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Empire of the Summer Moon

S.C. Gwynne

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Mar 10, 2013 Yvonne rated it really liked it

Shelves: american-history

Read this for a Non-Fiction Library Book Group. Very informative a lot of information on Indian Raids of white settlers, and other Indian Tribes and the ensuing conflicts that began to arise from the Manifest Destiny of the United States and the many ways they tried to deal with the Native Americans. Plenty of history is given around the dealings of the Indian Issue what occurrences pushed the eventual takeover and forced assimilation into the white culture. A key story to the book is the raid o ...more

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May 26, 2012 Patrick rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

My Kindle told me that I was only 50% of the way through this book, but that didn't seem to make sense. Gwynne's narrative had already covered at least a couple hundred years of history and the twentieth century was fast approaching. I scrolled ahead to see what took up the second half of the book. I should have known what it was: pages and pages of notes and citations and the bibliography. Suffice it to say, this is a thoroughly researched book and Gwynne provides tons of possibilities for furt My Kindle told me that I was only 50% of the way through this book, but that didn't seem to make sense. Gwynne's narrative had already covered at least a couple hundred years of history and the twentieth century was fast approaching. I scrolled ahead to see what took up the second half of the book. I should have known what it was: pages and pages of notes and citations and the bibliography. Suffice it to say, this is a thoroughly researched book and Gwynne provides tons of possibilities for further reading on the topic of the Comanches and the Plains Indians.

This book gets five stars because, despite the epic scope in terms of both narrative and the landscape described, Gwynne never allows the book to descend into a dry list of events, even when raids, counter-raids, and treaties begin to come in quickly in the late nineteenth century. The story is fascinating -- from the spread of horses north from New Spain to the cat-and-mouse chases on the Llano Estacado -- and the personalities larger than life. Gwynne focuses on the minute details of the cultures and sub-cultures on the southern Plains, but snaps the reader write back into the narrative in a concise fashion. Considering everything that goes on in this book and all the impressive characters, the narrative really moves along even after the wars are over.

In addition to telling a sweeping and often horrifying story, Gwynne is to be applauded for never reducing any of the conflicts in the book to simple binary choices. The characters and cultures in the book are described, as best as Gwynne's research indicates, warts and all. The 'evil white man' and the 'noble Indian' stereotypes are blown to pieces by Gwynne's description of blatantly savage war practices on the part of the Comanches, the mealy-mouthed and condescending attitudes of out-of-touch bureaucrats in Washington, and the often amoral adventure seekers inhabiting the ebbing and nebulous 'borders' of Comancheria.

This a great story and great history because Gwynne has a novelist's grasp of character. No one and no culture is entirely good or bad, especially not when pursuing its interests in competition with others. ...more

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Oct 23, 2019 Karen marked it as to-read

Jun 02, 2023 doug bowman added it · review of another edition

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