The great heritage is the American earth — its mountains, valleys, plains, and rivers. In this inspiring book, Katherine Shippen shows how past generations worked to develop their rich heritage, and asks what we will do with it tomorrow.
The author covers a period from the time when "a squirrel might leap from bough to bough for a thousand miles and see scarcely a flicker of sunlight on the ground, so contiguous were the tree crowns, so dense the foliage," up to our present day, when science is debating whether our new source of strength will lie in the release of atomic energy.
She has applied this time lapse to each of her subjects, which include timber, furs, oil, steel, fish, cotton, cattle, and water-power, to mention only a few. She brings each alive with real or semi-legendary characters like the "Bangor Tigers" and Paul Bunyan, Lewis and Clark, Johnny Appleseed, John D. Rockefeller, Sir Henry Bessemer, Joe Magarac, Franklin D. Roosevelt.
At the end, she gives important lists of books and pamphlets on the great inheritance; some records of American music; and titles with details of films on American life, agriculture, and industry.
The numerous illustrations by C. B. Falls round out the text perfectly.
—from the dust jacket
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