Reviews for The men of the last frontier

The average rating for The men of the last frontier based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-09-12 00:00:00 David O'donoghue Archibald Belaney, aka Grey Owl, is an interesting Canadian figure. An Englishman who immigrated to Canada in the early 20th century, he reinvented himself as the son a Scottish father and an Apache mother. He was a fur trapper, served in the Canadian Army during WWI, and became a noted conservationist, public speaker and advocate for the creation of National and Provincial Parks. His true heritage was not discovered until after his death in 1938. On the surface, this is an exploration of the landscape of Northern Ontario and Northern Quebec, and a loving paean to the wilderness of the Canadian Shield, and to the men strong and smart and hardy enough to make their life there. It's also an ode to the beaver, and a condemnation of those would conquer the wilderness by cutting down trees, rather than living in harmony with Nature. And if you step back, this is a celebration and delineation of a certain kind of masculinity, a fine example of the Romantic view of wilderness, an exploration of a particularly Canadian kind of nationalism and nation-building, and a now shocking example of the kind of racism that advocated that it was better for Canada's indigenous people to fade away as pure examples of the noble savage, rather than embrace assimilation. (Their continued existence as nations within Canada was not an option on the table.) Plus, and I was not expecting this, there's some bonus bigotry about south eastern European immigrants, and a reminder of the time when they weren't considered fully white. And that's not even touching the ways in which Grey Owl positions himself as an outsider and source of authority throughout his narrative. Anyway, I'm not going to give this stars, because that's not really the point of reading this kind of book. I read it at the same time as a friend, and I'm very much looking forward to our discussion. If you're interested in the kind of language and sensibility that spurred the creation of some of Canada's parks and a spirit of conservation, this is definitely worth reading, or at least dipping into. It's also an interesting contrast to the kinds of language used by our neighbours to the south, and the way Canada viewed nation-building and it's position in the British Empire, as opposed to manifest destiny.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-07-03 00:00:00 Mary Flanagan This book is worth reading for anyone with an interest in wildness conservation, native history, ungulate and beaver habits, logging and fire suppression, transport and fur trapping (especially beaver) in early 20th century Canada. With that said, I vehemently oppose his racial views: there's one chapter where Grey Owl rips into Italians and other Southern Europeans, saying they are lazy, fire-starting Hunkies: Whoa 1931! That's racist.