گردونه تاریخ جلد 29 : شگفتیهای هیمالیا جهنم سرد

by William O. Douglas, ویلیام داگلاس, انوشه محمودی (ترجمه)

Exploring the Himalaya, William O. Douglas
عنوان: گردونه تاریخ جلد 29 : شگفتیهای هیمالیا جهنم سرد؛ نویسنده: ویلیام داگلاس؛ مترجم: انوشه محمودی؛ تهران، سازمان انتشارات و آموزش انقلاب اسلامی، 1371، 152 ص؛ فروست: مجموعه گردونه تاریخ 29 ؛ چاپ دیگر: تهران، علمی فرهنگی، 1374؛ در 152 ص؛ موضوع: شگفتیهای هیمالیا - قرن 20 م
از مجموعه گردونه تاریخ جلد 29 بیست و نهم : برفها، شرپاها، اورست و آناپورا، قراقوروم، تبار خونین تنگه خیبر، گوسفندان بارکش، چای شور و نان فطیر، شبح هیمالایائی، چرخ دعا، بازار مکاره هیمالایا، پسر هندی و دختر تبتی، تهاجم کمونیستها به تبت، دختری تنها، جیک مت همسری انتخاب میکند، لاماهای مالک، دامی برای اهریمن، اهریمن در برابر نیکی، کاروان فیروزه، آدم برفی هیولا، عروسی در هیمالایا، سخن آخر

Genres: Nonfiction, World History

152 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

WILLIAM O. DOUGLAS was born in Maine, Minnesota, on October 16, 1898, and raised in Yakima, Washington. He entered Whitman College in 1916, but his studies were interrupted by military service in World War I. Douglas was graduated from Whitman in 1920 and taught school for two years before attending law school at Columbia University. Upon graduation in 1925, he joined a New York law firm, but left two years later to spend one year in Yakima. He subsequently returned to teach law at Columbia University, and transferred to the faculty of Yale University in 1929. In 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed Douglas to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and in 1937 he became Chairman. President Roosevelt nominated Douglas to the Supreme Court of the United States on April 15, 1939. The Senate confirmed the appointment on April 17, 1939. Douglas had the longest tenure of any Justice, serving on the Supreme Court for thirty-six years, spanning the careers of five Chief Justices. He retired on November 12, 1975, and died on January 19, 1980, at the age of eighty-one.

More information is available from the Federal Judicial Center at http://www.fjc.gov/servlet/nGetInfo?j... or from The Supreme Court Historical Society at http://www.supremecourthistory.org/hi...

Reviews

[Kelly Hohenstern · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book #1 of 2022: Exploring The Himalaya
(Landmark Book Series)
(34th book I’ve completed in the series)

I enjoyed reading this book. I’ve always been fascinated by the area and wanted to visit Mt. Everest and K2.

The storyline is divided into 4 major parts, which I found problematic at times since it made the storyline hard to follow.

The first major subject was the geography of the region. The Himalayas are a region of extremes. Hot and arid plains and grasslands, contrasting with cold, high and desolate mountains. It has to be such a difficult area to live in.

The next subject is the history of exploration by mountain climbers and the sherpas who train as guides. I won’t go into too much detail about the individual mountain climbers (we all know the stories of Mallory and Hillary) - the fact that really stood out to me was the training that the sherpas go through to be able to work as a guide. It is one of the best paying jobs in the area, and yet it is SO dangerous. None of the sherpas are remembered either for accomplishing the climb. We all know Edmund Hillary was the first to climb to the top of Everest - but does anyone remember Tenzing Norgay? He also made it to the top with Hillary.

The last subjects are the politics, religion, and interacting between the people in the area. I will not go into too much detail about this except to say that I think the author did a good overview of the topics.

[Ardyth]

//UPDATE 2022-03-14//
Facing a big and expensive move, I've decided to dispose of this book. Nothing about it or my feelings have changed since my original review... I don't like it enough to pay for transporting its weight to a new house, nor for mailing it back across the Pacific to a collector (assuming one is easily found), and I cannot in good conscience offer it to another family for their child's use.

If you happen to see it for twenty-five cents at a yard sale or whatever, fair enough. But my honest advice is: don't spend more than a buck, and don't hand it to any children until you've read it yourself.

Original review below.
* * * * *

I'm not sure how to rate this book, because I have very strong, very mixed feelings about it. Sometimes, I think it's a soft three stars. Sometimes, it's two.

This is more or less a geography reader for the Himalaya, as much cultural geography as physical geography. It was published in 1958, and I suspect Douglas saw himself as a fairly liberal and kind-hearted man looking to draw some eyes to the life of locals in the area. For his time (more on that in a little while), I might even agree? However, the political geography has changed quite a lot since 1958. So, I would venture to guess, has the cultural geography... the question that faces us, in 2021, is whether and how to use this book.

First, the good -- and in this respect, it is very, very good: Douglas absolutely excels at drawing pictures with words. He cites statistics occasionally, but the vast majority of his text is quite vivid and most children will have little trouble imagining the scene. He clearly loved his subject matter.

