This book showed how much of the history of the American West was consciously created by its most famous participants. Trying to understand the motivations behind the creation of this epic story is fascinating to me. It's unsurprising that some of the most uncomfortable aspects of this story have been deliberately left out. This fact too tells us a lot about ourselves.
New York Times Bestseller A Wall Street Journal Top Ten Book of the Year A True West Magazine Best Historical Non-Fiction Book and Best Author of the Year Western Heritage Award for "Outstanding Nonfiction Book" Winner of the Western Writers of America Spur Award for Historical Nonfiction Winner of the Will Rogers Medallion Award
From the author of The Apache Wars, the true story of the American West, revealing how American ambition clashed with the realities of violence and exploitation
The epic of the American West became a tale of progress, redemption, and glorious conquest that came to shape the…
The idea here is brilliant and really succeeds: the author tells the history of Cuba, while placing it within the context of American history. Cuba has a long and painful history in relation to the United States, and this book is essential to understanding it. I honestly wish every American would read it.
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE IN HISTORY WINNER OF THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE IN HISTORY
"Full of...lively insights and lucid prose" (The Wall Street Journal) an epic, sweeping history of Cuba and its complex ties to the United States-from before the arrival of Columbus to the present day-written by one of the world's leading historians of Cuba.
In 1961, at the height of the Cold War, the United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba, where a momentous revolution had taken power three years earlier. For more than half a century, the stand-off continued-through the tenure of ten…
This was a fresh look at an old topic: the Lewis and Clark expedition to the West Coast. The author offers new insights on the expedition, while also providing more coverage on such individuals as William Clark's enslaved manservant, York. I already knew a fair amount about the expedition yet still learned quite a lot from Fehrman's fine book.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A major revisionist history of the Lewis and Clark expedition: For the first time in a generation, This Vast Enterprise offers a fresh and more accurate account of one of the most important episodes in American history, humanizing forgotten figures and shattering long-held myths.
"This Vast Enterprise is a page-turner and a fantastic achievement." -The New York Times * "Immensely engaging." -The Wall Street Journal * "This is vivid, character-based history...It also makes for a ripping good read." -The Boston Globe
"Do we really need another book about the Lewis and Clark expedition?...My…
The controversial story of the secret conspiracy inside Ulysses S. Grant’s White House that led to the theft of the sacred Black Hills from the Lakota people, set against a backdrop of brazen corruption, Lakota resistance, and Gilded Age greed.
A riveting account of the secret, rapacious conspiracy that led to the theft of the sacred Black Hills, Grant’s Betrayal is set against a backdrop of brazen corruption, Lakota resistance, and Gilded Age greed. This unfamiliar story is about capitalism and fraud at the time of America’s first centennial. It’s also about loss. Over a period of several decades, the Lakota people lost most of their land, their bison herds, and their liberty to roam over their once-expansive territory.
After initially pursuing a “Peace Policy,” the Grant administration dramatically reversed course, choosing to pressure the Lakota people into relinquishing the Black Hills after the discovery of gold there in 1874. Referring to the unjust land grab by the Grant administration, a U.S. Court of Claims declared, a century later in 1975: “The duplicity of President Grant’s course and the duress practiced on the starving Sioux, speak for themselves. A more ripe and rank case of dishonorable dealings will never, in all probability, be found in our history.”
Grant’s Betrayal sheds new light on the shocking dispossession of Indigenous lands by corrupt politicians, aggressive military commanders, and Gilded Age capitalists hungry for gold. The heroic resistance offered by Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, and other Native American luminaries is central to the story as well. This poignant narrative helps us better understand what it means to be an American by reconsidering an unjust and regrettable chapter of our history.
