Still looking for a last-minute gift for that Adirondack history book fan? Following is a critique of some of what’s out there. Unless noted, they can be found either online or in local bookstores. Try a bookstore first — let’s support our communities’ booksellers.

The earliest and worst of these is Alfred Donaldson’s two-volume “History of the Adirondacks,” published a century ago (and also by Century Co.). Paul Smith’s College Professor Curt Stager explains: “Donaldson has long been a primary go-to source for Adirondack history buffs, but his work doesn’t live up to the praise that has been lavished on it. Much of it is riddled with factual errors, and also with vile racist tropes.” We find problematic phrases like “between a red man and other dark-skinned animals”; “unsurpassed in moral courage” in reference to John Brown of the eponymous massive land tract, who gained his fortune in the slave trade; “pathetic touch of womanly pride”; and, regarding the antebellum Black settlement in North Elba, “The darkies began to build their shanties …” Mary McKenzie in her commendable “The Plains of Abraham” also skewers Donaldson’s slurs and mistakes.

Granted, Donaldson was a man of his times; Stager points out that “he was not a trained historian, after all, but a banker” in Saranac Lake for the (misnamed) cure. That may explain his sloppiness and lack of objectivity. But it does not excuse them.

This pair, or a later reissue, may be available on eBay or in used bookstores. Leave them there. Meanwhile, it’s past time to scrub Donaldson’s name from a summit in the Seward Range and replace it with someone or something more deserving. As Stager notes, “Let’s move on to the work of more capable historians, particularly regarding the deep Indigenous presence in the region and the stories of African American settlers, to help us better appreciate the rich cultural heritage of the Adirondacks.”

Good advice! Choices include Phil Terrie’s “Forever Wild,” an intellectual history, and “Contested Terrain,” a more political one. However, Stager notes, Terrie perpetuates the myth that Indigenous peoples did not live in the Adirondacks. Recent research indicates that indeed they did. This is best presented in “Rural Indigenousness,” by Adirondack-born Melissa Otis. But the clumsy title foretells the book’s style — while informative and thorough, its reliance on dense “academese” renders it a hard slog.

“Adirondack Wilderness” was timed to coincide with the 1980 Winter Olympics. Jane Keller, a credentialed researcher who knew little of the Adirondacks, rushed it such that it, too, is afflicted by a backpack full of errors. She says the entire park is wilderness; book titles, event dates and more are wrong. It gets another thumbs down.

Much better is Frank Graham’s “The Adirondack Park.” This 1978 political history by a reliable journalist writing what was known at the time sets the stage for two books that probe the following tumultuous decades. “A Wild Idea,” by Brad Edmondson, explains the birth of the Adirondack Park Agency (APA) in the 1960s and ’70s, with extensive interview-based dives into backstage maneuvering and frontstage fireworks. Bernard Melewski, in “Inside the Green Lobby,” which he was, starts where Edmondson ends, carrying the divisive narrative nearly to the present while suggesting that often contentious debates about management of the Adirondacks will continue unabated.

Numerous other books tackle Adirondack history, or aspects of it. There are books about private camps, murderers, railroads, you name it. Perhaps you have your favorites. My final recommendation is, read critically.