The book begins with climbing expeditions -- failures and successes. In 1958, this was all very recent and exciting! Imagine, picking up this book and learning about incredible achievements within your lifetime! It makes sense for him to capture attention in this way. The drama of scaling peaks plays out as a competition between Western states, not unlike the Olympics, with local politics an unfortunate obstacle to these goals. For a current-day reader, someone even a bit "in the know" about the end of the British Imperial era and the partition of India... this tone is really very, very gross. Horribly so.

Moreover, these climbing expeditions invariably emphasize the white men who participated, while downplaying the Sherpas and other Himalayan locals who acted carried the weight of equipment and (to quote my husband) "did the same thing, only harder!" There is one exception to this rule, Tenzing Norgay, who is famous for climbing Everest with Edmund Hillary. But even this exception has its problem -- the pair is referred to as "Hillary and Tenzing" which grants rank to Hillary by use of his surname, rather than an equal "Hillary and Norgay." The age of the book shows.

Politically, the map and various references in the text use some names which no longer apply and may confuse an elementary reader without some careful mapwork by the parent. West Pakistan and East Pakistan and similar things.

The Khyber Pass is a name familiar to most 21st century adults due to America's two decade war in and around Afghanistan. In this book, that area is introduced in a chapter titled "The Blood of the Khyber Pass" which translates Hindu Kush for the reader, and outlines how Muslim conquerors in the 16th century tore through this area and enslaved locals. I'm not an expert on history in that place and time, so will assume it is factually correct. Living in the 21st century, with all the complicated politics and stereotypes common to our time, I simply would encourage parents to ensure a child's exposure to Islam and Muslims is significantly broader than what this book offers.

Which brings me to Tibet and Tibetans, a topic making up more than half of the book. Douglas brings us into this world via a father and daughter ("Mongol" he calls them, but I am not entirely sure that's correct?) who work the trade routes on behalf of the lamas in their hometown. And this is where things get very, very tricky for me.

I won't pretend to be an expert on Tibet. What I do know is that my Western world experience tends to look at Tibetan culture with a sort of... mournful romanticism. Meanwhile, the Chinese content I've read about Tibet leans towards seeing themselves as saviors of an oppressed serfdom.

I'm not going to weigh in on these views here, let alone Tibet's future! I only mean to explain that I am concerned about how a 21st century child will internalize 21st century Tibetans if this text is their primary experience with the culture. There is a lot about its tone that reminds me of Last of the Mohicans, that sort of... hiraeth, I guess? Nostalgia for a dead culture that isn't dead, and wasn't quite what we dreamed it was, anyway -- an idea the culture is frozen forever in time, can't and won't develop.

Rightly or wrongly, conflating communism and autocracy or not, the fact is that the USA of this book's era was absolutely terrified about The Communist Threat. This underlying fear led to some questionable bookish choices, a few of which are present here. China isn't just China, it's "Red China." The communists are offering schools to Tibetans who never had access to school under the lamas, but that's terrible because they're communists.

Of course, reading this book it becomes very clear that Tibet was a feudal state and a lot of people were suffering. Douglas doesn't try to hide that, although he doesn't condemn it, either. He *does* hide that, in 1950 when this particular political change occurred, there was a century of questionable behavior by Western capitalist empires worldwide which influenced everybody everywhere. Capitalist empires which had made promises, dubious agreements and exploited the poor, ostensibly in the name of saving them.

I hope you see what I am getting at... I don't mind that this book doesn't delve into Western imperialism around the globe. That is a whole book of its own! I do mind that when "Red China" used similar tactics to win hearts and minds, it's evil now because they're communists instead of capitalists. Sorry, that just doesn't fly.

So this is where I am, with my very strong, very mixed feelings.

I decided to keep this one, for read aloud of some physical geography sections at some point when the topic comes up -- at least until I find a better book about the Himalaya. I can't recommend buying it, unless you collect 20th century children's books. If you own it, and plan to use it, I'd suggest keeping a chapter or two ahead of the read aloud, and having a contemporary map handy. I'd also suggest doing some research online about development in Tibet during the late 20th and early 21st centuries, using sources which are not solely funded by the Western world. What is living in Tibet like in 2021? These are living, breathing people with a living, breathing, culture dealing with complicated realities. The very least we can do is to honor that.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Douglas wrote a four-part account of the Himalaya mountain range: he described the geography, its history of exploration by mountain climbers, an overview of the region's interconnected politics and religions, and a story of people who live there. The whole book was choppy as it shifted between each subject but each was interesting and informative.

[Andrew Worringham · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was okay. The first half was better as it got into the deep and rich history of the Himalaya, the land of the snow. Touched on impressive and harrowing stories of mountaineering expeditions in the early to mid 20th century. Learned a few things, like the etymology of the Hindu Kush, Karakoram, and Himalayan mountain names like Kangchenjunga, Chomolungma, and Nanga Parbat. The second half seemed to fall from the nonfictional narrative into a semi-fictional account of a Tibetan family. With a romantic storyline of a Tibetan shepherd girl named Phuti who falls in love with a Hindu flute playing boy named Murli Dhar.