Members with This Book
Most Helpful Reviews
see all reviews
Liked It1 of 1 members found this review helpful “BOONE was a fascinating read, and offered many things I look for in a great biography: insight, understanding of why the subject is worth knowing, human perspective, and historical perspective, all in a narrative that flows like a good story. Robert Morgan, more known for his fiction, has...” see full review » see other reviews » |
Didn’t Like It “This book is super boring. You would think that they did the movies on Daniel Boone based on his real life, but the movies are way off. Anyway this book is super boring and I've kind of stopped reading it for now, but I will finish it...SOMEDAY! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...still...” see full review » see other reviews » |
Newest Reviews
see all reviews-
“19th century, history, america, 18th century”
Kevin wrote this review Thursday, February 9, 2012. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
0 of 1 members found this review helpful“Very good if this is the type of fiction you enjoy. Not really the era I like to read about but interesting.”
Sally B wrote this review Thursday, December 15, 2011. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“Fantastic book about the real Daniel Boone.”
SallyMae wrote this review Sunday, November 27, 2011. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No1 of 1 members found this review helpful“BOONE was a fascinating read, and offered many things I look for in a great biography: insight, understanding of why the subject is worth knowing, human perspective, and historical perspective, all in a narrative that flows like a good story. Robert Morgan, more known for his fiction, has accomplished much of this, though I dropped the fifth star in my rating because it needed some additional editing to remove a fair amount of unnecessary repetition and to improve the flow in a few places where the narrative bogs down. For the most part, however, Daniel Boone is too interesting and his story and times too adventure-filled to mind the weak spots. A very few reviewers criticized the author's research credentials, but the Notes and Bibliography are comprehensive and impressive, and I disagreed with many of their quibbles. This book was both edifying and entertaining.
Elizabeth Cottrell - "RiverwoodWriter" wrote this review Sunday, September 18, 2011. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
The first words of the book are "Forget the coonskin cap; he never wore one." This sets the tone for one of the themes of the book -- that the myth of Daniel Boone was a phenomenon in itself and was often at odds with the real man, or was at least a larger-than-life image that served the purposes of those who helped create it. The author leaves no doubt, however, that Boone was a complex man of remarkable skill, industry, and courage.
Irony plays a starring role in the life of Daniel Boone. For someone whose fame and reputation were widespread -- during his lifetime and beyond -- Boone was a terrible businessman who was constantly, throughout his life, in trouble because of profligate spending and inattention to record-keeping and the details of proper legal transactions. He made the same mistakes over and over, including trusting people he shouldn't have trusted. His many prolonged adventures and exploratory expeditions made him an often absent husband to Rebeccah and their 10 children, though they moved many times to join him. Yet again and again he was celebrated, written about, elected to public office, and chosen for jobs over others without these weaknesses. The greatest irony of Boone's life is that his hunger for adventure and wilderness, for discovering uncharted territory, for living at one with Nature like the Indians, and the resulting trails that he blazed, actually paved the way for the rush of settlers westward that actually destroyed so much of what he loved. He lived long enough to appreciate and regret this irony.
Some of the most vividly written passages of the book, in fact, relate to Daniel's intimate feelings about wild places. "For Daniel the forest was his mother world, a place of shadows and mystery, infinite diversions and pleasure; the settlement and town were the masculine world of trade and business, meetinghouse, authority and strictness. He would always be closer to the mother world than to the father world. His deepest affinity was with the forest and the streams." "He may have been one of those who feel the woods are more alive in the rain, the air more intimate immediate with sounds and smells, with moisture and falling drops." "Boone's world was the wilderness, and the families at the edge of the wilderness. Almost all his best work was done in the woods."
Morgan does a good job of using his sources to portray Boone as a storyteller and wit, and many of Boone's quotes and anecdotes have survived, though in some cases, there is controversy about whether they are accurate or embellished. He is supposed to have said, "I wouldn't give a tinker's damn for a man who isn't sometimes afraid. Fear's the spice that makes it interesting to go ahead."
