Blood and Thunder

Posted on by

A Magnificent History of How the West Was Really Won a Sweeping Tale of Shame and GloryIn 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. Best Download [ Blood and Thunder ] By [ Hampton Sides ] For Kindle ePUB or eBook – kino-fada.fr This is how history should be written This is the kind of book that spoils you for other books Hampton Sides Blood and Thunder is a sprawling account of the opening of the American southwest It starts in 1846, with American soldiers arriving in Santa Fe, and ends roughly around the time of the First Battle of Adobe Walls in 1864 The two decades in between are stuffed with drama, horror, and heartbreak All the stuff that used to fill the dime store blood and thunders that lends this book This is...Great narrative history account of Kit Carson s later years in Santa Fe that encompasses the twisted threads of the several tribes residing in the area, the longstanding Mexican settlements, the growing numbers of American settlers, and the U.S Army operating under the mandates of Polk s Manifest Destiny Overall Carson is portrayed sympathetically as a complex character marked both by a love of Native Americans he married one and by skill in fighting bands who carried out violent incursions Great narrative history account of Kit Carson s later years in Santa Fe that encompasses the twisted threads of the several tribes residing in the area, the longstanding Mexican settlements, the growing numbers of American settlers, and the U.S Army operating under the mandat...Sides depicts an icon of the western frontier, the exploitation of the land and subjugation of Native Americans Kit Carson s life follows the frontier s fortunes, from his early days as a fur trapper to his role leading three Fremont expeditions to his exploits in the Mexican War and his chronicled battles with the Indians Throughout, Carson s skills, integrity, loyalty and unerring sixth sense were so prodigious that he seems the stuff of fiction However, soft spoken standing only 5 4 with Sides depicts an icon of the western frontier, the exploitation of the land and subjugation of Native Americans Kit Carson s life follows the frontier s fortunes, from his early days as a fur trapper to his role leading three Fremont expeditions to his exploits in the Mexican War and his chronicled battles with the Indians Throughout, Carson s skills, integrity, loyalty and unerring sixth sense were so prodigious that he seems the stuff of fiction However, soft spoken standing only 5 4 with a slight build he belied his characterizations in 19th century dime novels While it is easy to view Carson as a willing tool in the slaughter of the Indians, Sides portrays Carson as a proponent of fair treatment who tried to prevent their total destruction.Escaping as a teenager from a bonded apprenticeship in Saint Louis in the 1820 s, Carson b... Blood and Thunder The Epic Story of Kit Carson the Conquest of the American West by Hampton Sides was a powerfully written and meticulously researched tale of the American West primarily from the early nineteenth century through the Civil War when President Polk s vision of Manifest Destiny was the ideological vision of the United States of America sweeping from the Atlantic to the Pacific Having g...This is a truly outstanding bookhistory that reads like fiction my favourite kind As the title suggests, the book details the conquest of the American West Of course conquering the West was virtually synonymous with subjugating the American Indian, which is what this book is really about.Kit Carson does hold the story together, being involved from the first chapter to the last, but it is a Kit Carson I was not expecting to meet I anticipated a larger than life brawling, drinking, Injun sc This is a truly outstanding bookhistory that reads like fiction my favourite kind As the title suggests, the book details the conquest of the American West Of course conquering the West was virtually synonymous with subjugating the American Indian, which is what this book is really about.Kit Carson does hold the story together, being involved from the first chapter to the last, but it is a Kit Carson I was not expecting to meet I anticipated a larger than life brawling, drinking, Injun scalpin mountain man instead, I learned that Carson was a family man, an Army officer, a Freemason He was a sober and shy introvert whose word was his absolute bond This book does a good job of outlining his past and detailing his achievements, but Carson came up short of my expectations somehow I don t think it was the writing that shortchanged him, I just think that Carson came out as human and therefore flawed just like the rest of us In one encounter with Mexicans he was unhorsed and his ri...This review is not a summary of the events discussed in the book itself Instead read the book to learn of America s expansion westward to the Pacific in the middle of the 1800sand of fascinating details about Native American customs and beliefs The further you get into the story the better and better it gets.Here is what I liked The atrocities committed by both sides, those by the Indians and those by the conquering Americans, are presented without bias These atrocities are factually prese This review is not a summary ...Hampton Sides is a wonderful writer of history Blood and Thunder details the continuing conflict between the Navajo tribes and the successive occupants of New Mexico from its original occupation by the Spanish, through the Mexican government and finally the United States.In addition to covering this lengthy cultural conflict, Sides weaves the biography of Kit Carson and his significant involvement in the New Mexico Territory The title of Side s book is drawn from the term Blood and Thunder Hampton Sides is a wonderful writer of history Blood and Thunder details the continuing conflict between the Navajo tribes and the successive occupants of New Mexico from its original occupation by the Spanish, through the Mexican government and finally the United States.In addition to covering this lengthy cultural conflict, Sides weaves the biography of Kit Carson and his significant involvement in the New Mexico Territory The title of Side s book is drawn from the term Blood and Thunder which was a popular name for sensationalized pulp novels portraying the lives of those individuals who caught the imagination of the American public during its westward expansion Carson was the topic of many of them He had little regard for this lite...If you don t know much about Kit Carson, or his life and times, Hampton Sides Blood and Thunder is probably a fine place to start Carson was one of those rare historical figures whose life would intersect, numerous times, with important moments, and people, in American history Primarily, Sides focuses on Carson s role with the whole Manifest Destiny movement, which was initiate...4.5If you liked Cormack McCarthy s Blood Meridian you ll love this non fiction account of America s expansion into the west Having been born and raised in California, I recognized many of the names mentioned in this tale because they are the names of cities, counties, etc Stockton, Kern, Freemont, and of course, Carson City And now I know the history of the names attached to these places I grew up with Agree or disagree, Manifest Destiny is part of our history and Hampton Sides did a super 4.5If you liked Cormack McCarthy s Blood Meridian you ll love this non fiction account of America s expansion into the west Having been born and raised in Calif...I loved this book It s one of the most engaging, creatively told works of nonfiction I ve ever read Hampton Sides tells a cohesive and propulsive story that takes you from the opening of the American west in the 1820s through the Long Walk of the Navajo after the Civil War The focus is somewhat on Kit Carson, whose frankly incredible life somehow spans most of the interesting events happening west of the Mississippi from 1820 on, from the Fremont expedition to the conquest of California to I loved this book It s one of the most engaging, creatively told works of nonfiction I ve ever read Hampton Sides tells a cohesive and propulsive story that takes you from the opening of the American west in the 1820s through the Long Walk of the Navajo after the Civil War The focus is somewhat on Kit Carson, whose frankly incredible life somehow spans most of the interesting events happening west of the Mississippi from 1820 on, from the Fremont expedition to the conquest of California to the Navajo wars He s an illiterate farm hand who becomes a colonel and then a general in the US Army, who knows French and several Indian languages, whose fame grows so quic...

Blood and Thunder
  • English
  • 06 August 2018
  • Hardcover
  • 460 pages
  • 0385507771
  • Hampton Sides
  • Blood and Thunder