R. Douglas HurtReseñas

This book was a difficult read in the sense that it was hard to read about what happened to the Native American peoples. It's one thing to have heard about The Trail of Tears, but it's entirely something else to read first-hand accounts that describe the horrors with such phrases as, "I fought through the civil war and have seen men shot to pieces and slaughtered by thousands, but the Cherokee removal was the cruelest work I ever knew." Most of this book reads matter-of-factly, which gets dry at times, but I encouraged myself to get through the whole thing. The United States doesn't have the best history in the world, and this book exists to remind readers that it didn't have to be this way.

This is a pretty good biography of Benton, exploring particularly his life as a writer, something that many people are not aware of, in addition to his art. It is a fairly comprehensive look at his life and career and though the writing bogs down in places, it is fairly readable as well. It was not, however, what I was looking for as I was hoping to find more on his techniques and style, his education and the development of the style called Regionalism – these technical aspects were lacking. There were also less plates showing his work than I had hoped to see.