Enduring America

by Douglas H. Chadwick

More than 120 evocative, breathtaking photographs are accompanied with a narrative, both lyrical and informative, the book takes you on paths that lead beyond the reach of time.

Genres: Travel, Nonfiction

200 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 1995

Reviews

[Ronnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enduring America is a book that covers wildlife and Indigenous beliefs and lore all across North America. The information in it is wide, though shallow -- it doesn't give more than a sentence or two on each chapter, and other than the last chapter about pollution and wildlife destruction in Florida, and a sentence about how there's no longer any native American grasslands or prairies left, it does not talk about the the destruction colonialism has wreaked on this continent. There's even a single sentence about an Indigenous nation that simply says "We can only guess what these people would have done because they don't exist anymore" without talking about *why* they don't exist anymore.

But I can acknowledge that that that sort of discourse is beyond the scope of what this book was trying to accomplish. What this book was trying to do was to lay down breadcrumbs about a vast amount of native flora and fauna that people can then choose to delve deeper into if they want to.

Where this book really shines is the absolutely gorgeous photography throughout. The prose is lovely and readable, but the photographs are absolutely stunning.

I'm planning a cross-country move and am currently trying to read through some of my shorter non-fiction books so I can cull them from my collection before the move. I thought this would be one of the books that I decided to cull. But it's so stunningly beautiful that I'm going to be holding onto it for as long as I can.