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The best American history book I've read in at least the past 3 years (at least... did I already say that?) is S.C.Gwynne's "Empire of the Summer Moon".

This book is an eye-opener for those who believe history is something on rails, for those whose sense of American history revolves around the War Between the States, the battle of the Little Bighorn, and such all. This is a book that, like "Blood and Thunder", explicates how vital the subjugation of the Southwest was to the doctrine of Manifest Destiny and the establishment of the current United States of America.

The paleolithic Comanche, or as they called themselves, Nermernuh, brought Mexico and the nascent United States to their respective knees for over 200 years. In that same time period they vanquished or extinguished tribes such as the Apache (far more exalted in modern folklore than their Comanche conquerors, for reasons only Hollywood could explain), Navajo, Utes, Kiowa, Cheyenne, and others.

The Comanche were the raison d'etre for the formation of the Texas Rangers... though "formation" is a bit too formal a term for the nascence of that particular group of hard-bit plainsmen.

Anyway, it's a good read, and full of balloon-busting facts. As a lifelong historian of the plains Indians, I find this book a refreshing and thorough treatment of a historical period within the lifespans of many of our great-great-grandfathers that bordered on, in some ways, Jurassic Park, or perhaps more appropriately, Planet of the Apes.

Two thumbs up.

As in, Buy and read the Sumbitch!

Thanks, Doc.

I'm all OVER it.

GTC

200 years? I thought it more like 40.Regardless,as Cynthia(Quanah)relays:

.....The Comanche crossed the land bridge from Asia to America between 11,000 and 5000 BC. Gwynne describes them as �short, dark-skinned, heavy-limbed, squat-legged and ungraceful� and says that in the millennia that followed their migration, �They grubbed and hunted for a living using stone weapons and tools.� The approximately 5000 members of the tribe�divided into several bands--traveled on frames pulled by dogs. They killed buffalo by setting prairie grass on fire and stampeding their prey over cliffs or into pits. Writes Gwynne: �They were primitive even by primitive standards.�

And then? �What happened to the tribe between roughly 1625 and 1750 was one of the great social and military transformations in history,� writes Gwynne. �Few nations have ever progressed with such breathtaking speed from skulking pariah to dominant power.�

*Hard to put down,wasn't it doctor? The atrocities that each warring faction committed upon the other make some of our gang POS' seem like a bunch of puzzies.

AMEN Doc, read it last year, powerful.

I will definitely check it out. Thanks for the heads up. So far, 'Lone Star' and 'Comanches: the Destruction of a People' by T.R. Fehrenbach have been two of my favorite books. Texas history and Comanche history is good stuff.

It is now on my Kindle. Thanks, Doc.

Good book. Have you read Comanches The Destruction of a People by T R Fehrenbach? Another very good read.


"I find this book a refreshing and thorough treatment of a historical period within the lifespans of many of our great-great-grandfathers that bordered on, in some ways, Jurassic Park ..."

It wasn't really that far back. I knew a man who killed two Comanches who tried for him west of what is now Crosbyton Texas. He was sage hen hunting when they jumped him. Read the old newspaper account of it and listened to him tell the story.

BCR

In 1680 the Comanche acquired horses from the Pueblo Indians after the Pueblo Revolt in Santa Fe, and they incorporated the horses into their way of life. They became the true Masters of the Plains. That played a huge role in their transformation that was mentioned.

I have a novel nearly complete about the last Comanche uprising. It's semi-historical since it is based on an actual event, but of course, the names have been changed. It begins with the attack on the Comanche village along the Pease river where the Army takes Cynthia Parker prisoner.

Dan

Definitely a good read! Very thoroughly researched and well-written.

Have you been to the place Dan? Just north east of Crowell I've been many times. Old old camp sites all along the river. You got old Sul Ross in the book?

Boggy,

PM coming.

Dan

With a recommendation like that, I'll download it tonight.

Good read. I've learned a lot about the Comanches and the Texas Rangers since by friends moved to Uvalde and set up their hunting business there. Good thing the kooks here make an exception to American "Nation Building" and empire building for that is exactly what Manifest Destiny was and if we had them around back then we'd still be the original Thirteen Colonies!

Ya' mean there would just be a thin rim of population on the East Coast and everything else would be...Russia....and Manifest Destiny would just be a theory?

The folks I see daily in my line of work are definitely not pioneer stock. If we had depended on people like them to expand and populate the West...it would've been the same results that you posted above!

Thanks for the tip.

damn, Ranger, now you're gonna set off Birdwatcher.....he and I had an extended PM exchange where he vented his issues with Fehrenbach. I liked his book and really enjoyed Empire of the Summer Moon.

the ability to concentrate superior force in a given location is very important. The willingness to be ruthless and spare no one is also a plus if you are aggressive.
All that pales though, when your numbers are small, your technology primitive, your resources meager, and your logistics problematical.
Great warriors yes, but doomed from the git go to fail in the long run.

That's it in a nutshell.Aquiring and learning to use horses to their full advantage changed the lives of the Plains Indians entirely. Monashee

From "La Primera, Spanish Mustang",....by Ian Tyson

..."Those Comanches were holy terrors, when they climbed up on our backs,

When the grass was right they could range for a thousand miles,....

But the Texicans had revolvers, when they came back from the war,

The buffalo were gone, and the Comanches moon was waning,...."

GTC