Plains Humanities Alliance: Great Books of the Great Plains

Search Results

Your search returned 109 entries:

Abbott, E. C. (Teddy Blue), and Helena Huntington Smith
We Pointed Them North: Recollections of a Cowpuncher
Published: Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1955.
At the tender age of sixteen, Teddy Blue left the family farm near Lincoln, Nebraska and sought employment in Texas as a cowboy. He made several trips up the Western Trail from Texas to the railheads in Kansas and Nebraska, and later worked for Granville Stuart on the cattle ranges of Montana. His account, as told to Helena Huntington Smith five decades after the events, remains one of the true classics of trail and ranch life on the Great Plains.

Genre: Nonfiction - Diary/Memoir/Autobiography
Subject: History

Aldrich, Bess Streeter
A Lantern in Her Hand.
Published: New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1928.
This novel draws upon the author's small town roots in Elmwood, Nebraska, to tell the story of self-sacrifice of grand ambitions to achieve a better world for future generations. It is a thoroughly sympathetic account of the pioneering process.

Genre: Fiction and Literature - Historical Fiction, Children's Literature
Subject: European American, Folklife - Community Life

Aldrich, Bess Streeter
A White Bird Flying.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1988.
In this sequel to A Lantern in Her Hand, Aldrich traces the experiences of Laura Deal, the granddaughter of Abby, the heroine from the previous novel, who has recently passed away. In this moving story, Aldrich is able to not only vividly recreate the realities of early adulthood but also more broadly the pulse of modernity and its effect on rural life.

Genre: Fiction and Literature - Historical Fiction, Children's Literature
Subject: European American, Folklife - Community Life
Purchase online from publisher.

Athearn, Robert G.
Union Pacific Country.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1971.
Utilizing a vast array of company records, Athearn presents an eminently readable account of the Union Pacific Railroad from its chartering in the 1860s through its going into receivership in the 1890s. Although considerable attention is devoted to financial matters, the strength of the book rests upon its coverage of the railroad's impact on rural settlement patterns, urbanization and the ranching and farming industries of the Plains.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Transportation
Purchase online from publisher.

Aucoin, James
Water in Nebraska: Use, Politics, Policies.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984.
This book calls attention to the warning signs of water depletion in Nebraska from the rivers and lakes to the underground aquifer. The book focuses upon the shaping of state and federal water policies from the 1930s to the 1980s, and offers suggestions for dealing with the problems.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Politics, Nature & Environment, Rural Life

Baltensperger, Bradley H.
Nebraska: A Geography.
Published: Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1985.
Baltensperger's book constitutes the best recent geographical approach to explaining the state's historical development from the frontier era to the 1980s. It deals with landforms, physical geography and human geography.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Cultural/Human Geography, Nature & Environment

Bennett, Mildred R.
The World of Willa Cather.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1961.
Instead of providing a detailed literary analysis of each of Cather's novels, Bennett emphasizes "the person" over "the author." In this extremely readable biography, Bennett does an excellent job of relating Cather's Nebraska roots to her writing, and she utilizes interviews with the prominent author's friends and relatives to complete the picture.

Genre: Nonfiction - Biography
Subject: History
Purchase online from publisher.

Bennett, Richard E.
Mormons at the Missouri, 1846-1852: "And Should We Die ...."
Published: Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987.
This represents the most complete account of the Mormons during their domicile in the Omaha-Council Bluffs area as they planned for and executed their mass movement to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. Especially noteworthy is coverage of their relationships with local Omaha Indians and with the federal government, as well as social, religious and economic life at Winter Quarters.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Religion & Spirituality, European American

Bettelyoun, Susan Bordeaux, and Josephine Waggoner. Ed. by Emily Levine.
With My Own Eyes: A Lakota Woman Tells Her People's History.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998.
This unique source blends the recollections of two Lakota mixed-blood women who assembled their manuscript in the 1930s, based upon their personal experiences and Oglala and Brule oral traditions. Editor Levine's extensive endnotes help clarify many of the oblique references and provide further detail to this empathetic account of Lakota life during the second half of the 19th century.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Native American, Oral History
Purchase online from publisher.

Bradbury, John
Travels in the Interior of America in the Years 1809, 1810, and 1811.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986.
Originally published in 1815, this represents one of the earliest accounts of travel along the Missouri River that was accessible to the eastern public. Bradbury was a trained naturalist who capably captured key aspects of the environment and Indian life in eastern Nebraska.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph, Travel
Subject: History, European American, Native American, Culture, Nature & Environment, Travel

Bratt, John
Trails of Yesterday.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1980.
Beginning as a bullwhacker out of Nebraska City in 1866, Bratt rose in importance in the freighting and sutler firm of Coe and Carter, which served Ft. Kearny. Within four years, he established one of the largest ranches in western Nebraska and became a civic leader in Frontier County. Anecdotes about cowboying and ranch life fill this reliable book.

Genre: Nonfiction - Diary, Memoir, Autobiography
Subject: Folklife - Community Life, European American
Purchase online from publisher.

Nebraska Curriculum Development Center
Broken Hoops and Plains People: A Catalogue of Ethnic Resources in the Humanities: Nebraska and Surrounding Areas.
Published: Lincoln: Nebraska Curriculum Development Center, University of Nebraska, 1976.
This multi-authored collection provides individual essays on Native Americans, Hispanics, Blacks, Czechs, Germans from Russia, Scandinavians, Jews, Italians, Irish, Dutch and Japanese. Useful bibliographies for each ethnic group are provided at the end of the book.

Genre: Nonfiction - Creative Nonfiction/Essays, Reference
Subject: History, African American, Asian American, European American, Native American, Culture

Bronson, Edgar Beecher
Reminiscences of a Ranchman.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1962.
Following a stint as a "tenderfoot rancher," Bronson established his own outfit near Ft. Robinson in 1878. His account of the 1870s and 1880s offers rich detail about ranch life, as well as major events associated with the Sioux and the Northern Cheyenne.

Genre: Nonfiction - Diary, Memoir, Autobiography
Subject: History, Native American, European American
Purchase online from publisher.

