|
One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd |  | Author: Jim Fergus
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy Used: $2.70
as of 11/23/2009 10:29 MST details
You Save: $12.25 (82%)
New (45) Used (210) from $2.70
Seller: _beaglebooks_
Rating:  301 reviews
Sales Rank: 1085
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.1 x 1
ISBN: 0312199430
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780312199432
ASIN: 0312199430
Publication Date: February 15, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
| |
| Features:
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
One Thousand White Women is the story of May Dodd and a colorful assembly of pioneer women who, under the auspices of the U.S. government, travel to the western prairies in 1875 to intermarry among the Cheyenne Indians. The covert and controversial "Brides for Indians" program, launched by the administration of Ulysses S. Grant, is intended to help assimilate the Indians into the white man's world. Toward that end May and her friends embark upon the adventure of their lifetime. Jim Fergus has so vividly depicted the American West that it is as if these diaries are a capsule in time.
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 301
 So much promise, so little realized November 19, 2009
Chica (Prescott, AZ)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I too had high hopes for this book. The premise is engaging and it could have been a fun and interesting read. As it was I ended up skipping through the book looking for something of interest. The lead character, May was so obnoxious and condescending that I was inclined to believe maybe the family did have good reason for putting her in the asylum---narssicistic borderline personality disorder! I agree with other reviews about all characters being one dimensional and stereo-types. The biggest complaint however was that such an interesting premise could come out so uninteresting. Even the sex scenes, with such a sexually liberated character,were boring! (and come on---everytime she had sex she got pregnant, except when she was raped????)
Not plausible November 17, 2009
Karen J (Colorado, United States)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I read this book for a book group. If it were not for the fact that I wanted to be able to have an intelligent discussion about this book at the next meeting, I WOULD NOT have finished reading it. The premise is somewhat interesting, the preface was VERY interesting. The rest of the book was so highly improbable, I could not believe it. May Dodd is the most backward forward-thinking character I've ever read. She was a feminist who demurely took her place by her husband's side. She didn't marry the first man she loved because she didn't believe in marriage. She didn't marry the man she was in love with because she had signed up to marry an Indian. This book is so full of stereotypes, it's laughable. The minute you meet the Catholic priest, you know what he's going to end up doing. WHATEVER. For someone who did so much extension research to include real people and places, there was no REALity to the main character, whatsoever. And considering she had insight into everything everyone else was thinking, she might have spent a little time planning better for her own demise.
The only thing good about this book was the writing style.
 This is The One November 15, 2009
Robert S. Mellis (Florida)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I read many, many books. This one comes so close to being a masterpiece that I must make note of it. The author weaves a tale of fiction about white women who volunteer to go west to becomes wives and, ultimately, mothers for the Cheyenne in the 1870s. The tale is based on a request by a Cheyenne chief to President Grant that white women be permitted to marry Indians. This, in the view of the chief, would pave the way to a true integration of the two cultures. Interesting idea. The whites, of course, were horrified by the "barbaric" concept and turned down the chief. The genius of Jim Fergus, the author, is that he took the idea and moved forward with the notion by rounding up a collection of white women (and one memorable black woman) who made the trip to the Powder River. What a smashing tale it is. Rich in detailed lore of the Indian way of life; laced with anecdotes of the white man's world in the various forts out west. This is a memorable telling of the horrors we as a people have perpetrated on the native Americans. Superb at every level.
Read it for Book Club November 2, 2009
R. Spenny
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Found this book to be very interesting and thought provoking. Everyone in book club enjoyed it.
Loved It October 26, 2009
Mary E. Becker
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is very well written, and holds the readers attention. It is hard to believe this was fiction and the author was a man. (no offense Jim) I found it hard to put down, and equally hard to be finished with it. I now have a different appreciation for the American Indian. M Becker
Showing reviews 1-5 of 301
|
|
|
CERTAIN CONTENT THAT APPEARS ON THIS SITE COMES FROM AMAZON SERVICES LLC. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED ‘AS IS’ AND IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE OR REMOVAL AT ANY TIME. Working Dogs | |
