Hard Times in Paradise by William G Robbins
Blessed with vast expanses of virgin timber, a good harbor, and a San Francisco market for its lumber, the Coos Bay area once dubbed itself "a poor man's paradise." A new Prologue and Epilogue by the author bring this story of gyppo loggers, longshoremen, millwrights, and whistle punks into the twenty-first century, describing Coos Bay’s transition from timber town to a retirement and tourist community, where the site of a former Weyerhaeuser complex is now home to the Coquille Indian Tribe’s The Mill Casino.
"Relying heavily on interviews with residents of the Oregon coast, Robbins focuses on the social history of a community and the impact on it of outside forcesHe examines workers, work and living conditions, technologies, unemployment, and ways of surviving joblessness. He explores the rise and decline of labor unions and writes of mills--as well as of woods and of small firms (the "gyppos") and the giants such as Weyerhaeuser and Georgia-Pacific." Richard S. Kirkendall, Western Historical Quarterly "Historians will find this study useful in its survey of the southern Oregon timber industry, in its indictment of the unwise exploitation of resources in the West, and ... as a model for a study that can be read and appreciated by those who matter most--the people who are the history." Allan Kent Powell, American Historical Review "Both scholars and general readers will find this book a cogent microcosmic chronicle of Oregon's leading industry told in very human terms." Craig Wollner, Oregon Historical Quarterly
William G. Robbins is Emeritus Distinguished Professor of History at Oregon State University. He is the author of Landscapes of Promise: The Oregon Story, 1800-1940 and Landscapes of Conflict: The Oregon Story, 1940-2000, among other books.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780295985480 |
| ISBN 10 | 0295985488 |
| Title | Hard Times in Paradise |
| Author | William G Robbins |
| Series | Hard Times In Paradise |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | University of Washington Press |
| Year published | 2006-05-01 |
| Number of pages | 236 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |