Book Description
Praise for Blood and Thunder
“Kit Carson’s role in the conquest of the Navajo during and after the Civil War remains one of the most dramatic and significant episodes in the history of the American West. Hampton Sides portrays Carson in the larger context of the conquest of the entire West, including his frequent and often lethal encounters with hostile Native Americans. Unusually, Sides gives full voice to Indian leaders themselves about their trials and tribulations in their dealings with the whites. Here is a national hero on the level of Daniel Boone, presented with all of his flaws and virtues, in the context of American people’s belief that it was their Manifest Destiny to occupy the entire West.”
—Howard Lamar, Sterling Professor Emeritus of History, Yale University and editor of The New Encyclopedia of the American West
“The story of the American West has seldom been told with such intimacy and immediacy. Legendary figures like Kit Carson leap to life and history moves at a pulse-pounding pace—sweeping the reader along with it. Hampton Sides is a terrific storyteller.”
—Candice Millard, author of The River of Doubt
“Hampton Sides doesn't just write a book, he transports the reader to another time and place. With his keen sense of drama and his crackling writing style, this master storyteller has bequeathed us a majestic history of the Old West.”
—James Bradley, author of Flags of Our Fathers and Flyboys
“Blood and Thunder is a big-hearted book whose subject is as expansive as they come. Hampton Sides tackles it with naked pleasure and narrative cunning: In his telling, the vast saga of America’s westward push has a logical center. The dusty town of Santa Fe becomes the nexus around which swirl the fortunes and strategies of a mixed set of serious overachievers, from Kit Carson, the original mountain man, to James K. Polk, the enigmatic president whose achievements, in the dreaded name of Manifest Destiny, were almost biblical in scope. Sides is alive to the exuberance and alert to the tragedy of the taking of the West.”
—Russell Shorto, author of Island at the Center of the World
“For a huge percentage of us immigrant Americans (those whose ancestors arrived after 1492), Hampton Sides fills a gaping hole in our knowledge of American history—a vivid account of how ‘The New Men’ swept away the thriving civilizations of the Native Americans in their conquest of the West.”
—Tony Hillerman
"BLOOD AND THUNDER is a balanced, thoughtful summary of the American conquistadors in the 19th century Southwest. Hampton Sides has re-created violent events and such inflammatory figures as Kit Carson without bias. Carefully researched, thoroughly enjoyable."
-Evan S. Connell, author of SON OF THE MORNING STAR, CUSTER AND THE LITTLE BIGHORN
A Magnificent History of How the West Was Really Won—a Sweeping Tale of Shame and Glory
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:
An entertaining and rewarding read........2007-10-03
I came upon this book in searching for an understanding of the historical period in which Cormac McCarthy's masterpiece Blood Meridian is set - the SW of North America in the early to mid-19th century. The book's central theme is the life and times of Kit Carson coupled with the demise of the Navajos in the face of the onslaught of American expansion. Nonetheless, in setting these themes in context, the book addresses all the forces that bore upon them - from the relationship of the early trappers with indigenous society to the seizure of New Mexico and California - in fascinating and enlightening detail. The book is scholarly and authoritative - although there was a complete absence of reference numbers in the text itself to tie in with notes at the back of the book. Even had these been inserted, more detailed references would have better exploited the enormous amount of original research clearly conducted by the author.
The style is informal with a turn of phrase that occasionally touches on the cliche. Still, for all this it is a highly readable, entertaining and vivid account. Perhaps a little hagiographic at times, but then Carson was an extraordinarily self-contained and capable man of principle and character.
In all, this is a highly rewarding book that vividly portrays the broad vistas, horrors, tragedies, heroics and sheer physical hardships that marked the clash of civilisation in America's South West. A great read.
Bury My Soul With the Navajo.......2007-09-26
If you want to dare look into a horror that can haunt you, read this heart stabbing book. It sheds light on the history of the American west and the US government's heartless to destory a people. The details of Kit Carson are as perplexing as mankind is troubling. I also recommend two other books along the same lines: On the Trail of the Pony Express and especially Walking the Trail, One Man's Journey Along the Cherokee Trail of Tears, both by Cherokee author Jerry Ellis. Ellis was the first person in modern history to walk the 900 mile route of the Trail of Tears and the book is a Native American classic, nominated for a Pulitzer and National Book Award.
Blood and Thunder.......2007-09-20
A really exceptional book. It covers one of the most interesting series of events in the history of America with complexity and insight.
Sometimes One-Sided and Misleading.......2007-09-10
As I read through this book, I was amazed that very detailed research had been done and that both sides of the many stories/events had been told. I was severely disappointed when I read chapter 40 - The Children of the Mist when the description and events leading to, during, and after the Mountain Meadows Massacre. The author would like the casual reader to think that the whole event was endorsed by the then President of the LDS Church, Brigham Young. In my personal research, this is far from the case - the presidency of the church at that time would have never approved an act such as that. I would like to note that Mr. Sides did not give any references for quotes by Brigham Young or notes to what happened to the actual ringleaders of the massacre. This was a horrible event and the story needs to be told in the right context. These missing references make me question the quality of the real research that went into the book on a whole.
