Customer Reviews

Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West

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I thought 'blood and thunder'was an absolutely wonderful book .Mr Sides has a very interesting subject -the,at times, somewhat sad story of the development of the American west but he tells it wonderfully.There is a cast of interesting characters including of course Kit Carson himself,Narbona the Navajo chief,Carleton and many others.The story never flags.One of those books one wants to read again some day.

Not a big reader of history but this book held me spellbound. From the amazing life of Kit Carson to destruction of the great Navajo nation this book takes you back to time in the USA when manifest destiny was the watch word. You meet, and get to know, many of the iconic figures of the time: Fremont, Steven Watts Kearny, the great Navajo Chief Narbona. There are some sad lessons of history here but also some heroic figures.

This is a beautifully written book that takes epic form in retelling the settling of the American southwest from 1820 through the 1860s. From the Mexican war to the removal of the Navajo from Canyon de Chelly, Hampton Sides writes an engaging account of the results of manifest destiny, showing both sides, warts and all. The white man, while seeming noble in purpose, is shown to have been lacking in honor, and while the Indians were certainly shafted time and again they had many of their own faults. Central to this story is the famous mountain man Kit Carson, a man of many contradictions: though extremely intelligent he was also illiterate; he could speak many of the native languages, understood the Indian ways, and even had Indian wives but he also participated in the slaughter and removal from their lands of these same Indians. The book also includes engaging portraits of many of the important figures of this time period: Stephen Watts Kearny, John Fremont, the Navajo warrior Narbona, and Senator Thomas Benton. Sides is even handed and honest in how he portrays all those involved. At times I felt I was reading fiction but this story is real!