Brown, D. Alexander
The Galvanized Yankees.
Published: Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1963.
In this book, Brown examines frontier military service in Nebraska and surrounding areas during the Civil War, mostly directed at protecting the overland trails from Indian attacks. Galvanized Yankees were former Confederate soldiers who were released from prisoner of war status based on their pledge to serve the Union army in the West.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: Subject; History, European American, Military

Buck, Solon Justus
The Granger Movement: A Study of Agricultural Organization and Its Political, Economic, and Social Manifestations, 1870-1880.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1963.
Although somewhat outdated and devoted to the broader Granger Movement throughout rural America, this work offers a good understanding as to why the Grange would have found considerable support in Nebraska. It discusses the social origins of the movement and its political involvements, as well as the famous cooperatives and railway legislation.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Politics, Rural Life
Purchase online from publisher.

Buecker, Thomas R.
Fort Robinson and the American West, 1874-1899 and Fort Robinson and the American Century, 1900-1948.
Published: Lincoln: Nebraska State Historical Society, 1999 and 2002.
This meticulously researched and well-written two-volume study of a Nebraska icon offers the final word about a military installation that served as a famous Indian wars fort, Indian agency, remount station, World War II prisoner of war camp, and finally, as a unique state historical park for today's vacationer.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Military, European American

Carleton, J. Henry. Ed. by Louis Pelzer.
The Prairie Logbooks: Dragoon Campaigns to the Pawnee Villages in 1844, and to the Rocky Mountains in 1845.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983.
This frequently cited account of dragoon operations in Nebraska offers descriptions of the Pawnees in addition to efforts to stop inter-tribal warfare between Pawnees and Sioux.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, European American, Native American, Military

Carter, John E.
Solomon D. Butcher: Photographing the American Dream.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1985.
Carter presents wonderfully reproduced copies of some of Solomon Butcher's most revealing photographs taken in Custer County during the pioneer era. Narrative sections and photo captions add immeasurably to the value of the book by placing Butcher and his photographic techniques within the proper context of the times. For more information on the people, see Butcher, Pioneer History of Custer County and Short Sketches of Early Days in Nebraska (1901, 1965).

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Photography
Purchase online from publisher.

Cather, Willa. Ed. by Charles Mignon and Kari A. Ronning.
My Antonia.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995.
Cather's My Antonia and O Pioneers are arguably her most important Plains novels and they draw heavily from her real life Nebraska experiences. Definitive stories of Plains immigration and settlement, they are mythic and sweeping in conveying the extremes of hardship and optimism in the settlers' relationship to the land.

Genre: Fiction and Literature - Historical Fiction
Subject: History, European American
Purchase online from publisher.

Cather, Willa. Ed. by Susan J. Rosowski, Charles W. Mignon and Kathleen Danker.
O Pioneers!
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996.
Cather's My Antonia and O Pioneers are arguably her most important Plains novels and they draw heavily from her real life Nebraska experiences. Definitive stories of Plains immigration and settlement, they are mythic and sweeping in conveying the extremes of hardship and optimism in the settlers' relationship to the land.

Genre: Fiction and Literature - Historical Fiction
Subject: History, European American
Purchase online from publisher.

Nebraska Game and Parks Commission
The Cellars of Time: Paleontology and Archaeology in Nebraska.
Published: Special issue of Nebraska History(Spring 1994).
This wonderfully illustrated special topical issue of Nebraska History (161 pages) offers general readers their best introduction to the state's paleontological and archaeological sites. The narratives are also well written for the general audience.

Genre: Nonfiction - Creative Nonfiction/Essays
Subject: Cultural/Human Geography, History, Nature & Environment

Cherny, Robert W.
Populism, Progressivism, and the Transformation of Nebraska Politics, 1885-1915.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1981.
This sophisticated statistical study focuses upon election returns to discern patterns of voting behavior. Each of the major elections is evaluated in terms of campaigns, issues and personalities. Profiles of ethnicity, income, occupation and place of residence help sharpen our understanding of voting tendencies.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Politics, Culture, European American

Chudacoff, Howard P.
Mobile Americans: Residential and Social Mobility of Omaha, 1880-1920.
Published: New York: Oxford University Press, 1972.
This innovative statistical study interprets patterns of residential mobility, formation of ethnic neighborhoods, occupational patterns, urban housing markets and voting patterns.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Cultural/Human Geography, Culture, European American, Urban Life

Cook, Harold J.
Tales of the 04 Ranch: Recollections of Harold J. Cook, 1887-1909.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1968.
The author continues the story begun by his well-known father, James H. Cook, by detailing the social life associated with the Agate Springs Ranch southwest of Crawford, Nebraska. Also addresses problems associated with weather and fluctuating livestock prices, as well as scientific study among the Agate Fossil Beds.

Genre: Nonfiction - Diary, Memoir, Autobiography
Subject: History, European American, Rural Life

Cook, James H.
50 Years on the Old Frontier as Cowboy, Hunter, Guide, Scout, and Ranchman.
Published: Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980.
Cook helped drive one of the first Texas longhorn herds into western Nebraska, and in 1887 bought the 0-4 Ranch from his father-in-law, renaming it the Agate Springs Ranch. Much of his coverage of the Nebraska Panhandle concerns his Sioux neighbors and his efforts to protect the scientific value of the Agate Fossil Beds.

Genre: Nonfiction - Diary, Memoir, Autobiography
Subject: History, European American, Rural Life

Creigh, Dorothy Weyer
Nebraska: A Bicentennial History.
Published: New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1977.
Although the "States and the Nation Series" severely restricted the number of pages for each volume in this set, Creigh fashioned a useful thematic approach to the state's history, especially from the mid-19th century to the 1970s. No topic is rendered in great detail, but the author has captured the essence of the state and its identity as interpreted by most of its residents.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Culture, Cultural/Human Geography, European American, Rural Life

Danker, Donald F., ed.
Man of the Plains: Recollections of Luther North, 1856-1882.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1961.
This valuable array of reminiscences and letters documents many of the most important events of the famed Indian wars of western Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming between the Civil War and the Powder River Campaign of 1876. As co-commander of the famed Pawnee Scouts, along with his brother Frank, Luther North provided an insider's account of crucial military actions.

