Reviewed by: Portland in Three Centuries: The Place and People (Second Edition) by Carl Abbott Joel Zapata PORTLAND IN THREE CENTURIES: THE PLACE AND PEOPLE (SECOND EDITION) by Carl Abbott Oregon State University Press, Corvallis, 2022. Illustrations, bibliography, index. 2012 pages. $21.95 paper. Portland has perhaps an outsized place in the national and even global imagination. Oregon’s metropolis is often depicted in film, television, and print media as an archetypal twenty-first century city filled with hipsters and alternative cultures alongside yuppies and technological startups. It recently appeared in Time’s list of “The World’s Greatest Places,” together with the Great Barrier Reef and the storied, transcontinental city of Istanbul, Turkey. During the past decade, news media across the globe has also covered Portland for its position as an at-times tumultuous meeting place among hate groups, social justice activists demanding the city and the nation transform into a more equitable place, and often-abusive and right-leaning police forces. And amid protests and counterprotests, as news media also points out, Portlanders live in a city that exemplifies the nation’s growing economic and housing disparities. Almost always, however, mass media leaves Portlanders, Oregonians, and, indeed, global citizens to wonder how the city became what it is. Carl Abbott’s revised and expanded second edition of Portland in Three Centuries: The Place and People provides us with timely answers. Overall, Abbott combines broad historical strokes with granular detail in telling Portland’s story. In so doing, the author strives to include Portland’s diverse past and present population. Alongside extensive coverage of businessmen and politicians, he includes women, workers, union members, activists, and artists. Notably, as the book repeatedly makes clear, Portland “has never been as ‘white’ as its reputation” (p. 8). For example, the author includes the Indigenous people present at European arrival to what is now Portland during the opening years of the [End Page 100] nineteenth century. The author also traces the history of Indigenous people — who endured invasion and epidemics — participating in the early colonial transport, trade, and agricultural economy of Oregon’s Willamette Valley. That is, Portland and Oregon were in no small part created by the continent’s first people. Continuing that story, Abbott includes Portland’s twentieth-century Indigenous community that began growing with the migration of people into the city to fill war-industry jobs during World War II. He goes on to cover various aspects of Portland’s African American, Hispanic, Asian American, Pacific Islander, and Jewish history. Nevertheless, as a whole, narratives on women, minoritized people, and working-class communities fill less space in the book’s pages than traditional narratives. Together, these social groups, of course, have constituted the majority of Portland at any given time. Yet, this shortcoming will hopefully inspire other scholars to continue filling in Portland’s multifaceted story. With a clear and approachable writing style, Abbott also deeply describes Portland’s economic and demographic trends. Likewise, the author delves into the city’s geography and infrastructure. Amid the various historical lines he follows, Abbott manages to offer entertaining factoids throughout the text, such as mentioning how the “Hollywood western Bend of the River (1952) features a steamboat race up the Columbia before James Stewart disembarks for some adventures on the slopes of Mount Hood” (p. 38). In addition, the book includes various maps and photographs that aid readers in imagining Portland’s past. For those readers wanting to delve deeper into Portland’s history, the author caps the book with a broad and detailed bibliographical essay. Indeed, after turning through the book’s pages, many readers will conclude that Portland’s place in the national and global imagination is justified. They will want to continue reading and learning. If we are lucky, this revised edition will also encourage others to continue writing on the city. Joel Zapata Oregon State University Copyright © 2023 Oregon Historical Society
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Aug 1, 2023
Dr Doniwen Pietersen 
Open Access
