THE DESPERATE PEOPLE

by Farley Mowat ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

As stark and dismal as the icy Arctic region are the lives of the Canadian Eskimos. Victims of starvation and disease, and of the ""civilized"" world's intention to preserve their culture of isolation, the years between 1946 and 1958 were marked for them by the constant presence of death, cold, and hunger. In his account of the Ihalmiut tribe, a group of Eskimos nearly reduced to extinction by their environment and by the white man's inability to offer practical aid, Farley Mowat writes reportorially. But out of his understanding and familiarity with the Arctic and its Eskimos he evokes a picture which is haunting both in its terror and its sympathy. A poignant tribute to a desperate people whose courage was their only commodity, an indictment of civilized indifference, and a warning that out of indifference and a sentimental desire to maintain an archaic culture, we should not allow those 11,000 unrehabilitated Canadian Eskimos to meet the fate met by those many casualties of neglect. By the author of The Grey Seas Under, the People of the Deer, and The Dog Who Wouldn't Be, this book is of primary interest to all those interested in the general welfare of this continent and by those readers generally fascinated by accounts of remote regions.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1959

Categories: NONFICTION