|
1 |
Larry McMurtry Oh, What A Slaughter: Massacres In The American West, 1846-1890
SIMON & SCHUSTER 074325077X / 9780743250771 Hardcover BOOK
One of America's finest writers offers a brilliant & searing history of the bloody massacres that marked the setting of the American West in the 19th century. B&W photos & illus; 6x9 inches, 208 pgs.
'Here are the true stories of the West's most terrible massacres -- Sacramento River, Mountain Meadows, Sand Creek, Marias River, Camp Grant, & Wounded Knee, among others. These massacres involved Americans killing Indians, but also Indians killing Americans and, in the case of the currently hugely controversial Mountain Meadows Massacre in 1857, Mormons slaughtering a party of American settlers, including women & children.
McMurtry's evocative descriptions of these events recall their full horror, & the deep, constant apprehension & dread endured by both pioneers & Indians. By modern standards the death tolls were often small--Custer's defeat in 1876 was the only encounter to involve more than 200 dead--yet in the thinly populated West of that time, the violent extinction of a hundred people had a colossal impact on all sides. Though the perpetrators often went unpunished, many guilty & traumatized men felt compelled to tell & retell the horror they had commited. Nephi Johnson, one of the participants in the Mountain Meadows Massacre, died crying, "Blood, blood, blood!"
McMurtry's powerful prose captures the gritty essence of this tumultuous & pivotal era, and the fascinating & remarkable men & women--American & Indian, celebrated & forgotten--who shaped the West, and would kill to keep it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Larry McMurtry, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (Lonesome Dove), is the author of 27 novels, 2 collections of essays, 3 memoirs, & more than 30 screenplays. He lives in Archer City, Texas.
Price:
19.50 USD
|
