Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History Unknown Binding – 7 July 2011

If you're hoping for a historical novel, then forget it and look elsewhere; the real life stories told in this book are far too incredible to ever be used in a fictional novel as readers would simply find these real-life events to be too unbelievable. This isn't a particularly easy read; it's dense and there's lots of it (but the last 30% of the Kindle edition is entirely bibliography and notes and photos), but it is utterly compelling. At times, I became a little wearied as it catalogued every single interaction between white settlers and Indians over a 200 year period, but each story was interesting in its own right and I couldn't wait to see what came next.SC Gwynne is meticulous, not only in the extreme depth of his research, but in his attempt to remain unbiased in his telling of events. There is, unsurprisingly, a tendency to be kinder in the consideration of the actions of the Indians than in those of the white settlers and their politicians yet there is very little sentimentality in here and, certainly, almost no 'noble savage' imagery. As I've found previously, reading this in Kindle format has the disadvantage that the map at the front is extremely important but it's difficult to keep switching from the page being read and the map. I would also, certainly, urge readers to take the trouble to access the photographs right at the end of the book (after the bibliography) as they are utterly engrossing.As a UK resident, history enthusiast and, I hope, of moderate intellect, I was amazed and ashamed to find that I'd heard of very few of the characters whose lives are chronicled in this book. How can these people have been so amazing and yet I've never heard of them? Well, I have now! One of the few names familiar to me was Geronimo and, as possibly the most famous Indian in the world, one might have expected to find him featured prominently. Ironically, he isn't and the scorn with which Mr Gwynne describes Geronimo leaves little doubt of his contempt for the man.Conversely, the Quanah Parker who is the eponymous subject in the sub-title, is described not just in huge detail but in almost reverential terms, albeit with apparently good reason. I had, vaguely, heard of Quanah Parker before and, certainly, of his mother, Cynthia Ann Parker who was the white woman, taken as a child as a hostage by the Comanche, adopted into the tribe, and who gave birth to the half-breed Quanah who, later, became the greatest of the Indian chiefs in recorded history. Cynthia Ann forgot how to speak English and, when she was recaptured by a white army patrol and returned to her family, she fought fiercely, until she died, to return to her Comanche tribe. The Americans of the day simply couldn't conceive of a white woman wanting to go back to live with the 'savages'. Quanah Parker is the stuff of legend. A huge and physically powerful warrior (most Comanche were small in stature) and strikingly handsome with it, he simply excelled at everything, be that killing settlers, running rings around the military, becoming the one and only Chief of the Comanches, being the leader of Indians in the reservations, becoming a friend to presidents, ranching or, generally, being hugely influential in shaping the history of the time. I've attended management training sessions in which everyone is asked to choose an individual whom they might like to emulate in their management style. Folk choose figures such as Churchill or Brunel or Richard Branson but, had I known about Quanah Parker at that time, he would have been my choice hands down.So, let's turn to books and cinema. I love historical novels from the likes of Bernard Cornwell, Giles Kristian et al, and I also enjoy the occasional film (or movie for Americans) that uses a historical character as a base; Hugh Glass, played by Leonardo Di Caprio in 'The Revenant', Jeremiah Johnson (an amalgam of real people) played by Robert Redford and, of course, the John Wayne film 'The Searchers' is based on the story of Cynthia Ann Parker, for example. Yet what struck me in reading this book is the number of real life characters, of whom I've never heard, whose stories are utterly incredible, eben when one knows that they're true. Any one of these would make a brilliant subject for the attention of the likes of Cornwell (who already has 'form' in writing about historical America) and Kristian. And thinking about what a big budget movie could do with this stuff makes the head spin. For example;The whole story of the Parker clan in Texas is epic and staggering in its combination of brutality, ignorance, naivety and power. Who, today, hasn't heard mention of the Parker Center in LA (police headquarters in so many films). James A Michener's book, 'Texas' is a fictionalised history of the state and does touch upon the Parker clan (a superb book by the way), but a proper treatment of the story of this family would be incredible. Even within the limited time frame of this book, Cynthia Ann Parker's father, James Parker and her brother, John Richard Parker have their stories told, in clinical terms, yet both are such fascinating characters that they could, individually, warrant a whole book or movie. James Parker was so extreme in his dishonesty, honour, bravery, stupidity, power, wealth and poverty (yes, all of those contradictions) that a new definition of 'incredible' is needed to describe him. A 'cleaned up' version of him is the basis for John Wayne's character in 'The Searchers'. His son, and Cynthia's brother, John Richard Parker is equally compelling. Kidnapped in the same Comanche raid as his sister and raised as an Indian, he was, in 1813 and at the age of 13 re-captured (actually ransomed) and brought back to the Parker family, speaking no English and not really wanted. He went on several expeditions to find his sister (he did but she refused to leave her tribe), fought with the Texas Rifles in the Civil War and went on to die in, it's thought, 10915 as a successful rancher.Then there is John Coffee Hays who was known as 'Jack. A real 'action man', he established the Texas Rangers and was a famed Indian fighter. He worked for a couple of years as a land surveyor on the frontier and, in 1838, that was listed as the most dangerous job in America. The Indians considered that the settlers couldn't claim land without that land being defined by a surveyor, so they actively hunted the surveyors to kill them, preventing their surveys. Jack Hays was one of the first to learn how the hardiest of the Plains Indians, the Comanche, lived and fought and adopted their own ways, but in even more extreme fashion, to fight them.Before I read this book, I had no idea that Comancheria was an actual place. It was, in fact, the vast tract of land covering almost the entire western half of the USA, in the 19th century and the Comanche were undisputed masters of the entire area, though a mixture of warfare (with other tribes), treaties, trading and general intimidation; think The Mafia on a huge scale. I also had little appreciation of the difference between the tribes of the eastern coast and the much more warlike western tribes. The eastern tribes were far more quickly subsumed into the white man's world, partly at least because they lived in densely wooded areas, almost entirely on foot. The western tribes had discovered the power of the horse and had vast tracts of open prairie in which to maneuver and hide. So, while famed warrior tribes such as the Apache, Black Feet and Crow were, indeed, fierce, they all payed homage to the sheer brutality of the Comanche. The Comanche empire ran on fear.This book makes repeated reference to the Indians, and particularly the Comanche, living a stone age existence, without metal or agriculture; a nomadic, foraging,, aggressive existence and I hadn't thought of it in those terms before. Also, my image had been of a warrior with his doughty pony when, in fact, as the wealth of prairie Indians was measured in horse flesh, warriors had hundreds of horses and there were thousands in a single tribe. The coldly clinical telling of the shooting of thousands of Indian ponies by the army, as a tactical move to deny the Indians their primary tool is shocking. The image of a high pass blocked by a mountain of bleached bones for many years following the shooting of thousands of horses by the soldiers is a brutal image.I learned so much from this book that it will remain with me for a very long time. It has changed my entire perception of America, both then and now. And when I consider that many of the people whose incredible tales are told here lived in an age that my grandparents knew, history comes very close indeed. This was just yesterday. I loved this book and I commend SC Gwynne for his treatment of his subject. It won't be to everyone's taste; it's long, a bit repetitive and requires a degree of attention and commitment, but for many, just like me, this is a truly wonderful book.

