A review by pldean
Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the West by Wallace Stegner

4.0

Beyond the Hundredth Meridian deserves its iconic status; it is a work of both scholarship and poetry. It relates the life of a unique, talented, and farsighted man; it also portrays that man's attempt to save the Western United States from its worst myths and preconceptions about itself. One can come away saddened that then, as now, facts and science can be ignored by selfish, greedy, narrow interests. However, one can also be heartened by the way in which finally, reality tends to vindicate those who have eyes to see.