Bob Drury, Tom Clavin
became interested in this book after reading Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and I'm glad I read this one to further expand my perspective, First, the narrative of this book is nice to follow, gently laying out and of the story of Red Cloud as it unfolds, only deviating momentarily to introduce new characters, or give deeper context to something that is about to unfold.
Also, the level of detail given about every character and event is definitely satisfying, It doesn't reach the same depth as DW Donald's Lincoln, but it is akin to Hillebrand's Unbroken, At least for me, the are no big questions that are left unanswered with a decent amount of evidence, For further info on this, the reader can skip to the end and read Notes and Bibliography which discusses some of the imperfect sources, such as the Red Cloud autobiography, and how they came to light.
Lastly, and probably most important, I found this book to be a very balanced take, It doesn't gloss over details on either side, but doesn't put conclusions in your face about how bad or good or heroic some person or thing was, The book leaves to you to decide those things, which I greatly appreciate, For example, none of the details of what the Sioux did to their prisoners or even their own women are left out, but they are presented in a fair light and at the same time the book gives very clear picture of how idiotic and brutal the US Military was without simply saying Sand Creek was an example of how depraved the US Military had become.
Speaking of Sand Creek, I learned essential information about that massacre in this book
than I did from Bury My Heart, although the latter provides of the heart wrenching details.
It was interesting to see how Sand Creek fit in with the bigger picture of Red Cloud's War,
Overall I came away from this book realizing that neither side of the conflict was free from the stains of innocent blood, as contrasted to Bury My Heart which really focuses largely on the atrocities of the US Military and doesn't leave you feeling anything besides anger towards that party obviously different book, not saying it takes the wrong stance, I highly recommend that one as well.
But fair warning, this is not a G rated book, there are very gruesome descriptions such as what happened on Lodge Trail Ridge, or what certain US soldiers did to women's corpses, and so on.
I wouldn't want myyear old son reading some of this stuff, Fairly well written, but has a profound white American oriented view of American Indian life and way of thinking, It mis represents Red Cloud as some sort of all powerful Chinnggis Khan figure, Indians had no 'chiefs' but leaders/elders who did not have traditional power over others they followed leaders voluntarily, Red Cloud had no empire as implied and many Oglala Lakota followed Crazy Horse instead, Read 'The Journey of Crazy Horse'Joseph M, Marshall III, a Lakota author, This covers the same history and is refreshing to get an Indian POV, I really enjoyed the book, Gave me a great insight into the make up of the various Sioux bands and how they eventually came together under the great man's leadership, I did think the authors allowed a little Hollywood to creep into the telling, perhaps they had ambitions for a film, As a matter of fact, Red Clouds story should be a film or tv series, He was without doubt, a great leader and somewhat of a genuine orator, The book is good for what it is, very old fashioned, Euro/Wasichu centric research, . The authors follow the old way of thinking, that history is war how battles were fought, who lost and who won, You won't learn much about the cultures of either side, and certainly nothing that would reveal anything about Red Cloud beyond that he might have been a medicine man or something.
This is a book about War, period, and if that's your thing, this is your book, I do think that it is also highly sided with the whites, despite the author's announced intentions otherwise and a few bones tossed to the Indians like they ever got anything else from the American government, except for infested flour, rotting bacon and smallpox infested blankets, of course.
Oh yeah. And broken promises.
But notice should you read how while while atrocities are mentioned, all the grisly detail falls upon the Lakota, The brown nosed Crow come out as "noble, " The Lakota, "savage. " A simple semantic study of the text would show the negative attributes given to the Indians, in terms of scenes described and adjectives and verb constructs used greatly and gravely outnumber those applied to whites, who at worst seem bumbling and naive.
I am sure the historical dates are all accurate, but I think you would get humanity in anything written by Dee Brown or Joseph M, Marshall III. You may like this. I did read it cover to cover, dutifully, I've read a lot on Native American history and have a deep empathy for there mistreatment and I believe genocide, The first book I read on the subject like most people was dee browns bury my heart at wounded knee which cut deep which my perception on the creation of modern cultures worldwide.
Red cloud and his fight is featured in the book but the depth explored in this book is brutally honest, If you have a romantic view of the Wild West then this book will test that, red cloud comes across has an intelligent but fierce warrior and his guerrilla type group the ' bad faces' who stood in the way of the colonising machine.
Acts committed on both sides are unimaginable, using never released material it portrays red cloud as a great military tactician but also cruel, read the chapter on the fetter man massacre and your romantic view will be tested , not in seeing them as savages which they weren't but as a people with a different outlook and perception, but to justify there scalping is impossible.
