re: Books about the western US

Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides.

I listened to the audiobook, it was long at 20 hours, but his writing style really brings the history to life so it flew by.

Kit Carson was like the Forest Gump of that era, he seemed to be involved with nearly every major event in the West over 30 years.

I'm too lazy to give a summary but this is the blurb from Amazon:

quote:

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In the summer of 1846, the Army of the West marched through Santa Fe, en route to invade and occupy the Western territories claimed by Mexico. Fueled by the new ideology of “Manifest Destiny,” this land grab would lead to a decades-long battle between the United States and the Navajos, the fiercely resistant rulers of a huge swath of mountainous desert wilderness.

At the center of this sweeping tale is Kit Carson, the trapper, scout, and soldier whose adventures made him a legend. Sides shows us how this illiterate mountain man understood and respected the Western tribes better than any other American, yet willingly followed orders that would ultimately devastate the Navajo nation. Rich in detail and spanning more than three decades, this is an essential addition to our understanding of how the West was really won

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If you want a glimpse at what the book is about before investing 20 hours of listening or 600 pages of reading check out this hour long interview with the author LINK

The interviewer also does a podcast called Mountain & Prairie where most of the topics are related to the West and he has regular book recommendations about the West LINK

And after skimming his recommendations I saw another one I read years ago that is kind of a mandatory reading when studying the west, Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey. It focuses on his time as a park ranger in Utah and covers a variety of topics impacting the West. He is a bit of a nutter but still entertaining to read.