A review by jennyp0208
Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History by S.C. Gwynne

3.0

Until now, I knew just about nothing about the history of Texas and the Plains Indians, beyond what made it into Disney's Spirit and a watered down public school curriculum. This is a complicated and interesting story, with layers of details and years of humans being terrible to each other on both sides - it must be said. The "noble savage" is a myth. People are people and the norm is to be horrid to the "other". So much of the story is about cultural misunderstanding - each group not grasping the communications and motivations of the other. Each group pursuing their own benefit to the detriment of the other. Notice I say "each group" - the book is clear, neither party was purely victim or aggressor. It could have ended differently.

Quanah himself is an engaging character. But for a book with his name on it, he wasn't the primary character. More ink was spent on the Comanche history as a whole. I wish Gwynne had gone into even more detail on his reservation years. While they started the comparison between him and Geronimo, I would have been interested in elaboration.

I still don't know much about this era, and I'm not planning to dive deep into it. But overall I feel leaps and bounds more educated than I was. I feel the presentation was balanced but as I said, I know very little so I can't easily fact-check.