Blood and Thunder.......2007-09-05
This is a sobering history of how the west was tamed and the significant role Kit Carson played in it. Kit Carson played a key role in saving various American Indian Tribes from extinction. An excellant history of New Mexico. A must read for any New Mexican.
Book Description
From the best-selling author of Route 66 comes this long-awaited biography of one of America's most legendary folk heroes.
Award-winning historian Michael Wallis has spent several years re-creating the rich, anecdotal saga of Billy the Kid (1859-1881), a deeply mythologized young man who became a legend in his own time and yet remains an enigma to this day. With the Gilded Age in full swing and the Industrial Revolution reshaping the American landscape, "the Kid," who was gunned down by Sheriff Pat Garrett in the New Mexico Territory at the age of twenty-one, became a new breed of celebrity outlaw. He arose amid the mystery and myth of the swiftly vanishing frontier and, sensationalized beyond recognition by the tabloids and dime-store romances of the day, emerged as one of the most enduring icons of the American West—not to mention one of Hollywood's most misrepresented characters. This new biography, filled with dozens of rare images and period photographs, separates myth from reality and presents an unforgettable portrait of this brief and violent life. 60 illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
A Commendable Biography Based on Limited Information.......2007-10-01
Several efforts have been made in an attempt to untangle the short and controversial life of Billy the Kid. I would suggest that this book by Michael Wallis is probably the best since he acknowledges when little is known about his subject, and speculates about what may have happened when information is lacking. That may not satisfy some people, but that is the best he can do. Billy the Kid actually did not pick up his charismatic title until the last year of his life. He initially went by the unlikely name of Henry McCarty, then changed it to Henry Antrim when his mother remarried, William H. Bonney, and finally Billy the Kid. Where he pulled out the name of Bonney is unknown. He was a very literate person, enjoyed music, and considered Turkey in the Straw and Silver Threads Among the Gold as his favorite songs. His tuburcular mother moved the family from the eastern part of the country (New York City)? to Indiana, Wichita, Kansas, and then to the southwest into New Mexico territory in hopes of improving her health. Following her death Billy was left to shift for himself. Kid was a common nickname for juveniles at that time, and wirey would probably be the best term to describe his short and slight frame. When the book got around to describing the Lincoln County war between competing factions involving horse thiefs I had difficulty keeping track of all the individuals involved. The Kid sided with an Englishman named John Tunstall who ended up getting murdered. Billy became somewhat of an anti-hero with his dramatic escape from jail in which he killed two guards after being sentenced to death. Kit Carson comes off as a villain with he and his men laying waste to Navajo Indians, their homes, food, horses, and other animals. The remaining Navajos began a 450 mile journey to join the Apaches. This became known as the Long Walk. This brought up reminders of the Cherokee Indians in 1839 under the regime of Andrew Jackson. I believe you will find the book to be enjoyable. The author has done a commendable job based on the information available on his subject.
A very well researched work.......2007-09-01
Michael Wallis has studied his subject well. Unlike many other authors he provides quite an insight not to just Billy the Kid, but many of the other players in his short life. This then gives a complete picture of the corrupt times in which he lived. This book is a must have for Billy the Kid students.
The Life as Well as the Legend.......2007-08-05
"This is the west, sir," the newspaperman tells Jimmy Stewart in _The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance_. "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." And for over a hundred years, that is just what has happened to Billy the Kid, starting in countless dime novels and then historical reviews, a ballet by Aaron Copland, and scores of movies. Obviously the legend has a life of its own. The attraction of _Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride_ (Norton) by Michael Wallis is that the legend is fully appreciated. Wallis mentions but does not detail the many media representations the legend has presented after the Kid's death, but does show much of what the papers had to say about him during his life, and also what people who knew him said years after his death, and how unreliable it all is. There are certainly enough facts within the biography, but it is also a realistic look at the Kid's status as a legend in his own time. There were not only many false reports and representations of the Kid, but there are also voids of his life that no one can do anything but guess at. Wallis presents an enjoyable summary of what we can know as accurate and what is pure myth.
The Kid grew up in a changing masculine culture often known as "The Code of the West", which was a new way of dealing with threats. The tradition from British common law was that a man under threat was obligated to retreat until his back was against the wall and there was no alternative but to use deadly force against his opponent. The Code of the West, often celebrated as part of frontier self-reliance and integrity, merely signified that no such restraint under threat had to be shown; the courts even found that a "true man" did not have to back away from a fight, and it was a given that a man could pursue an adversary even once the threat had been lifted. The Kid was certainly one to stand his ground, and probably was on the offensive more than most, but his homicidal actions have been exaggerated. He has four confirmed killings to his name, some completely in self defense, but even before the end of his short life, the tally was being exaggerated. His enemies had good reason to do so. The Kid was caught up in what is called the Lincoln County War, a complex conflict that Wallis says "had been spawned long before in Ireland and England, in boardrooms and court chambers, in saloons and places of worship." It featured private armies of hired killers attempting to settle the conflict of two competing commercial property interests, with governmental corruption and ethnic clashes thrown in. Neither side represented "The Good Guys", and the Kid as a hired shootist was as culpable as any of the other members of the "banditti", but his opposition used him as a targeted bad boy. His own side didn't lack for corruption or malevolence, but the other side could mask its own corruption and malevolence by deliberately playing up the Kid's outlaw role and making him (despite a limited number of crimes) the most wanted man in the Southwest.
