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Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West

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Jul 6, 2021
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The Hereford Zone along the Mason-Dixon Line
With an even longer subtitle “A Magnificent History of How the West Was Really Won - a Sweeping Tale of Shame and Glory”. Set in the desert SW, so not a lot of paddling.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show...arch=true&from_srp=true&qid=N0GfjUWEiK&rank=1

Hampton Sides is a historian author, and everything of his that I’ve read – In the Kingdom of Ice, Ghost Soldiers, On Desperate Ground, even Hellhound on His Trail – have had imminently readable syntax and flow, and a balanced perspective.

The exploring/invading US forces, mixed, plural, were both good and bad, as were the Navaho, as were the “New Mexicans”, no villains and few heroes. Throw in some opposing Texan and Mexican forces, each with different objectives, and it was a five-way cluster@#^* across present day Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California.

With familiar cast of western characters, from Bridger to Kearny and Freemont and, especially, Kit Carson.

Carson, dime store novels about him aside, was an incredible frontiersman, traveler and explorer, and an inveterate mule rider. That is not a Spoiler Alert; after a harrowing journey, finally arriving in California, Carson is immediately told “Take this letter back to Washington”. Carson’s feats alone make it worth a read.

Such an enjoyable library read I bought a copy for my history reading son. While his preference lean more towards ancient history, Peloponnesian wars and the like, he was much taken with it. ‘Bout time that boy learnt some ‘Merican history.

Highly recommended. It’s one I would now take on desert SW travels.
 
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