The Oregon Trail (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading) »

Francis Parkman (1823-1893), one of America’s preeminent historians, studied at Harvard University and later became professor of horticulture there. He was also a founder of the Archaeological Institute of America. Although he had many physical challenges - he suffered from lameness and near-blindness - he remained dedicated to his writing and published eight volumes of history.

The Oregon Trail offers a critical view of the Conestoga wagon generation. The result of the notes Parkman took along the newly-developed roads to the West, the book put an end to the sentimentalized portrait of pioneer travel. Altering the course of American history and shaping early views of Native Americans, it denounces, in its descriptions of the Oglala tribe he visited, the stereotype of the Noble Savage.