So it was that after an astonishing escape from the jail in Lincoln, the Kid was pursued by a posse including Pat Garrett. None of the legends about the Kid and Garrett being companions, pals, or fellow-outlaws are true. Garrett gunned him down in 1881, and his death was world news. A New York paper didn't start the exaggerations, but merely continued them, when it wrote that the Kid "had built up a criminal organization worthy of the underworld in any of the European capitals." The distortions were present during the Kid's lifetime, and have continued; he is a psychopathic serial killer, or a loner out for justice against the system, or a benefactor of the downtrodden, depending on which version of the legend is favored by times or tellers. Wallis's is a winning account of a small life which popular fascination has insisted on writing large.
Fabulous book.......2007-07-23
I travel extensively throughout New Mexico for my job and therefore bought the book-on-CD version of this text. It was fascinating, particularly as I drove through areas discussed in the book; Silver City, Santa Fe, Las Cruces. In terms of a book on Billy the Kid, this work is interesting and helps bring perspective to the story surrounding this folk hero. More important, however, is that the author did a beautiful job of conveying the realities of the times--for cowboys, Native Americans, Hispanics, African Americans, and the others who found their way to New Mexico. Living in New Mexico, it is fascinating to see how our peculiar ways of doing things in this state dates way back; some changes, much stays the same. I recommend this book for anyone interested in Billy the Kid, 'Old West' history, and New Mexico politics. Great job! Thanks for making my driving more tolerable.
Tedious and pedantic.......2007-07-20
Despite several attempts, in terms of a detailed reading, I didn't make it very far into this book: page 64 to be precise. After that I skimed it and, quite frankly, found nothing worthwhile here.
The author's style is, putting it mildly, bizarre. This is 1871, mind you. No electricity. Few labor saving devices. This is Wichita, Kansas, a place not particularly noted for balmy summer weather. Yet author Wallis has the temerity to write "Life in Wichita may have seemed sweet as huckleberry pie for Catherine McCarty. Her steamy City Laundry did a brisk trade thanks to the bundles of soiled hotel and whorehouse linen . . ." Wallis is describing a tubercular woman performing hard physical labor for long hours in less than a hospitable setting. Sure enough, two pages later Wallis writes "[a] stifling hot laundry was far from the ideal place for someone battling a chronic respiratory illness.
"
Wallis' use - or rather misuse - of language is jarring. In another instance, he has the family of the still young boy who would become the notorious Billy The Kid of "slipping" into a state, as if there was something furtive in their movement. There wasn't and the language is a poor attempt to add drama to an ordinary incident. The device doesn't work no matter how many times it is employed - and it is employed all too often.
Wallis takes off on a rant about and against handguns. There's little sense here. Elizabethans were complaining of violence in the streets just as modern day Houstonians do. The availability of early Colt revolvers had little to do with the sometimes lawless character of Western towns.
Not long after, Wallis complains of vigilante justice which was, in fact, an expression of the civilizing impulse. It may have been rough and ready, but it showed the desire of ordinary people for the protection of law.
Wallis makes many gratuitous comments of this kind. He takes the 19th Century folks to task for their lack of environmental sensitivity, ethnic tolerance and so on.
By page 64, I'd had it.
There are many other books available on Billy The Kid, which stick to their subject, avoid language eccentricity and don't try to apply 21st Century political correctness to the 19th Century.
Jerry
Book Description
Listen to a short interview with Karen Ordahl Kupperman
Host: Chris Gondek | Producer: Heron & Crane
Captain John Smith's 1607 voyage to Jamestown was not his first trip abroad. He had traveled throughout Europe, been sold as a war captive in Turkey, escaped, and returned to England in time to join the Virginia Company's colonizing project. In Jamestown migrants, merchants, and soldiers who had also sailed to the distant shores of the Ottoman Empire, Africa, and Ireland in search of new beginnings encountered Indians who already possessed broad understanding of Europeans. Experience of foreign environments and cultures had sharpened survival instincts on all sides and aroused challenging questions about human nature and its potential for transformation.
It is against this enlarged temporal and geographic background that Jamestown dramatically emerges in Karen Kupperman's breathtaking study. Reconfiguring the national myth of Jamestown's failure, she shows how the settlement's distinctly messy first decade actually represents a period of ferment in which individuals were learning how to make a colony work. Despite the settlers' dependence on the Chesapeake Algonquians and strained relations with their London backers, they forged a tenacious colony that survived where others had failed. Indeed, the structures and practices that evolved through trial and error in Virginia would become the model for all successful English colonies, including Plymouth.
Capturing England's intoxication with a wider world through ballads, plays, and paintings, and the stark reality of Jamestown--for Indians and Europeans alike--through the words of its inhabitants as well as archeological and environmental evidence, Kupperman re-creates these formative years with astonishing detail.
