Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
Summary:
In the fall of 1846 the venerable Navajo warrior Narbona, greatest of his people’s chieftains, looked down upon the small town of Santa Fe, the stronghold of the Mexican settlers he had been fighting his whole long life. He had come to see if the rumors were true—if an army of blue-suited soldiers had swept in from the East and utterly defeated his ancestral enemies. As Narbona gazed down on the battlements and cannons of a mighty fort the invaders had built, he realized his foes had been vanquished—but what did the arrival of these “New Men” portend for the Navajo?
Narbona could not have known that “The Army of the West,” in the midst of the longest march in American military history, was merely the vanguard of an inexorable tide fueled by a self-righteous ideology now known as “Manifest Destiny.” For twenty years the Navajo, elusive lords of a huge swath of mountainous desert and pasturelands, would ferociously resist the flood of soldiers and settlers who wished to change their ancient way of life or destroy them.
Hampton Sides’s extraordinary book brings the history of the American conquest of the West to ringing life. It is a tale with many heroes and villains, but as is found in the best history, the same person might be both. At the center of it all stands the remarkable figure of Kit Carson—the legendary trapper, scout, and soldier who embodies all the contradictions and ambiguities of the American experience in the West. Brave and clever, beloved by his contemporaries, Carson was an illiterate mountain man who twice married Indian women and understood and respected the tribes better than any other American alive. Yet he was also a cold-blooded killer who willingly followed orders tantamount to massacre. Carson’s almost unimaginable exploits made him a household name when they were written up in pulp novels known as “blood-and-thunders,” but now that name is a bitter curse for contemporary Navajo, who cannot forget his role in the travails of their ancestors.
Customer Reviews:
Average Customer Rating:
Hero of the American West
Customer Rating:
You know all those novels and movies with the absurd plot line about some impossible misson and there is only "One Man" who can do it? Well, Kit Carson was that man. This book is not so much a biography of Kit Carson as it is a history of the expansion of the American West told through the life of Kit Carson. He was the man who was there at every point. He helped explore the western trails to Oregon and California, helped take control of Los Angeles from the Mexicans, helped fight the Confederates when they tried to take New Mexico, and (against his better morals) fought to contain the fierce Navajo Indians.
Carson was a humble man, in no small part due to his illiteracy. He did everything from fur trapping, trading, exploring, hunting, soldiering, Indian fighting, farming, and more. He was always in the right place at the right time. He loved the West and he loved the people that lived there. He came to understand the Indians like few others, learning many of their languages.
But his real fame came from his unbelievable exploits: sneaking through enemy lines, dissuading hostile Indians using their own tongue, obliterating Confederate forces, and fighting off numerous Indians single-handedly. "Blood and Thunder" dime novels began to pop up throughout the country, exaggerating Carson's heroism. While his life of glory may seem to have deserved a gallant death in a battle for glory, the humble Carson instead suffered a slow, painful bed-ridden death. But the legacy he unintentionally created managed to live on for a long while after.
Sides is an incredible writer, creating vivid imagery and deftly tying all relevant events together.
history at its best!
Customer Rating:
This is a remarkably informative and well written book. This is the way historical narratives ought to be written, with great immediacy and drama that bring the events to life, but with all the benefits of hindsight and reflection. It is scrupulously fair to all the participants and provides a wealth of knowledge about all the cultures involved.
Excellant reading
Customer Rating:
Hampton Sides has done a masterful job of telling the story of Kit Carson and the settlement of the American West, especailly New Mexico. Blood and Thunder reads as entertainingly as a novel. Larry Carter
Great Blood a lot of Thunder
Customer Rating:
I have enjoyed this book as much as John Adams. Preconcieved ideas of history are put to rest. For the most part this is a part of history that has not been well documented for me. There was Lewis and Clark and then a big gap. This fills in the gap and is a must read.
great choice for history buffs & western fans
Customer Rating:
A history of expansion into the southwest wrapped around a biography of Kit Carson. Wonderfully entertaining the more so for being historically accurate.
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