Favorite Historical Books On the Wild West, Miami Drug Trade or The Mob?

Cosa Nostra A History of the Sicilian Mafia was a good read. Different than the usual American focus.

Really enjoying Empire of the Summer Moon. It’s about the rise and fall of the Comanches.

Another vote for Empire of the Summer Moon. I keep trying to comprehend the idea that a band of no more than 20,000 (at their peak of population) Comanches ruled an area by exerting military and trade control that was 250,000 square miles.

20,000 people-a smaller percentage of which were actual males who participated in aggression-controlled an area larger in size than present day New England.

They ruled it from the late 16th Century all the way until surrendering in the 1870’s. As late as the 1840’s, there was zero check or control on the Comancheria on the Great Plains.

They were a people whose language did not include a word for surrender. The Apaches, Spanish, French, Mexicans, Texans and the government and military of the United States all ran up against them and were crushed-repeatedly-when they did.

They were ruthless. But it was their way of life. It’s all they knew. I don’t fault them for that way of life, but seeing the excesses of what the military did to them is in a much more informed context for me now.

In short…we had to. They would never give up. They did not understand the concept of surrendering culturally or societally.