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!