Customer Reviews:
History done right.......2007-06-24
Kupperman does an excellent job of establishing the cultural, religious, and political atmosphere at the time of the colony's origins. I found it fascinating to immersive myself in the whys of the colony: why was it started, why were people interested in investing in it, etc. I also felt there were a lot of interesting parallels to the story of the colony and to that today--of how government and corporations often place financial interests far above humanitarian interests. The book also gave me a much more accurate idea of what it must have meant to be a colonist and helped dispel the myth that in fleeing England these people found a land of freedom and opportunity. It also gave me a very deep appreciation for the first settlers as without them, I surely would never be here. This excellent work does a wonderful job of providing an intelligent, in-depth examination of our origins as a country and it does so in an engaging manner so that it reads more like a novel and nothing like a dry textbook.
The Jamestown Project.......2007-05-13
Once I started it I couldn't put it down! Very factual and riveting. The author did an exceptional job of relating what these poor people actually lived to start our great nation.
A Good "Atlantic" Reworking of the Jamestown Story.......2007-03-28
Karen Ordahl Kupperman revisits territory she knows well with this latest history of Jamestown. What distinguishes Kupperman's history from the slew of other books which have come before is the very self conscious effort to put the founding of Jamestown within an Atlantic history context.
For people who are looking for a detailed history of Jamestown itself this is not the book. Instead you should perhaps try one of Dr Kupperman's other books. She only gets to the actual founding of the colony in the last two chapters of the book. Instead she discusses the world which brought about the colonization. That is the true purpose of this book and why it is called the Jamestown PROJECT. By placing the story of the colony within the larger background of financial expansion, political maneuvering, and geopolitics, Kupperman makes us very conscious of the contingency of Jamestown. This was not an inevitable event, the precursor to American history. Rather, it was the END of a long series of events and trends which contributed to the settlement there and the way it developed.
Along the way Kupperman takes us on a sweeping journey of the Early Modern world. Her topics range from the waxing and waning of Islamic powers, to the routes of Spanish expansion, to the creation of Caribbean colonies, the continental wars of 16th century Europe, and the life of Native Americans both in America and Europe. All of this is, while at times disjointed, a welcome background to the colonization of Jamestown and reframes the familiar story in illuminating ways. The background explains why the colony was founded the way it was: why did the colonists refuse to grow food? Why did they interact with the Natives the way they did? Kupperman's book is a useful one for anyone interested in the early history of America or the Atlantic world.
Book Description
The frontiersmen were a remarkable breed of men. They were often rough and illiterate, sometimes brutal and vicious, often seeking an escape in the wilderness of mid-America from crimes committed back east. In the beautiful but deadly country which would one day come to be known as West Virginia, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, more often than not they left their bones to bleach beside forest paths or on the banks of the Ohio River, victims of Indians who claimed the vast virgin territory and strove to turn back the growing tide of whites. These frontiersmen are the subjects of Allan Eckert's dramatic history.
Against the background of such names as George Rogers Clark, Daniel Boone, Arthur St. Clair, Anthony Wayne, Simon Girty and William Henry Harrison, Eckert has recreated the life of one of America's most outstanding heroes, Simon Kenton. Kenton's role in opening the Northwest Territory to settlement more than rivaled that of his friend Daniel Boone. By his eighteenth birthday, Kenton had already won frontier renown as woodsman, fighter and scout. His incredible physical strength and endurance, his great dignity and innate kindness made him the ideal prototype of the frontier hero.
Yet there is another story to The Frontiersmen. It is equally the story of one of history's greatest leaders, whose misfortune was to be born to a doomed cause and a dying race. Tecumseh, the brilliant Shawnee chief, welded together by the sheer force of his intellect and charisma an incredible Indian confederacy that came desperately close to breaking the thrust of the white man's westward expansion. Like Kenton, Tecumseh was the paragon of his people's virtues, and the story of his life, in Allan Eckert's hands, reveals most profoundly the grandeur and the tragedy of the American Indian.
No less importantly, The Frontiersmen is the story of wilderness America itself, its penetration and settlement, and it is Eckert's particular grace to be able to evoke life and meaning from the raw facts of this story. In The Frontiersmen not only do we care about our long-forgotten fathers, we live again with them.
Researched for seven years, The Frontiersmen is the first in Mr. Eckert's "The Winning of America" series.
Customer Reviews:
Couldn't Put It Down.......2007-08-27
This was a great read. Once I started I couldn't put it down. I plan on reading the other 5 books by Allan Eckert. It takes you back to pure human nature and puts you in touch with yourself. You have to ask how you would respond to the situations encountered by these brave frontiersmen. I'm telling most of my friends about this book.
The Frontiersmen.......2007-08-15
A very powerful and informative historical narrative of some of the personalities that shaped the settlement of this country ;from the perspective of Simon Kenton. A "must read" !
What a book!.......2007-07-28
I can't decide which I like better, this book or Eckert's 'Dark and Bloody River', but they are both MUST READ's for any history fan. For even a casual reader this book will hold your attention, and provide you with a facinating insight into our nation's history.
