For four centuries, the Camp Ashaninkas of the Peruvian Amazon have fought for their identity and independence in the face of Spanish colonialism and Peruvian national expansionism. Stefan Varese wrote about the Campa Ashaninkas in the mid-1960s, after three seasons of field research among them and three years of archival research. He titled his book La Sal de Los Cerros, after the invaded Mountain of Salt that had been the center of Campa Ashaninka trade and power for millennia. Salt of the Mountain makes Varese's classic work of anthropology available in English for the first time, updated with a new preface and introduction by the author. Varese conducted his research with an explicit commitment to letting the Campa Ashaninkas speak for themselves. Using their myths and cosmological interpretations as source material, Varese presents new readings of both colonial Spanish and modern Peruvian documents relating to the tribe. He chronicles the relentless success of European geographic annexation and the continuing failure of European cultural assimilation. Living among the Campa Ashaninkas, Varese found that their worldview rejects the modern notion that assimilation is inevitable, and he developed a deep respect for their fiercely independent spirit. For this reason, he calls his work an "approximation" rather than a description or history.

From the depths of Death Valley, Daniel Arnold set out to reach Mount Whitney in a way no road or trail could take him. Anything manmade or designed to make travel easy was out. With a backpack full of empty two–liter bottles, and the remotest corners of desert before him, he began his toughest test yet of physical and mental endurance. Badwater Basin sits 282 feet below sea level in Death Valley, the lowest and hottest place in the Western Hemisphere. Mount Whitney rises 14,505 feet above sea level, the highest point in the contiguous United States. Arnold spent seventeen days traveling a roundabout route from one to the other, traversing salt flats, scaling dunes, and sinking into slot canyons. Aside from bighorn sheep and a phantom mountain lion, his only companions were ghosts of the dreamers and misfits who first dared into this unknown territory. He walked in the footsteps of William Manly, who rescued the last of the forty–niners from the bottom of Death Valley; tracked John LeMoigne, a prospector who died in the sand with his burros; and relived the tales of Mary Austin, who learned the secret trails of the Shoshone Indians. This is their story too, as much as it is a history of salt and water and of the places they collide and disappear. Guiding the reader up treacherous climbs and through burning sands, Arnold captures the dramatic landscapes as only he can with photographs to bring it all to life. From the salt to the summit, this is an epic journey across America's most legendary desert.

The classic pacifist novel by a major Polish writer, who was nominated for the Nobel Prize At the beginning of the twentieth century the villagers of the Carpathian mountains lead a simple life, much as they have always done. Among them is Piotr, a bandy-legged peasant, who wants nothing more from life than an official railway cap, a cottage, and a bride with a dowry. But then the First World War reaches the mountains and Piotr is drafted into the army. All the weight of imperial authority is used to mould him into an unthinking fighting machine, forced to fight a war he does not understand, for interests other than his own. The Salt of the Earth is a classic war novel and a powerfully pacifist tale about the consequences of war for ordinary men.

Follow the adventures of three brothers -- Nicholas, Peter and Ivan as they search for fame and fortune. The youngest son, Ivan discovers a mountain of salt on the high seas and meets a beautiful princess during the journey. Fillers include: Aesop's Fables: The Father and the Two Daughters, A poem by Edward Lear There Was a Young Lady of Norway, The Animal World -- The Pelican and a color me page on the back inside cover.

The El Paso Salt War of 1877 has gone down in history as the spontaneous action of a mindless rabble, but as author Paul Cool deftly demonstrates, the episode was actually an insurgency, the product of a deliberate, community-based decision squarely in the tradition of the American nation s original fight for self-government. The Pasenos (local Mexican Americans) had held common ownership of the immense salt lakes at the base of the Guadalupe Mountains since the time of Spanish rule. They believed their title was confirmed in the treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. However, to the American businessmen who saw in the white expanse a cash crop that could make them rich in the years following the American Civil War, ownership appeared up for grabs. After years of struggle among Anglo politicians and speculators eager to seize the lakes, an Austin banker staked a legal claim in 1877, and his son-in-law, Charles Howard, started to enforce it. Cool chronicles the ensuing popular uprising that disrupted established governmental authority in El Paso for twelve weeks. Unique features of this pioneering book include the author s employment of previously untapped sources and the first thorough and systematic use of familiar ones, notably the government report El Paso Troubles in Texas, to create this detailed study of the war. First-person accounts from reports and newspaper items create a landmark day-by-day account of the San Elizario battle, including the location of the Texas Ranger positions. This fast-paced account not only corrects the record of this historical episode but will also resonate in the context of today s racial and ethnic tensions along the U.S.-Mexico border."