Should Frederick Jackson Turner be revered as “the father of western history” or reviled as a misguided advocate of a frontier spirit and rugged individualism that denied cultural diversity and produced widespread environmental destruction? Dividing into campus over the issue, western historians place him everywhere from one end of the spectrum to the other. In this provocative new interpretation of Turner’s life, work, and legacy, Wilbur Jacobs challenges the views of traditionalists and views of traditionalists and revisionists alike. From extensive research in the Turner archives, a nationwide search for additional Turner correspondence, interviews with historians, and a lifetime of collecting Turner anecdotes, Jacobs chronicles Turner’s professional (and sometimes personal) bequest through 100 years of Western historical writing. Jacobs adds his voice to the heated ebate by mixing a sophisticated critique of historical writing with stories of professional intrigue—the fights to protect Turner’s legacy, limit access to the Turner archives, and control the Western history Association. He traces the intellectual development of Turner’s frontier theory; explores the intense rivalry between two major Turnerian disciples, Frederick Merk and Ray A. Billington, as they vied for control of Turner’s legacy; and analyzes the efforts of new western historians who seek to erase Turner and Billington from the landscape of what is now called the history of the “West.” Balanced in his assessments, Jacobs treats Turner and his disciples with a sympathetic yet critical eye. He points out Turner’s limitations in dealing with environmental, racial-ethnic, and urban themes as well as the shortcomings of Merk, Billington, and other Turnerians. At the same time, however, Jacobs illuminates the major contributions of their work. Despite their intense differences, Jacobs argues, all western historians remain inextricably linked by Turner’s legacy.

ON THE WESTERN TRAIL, the seventh book in the Western Quest Series, follows the rough and tumble life of Aaron Lloyd Turner as the burgeoning cattle business reaches its zenith and gradual decline to something more like what we know today. Aaron and his friends hit their stride in the cattle business busting maverick cattle out of the wild lands along the far reaches of the Colorado River at the very edge of frontier Texas and driving the wild hardy longhorns up the newly opened Western Trail to Dodge City, Kansas, the Babylon of the Plains. They battled Indians and nature itself to get there. But change was already in the wind. Windmills and water wells expanded the vast areas of previously unusable prairie to grazing. Barbed wire established boundaries of ownership and made gathering far-flung herds a thing of the past. It also gave the cattlemen the opportunity to fence good English bulls with their longhorns resulting in much better and earlier maturing animals. But the final nail in the coffin of the wild and wooly days of the cattle drive was the arrival of the railroad across Texas. Cattle drives that had taken three or four months could be made in a one to a few days. New towns, such as Abilene, Texas, replaced Dodge City. The ever adaptable Aaron was a leader in implementing these changes and establishing for generations yet unborn a new type of sustainable ranching in Texas. Aaron also comes into his own as a man. He discovers his inner strength and values and his natural leadership shines through, even as he wrestles with inner demons. He meets and marries, Ella, the love of his life. Finding a foundation that will sustain him through his long life, he rediscovers a relationship with God as a grown man, replacing the war shattered doubts of his youth. STEPHEN L. TURNER is a fifth generation Texan, sixth generation Arkansan and eighth generation American. He is a graduate of Texas Tech School of Medicine, and has worked as a pediatrician in rural Plainview, Texas since 1984. He is married with two married children. Injuries have forced his retirement from ranching and training horses. He is a member of Sons of the Confederacy, Hood’s Texas Brigade Association, the Texas Genealogical Society, and the Western Writers of America. He is also the author of OUT OF THE WILDERNESS, ON THE CAMINO REAL, UNDER TROUBLED SKIES, RIDE FOR THE LONE STAR, ON THE ROAD TO GLORY, and UP FROM THE ASHES, all from Sunstone Press.

To mark the publication of Stop What You're Doing and Read This!, a collection of essays celebrating reading, Vintage Classics are releasing 12 limited edition themed ebook 'bundles', to tempt readers to discover and rediscover great books. THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO Imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, Edmond Dantès spends fourteen bitter years in a dungeon. When his daring escape plan works he uses all he has learnt during his incarceration to mastermind an elaborate plan of revenge that will bring punishment to those he holds responsible for his fate. No longer the naïve sailor who disappeared into the dark fortress all those years ago, he reinvents himself as the charming, mysterious and powerful Count of Monte Cristo... LES MISERABLES Sensational, dramatic, packed with rich excitement and filled with the sweep and violence of human passions, Les Misérables is one of the greatest adventure stories ever told. It is a novel peopled by colourful characters from the nineteenth-century Parisian underworld; the street children, the prostitutes and the criminals. In telling the story of escaped convict Jean Valjean, and his efforts to reform his ways and care for the little orphan girl he rescues from a life of cruelty, Victor Hugo drew attention to the plight of the poor and oppressed. Les Miserables is a masterful detective story, a comic and tragic story of romance and revolution and, ultimately, a tale of redemption and hope.

How can the tracks of dinosaurs best be interpreted and used to reconstruct them? In many Mesozoic sedimentary rock formations, fossilized footprints of bipedal, three-toed (tridactyl) dinosaurs are preserved in huge numbers, often with few or no skeletons. Such tracks sometimes provide the only clues to the former presence of dinosaurs, but their interpretation can be challenging: How different in size and shape can footprints be and yet have been made by the same kind of dinosaur? How similar can they be and yet have been made by different kinds of dinosaurs? To what extent can tridactyl dinosaur footprints serve as proxies for the biodiversity of their makers? Profusely illustrated and meticulously researched, Noah's Ravens quantitatively explores a variety of approaches to interpreting the tracks, carefully examining within-species and across-species variability in foot and footprint shape in nonavian dinosaurs and their close living relatives. The results help decipher one of the world's most important assemblages of fossil dinosaur tracks, found in sedimentary rocks deposited in ancient rift valleys of eastern North America. Those often beautifully preserved tracks were among the first studied by paleontologists, and they were initially interpreted as having been made by big birds—one of which was jokingly identified as Noah's legendary raven.

41 day hikes and overnight trips in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York Complete with elevation profiles, topographic maps, descriptions of terrain, and notes on landmarks, side trails, and shelters Includes directions to trailheads and information on available parking Completely revised and updated to reflect recent trail changes Indexes sort the hikes by difficulty and length 0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}

Collected here for the first time ever are the surviving eyewitness accounts of the Bozeman's Trail's civilian emigrants: twenty-four diaries written during the journey and nine reminiscences prepared afterward. These accounts describe life on the West's last great emigrant trail, the shortcut from the Platte River Road to the Montana goldfields, from 1863 until 1866, when the route was closed by "Red Cloud's War." Ample introductions, extensive annotation, historical illustrations, and detailed maps enrich this oversized, two-volume compendium.

Provides a time line of the civil rights history of Alabama and shares the stories of significant events in the movement that occurred in the cities, towns, and regions of the state.