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The Greatest Show-horse

Revisado: 10-17-24

I stumbled across a poster of Jim Key looking through the photos from the Pike at the 1904 World’s Fair, and finding this book was wonderful. The life of Dr William Key is as fascinating as his educated horse. It’s an epic tale that is informative and surprising whether your interests are World’s Fairs, show-business, patent-medicine, animal welfare charities, Fort Donelson and the Civil War, Tennessee, equine literacy, rabbits feet and superstitions, education and animal communication, or the nuances of varied experiences of enslaved persons. Overall it’s an inspiring record of what kindness can do, and as informative as it is, like the people and horse it’s about, this book is really all heart. (Also read by the author which is great.)

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Outstanding

Revisado: 03-14-24

This book has been an amazing companion as I have been working through the old images from the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad. Don’t let the disclaimers toward the beginning about the scarcity of direct accounts dissuade you. The author does a tremendous job with the material available of providing insight into the experience of the railroad Chinese. I sincerely hope some day journals from workers are found and published, but in the meantime this fills so much of the gap.

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About the struggle, not the peoples

Revisado: 05-27-22

What I was hoping for was to gain an understanding of the distinctions of various Native American groups. There is precious little coverage of the substance of particular native cultures. (The part covering the Iroquois is closest to what I was hoping for, but it still just scratches the surface.)

Author gives a good chronological overview of the past 500 years through native perspectives, which has its benefits. (Like getting to see how taking sides in the Revolution effected the Iroquois, for example.)

And now the rant:
It is preachy. Too preachy. Polemic. Moralizing. One-sided. Condescending toward people in history who probably did the same things we would do in their shoes, without really addressing the nuances of their motivations so we can examine the roots of their injustices in our own hearts. Instead it leaves us feeling better than them - like we’re definitely more enlightened.

Makes some good points (like the key part of “reservation” is “reserve” - they are something held back by right, not given by government).

Still I feel like I didn’t learn much about the different tribes themselves and their unique histories and cultures, which is really the gap in my knowledge I was hoping to fill with this course.

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Intriguing and hilarious

Revisado: 06-29-21

I definitely binge-listened to this one. The scope of the book just keeps widening to an astonishing degree as it progresses. It’s a detailed and satisfyingly technical account that remains solidly entertaining.
It’s also a time capsule of an era when the internet was a small town that left its doors unlocked.
The anecdotes sprinkled throughout are hilarious also. I won’t spoil them.

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Quick fix needed

Revisado: 05-06-21

Somebody at Upfront Books or Audible should rename “Chapter 1” to “Audiobook Intro” and “Chapter 2” to “Introduction” and then align the subsequent chapters numbers correctly.
“Chapter 3” becomes “Chapter 1”
…
“Chapter 15” becomes “Chapter 13”

“Chapter 16” becomes “Conclusion”
“Chapter 17” becomes “Epilogue”
“Chapter 18” becomes “Audiobook Close”

Best of all it doesn’t even require editing the accompanying workbook PDF as its chapter numbering is already derived from the book and not the mis-numbered audiobook.

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esto le resultó útil a 34 personas