Hampton Sides' Epic Tale of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West: "Blood and Thunder"

R. W. Tether: If you want to know about real western and Native American history, then this is a must read. Note - it does not hold back or “soft soap” some of the more horrific things that happened, but it does take care to state the issues factually and without embellishment.

A must read. So much so we bought 5 more copies for our history friends. They all love it too.

United States on Dec 04, 2023

Ryan C: This book is an awesome addition to the library and an easy read! Very enlightening on the hardships and cultural lifestyles of the time. You'll definitely learn a thing or two and it will make you want to become a mountain man!

United States on Dec 02, 2023

Thomas: Absolutely love this book. Super informative on history and events of this time but reads like an adventure novel.

Canada on Nov 17, 2023

T. Downing: A true reflection on a difficult time. Captures the lives of those brave enough to settle the west and those that for centuries had called the west their country.

United States on Nov 05, 2023

Corey: I simply loved this book. So much so that my first two copies were given to friends to read and pass on. My third copy was a hardcover that I plan on keeping to read again in the future.

United States on Oct 17, 2023

Tip A Steinback: Beautifully written, this exhaustive (and exhausting) deep dive into the life and turbulent times of a new nation, its atrocities, and the impressive Kit Carson, who worked astride them all. Mighty impressive, with my only kvetch being the shifting time lines in the telling.

Canada on Sep 28, 2023

Joseph steele: Good delivery date and in good condition

United Kingdom on Dec 04, 2022

R Helen: Hampton Sides is a great writer because he's a great story-teller. But I found this book was written well, too. (Although I loved "Hellbound on his Trail," I wasn't so impressed with his literary style. It felt like reading a cheap thriller). But here he tells the epic story of the American West in clear and simple prose.

This book is the story of how the West was won, but it also traces the life of Kit Carson. It's a sad story in some ways, as the tragedy of the Indians of the far West permeates the narrative, but it's also a great American tale, showcasing the expansion of the country to the Pacific and the fruition of Manifest Destiny. Kit Carson is a lovable character. Although sometimes surprisingly brutal to the Indians, he understood them better than most. His first wife was Indian and his daughter was a half-breed. He had lived and worked with them all his life and in the end he wanted what was best for them and the US.

The Indians were by no means a gentle people. (Although Sides says that the Navajo tried to avoid killing, he spends the rest of the book detailing the many murders the Navajo committed, sometimes numbering in the hundreds). But the main...

United Kingdom on Apr 28, 2018

Zulu Warrior: Its 1846 the United States has declared war on Mexico, here we meet Kit Carson fur trapper, scout and explorer, from a family of fifteen children but brought up playing with Sac and Fox Indians, father killed when he was eight and dealing with the poverty his family suffered
At sixteen he signed on as a labourer with a merchant caraven heading west to Sante Fe but eventually ending up in Taos, in the first winter he went with a trapper Matthew Kincaid an old friend of his fathers and learnt the life of the mountain men, he took his first Indian scalp at 19yrs, took an Arapaho bride at 25yrs, Singing Grass but on the birth of his second daughter she died, married again to a Cheyenne women but the relationship only lasting three months
Fremont was asked to map out an Oregan trail, Carson was hired as guide, this was a success, they then mapped out the second part of the trail, along the way they were attacked by Klamath Indians losing some good men, the men wanted vengence and they massacred everybody in the nearest Klamath village
The book goes on with the story of Carson's life, the many trails he founded, his involvement in the civil war between the states and his many...

United Kingdom on Apr 10, 2015

Linda Linguvic: Subtitled "The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West", this 2006 well-documented saga transported me to a time and a place that I've been hearing about all my life. It's all packed into a mere 497 pages and every page unearthed new facts and figures about the history of America from the 1820s to the late 1860s.

The narrative is tied together by following Kit Carson, a frontiersman from the American southwest, a trapper and soldier who was illiterate, but was able to speak five different Indian languages as well as Spanish. I learned a lot from this book, mostly about the people who were involved in what is sometimes called the "manifest destiny" to expand America from ocean to ocean and conquer all peoples who got in their way. Here we meet a cast of familiar characters from President James K. Polk who instigated the Mexican War, to army explorer John Charles Freemont as well as all the army officers and politicians who played a role in changing the landscape of America forever. We also meet the Indians.

The writer brings a critical eye and a deep understanding to the politics of the time which forced the destruction of the various Indian...

United States on Jul 16, 2008