Red cloud won the only war against the white man , but still with is intelligence and awareness saw victory was impossible so became the greatest Indian diplomat, If you want the truth, buy this, it's a story which as said has been untold until now, I could only slog throughof this skewed and underlying racist tome too many lies, distortions, and denigrations of the Northern Plains Indians, Describing these proud peoples who had well defined and very complicated cultures, “Stone age savages” was the last straw, The duo authors both contributing writers for such upscale mags as Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, and GQ seem to suggest that is was Americas right to conquer the indigenous people and steal their lands and resources.
If you want to to get an authentic portrait of the Plains Indians read the accounts written byJohn Beecham, Mari Sandoz, and John J, Niehardt. This acclaimed New York Times bestselling biography of the legendary Sioux warrior Red Cloud, is a page turner with remarkable immediacyand the narrative sweep of a great Western The Boston Globe.
Red Cloud was the only American Indian in history to defeat the United States Army in a war, forcing the government to sue for peace on his terms.
At the peak of Red Clouds powers the Sioux could claim control of one fifth of the contiguous United States and the loyalty of thousands of fierce fighters, But the fog of history has left Red Cloud strangely obscured, Now, thanks to the rediscovery of a lost autobiography, and painstaking research by two award winning authors, the story of the nineteenth centurys most powerful and successful Indian warrior can finally be told.
In this astonishing untold story of the American West, Bob Drury and Tom Clavin restore Red Cloud to his rightful place in American history in a sweeping and dramatic narrative based on years of primary research.
As they trace the events leading to Red Clouds War, they provide intimate portraits of the many lives Red Cloud touchedmountain men such as Jim Bridger US generals like William Tecumseh Sherman, who were charged with annihilating the Sioux fearless explorers, such as the dashing John Bozeman and the memorable warriors whom Red Cloud groomed, like the legendary Crazy Horse.
And at the center of the story is Red Cloud, fighting for the very existence of the Indian way of life,
Unabashed, unbiased, and disturbingly honest, leaving no razor sharp arrowhead unturned, no rifle trigger unpulled, a compelling and fiery narrative USA TODAY, this is the definitive chronicle of the conflict between an expanding white civilization and the Plains Indians who stood in its way.
Brilliant read Perfect condition
Also, the level of detail given about every character and event is definitely satisfying, It doesn't reach the same depth as DW Donald's Lincoln, but it is akin to Hillebrand's Unbroken, At least for me, the are no big questions that are left unanswered with a decent amount of evidence, For further info on this, the reader can skip to the end and read Notes and Bibliography which discusses some of the imperfect sources, such as the Red Cloud autobiography, and how they came to light.
Lastly, and probably most important, I found this book to be a very balanced take, It doesn't gloss over details on either side, but doesn't put conclusions in your face about how bad or good or heroic some person or thing was, The book leaves to you to decide those things, which I greatly appreciate, For example, none of the details of what the Sioux did to their prisoners or even their own women are left out, but they are presented in a fair light and at the same time the book gives very clear picture of how idiotic and brutal the US Military was without simply saying Sand Creek was an example of how depraved the US Military had become.
Speaking of Sand Creek, I learned essential information about that massacre in this book
than I did from Bury My Heart, although the latter provides of the heart wrenching details.
It was interesting to see how Sand Creek fit in with the bigger picture of Red Cloud's War,
Overall I came away from this book realizing that neither side of the conflict was free from the stains of innocent blood, as contrasted to Bury My Heart which really focuses largely on the atrocities of the US Military and doesn't leave you feeling anything besides anger towards that party obviously different book, not saying it takes the wrong stance, I highly recommend that one as well.
But fair warning, this is not a G rated book, there are very gruesome descriptions such as what happened on Lodge Trail Ridge, or what certain US soldiers did to women's corpses, and so on.
I wouldn't want myyear old son reading some of this stuff, Fairly well written, but has a profound white American oriented view of American Indian life and way of thinking, It mis represents Red Cloud as some sort of all powerful Chinnggis Khan figure, Indians had no 'chiefs' but leaders/elders who did not have traditional power over others they followed leaders voluntarily, Red Cloud had no empire as implied and many Oglala Lakota followed Crazy Horse instead, Read 'The Journey of Crazy Horse'Joseph M, Marshall III, a Lakota author, This covers the same history and is refreshing to get an Indian POV, I really enjoyed the book, Gave me a great insight into the make up of the various Sioux bands and how they eventually came together under the great man's leadership, I did think the authors allowed a little Hollywood to creep into the telling, perhaps they had ambitions for a film, As a matter of fact, Red Clouds story should be a film or tv series, He was without doubt, a great leader and somewhat of a genuine orator, The book is good for what it is, very old fashioned, Euro/Wasichu centric research, . The authors follow the old way of thinking, that history is war how battles were fought, who lost and who won, You won't learn much about the cultures of either side, and certainly nothing that would reveal anything about Red Cloud beyond that he might have been a medicine man or something.
