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Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History | 
 enlarge | Author: S. C. Gwynne
Publisher: Scribner
List Price: $27.50
Buy New: $13.60
You Save: $13.90 (51%)
Rating:  86 reviews
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 384
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2
ISBN: 1416591052
Dewey Decimal Number: 978.004974572
EAN: 9781416591054
Publication Date: May 25, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In the tradition of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, a stunningly vivid historical account of the forty-year battle between Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of the American West, centering on Quanah, the greatest Comanche chief of them all. S. C. Gwynne?s Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches. Although readers may be more familiar with the tribal names Apache and Sioux, it was in fact the legendary fighting ability of the Comanches that determined just how and when the American West opened up. Comanche boys became adept bareback riders by age six; full Comanche braves were considered the best horsemen who ever rode. They were so masterful at war and so skillful with their arrows and lances that they stopped the northern drive of colonial Spain from Mexico and halted the French expansion westward from Louisiana. White settlers arriving in Texas from the eastern United States were surprised to find the frontier being rolled backward by Comanches incensed by the invasion of their tribal lands. So effective were the Comanches that they forced the creation of the Texas Rangers and account for the advent of the new weapon specifically designed to fight them: the six-gun. The war with the Comanches lasted four decades, in effect holding up the development of the new American nation. Gwynne?s exhilarating account delivers a sweeping narrative that encompasses Spanish colonialism, the Civil War, the destruction of the buffalo herds, and the arrival of the railroads?a historical feast for anyone interested in how the United States came into being. Against this backdrop Gwynne presents the compelling drama of Cynthia Ann Parker, a lovely nine-year-old girl with cornflower-blue eyes who was kidnapped by Comanches from the far Texas frontier in 1836. She grew to love her captors and became infamous as the "White Squaw" who refused to return until her tragic capture by Texas Rangers in 1860. More famous still was her son Quanah, a warrior who was never defeated and whose guerrilla wars in the Texas Panhandle made him a legend. S. C. Gwynne?s account of these events is meticulously researched, intellectually provocative, and, above all, thrillingly told. Empire of the Summer Moon announces him as a major new writer of American history.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 81 more reviews...
 Empire of the Summer Moon September 4, 2010
Reviewer: TXComanch-Bohemian
Thank you Mr. Gwynne for the most exciting read of the year! Please ignore the folks who rated this masterpiece so low because they admitted
to reading only part of the book. My family had
an oral history of the period covered in Summer Moon but no one recorded it......this book will
serve the purpose well to keep this period alive
for us.
Please dont judge the writer harshly for using
lots of big words to describe the Plains and
their residents and others who came later.
Those are the words I heard from the old
story tellers in my family.
 The Real Lonsome Dove September 3, 2010
C. Wagner (Philippines)
As much as I loved Lonesome Dove the actual history of Texas and the Comanches is even better. Well researched with attention to detail and dates but a great rootin tootin western yarn.
Superb Historical Writing September 3, 2010
Glenn Buchan (Redondo Beach, CA USA)
This is a remarkable book! It succeeds at several levels. First, it is superb story-telling. The author's writing style makes absorbing all the factual matter not only easy, but a pleasure. The narrative reads like a novel. Gwynne is a consummate wordsmith. Second, it is excellent history. It sweeps over several centuries, placing the Comanches in a historical context that other accounts lack. In that vein, the author manages to vary the level of detail in his discusions continuously to fit the topics at hand. Never getting bogged down in needless boring detail, he still does not hesitate to "drill down" in remarkable depth when appropriate to tell the story or make a point. Finally, the book is a superb analysis of the historical forces at work and the successes and failures of the various indivduals and groups of actors in shaping the United States. He is unflinching in his analysis and criticisms of all the players. For example, military historians will find his assessments and critiques of the strategies and tactics of various leaders -- Indian and non-Indian -- and groups fascinating. Heroes and fools abound. His assessments of the larger forces at work are equally on the mark, placing the Comanches' world in the larger context of the events of the times. As a study of pragmatic power politics, this book has few equals. While some of the critical elements of the story may be "obvious," others are not. The author makes key analytical points that I have never seen anywhere else. Also, the author never displays any trace of sentimentality. He deals forthrightly with the unimaginable cruelty of the Comanches and other Indian tribes, as well as their white adversaries. He does not excuse or overlook it; he analyses and explains it. Never does he lapse into the "noble savage" mythology either. Nor does he necessarily place blame. For example, he frequently notes matter-of-factly failed treaties that neither side ever had any intention of keeping. All of the individuals and groups that Gwynne describes in his narrative have complex sets of interests, abilities, strengths, and weaknesses, all of which affect their relative success. The author helps us unravel the complex set of resulting interactions that determine winners and losers. In the end, one walks away from this book thinking, "Now I understand what happened and why."
If you want to understand some of the major forces that shaped America, read this book. If you want to understand the collisions between the white settlers and the Indian tribes -- as well as those among the various Indian tribes themselves -- at a level beyond that of a John Wayne movie, read this book. If you want to understand specific conflicts, such as the blood feud between the Comanches and the Texas Rangers, read this book. If you just want to read a rollicking good story, read this book!
Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker.... August 31, 2010
Barbara V Christman (BERWYN, PA, US)
Marvelous book! Details about Native American culture (especially Comanches) I had never read in any history book. Well worth the read!
[Arrived in a timely manner, well packaged].
Total Enlightenment of a Little Known Culture August 31, 2010
Jim Wybar
I have read many books about Indian culture and ways. This is the first in which the Comanches were the subject. The primitive life style but at the same time there love of freedom as they perceived it was amazing. Their total reluctance to sacrifice it at any cost is when really considered the height of love of freedom.
Jim
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