Book Description
Praise for Blood and Thunder
“Kit Carson’s role in the conquest of the Navajo during and after the Civil War remains one of the most dramatic and significant episodes in the history of the American West. Hampton Sides portrays Carson in the larger context of the conquest of the entire West, including his frequent and often lethal encounters with hostile Native Americans. Unusually, Sides gives full voice to Indian leaders themselves about their trials and tribulations in their dealings with the whites. Here is a national hero on the level of Daniel Boone, presented with all of his flaws and virtues, in the context of American people’s belief that it was their Manifest Destiny to occupy the entire West.”
—Howard Lamar, Sterling Professor Emeritus of History, Yale University and editor of The New Encyclopedia of the American West
“The story of the American West has seldom been told with such intimacy and immediacy. Legendary figures like Kit Carson leap to life and history moves at a pulse-pounding pace—sweeping the reader along with it. Hampton Sides is a terrific storyteller.”
—Candice Millard, author of The River of Doubt
“Hampton Sides doesn't just write a book, he transports the reader to another time and place. With his keen sense of drama and his crackling writing style, this master storyteller has bequeathed us a majestic history of the Old West.”
—James Bradley, author of Flags of Our Fathers and Flyboys
“Blood and Thunder is a big-hearted book whose subject is as expansive as they come. Hampton Sides tackles it with naked pleasure and narrative cunning: In his telling, the vast saga of America’s westward push has a logical center. The dusty town of Santa Fe becomes the nexus around which swirl the fortunes and strategies of a mixed set of serious overachievers, from Kit Carson, the original mountain man, to James K. Polk, the enigmatic president whose achievements, in the dreaded name of Manifest Destiny, were almost biblical in scope. Sides is alive to the exuberance and alert to the tragedy of the taking of the West.”
—Russell Shorto, author of Island at the Center of the World
“For a huge percentage of us immigrant Americans (those whose ancestors arrived after 1492), Hampton Sides fills a gaping hole in our knowledge of American history—a vivid account of how ‘The New Men’ swept away the thriving civilizations of the Native Americans in their conquest of the West.”
—Tony Hillerman
"BLOOD AND THUNDER is a balanced, thoughtful summary of the American conquistadors in the 19th century Southwest. Hampton Sides has re-created violent events and such inflammatory figures as Kit Carson without bias. Carefully researched, thoroughly enjoyable."
-Evan S. Connell, author of SON OF THE MORNING STAR, CUSTER AND THE LITTLE BIGHORN
A Magnificent History of How the West Was Really Won—a Sweeping Tale of Shame and Glory
In the fall of 1846 the venerable Navajo warrior Narbona, greatest of his people’s chieftains, looked down upon the small town of Santa Fe, the stronghold of the Mexican settlers he had been fighting his whole long life. He had come to see if the rumors were true—if an army of blue-suited soldiers had swept in from the East and utterly defeated his ancestral enemies. As Narbona gazed down on the battlements and cannons of a mighty fort the invaders had built, he realized his foes had been vanquished—but what did the arrival of these “New Men” portend for the Navajo?
Narbona could not have known that “The Army of the West,” in the midst of the longest march in American military history, was merely the vanguard of an inexorable tide fueled by a self-righteous ideology now known as “Manifest Destiny.” For twenty years the Navajo, elusive lords of a huge swath of mountainous desert and pasturelands, would ferociously resist the flood of soldiers and settlers who wished to change their ancient way of life or destroy them.
Hampton Sides’s extraordinary book brings the history of the American conquest of the West to ringing life. It is a tale with many heroes and villains, but as is found in the best history, the same person might be both. At the center of it all stands the remarkable figure of Kit Carson—the legendary trapper, scout, and soldier who embodies all the contradictions and ambiguities of the American experience in the West. Brave and clever, beloved by his contemporaries, Carson was an illiterate mountain man who twice married Indian women and understood and respected the tribes better than any other American alive. Yet he was also a cold-blooded killer who willingly followed orders tantamount to massacre. Carson’s almost unimaginable exploits made him a household name when they were written up in pulp novels known as “blood-and-thunders,” but now that name is a bitter curse for contemporary Navajo, who cannot forget his role in the travails of their ancestors.
Customer Reviews:
Great history of the West!.......2007-10-20
This book is history at its best. It captures a fascinating period of history as the US conquors the West. It is expertly told, making the great stories and characters come alive. It is hard to write page-turning history with a scope as broad as this, but Hampton Sides did it with Blood and Thunder. This is a great portrait of the main character, Kit Carson. It captures so many others well, heroes and villains. Reading this, I felt both proud of my American heritage, and ashamed as well. This book is a series of riveting stories, tied together so well by the author. While there are portraits of some of the key Native American leaders, I found myself wishing for a bit more of this. Still, I really loved this book.