My All Time Favorite Historical Narrative !!!!.......2007-06-05
This is a fantastic book if you love Early American Historical Narratives which I love. I first read this book about twenty years ago, and recently read it again. The author's foot notes and reference material allow you to really dive into the time period of the book!
good, quick, easy.......2007-03-26
I received the book quickly, after purchasing it. The product arrived in excellent condition. The overall experience was good.
Amazon.com
Gunfighter Nation concludes Richard Slotkin's three-volume study, which began in 1973 with the publication of Regeneration Through Violence, of the significance of the frontier in the American imagination. Looking primarily at pulp novels and films, Slotkin takes a painstakingly thorough look at the relationship between imagery of the West in industrial mass culture and U.S. foreign policy during the 20th century. Specifically, he looks at how the previous century's "frontier aristocrat" served as the model diplomat for America's agenda of economic imperialism from the Spanish American War to the "police action" in Vietnam.
As the U.S. gained international stature, the archetype of the frontier aristocrat articulated the goals and ideals of the American populace. But Slotkin shows how, as time progressed, the increasing irrelevance of the frontier myth on foreign soil foiled the prowess of the U.S. war machine. At the book's conclusion, in which images of the My Lai Massacre are juxtaposed against the final shootout of Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, the contradiction between faith and experience becomes painfully evident. Gunfighter Nation delivers the satisfaction of a historian with the acquired wisdom to address directly the issues that inspired his lifelong work. --John M. Anderson
Customer Reviews:
Brilliant Examination of pop culture as history.......1999-04-11
Winner of countless praise, Gunfighter Nation changed the way we view almost all aspects of American history. It is a well-crafted critical work that articulates earlier French theories of common mythologies and their influences on history but frames them in purely American terms.
Viewing the fictional works of Zane Gray, James Fenimore Cooper, the historical work of Teddy Roosevelt and Frederick Jackson Turner, the influence of popular entertainment like Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and the genres of the western film and film noir Slotkin methodically describes the construction of the American frontier myth. He explores how this myth has influenced the personal lives of great figures of American history and subsequently affected all forms of American policy both foreign and domestic.
The book connects the myth of the frontier to common perceptions of race, class and gender and illustrates how integral that myth was in America's attempts to expand into the Caribbean, battle the forces of Communism in Europe and project power into Southeast Asia. There are some particularly interesting sections that deal specifically with how the frontier myth inspired the strategic and tactical mindset of the war in Vietnam.
Without the slightest hyperbole this book is truly revolutionary. Slotkin was one of the first to tell the story of American history through its influence on pop culture and one of the first to show the influences of pop culture on history. His theories of American myth making have become the backbone of almost all work being done in American Studies and this series is among the most commonly cited resources in academic works over many broad fields.
Clearly the source and still the best for any serious (and even amateur) student of American history. Its innumerable accolades are well deserved.
Good Book in Showing Old West Influence.......1999-03-19
"Gunfighter Nation" follows the influence of the Old West and the Frontier (both real and how it was percieved; sometimes the two are at odds) in American history from the 1800's to modern times. It makes a good point in showing how Western movies mirror the times in which they are made and how the frontier experience is still with us today. The two drawbacks of the book is its EXTREMELY long length and its Leftist ideology that pops up toward the end.
Book Description
It is the late summer of 1814, and Hannah Bonner and her half brother Luke have spent more than a year searching the islands of the Caribbean for Luke’s wife and the man who abducted her. But Jennet’s rescue, so long in coming, is not the resolution they’d hoped for. In the spring she had given birth to Luke’s son, and in the summer Jennet had found herself compelled to surrender the infant to a stranger in the hope of keeping him safe.
To claim the child, Hannah, Luke, and Jennet must journey first to Pensacola. There they learn a great deal about the family that has the baby. The Poiterins are a very rich, very powerful Creole family, totally without scruple. The matriarch of the family has left Pensacola for New Orleans and taken the child she now claims as her great-grandson with her.
New Orleans is a city on the brink of war, a city where prejudice thrives and where Hannah, half Mohawk, must tread softly. Careful plans are made as the Bonners set out to find and reclaim young Nathaniel Bonner. Plans that go terribly awry, isolating them from each other in a dangerous city at the worst of times.
Sure that all is lost, and sick unto death, Hannah finds herself in the care of a family and a friend from her past, Dr. Paul de Guise Savard dit Saint-d’Uzet. It is Dr. Savard and his wife who save Hannah’s life, but Dr. Savard’s half brother who offers her real hope. Jean-Benoit Savard, the great-grandson of French settlers, slaves, and Choctaw and Seminole Indians, is the one man who knows the city well enough to engineer the miracle that will reunite the Bonners and send them home to Lake in the Clouds. With Ben Savard’s guidance, allies are drawn from every segment of New Orleans’s population and from Andrew Jackson’s army, now pouring into the city in preparation for what will be the last major battle of the War of 1812.
Customer Reviews:
Quick and Adventurous read.......2007-06-27
I have read this whole series, from the beginning, and loved all the books. This is no different, although it seemed shorter somehow. Lots of adventure and also plenty of historical information.