Boone's relationship with the native Americans was particularly interesting in light of the conflicting stories about him and the suspicion by some whites that he was more sympathetic to the Indian cause than to theirs. He was greatly admired by many Indians for being such a skilled woodsman and hunter, and he was definitely appreciative of their lifestyle and culture...their being in synch with Nature and animals rather than just dead set on conquering, civilizing, and plundering for greedy motives. When he was captured by the Shawnees for several months, he was adopted by the kidnappers and there is good evidence that the bonds he formed with many members of that tribe endured to the very end of his life. He once said, "while I could never with safety repose confidence in a Yankee, never have been deceived by an Indian." Yet his reputation as an Indian fighter was made through his fearless and ferocious defense of various forts and settlements against Indian attacks; he had furs and horses stolen by the Indians time and again; and many among his family and friends were killed by Indians, including his sons James and Israel, and his brother Ned. The story of a century of strife and conflict between westward-moving settlers and displaced Indians was one of horrible atrocities and broken agreements on both sides. The dangers and hardships of frontier life were masterfully and vividly portrayed in this book.
The author has been criticized for spending too much time on peripheral characters in Boone's story, but I actually felt this fleshed out the story and made my understanding and appreciation of the time period richer. John Filson, the awkward and inept journalist who became a legend in American history himself, followed Boone and chronicled his life in a publication that was really aimed at painting a romantic picture of the Kentucky region to lure people to come out and buy land. Filson was apparently so annoying and persistent, that he got his story and became the first Kentucky historian. Other important, but less remembered, men were those who accompanied Boone on various expeditions and forays into new territory. Some used him for their own agendas.
Robert Morgan says that after Boone's death in 1820 (at age 86), "his larger life as mythic figure, legend and icon of the West was just beginning." Perhaps the most compelling part of the book was the strong case made by the author for the impact that Boone and his legend had on thinkers, writers and artists in the decades after his death. He quotes historian Richard Slotkin, "t was the figure of Daniel Boone, the solitary, Indian-like hunter of the deep woods, that became the most significant, most emotionally compelling myth-hero of the early republic. The other myth-figures are reflections or variations of this basic type." We find Boone's incarnations in the heroes of James Fennimore Cooper (e.g. Leatherstocking, Hawkeye and Natty Bumppo). The works of Thomas Cole, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Lord Byron, and Walt Whitman all reflect strong inspiration of Daniel Boone and the life he loved. An organization for boys, Sons of Daniel Boone, was founded in 1905 by Dan Beard and is felt to be the precursor to the Boy Scouts of America. The author used many specific quotes and examples extensively to make his case for the strong and far-reaching impact of Daniel Boone. "[By the 1850s], the image and legend of Boone had pervaded the American consciousness...Boone had become a figure of America's ideal self, a touchstone of poetry and history and national identity."
”
“Discovered quite a few things that I did not know about Boone.”
kmandew wrote this review Saturday, May 14, 2011. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“This was just such a great book and biography! I really enjoyed it!”
Don Smith wrote this review Thursday, February 10, 2011. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“Good historical read.”
James V wrote this review Friday, August 6, 2010. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No“very good ”
Helen P wrote this review Tuesday, June 29, 2010. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
“I had the distinct pleasure of studying this book in a class at ASU that was taught by the author, Bob Morgan. An accurate and entertaining account of the life of Daniel Boone and his quest for the dream of life in Kentucky.
Fagan's Mom wrote this review Thursday, June 17, 2010. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
A must read for any Boone enthusiast or if you just like history.”“This book is super boring. You would think that they did the movies on Daniel Boone based on his real life, but the movies are way off. Anyway this book is super boring and I've kind of stopped reading it for now, but I will finish it...SOMEDAY! zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...still haven't picked this book up yet....its soooooooo boring!!!!!!!!!! still haven't read the rest of this book yet.... i really believe I'm not into biographies.”
~*JulianaK*~ wrote this review Monday, April 12, 2010. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
