California's day of the grizzly

SciTech Book News, June, 2008

California's day of the grizzly.

Secrest, William B.

Word Dancer Press

2008

244 pages

$25.00

Hardcover

QL737

The California grizzly bear is now extinct. Secrest, a longtime chronicler of California history, tells how this happened. Along the way he gives the story of the real Grizzly Adams, bear and bull fights, the settling of the west and the determined destruction of an animal that was too big and fierce to find a place in the expansion of California farms and towns. Secrest writes with flair. He draws copiously from newspaper articles and local archives and includes many pictures. This book not only gives the history of grizzly versus man, but also reminds us of how recently we took it for granted that nature existed to be exploited.

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