Different from the rest, but just as enticing!.......2007-05-17
After reading all the other books in the Wilderness series I wasn't sure if I was going to like this one. It was starting out to be so different from the rest. So many new characters and new places. But it turned out to be just the right thing to do in the series! All the twists and turns that the Bonners have to encounter makes for many late nights. Like the rest of Sara Donati's books, you won't be able to put it down until the end. The only bad part about that is, the next book isn't out yet! If you haven't read the first books in this series, I would suggest starting at the beginning with Into The Wilderness. You could read any of the books on their own, but you will get a better feel for the characters if you start with the first book.
Donati Does it Again.......2007-05-14
Hannah Bonner, Luke and Jennet Scott have a riviting experience with the likes of Andrew Jackson and the pirate Lafitte in New Orleans. A must read!
Queen of Swords.......2007-05-14
This story is the continuing saga of the Bonner family. This is book 5 and as in the other 4 the suspense and adventure continues. I appreciate Amazon alerting me to other authors who also write historical novels. I
have ordered several. It is always easy to deal with Amazon.
Brilliant.......2007-05-12
I love this series. It began as a sort of romance but Sara Donati's writing style has become very vivid and exciting. I am a big Diana Gabaldon fan and they are most definitely in the same vein. I was thrilled when this latest installment came out and it did NOT dissapoint. You can smell the streets of New Orleans! Keep 'em comin' Sara!
Customer Reviews:
Delightful.......2007-09-10
My daughter (age 7) and I love to read these books together. Great values and stories.
I Loved them as a Child.......2006-05-13
When I was a little girl, I would take my Kirsten Collection home from the library and read them over and over again. I adored them. Kirsten was such a spunky, loveable character, and I eventually grew up to love historical fiction. The short but sweet series is all about a young, Sweedish immigrant girl, Kirsten Larson, and her family.
They have a magical series of adventures, as well asheartaches, during their experience. Kirsten has an encounter with a bear, goes to school, gets lost in the city - and many more adventures.
I would definetely suggest reading this series to your young girl. It will spark an interest in historical fiction as well as reading in general.
Too Bad They Didn't Have These When I Was Younger.......2005-10-13
One of two American Girls books I've read and probably the more enjoyable of the pair. I liked the descriptions of the raw, open country of Minnesota, and how the family faces it after a long journey from Sweden. This series can teach a lot about history and life in other times, and it also serves up some lessons in an admirably non-preachy manner. Kirsten was spunky and I hope readers noticed how hard children in the past worked compared to today. There wasn't always a lot of free time and people then were more appreciative of what they had. I like the American Girls book series (the endless merchandising of its themed products notwithstanding) and hope it stays popular for a long time.
Kirsten is a good character, but not one of the best.......2002-11-25
In the Kirsten boxed set, you will read six books about Kirsten Larson, a pioneer girl growing up in 1854. In "Meet Kirsten" Kirsten and her family are coming to America. Kirsten is one of the few characters in the American Girls Collection that stays the same. All the other characters change in some way, but I did not see this in the Kirsten books. The next five books in the boxed set show how Kirsten and her family try to combine Swedish and American traditions. In "Kirsten Learns A Lesson" Kirsten has difficulty with school and meets an Indian girl named Singing Bird. In "Kirsten's Surprise" Kirsten tries to keep some of the Larsons' Swedish traditions alive by planning a secret Saint Lucia celebration with her cousins. In "Happy Birthday, Kirsten!" Kirsten does extra chores after her mom has a baby, and then gets a special birthday party. In "Kirsten Saves the Day" Kirsten finds treasure in the woods and nearly gets herself and her brother killed when she tries to bring the treasure home. In "Changes for Kirsten" Kirsten's family loses thier home to a fire and must find a way to get a new one. The Kirsten books are good. When I was younger, "Changes for Kirsten" was my favorite of Kirsten's stories. When I went back and read it again later on, as a teen, I discovered something. In the story, the Larsons lose their house--but that is because Kirsten disobeys her mother and brings an injured raccoon in the Larson's cabin, knowing full well the mischeif they are capable of. To date, I can't pinpoint which of the Kirsten books is a favorite, but I know that "Changes for Kirsten" is not one of them.
Kirsten; A Journey to a Special Time.......2000-12-23
Joining Kirsten in her travel from Sweden to the United States and then on to the forests of Minnesota has been an enjoyable and interseting experience for both my daughter and I. The pioneer time of our country's history has always been of an interest to me as I have read of my own family's journeys from Hingham England to Massachusetts and then on to Montana during the time of the late 1600's through the early 1800's. What a rich heritage they passed on. And now, my daughter can enjoy learning about the pioneer era with a girl her own age. We have had a great deal of enjoyment reading these books together and discussing what happened to Kirsten in each one. Especially interesting and enlightening are the "Peek Into the Past" sections found at the end of each book. We have had some interesting and lively discussions about what it would be like to live during Kirsten's time. It has been very refreshing to see my daughter and her friends develop a deep interset in these books, role playing the characters, playing with the dolls, and learning about another time rather than pursuing the mindless, empty fluff of many things vying for a young girl's attention. Although some of Kirsten's experiences are a bit far-fetched (I.e. - not fearing a bear, having a pet racoon) the books' intrinsic value is not in the experiences, but rather in the history given in a light, fun way - what better way to learn than by having fun doing it.
