As a writer who specializes in Montana history, I have never spent much time reading accounts of Montana Prehistory. I tend to leave that part of Montana’s past to those who are the experts. I have, however, always wondered about what happened before the recorded history of Montana. When I discovered the book, Montana Before History, 11,000 Years of Hunter-Gatherers in the Rockies and Plains on the library shelf, I knew I had found a book that would fill me in on the prehistory of Montana , giving me some basic knowledge without making me wade through volumes of scholarly papers. The book is a slim volume having less than 200 pages, but it is a good book for people like me who want to know a little about the subject, or a starting point for who wants to delve deeper.
According to the author’s bio at the back of the book, Douglass H. MacDonald lives in Missoula, where teaches in the Anthropology department at the University of Montana. He holds a PhD from the University of Washington . I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to take a brief journey back to the time before Montana History.
One tip I would like to share, when I read a book like this on an unfamiliar subject, I read through the glossary first, that way I don’t have to keep going to the back of the book.
Montana Before History
11,000 Years of Hunter-Gatherers in the Rockies and Plains
Author: Douglass H. McDonald
Published by Mountain Press Publishing Company.