Genre: Nonfiction - Diary, Memoir, Autobiography
Subject: History, European American, Native American, Military

Danker, Donald F., intro. and notes.
Mollie: The Journal of Mollie Dorsey Sanford in Nebraska and Colorado Territories, 1857-1866.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003.
The detailed and thoughtful entries in this journal offer a rich account of life on a homestead near Nebraska City between 1857 and 1860. At the later date, newly married Mollie Dorsey Sanford accompanied her husband to the recently opened mining district of Denver.

Genre: Nonfiction - Diary, Memoir, Autobiography
Subject: Gender, History, Rural Life
Purchase online from publisher.

Dick, Everett
Conquering the Great American Desert: Nebraska.
Published: Lincoln: Nebraska State Historical Society, 1975.
This remains one of the most thorough and readable accounts of Nebraska pioneer life in the post-Civil War era. Like Walter Prescott Webb, Dick stresses the adaptations undertaken to overcome the unique Plains environment in matters relating to water, fuel, fences, sod houses, fires, grasshoppers, weather and mechanization of the farm.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, European American, Cultural/Human Geography, Nature & Environment, Rural Life

Dick, Everett
The Lure of the Land: A Social History of the Public Lands from the Articles of Confederation to the New Deal.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1970.
Although Dick begins his study with land policies in the late colonial era and progresses into the Trans-Appalachian frontier, he primarily examines laws affecting the public domain on the Great Plains and in the Far West from the Civil War through the New Deal. He analyzes the forces and special interest groups that shaped government policies and the various impacts of those laws.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Politics, European American

Dick, Everett
The Sod-House Frontier 1854-1890: A Social History of the Northern Plains from the Creation of Kansas and Nebraska to the Admission of the Dakotas.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1979.
Dick emphasizes what life was like for people who dwelled on Great Plains farms and in small towns during the pioneer era. He maintains focus on the human element in relating information about preemption, vigilantism, colonizing agencies, social life, education, religion, medical care, lawyers, industries and merchants.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, European American, Culture, Folklife-Community Life

Eiseley, Loren, Introduction by Kathleen A. Boardman.
All the Strange Hours: The Excavation of a Life.
Published: Lincoln: Bison Books, 2000.
In remarkable prose, Eiseley narrates wide-ranging events that have indelibly contoured his identity, whether meditating on his secluded childhood upbringing, his experience of riding the rails, or his university years during which he developed a penchant and reverence for nature. This book simply represents a straightforward account of his life.

Genre: Nonfiction - Dairy/Memoir/Autobiography
Subject: Society, Rural Life, Nature & Environment
Purchase online from publisher.

Eiseley Loren, Illustrations by Leonard Everett Fisher. Introduction by Gale E. Christianson
The Night Country.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997.
In this collection of autobiographical tales, Eiseley explores in compelling prose the wonders of nature and humanity's experience in it. His acute sensibility and his eclectic interests in which he seamlessly mixes literature and science are fully evident in this remarkable text. Although the author was a renowned scientist and anthropologist, his writing transcends limited appeal.

Genre: Nonfiction - Dairy/Memoir/Autobiography
Subject: Nature & Environment
Purchase online from publisher.

Emmons, David M.
Garden in the Grasslands: Boomer Literature of the Central Great Plains.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1971.
Emmons offers an excellent survey of the various promotional efforts to attract settlers to the Great Plains. Railroads, land speculators and fledgling towns created an endless cycle of advertisements, broadsides and newspaper articles, often with exaggerated or outright fraudulent claims, to draw the greatest level of public interest.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Cultural/Human Geography, Nature & Environment, Rural Life

Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration
Nebraska: A Guide to the Cornhusker State.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1979.
Originally published in 1939, this book provides an overview of Nebraska during the Great Depression. Rather than assuming an interpretive approach, it offers profiles on each of the communities within the state, as well as chapters on history, government, agriculture, industry, ethnicity, arts, press and literature. It stands as a time capsule of Nebraska in a bygone era.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Culture, Cultural/Human Geography, European American, Folklife - Community Life
Purchase online from publisher.

Fink, Deborah
Agrarian Women: Wives and Mothers in Rural Nebraska, 1880-1940.
Published: Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992.
Fink turned to personal interviews, as well as archival and published materials, to construct this valuable study of women's concerns and evolving family structures during the pioneer and post-pioneer eras of Nebraska's rural development. Equally revealing are discussions of relatives, friends and community participation in dictating the realities of agrarian life.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, European American, Folklife - Community Life, Gender

Fitzpatrick, Lilian L.
Nebraska Place-Names.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1960.
This handy reference source on Nebraska's individual communities is arranged by counties and supplemented with selections from John Thomas Link's The Origin of the Place-Names of Nebraska (1933). In describing the origins of place names, this book blends history and folklore without always making a distinction.

Genre: Nonfiction - Reference
Subject: History, European American, Folklife - Oral Traditions, Humor
Purchase online from publisher.

Fletcher, Alice C., and Francis La Flesche.
The Omaha Tribe. 2 vols.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1972.
This remains one of the most valuable studies ever prepared by the Bureau of American Ethnology. Originally published in 1911, it drew upon the talents of anthropologist Alice Fletcher and the oral accounts rendered by Omaha tribal member Francis La Flesche. Although other fellow tribal members have faulted La Flesche's biases in some of the reporting, this study of cultural dynamics stands as an essential source for researchers and today's Omahas alike.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph, Oral History
Subject: History, Native American, Culture
Purchase online from publisher.
Purchase online from publisher.

