brilliant waterfalls, towering volcanoes,
productive river valleys, and far-reaching high deserts. People have
lived in the region for at least twelve thousand years, during which
they established communities; named places; harvested fish, timber, and
agricultural products; and made laws and choices that both protected and
threatened the land and its inhabitants.
William G. Robbins traces the state's history of commodification and
conservation, despair and hope, progress and tradition. This revised and
updated edition features a new introduction and epilogue with discussion
of climate change, racial disparity, immigration, and discrimination.
Revealing Oregon's rich social, economic, cultural, and ecological
complexities, Robbins upholds the historian's commitment to critical
inquiry, approaching the state's past with both open-mindedness and a
healthy dose of skepticism about the claims of Oregon's boosters.