Empire of the summer moon
Describes the actions of both whites and Comanches during a 40-year war over territory, in a story that begins with the kidnapping of a white girl, who grew up to marry a Comanche chief and have a son, Quanah, who became a great warrior.
Stats for nerds
15recommend
36mentions
21people
2013–2026years
75% recommend25% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Dungeon Crawler Carl book 7. Started the series in January. Most books I've read in a year since I read the Expanse series.
Historical books that are great... Empire of the Summer Moon, Undaunted Courage, Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates
- Unfortunately, the American Indians did not have writing, and so the histories of the tribes is pretty murky.
For example, most of what is known about the Commanches comes from letters and diaries of white people who were in contact with them, or were enslaved by them.
See "Empire of the Summer Moon" by Gwynne.
https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Summer-Moon-Comanches-Powerful...
It's a fantastic account, and I'm amazed nobody has made an epic miniseries about it.
- > Western nations came, they defeated their enemy, and they took their territory.
The various tribes also engaged in near constant warfare with each other, defeating them, taking their territory, and making the rest slaves. Cortez was only able to defeat the Aztecs because he was able to enlist the aid of the non-Aztec tribes, who hated the Aztecs because of the depredations of Aztecs against them.
The Inca empire was only recently formed before the Spanish arrived.
In North America, the Commanche carved out an empire in the south at the expense of the tribes that had been living there. See "Empire of the Summer Moon":
https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Summer-Moon-Comanches-Powerful...
- The rote narrative that somehow all the Native Americans were some peace-loving Earth shamans is factually incorrect.
>"stolen from the hands of the Native Americans who had stewarded them for millennia before colonialism in different forms devastated their tribes."
The Comanches, the most powerful tribe in the country, were brutal, vindictive, plundering murderers who took slaves and delighted in killing as a rite. They "stewarded" only by murderous foray 250,000 square miles. Read "Empire of the Summer Moon"
They had no concept of private property because their territory ended right where their massacres couldn't reach, not because of some transcendent and noble ideals.
- "Empire of the Summer Moon" is a fantastic read. I could hardly put the book down. It would make a great miniseries, and it's all true.
- The accounts of how the Commanche lived nearly all come from accounts written by white people who lived among them (often taken as slaves by the Commanche).
See "Empire of the Summer Moon", by Gwynne. A truly fantastic epic. I'm amazed nobody has made this into a miniseries yet.
https://www.amazon.com/Empire-Summer-Moon-Comanches-Powerful...
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