Flores, Dan
The Natural West: Environmental History in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains.
Published: Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2001.
Although this study covers a far larger geographical range than Nebraska, it is a thoughtful exposition on the Great Plains environment written from a naturalist's viewpoint. Its thorough documentation and cogent arguments about restoration work serve as clarion calls for the present generation to awaken to environmental destruction now.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Nature & Environment

Flowerday, Charles, ed.
Flat Water: A History of Nebraska and Its Water.
Published: Lincoln: Conservation and Survey Division, University of Nebraska, 1993.
Numerous maps and photographs grace this wide assortment of multi-authored articles that deal with irrigation, climate and hydrology, industry, technology, economics, extension education, environmental quality, political policies and future uses of Nebraska water.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Nature & Environment, Rural Life

Glad, Paul W.
The Trumpet Soundeth: William Jennings Bryan and His Democracy, 1896-1912.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1960.
Paolo Coletta's three-volume treatment of Bryan is more complete, but Glad's earlier interpretation retains its importance for scholars and general readers. This biography stresses Bryan's Nebraska roots and how they shaped his political views. Special emphasis is directed at his impact on Populism, Progressivism and Anti-Imperialism.

Genre: Nonfiction - Biography
Subject: History, Politics

Harper, Ivy
Waltzing Matilda: The Life and Times of Nebraska Senator Robert Kerrey.
Published: New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992.
Traces Kerrey's Nebraska roots, heroism in the Vietnam War, business successes, service as Nebraska governor and U.S. senator, and his rising importance in national politics from the 1980s to 1992.

Genre: Nonfiction - Biography
Subject: Politics

Hewitt, J. N. B., ed. Translated by Myrtis Jarrell.
Journal of Rudolph Friederich Kurz: An Account of His Experiences Among Fur Traders and American Indians on the Mississippi and the Upper Missouri Rivers During the Years 1846 to 1852.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1970.
his books reprints Kurz's daily journal of his trip up the Missouri River and his observations about Native Americans and pioneer scenes along the eastern fringes of Nebraska. His original sketches of Omaha Indians are included

Genre: Nonfiction - Diary/Memoir/Autobiography
Subject: History, European American, Native American
Purchase online from publisher.

Hickey, Donald R.
Nebraska Moments: Glimpses of Nebraska's Past.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992.
Hickey has distilled Nebraska history into 39 vignettes that are well written for general audiences. They range from profiles of individuals such as J. Sterling Morton, Red Cloud, Charles Dawes, and Louise Pound, to diverse topics such as the Blizzard of 1888, Agrarian Protest, the Unicameral, Offutt Air Force Base and the High Plains Aquifer.

Genre: Nonfiction - Creative Nonfiction/Essays
Subject: History

Hicks, John D.
The Populist Revolt: A History of the Farmers' Alliance and the People's Party.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1961.
Despite having been published in 1931, this remains an important book both historiographically and for its intrinsic factual information. Hicks sympathetically examined the growing agrarian discontent throughout the South, Great Plains and the Far West during the late 19th century, but his larger coverage is necessary for understanding Nebraska as a case study.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Politics

Hunt, David C., and Marsha V. Gallagher.
Karl Bodmer's America.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984.
This beautifully produced collection of Bodmer's watercolors and sketches stands as a landmark in capturing scenes along the Missouri River - especially scenes of Native Americans - during the 1833 excursion. Captions for each art work are extensive, and an Introduction by William H. Goetzmann and an Artist's Biography by William J. Orr round out this unique publication.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: Art, Native American, Nature & Environment
Purchase online from publisher.

Hutton, Harold
Doc Middleton: Life and Legends of the Notorious Plains Outlaw.
Published: Chicago: Swallow Press, 1974.
This biography imparts an understanding of the lack of law enforcement in vast sections of the Nebraska Panhandle during the late 19th century. It also helps explain why some residents viewed Middleton as a local hero, while others viewed him as a ruthless murderer.

Genre: Nonfiction - Biography
Subject: History

James, Edwin
Account of an Expedition from Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains Under the Command of Major Stephen H. Long.
Published: Barre, Massachusetts: Imprint Society, 1972.
Although Long's expedition was far from successful in a scientific record keeping sense, and although it did solidify the public's notion of the Plains as a Great American Desert, this book remains essential to modern readers. It is rich in detail about Native Americans and Plains landscapes, and should be read in conjunction with Harlin Fuller and Le Roy Hafen, eds. The Journal of Captain John R. Bell: Official Journalist for the Stephen Long Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, 1820 (1957).

Genre: Nonfiction - Diary/Memoir/Autobiography
Subject: History, Nature & Environment, European American, Native American

Janovy, John, Jr.
Keith County Journal and Back in Keith County.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996 and 1984
These two books constitute the highest level of naturalists' writings, complete with a transcendentalist eye on the intrinsic beauty of nature and its complex web of associations between life forms. They have often been compared to Aldo Leopold's classic, A Sand County Almanac.

Genre: Nonfiction - Creative Nonfiction/Essay's
Subject: Nature & Environment
Purchase online from publisher.
Purchase online from publisher.

Johnsgard, Paul A.
The Nature of Nebraska: Ecology and Biodiversity.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2001.
Examines all regions and environments within Nebraska - forests, wetlands, rivers, lakes, tall grass prairies, short grass prairies, Sandhills - and provides a detailed checklist of key varieties of flora and fauna in particular areas. One brief chapter also laments the "sad stories" of ecological damage to some species.

Genre: Nonfiction - Reference
Subject: Nature & Environment
Purchase online from publisher.

Johnsgard, Paul A.
The Platte: Channels in Time.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984.
Despite the brevity of this book, it offers a poetic view of the flora and fauna that stretch the length of Nebraska along the Platte River. Its beauty is revealed in its attention to the "small environments" that often go unnoticed by the casual observer.

Genre: Nonfiction - Creative Nonfiction/Essay's
Subject: Nature & Environment

Kees, Weldon. Introduction by Dana Gioia.
Selected Short Stories of Weldon Kees.
Published: Lincoln: Bison Books, 2002.
The work of this enigmatic literary figure of the mid-twentieth century has undergone a recent renaissance. This collection of his best stories written mostly during his twenties and thirties offers a poignant look into rural life. In addition the stories allow a glimpse into the thoughts and world of the elusive Weldon Kees.

Genre: Fiction and Literature - Short Stories
Subject: Rural Life
Purchase online from publisher.

