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More Details Original Title. William O. Washington State Book Award Other Editions 2. Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.
To ask other readers questions about Go East, Young Man , please sign up. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. I purchased this book soon after publication after hearing him speak in Richland, Washington, just eighty miles from his hometown of Yakima.
I waited in line to get it autographed and couldn't wait to read it. He was a hero of mine, I loved his stances for civil liberties, loved that he was detested by the establishment and loved the idea of maybe running into him during hikes around Chinook Pass, close Goose Prairie where he lived when Court was not in session.
Then came a revisionist portrait o I purchased this book soon after publication after hearing him speak in Richland, Washington, just eighty miles from his hometown of Yakima. Then came a revisionist portrait of Douglas. Independent Journey by James Simon acknowledged the contributions by Douglas, quoting Clark Clifford that "each one of us freer, safer and stronger" because of him. But it also noted that Douglas's mean temperament and grudge carrying. Over the years other sources showed that it was Justice Brennan who was mainly responsible for the majority opinions that so many admired as Douglas was often content to write a blistering defense with no desire to create a majority and that his opinions often did not have the desired legal substance and were too often too result driven.
The revisionism reached a crescendo with "Wild Bill" by Bruce Murphy,a biography that shows a dislike of about everything about Douglass and carefully documenting questions about the credibility of Douglass's stories about his life. So I was intrigued to read this again. And there were parts of his memoir that you take with a grain of salt; the story of his childhood polio is largely discredited, his mom may not have been as poor as he portrayed. And today a reader will cringe when Douglass discusses a woman, almost every time there is a discussion of her physical attractiveness, often lasting longer than the sum of the rest of her.
But I came away thinking that the revisionism has gone too far. Douglass did grow up poor, if he exaggerated some aspects of it, he did work hard, grow up in a modest home and attend college on a scholarship while working at Falkenbergs so he could send money home. Bruce Murphy may spend an entire chapter arguing about Douglass's true class standing, but Douglass did graduate with honors and was offered jobs at Ivy League law schools and throughout his life even his enemies acknowledged that he was brilliant.
And my favorite parts of his book, his time hiking and exploring the Cascade Mountains of his youth, the Wallowa mountains of his first mountain retreat, the closest nature of wherever he was at the time is true. He writes of those times with authentic passion that is corroborated by so many people who either enjoyed the outdoor adventures with him or who complained of being induced to accompany him on such adventures. And when Douglass writes of the eccentric characters he admires that is also authentic and corroborated.
This book of his early years ends with his appointment to the Supreme Court but does include his years with the SEC. His legislative and administrative battles with Wall Street are well documented by others, we need not rely on Douglass's words alone for his record. So yes, let's concede the tarnishes on Douglass's character.
But let us also acknowledge that he was an American icon who went from humble beginnings in Yakima Washington to the top of the legal world while maintaining his love for the outdoors and humanity, if not the individual men and women in his life The first book of two volumes of autobiography, this covers Douglas' life up to his appointment to the Supreme Court.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, in no small part due to my political philosophy being, in large part, similar to his. He was also a big lover of the outdoors. I like a good hike, but I can't be called an outdoorsman to the same degree as him. As any good writer does, he writes with his own distinct voice. One might expect that the voice of a Supreme Court justice might be dry and The first book of two volumes of autobiography, this covers Douglas' life up to his appointment to the Supreme Court.
One might expect that the voice of a Supreme Court justice might be dry and clinical but that is not the case here. He brings to life those subjects he is passionate about. He grew up poor and fatherless, worked as a migrant laborer, and "rode the rods" with hobos and Wobblies.
This background was the foundation of his views, which may best be described as anti-Establishment, with a capital E. I perhaps enjoyed the early chapters more than the later ones, but that is my own failing rather than the author's. In the later chapters he is prone to cataloging the people he knew over his lifetime. His thumbnail sketches, sometimes just a paragraph, took me out of the flow of his story. There's nothing wrong with these little portraits, and it's undoubtedly a Good Thing to get his views on the people around him.
I've come across some of these folks in other books, and expect to meet them again in my further reading. I look forward to reading the second volume and will certainly track down at least one of his wilderness books.
View 1 comment. Oct 26, Mike Sigler rated it liked it. First part good, second part fair. An excellent autobiography on the early years of William O Douglas including how he hopped a train to attend law school in the east. It's been a while and worth a reread An excellent autobiography on the early years of William O Douglas including how he hopped a train to attend law school in the east. It's been a while and worth a reread Jun 26, Tal Fletcher rated it it was amazing. Must reading by a famous author.
This license does not apply to any material that is separately copyrighted. Please refer to the credit lines and source notations in each book to determine the copyright holders for images and other third-party material. Transference of Oriental images and identities to the American landscape and its inhabitants, especially in the West—in other words, portrayal of the West as the "Orient"—has been a common aspect of American cultural history.
Place names offer notable examples—think of the Jordan River or Pyramid Lake—but the imagery and its varied meanings are more widespread and significant. Understanding that range and significance, especially to the western part of the continent, means coming to terms with the complicated, nuanced ideas of the Orient and of the North American continent that European Americans brought to the West.
Such complexity is what historical geographer Richard Francaviglia unravels in this book. Since the publication of Edward Said's book Orientalism , the term has come to signify something one-dimensionally negative. In essence, the Orientalist vision was an ethnocentric characterization of the peoples of Asia and Africa and the "Near East" as exotic, primitive "others" subject to conquest by the nations of Europe.
That now well-established point, which expresses a postcolonial perspective, is critical, but Francaviglia suggests that it overlooks much variation and complexity in the views of historical actors and writers, many of whom thought of western places in terms of an idealized and romanticized Orient.
It neglects positive images and interpretations to focus on those of a decadent and ostensibly inferior East. We cannot understand well or fully what the pervasive Orientalism found in western cultural history meant, Francaviglia contends, if we focus only on its role as an intellectual engine for European imperialism. It did play that role as well in the American West.
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