Böcker av Neil Rolde

The headlines have been full of controversy over casinos, racinos, land claims settlements, and sovereign rights for Native Americans in Maine-and it's likely that we'll be talking about these complex issues for some time yet. A capable historian with an enjoyable narrative style, Neil Rolde puts these controversies in context by telling the larger story of Maine Indians since earliest times. There are many generous voices in this book, sharing their stories and hopes and fears. It's a privilege to listen to them and broaden our understanding of the issues faced by Native Americans in Maine.

In 1884 Republican James G. Blaine came within 1,047 votes of becoming the President of the United States. This was the margin by which he lost New York State--and thus the election--to Grover Cleveland in what has been called the dirtiest campaign in American history. Yet his career--arguably the most sensational of any American politician of the so-called Gilded Age--did not end there. He was twice U.S. secretary of state, credited with having started our country on the path to acting like a world power, a powerful speaker of the house in Congress, and a United States senator from his adopted State of Maine. He was also, in the eyes of his opponents, "The Continental Liar From the State of Maine" or "Slippery Jim"--a sort of amiable "Tricky Dick Nixon," as he's been later called. He was hated by certain members of his own party, yet loved by millions of others, including some of his enemies in the Democratic Party. The press called him The Magnetic Man, due to his charisma. This is the fascinating biography of a man who dominated the American political stage, starting just before the Civil War and continuing until the twentieth century.

More than half of Maine has never been settled-millions of acres of quasi-wilderness.