White Pine
Reviews/News of the pine book…
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​White Pine makes Maine Public Radio’s Summer Reading List! Honored to be included among the best Maine books.
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Northern Woodlands magazine called the book “wildly entertaining” in parts and the writing “lyrical.”
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Nice review at the Founder of the Day website: “I recently read White Pine, and it is one of the most unique perspectives on American history I have ever encountered. I highly recommend you pick it up.”
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“The perfect blend of history and nature.” One Guy’s Book Club, a literary blog.
Great review in the Maine Sunday Telegram. Maine’s paper of record called the pine book: "one of our favorites" among a list of newish titles by a bunch of luminaries, including Rachel Carson, Alan Lightman, and Bernd Heinrich. Also wrote: "Vietze is a fluid and entertaining writer; this history lesson feels like anything but. This is the perfect book to read in August while sitting on a deck in the Maine woods. . . "
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Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens called White Pine an “Essential Read,” “a beautifully written tale that makes this majestic tree a central character in our American history”
"The roots of the eastern white pine run deep, literally and figuratively — the mighty tree has triggered rebellions, generated fortunes, and ignited the battle for national independence. Andrew Vietze has created a unique view of American history, one that’s beautifully written, lucid and detailed and fascinating throughout."
—Michael Finkel, author of the New York Times bestseller, The Stranger in the Woods
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"The white pine is one of the great McGuffins of history, a forgotten prime mover in the creation of both New England and the United States. Now Andrew Vietze has placed that noble tree where it belongs, as a focal point of our national story. White Pine is good history written in a refreshing, breezy style, surprising, illuminating, and informed."
—James L. Nelson, author of Benedict Arnold’s Navy
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"Andrew Vietze gives the eastern white pine the Kurlansky treatment with this meticulous and affectionate exploration of how the commonplace conifer has shaped (and continues to shape) New England. No silvicultural slog, it’s a sweeping and surprisingly lively tribute to the trees that became the struts — and the symbols — of a rambunctious young nation. And it’ll renew your appreciation for what’s left of our once-great eastern woodlands."
—Brian Kevin, Down East
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"Award-winning author Andrew Vietze’s White Pine: American History and the Tree that Made a Nation is a gripping ride through a history of exploitation, power, and oppression rife with monarchies and massacres, diseases and deceits, rebels and the good fight. It’s the story of hardworking, independent people as singular and proud as their chosen totem, the mighty yet modest white pine.
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As a Registered Maine Guide, park ranger, and lifelong devotee of the outdoors, author Vietze knows of what he writes. When he claims that Pinus strobus is the tree that shaped America, settle in, you’re in good hands. Vietze’s engaging language brings this bold history to life: You see the bite of the ax, smell the musket fire, witness the great log drives, hear wind grazing the lofty heights of the white pine, still standing today. White Pine is the noble saga Hollywood only wishes it could conjure."
—Matthew P. Mayo, award-winning author of Stranded: A Story of Frontier Survival
Actor Gabriel Vaughan did a fantastic audio version.
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Click the phone to hear a sample on Audible.
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