Reviews for The Oregon Trail

The average rating for The Oregon Trail based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-11-08 00:00:00 Johnnie Cusack "[L]uck had much to do with how an individual fared on the overland trail [from the East to California in the 1840s & 50s]. But if we speak of luck and ownership, we must keep in mind the fact that the luck was in the condition and durability of the property, not in the ownership. Ownership was an absolute, not a variable . . . "[P]ressures against traditional concepts were great on the overland trail - no police, no social permanency, strangers passing never expecting to meet again, stalked by fear of hunger, fear of exposure, and fear of being left behind. Yet if we search the records, there is but one indication that the emigrants may have departed from common law and formulated customary law. Ironically, it may underline, not disprove, the theory that behavior was determined by remembered rules. It was the possible alteration of company property into personal property by prescriptive use." -John Phillip Reid, Law for the Elephants: Property and Social Behavior on the Overland Trail Property rights are a social construct that function fairly well without states in many of the least likely of circumstances. Whatever their merits or demerits, state-provided services like the police are most certainly not needed for people to have property rights, as confirmed repeatedly throughout history.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-12-31 00:00:00 thomas garrera I was disappointed in this book. I had highly anticipated reading this book for several years. I had the impression it was about a journey from Missouri to Oregon or California on the Oregon Trail. The author only traveled perhaps half of the trail and did not comment or even mention the iconic landmarks like Chimney Rock. Or what it felt like to ride in a Conestoga Wagon. Rather the author regaled us with reasons why the "white" man was so superior. Indeed he ranked in order men of the prairie thusly: 1. Whites 2. Indians. 3. Mexicans. Gave a biased snap shot of life on the prairie and demonstrated why there are no buffalo left: they were all shot- some for sport and trophies; some for food. The Native Americans depended in them to live. The book shows the beginning of the destruction of the prairie and the beginning of the displacement if the Native American.