Fremont's Reputation.......2007-10-14
This is an excellent book except for the Fremont-bashing that seems to be fashionable. It is especially distressing that the material about Fremont came from a non-historical work with no scholarly background entitled "A Newer World". The author would have been better advised to supply his own supporting references. That is enough of a reason to knock off a star.
one of the best.......2007-10-13
If you have any interest in American History please read this book. We read the entire book outloud, quite an undertaking, so I'm glad to see that is available as an audiobook. The writing is riveting, the bibliography reassuring, the story enlightening. This book is a springboard into the conquest of the Western United States and will give you new eyes if and when traveling through these areas. Read the book.
Thoroughly engrossing biography of Kit Carson.......2007-10-12
This is an excellent biography of a famous American pioneer--Kit Carson. What sets it apart is its humane treatment of a complex figure. Carson appears to have been the "real deal," not a manufactured hero.
The book proceeds by interweaving several story lines, which can be somewhat confusing at times but, in the end, this serves the author well. Among the story lines--Kit Carson's exploits, the Navajo leader Narbona's story, General Stephen Kearney's episodes, and so on.
Kit Carson's role--from trapper to hunter to scout to military officer--is the glue that holds this book together. In the process, the reader learns a great deal about the events of the 1830s through 1860s that transformed the United States. The Mexican War dramatically expanded the size of the country; the American conflicts with the Indian nations opened new territories for settlement and economic development; the Civil War ended slavery (although, ironically, perhaps not in the southwest, as Native Americans sometimes served a similar role after the Civil War); the West was opened for development.
What humanizes this book is the treatment of Carson. He was sometimes mercurial (with an occasional burst of temper); he was a person of action, and he sometimes was cruel and brutal; he was also a person of honor; he had a perception of the larger picture in the West, and could see that white aggression was the real problem--not marauding Indians.
On a personal note, the book traces Carson's family lives (he had at least two real families, one with a native American wife), his struggle to be a good husband and father while he was off on one adventure or another most of his life.
This is a strong biography which is set in a larger context. It is well worth looking at.
Reads almost like a novel!.......2007-10-12
I first encountered this book when I heard the author speak at our local bookstore. I am a history lover and wanted to know if this man could pull of another interesting book on American History. I had a copy of the book ready and took copious notes on the blank pages in the back. The author was fascinating to listen to.
Since then, I have read the book thoroughly and found it read almost like a novel. Each chapter led you to want to read on.
I have purchased copies as gifts for friends and even gave a copy to my American Indian History professor and he was enthralled.
Good work. Loved it. You will, too.
Book Description
A feat of historical detection--the most significant, andcertainly the most enthralling, book on American prehistory to appear indecades.The greatest "unsolved mystery" of the American Southwest relates to theAnasazi, the native peoples who by the 11th century converged on ChacoCanyon (now New Mexico) and built a flourishing cultural center thatattracted pilgrims from far and wide, a vital crossroads of the prehistoricworld. The Anasazis' accomplishments--in agriculture, in art, in commerce,in architecture and engineering--were astounding, rivaling those of theMayans in distant Central America. By the 13th century, however, the Anasazi were gone from Chaco. Vanished.What was it--drought? pestilence? war? forced migration? mass murder orsuicide? Craig Childs draws on scholarly research and a lifetime ofadventure and exploration in the American Southwest to pursue the mysteryof their disappearance. Considering many possibilities, he points the wayto a new understanding of how a vibrant civilization collapsed.
Customer Reviews:
Childs has done it with this book..........2007-09-11
It's been a long time since I was thoroughly captivated by a book but House Of Rain has managed to do just that. Craig Childs is arguably one of the finest non-fiction writers today. For those of us who live and breathe the Great Southwest, Child's descriptions will bring back vivid memories of Sleeping Ute mountain in the distance and standing where the Ancients stood at Mesa Verde, Hovenweep, and Chaco. For those reviewers who felt like they needed maps and an answer, you can get maps at the visitor centers all bound up in glossy little books with equally glossy descriptions of people and places. This is not one of those books - it's so much deeper. This book is not a souvenier, it's a vehicle that takes you to places that a relative few will ever see and even less will understand. Sometimes, there is no final answer - there's just the lingering questions. That's part of what makes it so interesting.