Average customer rating:
- Enjoyed every bit of the entire series!
- I'm finally done!
- Good historical fiction
- Bland
- 5 Stars for Sara Donati
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Into the Wilderness
Sara Donati
Manufacturer: Bantam
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0553107364
Release Date: 1998-08-03 |
Amazon.com
In this ambitious and vibrant sequel to The Last of the Mohicans, Elizabeth Middleton, a well-educated spinster of 29, journeys from her home in England to her father's lands in upstate New York in 1792. Her widowed father has promised Elizabeth that she can become the schoolteacher for the local children, but on her arrival at Paradise, her father's property, she learns that he has brought her to America under false pretenses. It is his intention to find her a husband, preferably the well-respected physician, Richard Todd.
Though Elizabeth has no intention to marry, she is immediately drawn, not to Richard, but to backwoodsman Nathaniel Bonner, son of Dan'l "Hawkeye" Bonner, hero of the James Fenimore Cooper classic. Nathaniel's connection to the Mohican (Mahican) people is a strong one; he considers Hawkeye's adoptive father, Chingachgook, his grandfather, and his own wife was a Mahican woman who died in childbirth several years earlier.
Elizabeth learns from her father that her inheritance is a part of his lands, a mountain known as Hidden Wolf, to be granted to her when she marries. She soon finds herself caught between Nathaniel and the Mahicans, who want to buy back the mountain from her father as part of their hunting grounds, and Richard, who wants the land for himself and sees Elizabeth as the route to it. Her father, fearful that the sale of Hidden Wolf to the Mahicans will bring more Indians back to Paradise, favors Richard.
Knowing Richard's main interest in her is her land, Elizabeth resists his attentions as she gets to know Nathaniel and his people. The backwoodsmen and their Indian friends accept her and respect her opinions, and she soon finds herself siding with their claim to Hidden Wolf. Meanwhile, the attraction between her and Nathaniel grows into a love that only adds to the conflict between the whites and the Indians.
Into the Wilderness is an intelligent and beautifully written historical novel that draws the reader into another world. Elizabeth and Nathaniel are well-rounded and intelligent characters, and the secondary characters are also strong, three-dimensional, and often entertainingly quirky. Although the book is long--nearly 700 words--tight pacing makes it an entertaining read. Fans of Diana Gabaldon will want to watch for a cameo appearance by one of the characters of Gabaldon's stunning Outlander series. --Lisa Wanttaja
Book Description
Weaving a vibrant tapestry of fact and fiction, Into the Wilderness sweeps us into another time and place...and into the heart of a forbidden, incandescent affair between a spinster Englishwoman and an American frontiersman. Here is an epic of romance and history that will captivate readers from the very first page.
When Elizabeth Middleton, twenty-nine years old and unmarried, leaves her Aunt Merriweather's comfortable English estate to join her father and brother in the remote mountain village of Paradise on the edge of the New York wilderness, she does so with a strong will and an unwavering purpose: to teach school.
It is December of 1792 when she arrives in a cold climate unlike any she has ever experienced. And she meets a man different from any she has ever encountered--a white man dressed like a Native American, tall and lean and unsettling in his blunt honesty. He is Nathaniel Bonner, also known to the Mohawk people as Between-Two-Lives.
Determined to provide schooling for all the children of the village--white, black, and Native American--Elizabeth soon finds herself at odds with local slave owners. Much to her surprise, she clashes with her own father as well. Financially strapped, Judge Middleton has plans for his daughter--betrothal to local doctor Richard Todd. An alliance with Todd could extract her father from ruin but would call into question the ownership of Hidden Wolf, the mountain where Nathaniel, his father, and a small group of Native Americans live and hunt.
As Judge Middleton brings pressure to bear against his daughter, she is faced with a choice between compliance and deception, a flight into the forest, and a desire that will bend her hard will to compromise and transformation. Elizabeth's ultimate destiny, here in the heart of the wilderness, lies in the odyssey to come: trials of faith and flesh, and passion born amid Nathaniel's own secrets and divided soul.
Interweaving the fate of the remnants of the Mohawk Nation with the destiny of two lovers, Sara Donati's compelling novel creates a complex, profound, passionate portrait of an emerging America.
Customer Reviews:
Enjoyed every bit of the entire series!.......2007-07-18
Each book in this series left me waiting for the next. Extremely well written.. kept me interested from start to finish.
I'm finally done!.......2007-07-07
I can't believe anyone can compare this book to Diana Gabaldon's. Not too long into the book, I began checking what page I was on to see how much more I had to read. I was determined to finish it before I could judge. The plot and the characters are flat but mostly predictable..very predictable. A spinster who quickly falls in love with a white Native American who uses "ain't" too much and calls her "boots." She barely knows him yet she is ready to give up and sell her land to him, his family, and his Native American friends. The dialogue doesn't shine. The plot is once again, flat and predictable. The characters unbelievable. It is important for me to care about the characters when I'm reading a book, especially a book that has this many pages. Ms. Donati should have saved a tree and not tried to resemble Diana Gabaldon.
