Whaddya Gonna Do About It? Radio

THEY MADE IT!!  But you knew that, didn't you?  Thanks for taking the journey with us!  What shall we read next?  Check back to find out!  In the meantime, explore to discover other Bedtime Stories with Thomson and his talk show- A Cup of Coffee with Thomson.  You can subscribe on iTunes, or download the app by clicking Add This on your mobile.  Thanks for listening- Everybody Love Everybody!!!

The number of buffalos killed is disgusting, especially since we now know they were hunted to extinction.  But this story is true to the times!  Whaddya you think?  Tell us here!

Hunting the wild buffalo! How exciting!  Thanks for listening- ELE!

Thanks for reading the classics of literature with Thomson and his Dad!  Are you enjoying The Oregon Trail?  Chapter 10 is the Homeward Trail, let us know what you think on our Facebook page please!

The Ogalala need more buffalo skin, experience the chase!  Comment on our Facebook Page!

Indian Days! What do you think of The Oregon Trail? We would love to hear from you, like our Facebook page and post your opinions!  Thanks for listening, come back tomorrow for the rest of chapter 9.

Will the Sioux go to war with the Shoshone? Listen to find out!

Parkman's work regarding nationality, race, and especially Native Americans have generated criticism. C. Vann Woodward wrote that Parkman permitted his bias to control his judgment, drawing a distinction between Indian "savagery" and settler "civilization", for Parkman found the Indian practice of scalping execrable, and made sure to underscore his aversion.  However, the historical significance of his work cannot be denied.

Parkman is one of the most notable nationalist historians. In recognition of his talent and accomplishments, the Society for American Historians annually awards the Francis Parkman Prize for the best book on American history. His work has been praised by historians who have published essays in new editions of his work by such Pulitzer Prize winners as C. Vann Woodward, Allan Nevins, and Samuel Eliot Morison as well as by other notable historians including Wilbur R. Jacobs, John Keegan, William Taylor, Mark Van Doren, and David Levin. Famous artists such as Thomas Hart Benton and Frederic Remington have illustrated Parkman's books. Numerous translations have been published worldwide.

The Oregon Trail is a 2,200-mile (3,500 km) historic east-west large wheeled wagon route and emigrant trail that connected the Missouri River to valleys in Oregon. The eastern part of the Oregon Trail spanned part of the future state of Kansas and nearly all of what are now the states of Nebraska and Wyoming. The western half of the trail spanned most of the future states of Idaho and Oregon.

There are some outdated, what we today would consider racist; attitudes in this book.  Francis Parkman was a product of his time and it is good that we acknowledge this was how it was so that we don't repeat these attitudes.  Parkman actually spent a number of weeks living with the Sioux tribe, at a time when they were struggling with some of the effects of contact with Europeans, such as epidemic disease and alcoholism. This experience led Parkman to write about American Indians with a much different tone from earlier, more sympathetic portrayals represented by the "noble savage" stereotype. Writing in the era of Manifest Destiny, Parkman believed that the conquest and displacement of American Indians represented progress, a triumph of "civilization" over "savagery", a common view at the time.

Francis Parkman's family was somewhat appalled at his choice of life work, since at the time writing histories of the American wilderness was considered ungentlemanly. Serious historians would study ancient history, or after the fashion of the time, the Spanish Empire. But Parkman's works became so well-received that by the end of his lifetime, histories of early America had become the fashion. Theodore Roosevelt dedicated his four-volume history of the frontier, The Winning of the West (1889–1896), to Parkman.

Francis Parkman enrolled at Harvard College at age 16!  In his second year he conceived the plan that would become his life's work- writing a history of forests. In 1843, at the age of 20, he traveled to Europe for eight months in the fashion of the Grand Tour. Parkman made expeditions through the Alps and the Apennine mountains, climbed Vesuvius, and even lived for a time in Rome.  Upon graduation in 1844, he was persuaded to get a law degree, his father hoping such study would rid Parkman of his desire to write his history of the forests. It did no such thing, and after finishing law school Parkman proceeded to fulfill his great plan.

As a young boy, "Frank" Parkman was found to be of poor health, and was sent to live with his maternal grandfather, who owned a 3,000-acre tract of wilderness in nearby Medford, Massachusetts, in the hopes that a more rustic lifestyle would make him more sturdy. In the four years he stayed there, Parkman developed his love of the forests, which would animate his historical research. Indeed, he would later summarize his books as "the history of the American forest." He learned how to sleep and hunt, and could survive in the wilderness like a true pioneer. He later even learned to ride bareback, a skill that would come in handy when he found himself living with theSioux.

"The Oregon Trail appeared in 1849, and with its publication Parkman was launched upon his career as a storyteller without peer in American letters. ... It is the picturesqueness, the racy vigor, the poetic elegance, the youthful excitement, that give The Oregon Trail its enduring appeal, recreating for us, as perhaps does no other book in our literature, the wonder and beauty of life in a new world that is now old and but a memory." -Herman Melville

The Oregon Trail: Sketches of Prairie and Rocky-Mountain Life (also published as The California & Oregon Trail) is a book written by Francis Parkman. It was originally serialized in twenty-one installments in Knickerbocker's Magazine (1847–49) and subsequently published as a book in 1849. The book is a breezy, first-person account of a 2-month summer tour in 1846 of the U.S. states of Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, and Kansas. Parkman was 23 at the time. The heart of the book covers the three weeks Parkman spent hunting buffalo with a band of Oglala Sioux.

Who is Francis Parkman?  The author of The Oregon Trail who was fascinated by Indians!  Some of the stuff in this book is not politically correct, but that's OK, John explains it so the kids will understand.  Regardless of the language, this is a fascinating look at the frontier of North America!

The exciting conclusion of The Wizard of Oz!  What did you and your children think of this book?  What do you think of the ending?  We would love to hear from you, please post your thoughts on our Facebook page!  And make sure to check back for our next Bedtime Story- The Oregon Trail!!

The strangest man any of them had ever seen!! (and that's really saying something!  stranger than flying monkeys, wicked witches, and munchkins?!)  Bizarre! Thanks for listening, don't forget to visit our facebook page!