Oregon: This Storied Land

by William G. Robbins

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.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published October 30, 2005

Reviews

[Moonkiszt · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an enthusiastic fan of the state in which I live, I was happy to see this book was updated, and added to my reading list, in physical book form. A slow methodical read, part of my morning set of books, I took it in chapter by chapter. I appreciated the division of topics:

Ch 1 Beginnings and Native Cultures
Ch 2 The Coming of Other People
Ch 3 Creating an Immigrant Society
Ch 4 Emerging Social, Economic, and Political Relations
Ch 5 Into the New Century
Ch 6 Cultural Politics, Depression, and War
Ch 7 The Postwar Boom
Ch 8 Education, the Arts and Letters
Ch 9 From Natural Resources to a New Economy

I started reading for the first parts of the book, as I'm always interested in the communities which wax and wane in places people choose to live - as I ponder on this little piece of earth I'm writing on - as old as every other place on earth - but which shows up in no history beyond a few centuries past, unlike other places that can read about the footsteps/footsteppers of their communities for millenia. As a written piece of history, this does a better job than past editions in laying out some of the atrocities and suffering of the long established communities already living here when the Eastern populations turned their attentions to the West of this continent.

A sturdy informative read, dry in places, probably best for readers who have specific interests in the topics covered. If you are looking to see the basics on in the 33rd state, this will move you forward.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

[Portland] is but a little place; but some of its 21,000 or 22,000 inhabitants raise claims to greatness and even supremacy that make it difficult to suppress a smile. -Wallis Nash, 1877

Time has changed nothing, eh?

I discovered William G. Robbins' great writing when I bumped into "This Land — Oregon" on the Oregon Historical Society's website sometime in 2005. The writing was evocative and clear, the content reflected an understanding of history that reached far beyond dead white Europeans (snoozeville), and I was learning intriguing details I never knew about my home state. Life had given me a delicious taste of Oregon history pie, Robbins style, which made me hungry for more. The next time I found myself at the Oregon Historical Society store, I purchased this book and another social history of Oregon.

Robbins is Professor Emeritus of History at Oregon State University. He gives what I think to be a very fair, even-handed telling of Oregon's chronology. The early years are a little slow going, but historians know so little about pre-European contact since those points of contact resulted in such destruction of population. Naturally, many of the pre-European stories are lost to time.

As time progresses though, he raises points ignored by most treatments of local history. He includes interesting quotes from contemporary sources, and refutes popular notions of certain periods of time.

Case in point: the decline of the timber industry in Portland. Robbins dedicates several pages throughout the book to exploring Oregon's timber story through the years. When I read a short-sighted article this week in the Portland Business Journal blaming the spotted owl for singularly destroying the state's livelihood, I was able to use a short quote from this book in a letter to the editor to succinctly explain why they were clearly buying into a myth that was simply untrue. (While OHS Press published books like these specifically to influence public discourse, it is sad to note that budget cuts led them to cease all book projects for the foreseeable future.)

Robbins also seems to me to have the heart of a poet. He closes the book with a passage by Oregon author Ken Berry, vividly describing standing on the Oregon coast.

With the moon rising over my shoulder and the sun setting before me, I stilled my mind and tried to feel only the truths of this place—the eternal ones of tide and wind and sun and moon, the forest behind me, the sea before. -Don Berry, mid-1980s

Like this passage, Robbins clearly has an intimate knowledge and love for his state. His informed content and well-chosen language stirs the love of Oregon in me as well.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Certainly not comprehensive, but this accessible short history of Oregon is a good read. Robbins begins with the beginning --Native American cultures, then moves on with the coming of other peoples, centered on the Lewis & Clark Expedition. Oregon has always been a country of immigrants, from China, Mexico, Canada (NW Territories) and Europe. He spends four chapters before the 20th Century, then centers on economic, social, and political highlights He carries us through two World Wars, the Depression and the Postwar Boom. His choice of events and people to highlight is very interesting. The logging and agricultural economy started coming apart in the 1980's and replaced with technology that left 1000's unemployed. He closes with Oregon's difficult history with funding public education which continues today. The final chapter addresses the struggle to salvage our natural resources. He published this in 2020.

[Marleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very thorough historical look at the beautiful state of Oregon. Dr. Robbins has done a fine job of summarizing the past injustices that were perpetrated by white settlers in the Oregon Territory. Beginning with the removal of the native people to current day struggles with same sex marriage. We learn some hard truths about our past. He also reviews our history of the timber and agricultural industry and the rise of the semi conductor and computer industries. He also spends time discussing Oregon's land use planning laws as well as our history of taxing and funding our community services. He has throughly covered the history of all of the issues that concern our state. It is like a textbook that provides a foundation for how things got to be the way they are.

[Left_coast_reads · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nice little book on the history of one of my favorite US states. I found the sections about the lumber industry particularly interesting. The book doesn't shy away from injustices against people of color throughout the state's history, which is good to see, considering its publishing was facilitated by the Oregon Historical Society. I noticed a couple of errors in the book, including referring to activist/journalist Eleanor Baldwin as "Barbara" Baldwin. 2.5 stars I would say.

[Carole · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always like reading about the history of my state of Oregon. I wanted to read this one because in this 2nd edition it includes a more balanced presentation of the history of the Indian peoples and their interactions with the state and federal governments. It seems that most histories overlook the ongoing relationship of the sovereign indigenous peoples with the dominant population. When we learned Oregon history in elementary school, we learned about the Indians, their way of life and that they were here first. After that they seem to magically disappear. Not so at all. They are very much still here.

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really wonderful intro to and analysis of Oregon history. It's refreshing to read a history that doesn't just regurgitate the dominant narrative about old white dudes being infallible, but actually takes a hard look at the anti-Indigenous, racist, and disastrously pro-development forces that shaped the state.

[Charles Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some helpful demographic data pigeon-holed into a yawn-inducing dirka dirka white man bad, progressivism good narrative.

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 3 out of 5]

Project Read-a-History-of-Every-State-in-Order-of-Statehood #33

[Alan Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are not many history books that read as easily as this
one. My feeling is that Mr. Robbins is so versed in this
subject and teaching on this subject by the time he writes
this that he can spend more energy in the prose. This book
also paints a bleak picture of what industrialization did
to natural resources in the northwest.