..Diana Gabaldon's books aren't a perfect 10 either but so much better than this one. I actually enjoyed them and I do recommend them.
This also did not strike me as a believable "Last of the Mohicans" sequel. Not even close.
I gave this 2 stars because this book had potential and it's a great idea..but it's just too ambitious to try and make a sequel to James Fennimore Cooper's literary classic and when failing, comparing it to other great books.
Good historical fiction.......2007-05-28
I love reading the historical fiction genre, but it took me longer than normal to read this novel. It was not because it has an overly complicated plot and it was not boring, but I just wasn't in love with the characters. It is a good enough story and Ms. Donati is a talented writer, but Nathanial and Elizabeth just didn't click for me as the main characters. I liked the post Revolutionary war time-frame and the wilderness aspect of the book held my interest.
Bland.......2007-03-07
I read the book with some interest, I would daze in and out of the 2 dimensional characters as I skipped pages of endless description. A lot of the book was descriptive to the point of "what's the point?' The villan was not too threatening, the main characters were boring and I did not get a real grasp on who they were, I wish Ms. DOnati would have spent as much time developing the characters as she did their intensive family tree. Yawn.
5 Stars for Sara Donati.......2006-11-06
I fully enjoyed, "Into the Wilderness." Anyone who enjoys Diana Gabaldon's books, will also enjoy this series. I just ordered the newest book in the series, and can't wait to get started. The characters in this fast paced work of historical fiction are memorable and lovable. If you buy this book, make sure to order the rest of the series too, because you won't want to wait for them to be delivered!
Book Description
Tailored after the actual "Crow Killer" John Johnson, Sam Minard is a mountain man who seeks the freedom that the Rocky Mountains offers trappers. After his beloved Indian wife is murdered, Sam Minard becomes obsessed with vengeance, and his fortunes become intertwined with those of Kate Bowden, a widow who faces madness. This remarkable frontier fiction captures that brief season when the romantic myth of the far West became a fact.
Customer Reviews:
An all time favorite.......2007-03-27
I didn't read this book until after I had seen 'Jeremiah Johnson', and was pleased that the movie and book were so different. I enjoyed the movie very much, but with Fisher's story I felt as though I had put on my huntin' clothes, laced up my boots, grabbed my Hawken Rifle, and joined in on the adventure. Coming from a family of outdoorsmen, some of us certainly fantasized about leaving it all behind from time to time, and making our way in the remote wilderness. In fact my two brothers moved to the Pacific Northwest after college and still spend much of their free time wandering the Cascades. Anyone who loves the wild west will find this one to be a real gem, and simply by reading it, will be richly rewarded. It is a diamond in the rough, but not one to be missed, and has inspired much of my own writing. This one comes highly recommended.
James Hart Isley
Author of The Bear Hunter
A RENAISSANCE MAN IN THE AMERICAN WEST.......2004-02-14
MOUNTAIN MAN continues to be a classic in American Western literature. The major foundation for the movie, Jeremiah Johnson, MOUNTAIN MAN tells the story of Samuel John Minard, a mountain man known for his physical prowess and for his quick and educated intellect. A renaissance man who has chosen the life of the great American West.
In his adventures Sam meets up with Indians of various tribes, other mountain men and a crazy pilgrim woman. HIs marriage to an Indian maiden leads him into a one-man war with sweeping consequences for himself and for his enemies.
MOUNTAIN MAN, as is the case with most books upon which movies are based, considerably outshines JEREMIAH JOHNSON in its story and characterizations. But, hey, I love the movie as well. I guess that says a lot about what I think of the book.
THE HORSEMAN
THE ONE THAT STARTED IT ALL.......2003-08-25
Mountain Man
Interestingly Larry McMurtry has written three books of late that invite the reader back to the time of the Mountain Men. I've read all of them and while I love McMurtry's writing and the stories presented in Boone's Lick and in volumes 1 and 2 of the new Berry bender series, there is nothing like going back to the source for the real experience.
I first read Mountain Man by Vardis Fisher as a teenager. I read it in conjunction with the release of Jeremiah Johnson upon which the book is loosely based. At that time I was captured by this genre and have made a regular reading of Mountain Man a part of my program.
While I can enthusiastically recommend the newer editions to the Mountain Man genre, I would encourage interested parties in taking a look at Mountain Man first. While you're at it, rent or buy Jeremiah Johnson starring Robert Redford. The experience will be one that you don't regret.
interesting but has flaws.......2003-06-22
Quite interesting book, whose literary value I won't judge, but it has every rumor about Indians and every lie about Supermountainmen incorporated into it. I read it because of the movie, and the movie was better. If you ask me, Thorp's "Crow Killer" is more concise and more realistic. But if you are a West fan, guess you will want to read Fischer too.
Poetry and Beauty.......2003-05-22
This was the first book I had read by Vardis Fisher. He is a very colorful writer. His descriptions of every thing he sees and everything he thinks is wonderful. His knowledge of classical music is warming. I personally love classical music. Even though I enjoyed the book very much I did not like the continual repeat of his describing the scenry over and over.
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