Author:T R Fehrenbach
Authoritative and immediate, this is a brilliant account of the most powerful of the American Indian tribes. T. R. Fehrenbach traces the Comanches' rise to power, from their prehistoric origins to their domination of the high plains for more than a century until their demise in the face of Anglo-American expansion.
Master horseback riders who lived in teepees and hunted bison, the Comanches were stunning orators, disciplined warriors, and the finest makers of arrows. They lived by a strict legal code and worshipped within a cosmology of magic. As he portrays the Comanche lifestyle, Fehrenbach re-creates their doomed battle against European encroachment. While they destroyed the Spanish dream of colonizing North America and blocked the French advance into the Southwest, the Comanches ultimately fell before the Texas Rangers and the U. S. Army in the great raids and battles of the mid-nineteenth century.
This is a classic American story, vividly and poignantly told.
For a complete history of the Comanches, this book probably has no equal
—— Dee Brown, author of Bury My Heart at Wounded KneeFehrenbach is a highly interpretive and original writer, whose work rests on solid scholarship. His book ranges grandly across the disciplines from folklore to anthropology to history
—— Southwestern Historical QuarterlyMarvellous
—— New York TimesA compelling account...Vivid, poignant and authoritative
—— The HeraldThis is a very good book. Like virtually all good books about the American Indian, it tells a tragic story, but unlike many of them, it tells it well. The author has mastered an extensive and complex subject: he is flexible, well-organized, and sensitive
—— Larry McMurtryThis is history with a capital H... Read this book
—— The TimesThubron makes his way with an appealing blend of self-doubt and erudition; he is willing, he is patient,; he knows he cannot resolve but he can attempt to decipher.... He is the reliable storyteller we needed in place of Marco Polo. His stock in trade makes him invaluable to us
—— Independent on SundayHaunting, elegiac, melancholy, magical
—— Financial TimesAn exquisitely written work of great profundity
—— HeraldShadow of the Silk Road is an astonishing achievement - both the journey and the book. Mr Thubron's tenacity, endurance, stamina and erudition metamorphose into exquisite prose. This is harder to achieve than one might think and can only be the result of huge effort and skill
—— EconomistTo those of us addicted to the thrill of travel, that unique and irresistible rush induced by journeying into the unknown, Colin Thubron is God....his socio-political savvy is impeccable, his local knowledge faultless...What a journey, what a book
—— Jeffrey Taylor , Sunday ExpressImpresses with its scholarship and literary craft
—— ObserverTruly, he has written London’s biography. I began rereading it as soon as I finished, and I urge you to read it as soon as possible, so that you can begin rereading it as well
—— Will Self , New StatesmanA fat and filling feast: pretty much everything of interest about the capital is crammed into the eight-hundred pages. One cannot but marvel at Ackroyd’s erudition, his energy in marshalling minutiae, his ear for quotation, his flair for dazzling juxtapositions, his vibrant imagination and sheer exuberance
—— The TimesAn erudite labour of love, a fan-letter to a fabulous city, and a book one suspects Ackroyd was destined to write. It illuminates the English character, and is darkly humorous in its detail, tumbling through centuries crowded with legendary events and eccentric observations, as exuberant, energetic and alarming as the city itself
—— Independent on SundayA masterpiece
—— Evening StandardSpellbinding
—— Express on SundayA sharp, beautifully written but above all truthful account of London…This is the kind of writing that gives intellectuals a good name
—— Sunday Tribune