Nokes Book Blog
Stay current on articles, notes and appearances.
OPB to show Oregon’s Black Pioneers Feb. 25
Oregon Public Broadcasting is airing a special program on Oregon’s Black Pioneers on Feb. 25.
OCTA Overland Journal – Fall 2018 Book Review
The Troubled Life of Peter Burnett: Oregon Pioneer and First Governor of California Reviewed by LeRoy Johnson This book begins with a bang. One night in 1830, a burglar broke into young Peter Burnett’s store and stole some whiskey. Two nights later Burnett...
“Slavery’s Descendants” to be published in May
The cover is approved for the new Rutgers U. book on “Slavery’s Descendants.” Book itself will be out in May. My contribution is an article on the experiences of a slave named Reuben Shipley who was brought to Oregon from Missouri by one of my ancestors in 1853.
Take a trip down to Oregon City … California
There aren’t many places where Oregon pioneer Peter Burnett is esteemed for his role in western history. But Oregon City, California, is one of them. No, that’s not a misprint. There is such a place and it’s connected in history to Oregon’s Oregon City. The other...
Missouri Historical Review publishes a book note on Burnett
The Troubled Life of Peter Burnett: Oregon Pioneer and First Governor of California. By R. Gregory Nokes (Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2018). xii + 270 pp. Appendixes. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $19.95, paper. Peter Burnett’s life followed an...
Slavery came west: Forgotten pioneer pushed American apartheid
Immaculate conception — a political version of it — is how modern West Coast residents envision slavery’s role in the earliest foundations of California, Oregon and Washington.
The Applegate drowning
Those of you who have read my new book, “The Troubled Life of Peter Burnett,” will recall the chapter describing the drowning of two young boys of the Applegate family in the Columbia River in 1843.
Powell’s City of Books hosts R. Gregory Nokes
Yep, that's me. Name in lights. Nice turnout, too, of 40-plus for my presentation at Powell's City of Books on my new book, "The Troubled Life of Peter Burnett."
Greg Nokes interviewed on AM NORTHWEST
He was an Oregon pioneer and first governor of California, but he was also a former slaveholder who could never seem to get beyond his single-minded goal of banning blacks and other minorities from the West. R. Gregory Nokes, author of the new book The Troubled Life...