Kinsey, Joni
Plain Pictures: Images of the American Prairie
Published: Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press for the University of Iowa Museum of Art, 1996.
The book offers a richly illustrated chronological survey of visual responses to the prairie as a type of landscape, focusing primarily on Euro-American representations of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: Art, history

Kooser, Ted
Local Wonders: A Season in the Bohemian Alps.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2002.
Winner of the 2003 Nebraska Book Award for nonfiction, Kooser offers in exquisite detail the Nebraska landscape, whether examining his backyard or encroaching urban development. Kooser illustrates his remarkable ability to reveal the extraordinariness of everyday life.

Genre: Nonfiction - Creative Nonfiction/Essay's
Subject: Rural Life, Folklife - Community Life, European American
Purchase online from publisher.

Klein, Maury
Union Pacific: The Birth of a Railroad, 1862-1893. Garden City: Doubleday and Co., 1987; and Klein, Union Pacific: The Rebirth, 1894-1969.
Published: New York: Doubleday and Co., 1989.
This two-volume treatment represents the most complete financial history of the Union Pacific Railroad. The second volume is especially important because it carries the corporation from receivership status in 1893 through its rebirth and expansion in the 20th century.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Cultural/Human Geography, Transportation

Larsen, Lawrence H., and Barbara J. Cottrell
The Gate City: A History of Omaha.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997.
The authors offer an invaluable account of Nebraska's largest city, beginning with its founding in the wake of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and continuing chronologically to the mid-1970s. This well-written interpretive account is enhanced in the Enlarged Edition by Professor Dalstrom's updating of events to the end of the century.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Urban Life
Purchase online from publisher.

Lass, William E.
From the Missouri to the Great Salt Lake: An Account of Overland Freighting.
Published: Lincoln: Nebraska State Historical Society, 1972.
This meticulously researched study demonstrates the close connection between Nebraska's outfitting towns such as Omaha, Plattsmouth, Nebraska City and Brownville with the western mining areas and with the older Oregon and California Trails. Freighting operations of the 1850s and 1860s are the special focus of this work, which also demonstrates how the Union Pacific Railroad modified freighting patterns within the state.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Cultural/Human Geography, Transportation, European American

Lommasson, Robert C.
Nebraska Wild Flowers.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1975.
Lommasson's book constitutes a handy reference tool for botanists, and provides color photographs of most plant specimens for weekend hiking enthusiasts.

Genre: Nonfiction - Reference
Subject: Nature & Environment, Hobbies, Photography
Purchase online from publisher.

Luebke, Frederick C.
Immigrants and Politics: The Germans of Nebraska, 1880-1900.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1969.
Excellent statistical study indicates that Nebraska Germans traditionally favored Democratic candidates but that party loyalty split in the 1890s with the rise of Populism and the fusionist movement.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Politics, European American, Culture

Luebke, Frederick C.
Nebraska, an Illustrated History.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995.
This visual tour through Nebraska history surpasses all previous attempts at illustrated interpretations of the state. The photographs were chosen with care and their reproduction is of the highest quality. More important, Luebke's rich textual material amplifies the major themes and lifts this above the range of most visual treatments to the level of a solid interpretive work.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Photography
Purchase online from publisher.

Mattes, Merrill J.
The Great Platte River Road: The Covered Wagon Mainline via Fort Kearny to Fort Laramie.
Published: Lincoln: Nebraska State Historical Society, 1969.
This award-winning study remains the most complete account of the Nebraska portions of the Oregon, California and Mormon Trails between 1841 and 1866. Mattes examined a vast array of diaries, journals, letters and military reports to describe human responses to every significant landmark along the line of march.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, European American, Nature & Environment, Travel

Mattes, Merrill J.
Indians, Infants and Infantry: Andrew and Elizabeth Burt on the Frontier.
Published: Denver: Fred A. Rosenstock, 1960.
Much of this book is presented in the original words of Andrew and Elizabeth Burt during their years of military service on the Northern Plains between 1866 and 1898. Their descriptions of life at Nebraska posts - Omaha, McPherson, Sidney Barracks and Robinson - have been utilized frequently by modern researchers because of the high quality of details.

Genre: Nonfiction - Diary/Memoir/Autobiography
Subject: History, Military, European American, Native American

Menard, Orville D.
Political Bossism in Mid-America: Tom Dennison's Omaha, 1900-1933.
Published: Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, Inc., 1989.
This excellent study of boss rule in Omaha examines how a political machine was created, how it worked, and what led to its demise. Individual chapters especially document the workings of the Association, elections, courts and the business communities.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Politics, Urban Life

Miewald, Robert D., ed.
Nebraska Government and Politics.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1984.
This excellent collection of multi-authored articles analyzes various aspects of state government, political parties, and citizens' political behavior.

Genre: Nonfiction - Creative Nonfiction/Essays
Subject: Politics, Folklife - Community Life, Rural Life
Purchase online from publisher.

Milner, Clyde A., II
With Good Intentions: Quaker Work Among the Pawnees, Otos, and Omahas.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982.
This thoroughly researched account presents case studies of three Nebraska tribes that came under the administration of the Society of Friends during President Grant's so-called Quaker Peace Policy. Despite the good intentions of the Quaker agents, attendant policies proved destructive to the various Indian people.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, European American, Native American, Religion & Spirituality

Morris, Wright, Introduction by Keith Botsford
Ceremony in Lone Tree.
Published: Lincoln: Bison Books, 2001.
Set in small-town Nebraska during the mid-twentieth century, members of an extended family converge in Lone Tree to celebrate their father's ninetieth birthday. A once prosperous town, Lone Tree is now occupied by one person, the family's patriarch who lives in a hotel along the railroad tracks. Morris creates a fascinating cast of characters, including one based loosely upon Charles Starkweather, the man whose weeklong killing spree across the state terrified Nebraskans in early 1958. This dark comedy offers an intriguing examination of Nebraska during the 1950s.

Genre: Fiction and Literature - Historical Fiction
Subject: Rural Life, European American
Purchase online from publisher.

Morris, Wright, Introduction by Charles Baxter
Plains Song for Female Voices.
Published: Lincoln: Bison Books, 2000.
Winner of the National Book Award in 1980, Morris traces three generations of Nebraskan women and their lives beginning in the late nineteenth century. In doing so, Morris offers vivid and fascinating insights into women's experiences on the plains.