This is a book about War, period, and if that's your thing, this is your book, I do think that it is also highly sided with the whites, despite the author's announced intentions otherwise and a few bones tossed to the Indians like they ever got anything else from the American government, except for infested flour, rotting bacon and smallpox infested blankets, of course.
Oh yeah. And broken promises.
But notice should you read how while while atrocities are mentioned, all the grisly detail falls upon the Lakota, The brown nosed Crow come out as "noble, " The Lakota, "savage. " A simple semantic study of the text would show the negative attributes given to the Indians, in terms of scenes described and adjectives and verb constructs used greatly and gravely outnumber those applied to whites, who at worst seem bumbling and naive.
I am sure the historical dates are all accurate, but I think you would get humanity in anything written by Dee Brown or Joseph M, Marshall III. You may like this. I did read it cover to cover, dutifully, I've read a lot on Native American history and have a deep empathy for there mistreatment and I believe genocide, The first book I read on the subject like most people was dee browns bury my heart at wounded knee which cut deep which my perception on the creation of modern cultures worldwide.
Red cloud and his fight is featured in the book but the depth explored in this book is brutally honest, If you have a romantic view of the Wild West then this book will test that, red cloud comes across has an intelligent but fierce warrior and his guerrilla type group the ' bad faces' who stood in the way of the colonising machine.
Acts committed on both sides are unimaginable, using never released material it portrays red cloud as a great military tactician but also cruel, read the chapter on the fetter man massacre and your romantic view will be tested , not in seeing them as savages which they weren't but as a people with a different outlook and perception, but to justify there scalping is impossible.
Red cloud won the only war against the white man , but still with is intelligence and awareness saw victory was impossible so became the greatest Indian diplomat, If you want the truth, buy this, it's a story which as said has been untold until now, I could only slog throughof this skewed and underlying racist tome too many lies, distortions, and denigrations of the Northern Plains Indians, Describing these proud peoples who had well defined and very complicated cultures, “Stone age savages” was the last straw, The duo authors both contributing writers for such upscale mags as Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, and GQ seem to suggest that is was Americas right to conquer the indigenous people and steal their lands and resources.
If you want to to get an authentic portrait of the Plains Indians read the accounts written byJohn Beecham, Mari Sandoz, and John J, Niehardt. This acclaimed New York Times bestselling biography of the legendary Sioux warrior Red Cloud, is a page turner with remarkable immediacyand the narrative sweep of a great Western The Boston Globe.
Red Cloud was the only American Indian in history to defeat the United States Army in a war, forcing the government to sue for peace on his terms.
At the peak of Red Clouds powers the Sioux could claim control of one fifth of the contiguous United States and the loyalty of thousands of fierce fighters, But the fog of history has left Red Cloud strangely obscured, Now, thanks to the rediscovery of a lost autobiography, and painstaking research by two award winning authors, the story of the nineteenth centurys most powerful and successful Indian warrior can finally be told.
In this astonishing untold story of the American West, Bob Drury and Tom Clavin restore Red Cloud to his rightful place in American history in a sweeping and dramatic narrative based on years of primary research.
As they trace the events leading to Red Clouds War, they provide intimate portraits of the many lives Red Cloud touchedmountain men such as Jim Bridger US generals like William Tecumseh Sherman, who were charged with annihilating the Sioux fearless explorers, such as the dashing John Bozeman and the memorable warriors whom Red Cloud groomed, like the legendary Crazy Horse.
And at the center of the story is Red Cloud, fighting for the very existence of the Indian way of life,
Unabashed, unbiased, and disturbingly honest, leaving no razor sharp arrowhead unturned, no rifle trigger unpulled, a compelling and fiery narrative USA TODAY, this is the definitive chronicle of the conflict between an expanding white civilization and the Plains Indians who stood in its way.
Brilliant read Perfect condition
Mens Health Contributing Editor and Military Correspondent Bob Drury has been nominated for three National Magazine Awards and a Pulitzer Prize, He has reported from Iraq, Afghanistan, Liberia, Bosnia, Northern Ireland, and Darfur among other sites, He is also the author, co author, or editor of nine nonfiction books, including the New York Times bestselling HALSEYS TYPHOON, LAST MEN OUT, and THE LAST STAND OF FOX COMPANY, the recipient of the Marine Corps Heritage FoundationsGeneral Wallace M.
Greene Jr. Award for nonfiction.
His Kindle Single, SIGNATURE WOUND, is available from , and his latest book, THE HEART OF EVERYTHING THAT IS also a New York Times bestseller in hardcover was released in paperback by Simon Schuster Publishing in September,.