Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne (2010, Hardcover)

Synopsis
In his compelling history of the American West, S.C. Gwynne focuses on a forty-year period in which the Comanche tribe rose to prominence, skillfully held the American soldiers at bay, only to go down, eventually, in defeat. Gwynne's well-researched and well-told account provides fascinating information about the lives of the Comanches and their skill in battle, as well as essential facts about the delayed opening of the West. While keeping an eye on the major historical events--including several key wars--he focuses on two people: Cynthia Ann Parker--a pioneer woman captured by the Comanches and who later chose to live among the Comanches as her family--and her son, Quanah, who became a formidable Comanche chief. Gwynne packs a lot of detail into this popular history, as he both enlightens and holds the reader's interest.

Journalist S.C. Gwynne takes a novel approach to further unraveling the always enthralling, yet contentious, myth of the founding of the American West, using the half-white/half-Comanche chief Quanah Parker and his mother, Cynthia Ann Parker, to explore the largely forgotten Texas-Indian Wars, which lasted nearly the entirety of the 19th century. Spun with a vivid, occasionally thrilling narrative style, EMPIRE OF THE SUMMER MOON describes how the fierce, dogged pride of the mighty Comanche tribe led to epic clashes with white settlers on the Texas plains and hindered for four decades America's initial attempts to bring the new and intoxicating theory of manifest destiny westward.

Key Details
Author:	S.C. Gwynne
Language:	English
Publisher:	Scribner
Format:	Hardcover
ISBN-10:	1416591052
ISBN-13:	9781416591054

Additional Details
Edition Number:	1

Size
Length:	371 pages
Thickness:	1.2 in
Weight:	19.2 oz

Publisher's Note
Describes in sometimes brutal detail the actions of both whites and Comanches during a 40-year war over territory, in a story that begins with the Comanche kidnapping of a white 9-year-old girl, who grew up to love her captors, marry a Comanche chief and have a son, Quanah, who became a great warrior.

Industry Reviews
"EMPIRE OF THE SUMMER MOON isn't just an biography. It's a forceful argument about the place of Native American tribes in geopolitical history."
(06/13/2010)