Genre: Fiction and Literature - Historical Fiction
Subject: Gender, Folklife - Community Life, European American
Purchase online from publisher.

Moulton, Gary E., ed.
The Lewis and Clark Journals: An American Epic of Discovery.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2002.
Moulton's definitive thirteen-volume rendering of the Lewis and Clark journals, as well as an atlas and the journals of enlisted men John Ordway, Charles Floyd, Patrick Gass and Joseph Whitehouse serve as a milestone in historical editing. Its rich details of editorial comment add further value to the original passages and the cumulative index (vol. 13) makes this massive set very usable. This one-volume abridgment will serve the needs of the most casual reader.

Genre: Nonfiction - Diary/Memoir/Autobiography
Subject: History, Nature & Environment, Cultural/Human Geography, European American
Purchase online from publisher.

Nasatir, Abraham P., ed.
Before Lewis and Clark: Documents Illustrating the History of the Missouri, 1785-1804
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1990.
This rare gem is an essential tool for researchers and casual readers who wish to know more about eastern Nebraska and bordering states along the Missouri River during the two decades before Lewis and Clark traveled upriver. Most of the contents are translations of important Spanish documents, but Nasatir's lengthy Introduction and editorial notes make the collection even more valuable.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Cultural/Human Geography, Nature & Environment, European American

Norris, George W.
Fighting Liberal: The Autobiography of George W. Norris.
Published: New York: MacMillan Co., 1945.
Although Richard Lowitt has penned a three-volume exhaustive study of Norris' career, the general reader might be better served by reading Norris' own words about his Nebraska roots, political philosophies and distinguished public career.

Genre: Nonfiction - Diary/Memoir/Autobiography
Subject: History, Politics

O'Gara, W. H.,compil. Ed. by Ora A. Clement
In All Its Fury: A History of the Blizzard of January 12, 1888
Published: Lincoln: Doris Jenkins, 1973.
Although no systematic interpretation is offered, this book provides accounts of the 1888 blizzard in Nebraska by 300 survivors who recalled the death, devastation and resourcefulness of people.

Genre: Nonfiction -Monograph
Subject: History

Oglesby, Richard Edward
Manuel Lisa and the Opening of the Missouri Fur Trade.
Published: Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963.
An excellent study of this Spanish-American fur trader who helped found the Missouri Fur Company and who, for a time, operated from the area of present-day Omaha. The book is especially strong at identifying the reasons for company retrenchment and eventual sale to competitors.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Nature & Environment

O'Kieffe, Charley
Western Story: The Recollections of Charley O'Kieffe, 1884-1898.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1960.
A moving tale of growing up on a northwestern Nebraska homestead under the Kinkaid Act and later in Rushville, as well as relations with the nearby Oglala Sioux. This is a good book to compare with Mari Sandoz's Old Jules since they overlap in time and place.

Genre: Nonfiction - Diary/Memoir/Autobiography
Subject: History, Folklife - Community Life, European American

Olson, James C.
J. Sterling Morton
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1942.
Excellent biography of Morton's important Nebraska political career, his role in formulating Arbor Day, and his building of Nebraska City's Arbor Lodge.

Genre: Nonfiction - Biography
Subject: Nature & Environment

Olson, James C.
Red Cloud and the Sioux Problem.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1965.
This solid interpretation of government relations with the Lakota people demonstrates federal duplicity, pioneer pressures on the Indian land base, and the assault on native culture by well-intentioned but myopic reformers. In precise detail it treats all the important events from the 1866 war on the Bozeman Trail through the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Native American, European American
Purchase online from publisher.

Olson, James C.,and Ronald C. Naugle
History of Nebraska. 3rd edition.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1997.
This remains the best overview of Nebraska from prehistoric peoples to the present, both in terms of readability and accuracy. It assumes a chronological approach and the lengthy "Suggestions for Further Reading" section offers readers an excellent guide for following up the discussion of specific topics.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Native American, European American
Purchase online from publisher.

Opie, John
Ogallala: Water for a Dry Land. Second edition.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2000.
Although Opie looks at all landscapes that are affected by the Ogallala Aquifer - Nebraska, Wyoming, Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico - much of his attention is devoted to Nebraska, which encompasses the largest share of the aquifer. He examines not only traditional concerns about irrigation and water allotment to communities, but also the more recent impact of industrial hog farming in Plains states.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: Nature & Environment, Rural Life
Purchase online from publisher.

Ostler, Jeffrey Don
Prairie Populism: The Fate of Agrarian Radicalism in Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa, 1880-1892.
Published: Lawrence:University Press of Kansas, 1993.
Ostler partially rejects the notion that greater economic disparity explains why Kansas and Nebraska welcomed Populism while Iowa remained somewhat distant from the agrarian protest movement. He argues that Iowa's Republican and Democratic parties responded more favorably to farmers' demands than did the same parties in Kansas and Nebraska, so much of the drive for political activism was deflected.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Politics

Overton, Richard C.
Burlington Route: A History of the Burlington Lines.
Published: New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1965.
This constitutes an exhaustive financial history of the Burlington rail system from its modest beginnings in the pre-Civil War era through the end of World War II. Because of the complexities of financial dealings in acquiring other lines over time and modifying the system, this book is a difficult read but a rewarding one for the persistent scholar.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Transportation, Cultural/Human Geography

Overton, Richard C.
Burlington West: A Colonization History of the Burlington Railroad.
Published: Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1941.
This masterful economic study is less about the workings of Burlington trains over time, and more about the acquisition of the large land holdings by the railroad, their sales to private and corporate entities, and the accompanying sales techniques used to advertise and dispose of the lands.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Transportation, Cultural/Human Geography

Parkman, Francis
The Oregon Trail. Ed. by E. N. Feltskog.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994.
In 1846, the proper Bostonian historian and essayist Francis Parkman undertook a trip on the Oregon Trail as far west as Laramie Peak, Wyoming before returning to Missouri via the Arkansas River. His account of that adventure thrilled readers in the East and it remains one of the most valuable accounts of trail life along the Platte River even today.