Absolutely brilliant - an enthralling story of an amazing life, and inexorable history. A must read.

First off, I think the title of this book is misleading - Quanah Parker only really makes an appearance as a major player in the last third of this book, although the story of his mother is introduced much earlier on. Quanah himself played a relatively small role in the history of the running battles between the Comanche and the 'whites' - a misleading term in and of itself, since the Comanche battled the Spanish, Mexicans and Texans before the Americans ever came on the scene.That said, this is a fascinating read, about the most intransigent and warlike of all the Native Americans tribes. Gwynne strikes a very steady line in this book, something which isn't easy when writing about such an emotive and controversial subject. He never falls into the trap of romanticising the tribes - these are very far from the 'noble savages' of cliché; the torture, gang-rape, kidnap, brutality and slaughter perpetrated by the Comanche is hard to read about sometimes. He doesn't excuse the Comanche for their role in heightening the bloodshed on the frontier. He more than makes the point that the Comanche never had anywhere near the same tribal structure as many of the other tribes: they had no political or organisational structure, few religious rites or customs, little hierarchy - their entire civilisation was built around war, and before the Spanish began pushing into their lands in the 17th century, that war was largely against other Native American tribes.History has largely been on the side of the Native Americans; we look back now and consider what was done to them has irredeemably wrong, genocide even. This book is not anti-Comanche - very far from it. Gwynne writes with great sympathy about the way of life that was destroyed, the violence of it notwithstanding. He paints the border wars as an inevitable consequence of history, two utterly opposed civilisations clashing, on a path that could have been foretold the moment the first Europeans set foot on American shores. The tribes could not have acted other than they did; by the same token the 'whites' could not have acted other than they did, according to the mindsets and thinking of the time. It's easy and right to look back and criticise, but it's very hard to say what could have been changed. But that doesn't make it any less tragic.

Empire of the Summer Moon is an intriguing book of the Comanches in general, and Quanah Parker in particular. I have read several books on native Americans, but hadn’t covered the Comanches yet. Overall, the book covers their battles with the Spaniards and Mexicans before it turns into the 19th century. It vividly describes the events that follow with focus on the period 1840 – 1875. Quanah Parker only comes onto the stage in the final quarter of the book, which is logical as he was one of their last great leaders. The book not only describes the famous battles that they fought, but also the way of Comanche living, etc. Gwynne handles a nice style of writing and makes the stories come alive. The paperback version is good readable with a fine font and page lay-out. It was for a reason that this book was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, and I very much recommend reading this book! What I found surprising afterwards is that there don’t seem to be too many books, or movies, on the Comanches. What can be found are phrases that ‘they seem to be forgotten’. I can imagine that for many involved (white settlers and Comanches) it was a very difficult time, but that’s something from the past now. The Lords of the Plains should definitely have their place in history!

A Fantastic read, exciting brutal and sad all the way through, couldn’t put it down, highly recommended,