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Reviews
Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America by Theodora Kroeber
fairymodmother's review against another edition
4.0
A very informative, short and human story of an ongoing tragedy. I learned a lot that makes a lot of what I know about California make a bit more sense, and an excellent counterpoint to the cowboys and Indians narratives popular from my childhood. Sad, loving, and clear-eyed.
jessabbe's review against another edition
5.0
She did us all a service, documenting and interpreting what she learned from those who knew Ishi. As hard as it is to read of the maniacal killings of northern California tribes, the book is also an extraordinary story of the man Ishi and the beauty and resourcefulness of his doomed culture. It is a tribute to him, and also gives respect to those few newcomers who at least tried to resist the madness, advocate for survivors, and keep their stories alive. The 50th anniversary edition has an illuminating forward by Theodora and Alfred Kroeber's son Karl. When the book was originally published in 1961, the New York Times declared it "A book that all Americans should read." This is still true. Readers today benefit from the critical eye we cast on historians of 100 years ago and 50 years ago, before the word genocide was used to accurately describe what happened in the mountains and meadows and canyons where Ishi alone carried his people's memories, and then politely shared what he could with a few people who had a dawning comprehension of how grievous was this loss.
queeneallie's review against another edition
2.0
This I found stilted and dry. Wanted to like it, but just didn’t.
leasummer's review against another edition
3.0
This is the story of Ishi, meaning man, the last "Wild Man" to survive the white man's extermination of Indians in Northern California. While part one is hard to read, if you're sensitive to the eradication of a people; part two is an insight into the man who came to embrace his situation like few could. It's a really beautiful story, well told, taking into consideration it was published in 1961 and uses hearsay and tales along with first-hand accounts.
kevin_shepherd's review against another edition
4.0
By the year 1872, the “mountain Indians” of Northern California were believed to be extinct—wiped out by civilian militia, government soldiers, starvation, and disease. In August of 1911 an emaciated, disoriented, naked, Native American man was discovered in a slaughterhouse corral near Oroville, California. Unable or, more likely, unwilling to communicate his name to the white anthropologists who cared for and studied him, he was dubbed “Ishi,” the Yahi word for “man.”
Published in 1961 but written with 1950’s sensibilities and 1950’s anthropological conventions, Ishi in Two Worlds ultimately sold over one million copies. Author Theodora Kroeber spent the first half of her book in an ethnographic accounting of Ishi’s tribe, the Yana, and the second half in a biographical presentation of Ishi’s assimilation, slight as it was, to white culture.
In describing the fate of the Yana, Kroeber never used the word ‘genocide’ but I’ve never read a more vivid example. The hill tribes, unwilling to kowtow to white suprematism, were systematically and brutally exterminated.
Kroeber’s accounting of the demise of the Yana and of Ishi’s sad but graceful resignation to his fate moved me quite viscerally. Accessible and clearly written, it is no wonder that this book inspired so much empathy and compassion for Ishi, America’s last “wild Indian.”
Published in 1961 but written with 1950’s sensibilities and 1950’s anthropological conventions, Ishi in Two Worlds ultimately sold over one million copies. Author Theodora Kroeber spent the first half of her book in an ethnographic accounting of Ishi’s tribe, the Yana, and the second half in a biographical presentation of Ishi’s assimilation, slight as it was, to white culture.
In describing the fate of the Yana, Kroeber never used the word ‘genocide’ but I’ve never read a more vivid example. The hill tribes, unwilling to kowtow to white suprematism, were systematically and brutally exterminated.
Kroeber’s accounting of the demise of the Yana and of Ishi’s sad but graceful resignation to his fate moved me quite viscerally. Accessible and clearly written, it is no wonder that this book inspired so much empathy and compassion for Ishi, America’s last “wild Indian.”