Genre: Nonfiction - Diary/Memoir/Autobiography
Subject: History, European, America
Purchase online from publisher.

Paul, R. Eli, ed.
The Nebraska Indian Wars Reader, 1865-1877.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998.
This anthology of a dozen articles, ten of which were previously published in Nebraska History , offers a good overview of military relations with the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne during major phases of the Indian wars. Original endnotes are printed with the articles that were written for researchers and general audiences alike.

Genre: Nonfiction - Creative Nonfiction/Essays
Subject: History, Native American, European American, Military
Purchase online from publisher.

Pederson, James F.,and Kenneth D. Wald
Shall the People Rule? A History of the Democratic Party in Nebraska Politics, 1854-1972
Published: Lincoln: Jacob North, Inc., 1972.
This competent biography of the Democratic Party is organized around specific time periods, but it focuses upon the contributions of key party leaders.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Politics

Reidel, James
Vanished Act: The Life & Art of Weldon Kees.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003.
Reidel traces the life of Nebraskan and literati Weldon Kees from his childhood days in Beatrice to his tragic disappearance and probable suicide in July 1955 when his car was found abandoned near the Golden Gate Bridge. This book offers an incisive portrait of the talented and enigmatic Kees, in addition to the broader twentieth-century and post-war American cultural milieu.

Genre: Nonfiction - Biography
Subject: History, Art
Purchase online from publisher.

Richards, Bartlett, Jr., and Ruth Van Ackeren
Bartlett Richards, Nebraska Sandhills Cattleman.
Published: Lincoln: Nebraska State Historical Society, 1980.
Many homesteaders viewed Richards as a wealthy cattle baron who blocked their chances to acquire their fair share of land and water in Nebraska's Sandhills. But among cattlemen he was a champion who fought the unrealistic and unjust land laws that favored agriculturalists. This book should be read in conjunction with Mari Sandoz's Old Jules, which portrayed Jules Ami Sandoz in conflict with Richards.

Genre: Nonfiction - Biography
Subject: History, Folklife - Community Life

Russell, Don
The Lives and Legends of Buffalo Bill.
Published: Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1960.
Much has been written about Buffalo Bill, but this remains the most reliable biography that covers all phases of Bill Cody's life. His role in the Plains Indian wars and his later success as showman-businessman dominate the pages of this book, which disputes some of the most cherished myths about this famed frontiersman.

Genre: Nonfiction - Biography
Subject: History, European, American

Sandoz, Mari
Crazy Horse: The Strange Man of the Oglalas. 50th Anniversary edition.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1992.
Although Sandoz took liberties with the facts and accepted some rumors uncritically, she crafted one of the most empathetic biographies of a Plains Indian leader. On a more positive note, she made good use of the rich E. S. Ricker Interviews and the Hinman-Sandoz Interviews with aged Sioux people.

Genre: Nonfiction - Biography
Subject: History, Native American
Purchase online from publisher.

Sandoz, Mari
Old Jules 50th Anniversary edition.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1985.
This is a "must-read" for persons who wish to better understand the pioneering experience in Nebraska's Panhandle during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Mari wrote about her entrepreneurial father Jules Ami Sandoz who made so many outsiders feel welcome in the pursuit of homesteads, while simultaneously abusing his four wives and children. One cannot read this family story without being strongly affected by it.

Genre: Nonfiction - Biography
Subject: Folklife - Community Life, European American, Rural Life
Purchase online from publisher.

Schlesier, Karl H., ed.
Plains Indians, A.D. 500-1500: The Archaeological Past of Historic Groups
Published: Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994.
This collection of 14 separately authored articles treats a variety of Great Plains archeological topics, but the essays by R. Peter Winham, Edward J. Lueck, Jeffrey L. Eighmy and Patricia J. O'Brien remain the most relevant for Nebraska. They primarily address a scholarly audience that is familiar with the archeological debates and previously published sources.

Genre: Nonfiction - Creative Nonfiction/Essays
Subject: History, Native American, Cultural/Human Geography

Schneiders, Robert Kelley
Unruly River: Two Centuries of Change Along the Missouri.
Published: Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1999.
During the 19th century, the Missouri River served as a natural highway for people and commerce to the Northern Plains and beyond, and it also defined settlement patterns in eastern Nebraska. The Pick-Sloan series of dams, established during the mid-20th century, defined the river's uses for good and ill to the present.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Cultural/Human Geography, Transportation, Nature & Environment, European American

Settle, Raymond W., and Mary Lund Settle
Saddles and Spurs: The Pony Express Saga.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1972.
Although this book is too brief and superficial to serve as the definitive interpretation of the Pony Express, it provides a good read for general audiences.

Genre: Nonfiction -Monograph
Subject: History, Transportation
Purchase online from publisher.

Settle, Raymond W., and Mary Lund Settle
War Drums and Wagon Wheels: The Story of Russell, Majors and Waddell.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1966.
The firm of Russell, Majors and Waddell dominated freighting along the Platte River Road during the late 1840s and 1850s, and it operated a second headquarters at Nebraska City. Its effort to gain the largest share of the federal mail contract by creation of the short-lived Pony Express in 1861 spelled further debt for the company and eventual extinction.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Transportation

Sheldon, Addison E.
"Land Systems and Land Policies in Nebraska." Publications of the Nebraska State Historical Society, XXII.
Published: Lincoln: Nebraska State Historical Society, 1936.
A masterfully detailed and well-documented study that begins with Indian land titles and then provides chapters on issues such as preemption and land warrants, railroad grants, scrip, Homestead Act, Kinkaid Act, conflicts between farmers and cattlemen, frauds, state lands, and new policies in the early 1930s.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Cultural Human Geography, Native American, European American

Sheldon, Addison E.
Nebraska: The Land and the People. 3 vols.
Published: Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1931.
This remains the best of the early efforts to relate the state's history in a massive way (2,133 pages). The first volume treats in detail a full range of chronological topics from Nebraska Indians (not so good) to the Political Campaign of 1928 (much better). Volumes 2 and 3 offer extensive biographical profiles about prominent leaders within the state.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Politics, European American

Snyder, Grace, and Nellie Snyder Yost
No Time on My Hands
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986.
Snyder recalls her childhood in a Custer County sod house and the rigors of homesteading in a pioneer agricultural environment. Following her marriage, she moved to a ranch in the Sandhills. In later life she became nationally known for her folk art expressed in quilt making.

