Review: Comanches: The History of a People

Comanches: The History of a People by T.R. Fehrenbach
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An extremely in-depth look into the Comanches and related "Amerindians". Rather than objective, I would call this subjective but from every point of view.

I obviously don't know enough to corroborate or disprove anything in the book, but the impression is that a lot of the facts are taken at face value (no sources seem to be listed). However, this means that, while the frontiersmen and "Tejanos" come across in an often unfavorable light, the Comanches certainly do too.

The advantage of this approach, however, is that it allows to view the world from what is much more akin to the Comanche point of view (in addition to the settler point of view), and we see why they could not adapt to the inevitable encroachment of white people.

Despite having been written over 50 years ago, this is probably the definitive book on this subject.



View all my reviews

Review: A Journey through Texas: Or a Saddle-Trip on the Southwestern Frontier

A Journey through Texas: Or a Saddle-Trip on the Southwestern Frontier by Frederick Law Olmsted
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The author of this book is a New Yorker (who designed Central Park) and took a trip to Texas, Mexico, and surrounding areas in the 1850s and documented his travels. This book is everything you could want and more. An outside gives his honest opinion of the people, places and of course the prejudices of the place. The prejudices are obviously on the side of the Southern white Americans, but also the author's, which become evident.

However, the author (and his brother) are very much against slavery, and you see their impression of slaveholders go from low to extremely low, especially after encountering the Germans, who tend to be against slavery (and are surprisingly many). I found myself going through Google and Google maps to follow along, so I was very happy to hear about the book "Spying on the South: An Odyssey Across the American Divide", wherein someone follows along the same itinerary, giving an update on everything covered in this book. I look forward to reading that as well.

Also very interesting to read about crossing the border into Mexico, and seeing how race relations differed there (they pretended to be German, since they felt it was dangerous to be American there, given the acrimony). Their encounters with native Americans at the time were interesting as well, and I found myself wishing there had been more.


A very pleasant surprise to have found this book, and I'm amazed it isn't more well-known.




View all my reviews

Review: El Norte: The Epic and Forgotten Story of Hispanic North America

El Norte: The Epic and Forgotten Story of Hispanic North America by Carrie Gibson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An extremely comprehensive overview of the history of Hispanic North America. Emphasis on the North, so expect detailed discussion on Spanish Florida, to Texas, California, Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, etc., but very little on anything south of Mexico.

I know the expression gets thrown about, but this really should be required reading for all students in the United States.


https://4201mass.blogspot.com/


View all my reviews