Genre: Nonfiction - Diary/Memoir/Autobiography
Subject: History, Folklife - Material Culture
Purchase online from publisher.

Spring, Agnes Wright
The Cheyenne and Black Hills Stage and Express Routes.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1948.
The important network of trails that developed during the late 1870s linked the Union Pacific Railroad at Cheyenne, Wyoming with the newly opened Black Hills mining areas. The westernmost counties of Nebraska profited considerably from the commerce along these routes, but they also felt the lawlessness associated with the growing prosperity.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Cultural/Human Geography, Transportation

Stauffer, Helen W.
Mari Sandoz: Story Catcher of the Plains.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982.
A sympathetic view of Sandoz and her struggle to gain literary fame by writing about the people and realities she experienced in her own life. She emerged as a prolific author of both history and fiction.

Genre: Nonfiction - Biography
Subject: History, Native American
Purchase online from publisher.

Tate, Michael L., compil.
Nebraska History: An Annotated Bibliography.
Published: Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1995.
This reference work lists books, articles, government documents, master's theses and doctoral dissertations on all phases of Nebraska life, ranging from geology to literature. Annotations alert researchers to the strengths and weaknesses of individual sources, and provide brief descriptions of contents.

Genre: Nonfiction - Reference
Subject: History, Fiction, European American, Native American, Nature & Environment

Tong, Benson
Susan La Flesche Picotte, M.D.: Omaha Indian Leader and Reformer.
Published: Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999.
This warm treatment of the life of the nation's first female Native American medical doctor examines her traditional Omaha tribal culture, her education in eastern boarding schools, and her unwavering service to her own Omaha people. She not only provided years of medical service, but also was a promoter of social reform and an advocate for native land rights.

Genre: Nonfiction - Biography
Subject: History, Native American

Unruh, John D., Jr.
The Plains Across: The Overland Emigrants and the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840-60
Published: Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1979.
This prize-winning book is absolutely essential for understanding all phases of the overland migration across Nebraska to Oregon, California and Salt Lake City. Throughout its massive assembly of detail, it remains very engaging and it provides strong bibliographical sections to spur further research.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Cultural/Human Geography, European American

Webb, Walter Prescott
The Great Plains
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1981.
Although chapters 3 and 4 of this book are outdated and racially biased, this remains one of the true classics in interpreting the development of the American West. Webb's theme of "institutional and technological adaptability" west of the 98th meridian provided a departure point for so many other interpretations of the Great Plains that were published after his.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Nature & Environment, European American
Purchase online from publisher.

Welsch, Roger L.
Shingling the Fog and Other Plains Lies.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1980.
As Nebraska's best-known folklorist today, Welsch has long kept his eye peeled and his ears open to the voices of people at the grassroots level. From them he has assembled a collection of tall tales, lies and comic descriptions of Plains life.

Genre: Nonfiction - Creative Nonfiction/Essays
Subject: Folklife - Oral Traditions/Humor
Purchase online from publisher.

Wilhelm, Paul Duke of Wurttemberg. Translated by W. Robert Nitske and edited by Savoie Lottinville.
Travels in North America, 1822-1824.
Published: Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1973.
This book represents the definitive edition of the Duke of Wurttemberg's immensely valuable journals of his 1823 ascent of the Missouri River. His lengthy descriptions of eastern Nebraska scenes, Native Americans, fur traders and Ft. Atkinson soldiers are virtually unmatched for that era.

Genre: Nonfiction - Diary/Memoir/Autobiography
Subject: History, European American

Wilson, D. Ray
Nebraska Historical Tour Guide.
Published: Carpentersville, Illinois: Crossroads Communications, 1983.
Intended for "weekend historians" wishing to visit important Nebraska sites, and it provides brief data about each site, with directions and tips for visiting the location.

Genre: Nonfiction - Reference
Subject: History, Travel

Wishart, David J.
The Fur Trade of the American West, 1807-1840: A Geographical Synthesis
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1979.
An excellent interpretation of western Nebraska's major role in the early fur trade, and the Bellevue-Omaha area's role as supply center.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Cultural/Human Geography, Nature & Environment
Purchase online from publisher.

Wishart, David J.
An Unspeakable Sadness: The Dispossession of the Nebraska Indians.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994.
This meticulous and judicious study of the decline of native land bases in Nebraska during the 19th century exceeds the quality of all previous sources. Wishart focuses upon the Pawnee, Omaha, Oto-Missouria, and Ponca tribes in relation to treaty cessions, allotment, government payments, and outside pressures to liquidate the Indian domain.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Native American, European American
Purchase online from publisher.

Wood, Raymond W.
Prologue to Lewis and Clark: The Mackay and Evans Expedition.
Published: Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2003.
This valuable source recounts the Mackay-Evans expedition up the Missouri River in 1797 to build an Indian trading post in northeastern Nebraska while the area was still under Spanish imperial control. Lewis and Clark borrowed from the Mackay maps and reports for their 1804 expedition.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Travel

Yost, Nellie Snyder, ed.
Boss Cowman: The Recollections of Ed Lemmon, 1857-1946.
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1969.
As a teenager, Lemmon witnessed the 1864 Indian raids along the Little Blue River of western Nebraska. He later carried the mail, worked as a cowboy, participated in the Nebraska range wars, managed the Flying V Ranch, and maintained relationships with Sioux on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Genre: Nonfiction - Diary/Memoir/Autobiography
Subject: History, Native American, European American
Purchase online from publisher.

Zabel, Orville H.
God and Caesar in Nebraska: A Study of the Legal Relationship of Church and State, 1854-1954
Published: Lincoln: University of Nebraska Studies, No. 14, 1955.
Excellent study, which includes such legal issues as tax exemptions, Sunday laws, degree of religious instruction in public schools, and state relationships with religious schools.

Genre: Nonfiction - Monograph
Subject: History, Religion & Spirituality