Excellent Read With Interesting Personal Point of Views.......2007-09-06
This is the first book by Craig Childs that I've read. I will say it is an excellent book on the Anasazi. Craig has spent his whole life in the desert Southwest and appears to be quite knowledgeable about his subject. If you are the least bit interested in knowing a bit more about the Anasazi but don't want to read a "dry" scientific book about the subject, this is "the book" for you. Craig has travelled, worked and talked with many southwest Archaeologists who study the Anasazi. His discussions on the Anasazi are not boring and dry and his writing style is superb. I have a passing interest in the subject matter and this is one of the newest books on the subject and based on reviews of his other books, bought this one. I'm glad I did. Craig covers some controversial areas in regards to the Anasazi and where they went. They didn't disappear, their ancestors are still here, spread out over the southwest. He hits on a few quite creditabal possibilities and presents material to support them. I not being an expert on the subject but none the less interested and with some of my own ideas, I think Craig is on to something in regards to some of the reasons for the abandonment of the ancient sites across the entire southwest not just the Four Corners area commonly attributed to the Anasazi. Craig's descriptions of his backcountry travels are excellent and gives the sense that you are there with him which makes it even more enjoyable to read. This one is a keeper which I know I will read over and over again.
House of Rain, A Great Read.......2007-08-16
If you'd like to take a journey into the SW United States looking for the "missing" Anasazi, you should crack open this book, and delve into Craig Child's riveting journey. Child's style of writing puts you there with him, and he's very skilled at creating images that draw you into the adventure.
House of Rain .......2007-07-07
Craig Childs and "House of Rain" took me to places I've been and most importantly, to places I've been unable to experience. As I was reading this descriptive narrative of the Southwest that I love so much, I felt I was walking right beside him...excellent!
Exception read for the non-archeologist interested in the Anasazi.......2007-07-06
I already own several of Craig Childs books which I enjoy reading so that I can vicariously explore the canyons with him. This book is Exceptional. I bought it just last week at the Anasazi Heritage Center near Mesa Verde and Canyons of the Ancients while vacationing there with my wife and granddaughter. Living in Utah, we make yearly trips to the Moab area and southeastern canyons of Utah always hopeing to find a ruin to explore and photograph. This book is great for the non-scientist but those interested in the cultures of the Southwest like me!
Book Description
How do cultural differences and real-world issues affect the education of students, in this case, American Indian students? What approaches have real teachers found that work well with American Indian students? This books answers these and more thoughtful questions about teaching in today's diverse school communities.
KEY TOPICS: This book captures the collected wisdom of nearly 60 teachers of American Indian students, their frustrations, joys, and challenges. It provides in a very real way, a portrait of the issues that challenge these students, as well as the successes some teachers have in working with American Indian students. It provides new and fresh perspectives on learning styles and literacy issues. It is also the first book to confront issues of historic oppression and its impact on contemporary Indian education. New and practicing teachers seeking to enhance their awareness and teaching methods to meet the needs of today's diverse classrooms.
Customer Reviews:
A must-read!.......2000-05-24
Possibly the most useful book available for anyone working in or considering working in elementary and secondary American Indian education. As a tribal school employee, I felt the authors may have used our school as a case study! Thought provoking and inspirational - highly recommended.
A journey in understanding.......1998-12-12
These gentle, generous-spirited writers have contributed a great deal to the field. Their book is full of stories, true tales of work in classrooms. Each leads you further into the depths of insight needed to be of use as an educator of Native American students.
Average customer rating:
- Indian
- Enchanting and riveting, this story will stay with you
- Island Of The Blue Dolphins!
- May be too adult for 10 or 11 yr olds
- good
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Island of the Blue Dolphins
Scott O'Dell
Manufacturer: Yearling
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Bridge to Terabithia
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The Phantom Tollbooth
ASIN: 0440439884
Release Date: 1987-02-01 |
Amazon.com
Scott O'Dell won the Newbery Medal for Island of the Blue Dolphins in 1961, and in 1976 the Children's Literature Association named this riveting story one of the 10 best American children's books of the past 200 years. O'Dell was inspired by the real-life story of a 12-year-old American Indian girl, Karana. The author based his book on the life of this remarkable young woman who, during the evacuation of Ghalas-at (an island off the coast of California), jumped ship to stay with her young brother who had been abandoned on the island. He died shortly thereafter, and Karana fended for herself on the island for 18 years.
O'Dell tells the miraculous story of how Karana forages on land and in the ocean, clothes herself (in a green-cormorant skirt and an otter cape on special occasions), and secures shelter. Perhaps even more startlingly, she finds strength and serenity living alone on the island. This beautiful edition of Island of the Blue Dolphins is enriched with 12 full-page watercolor paintings by Ted Lewin, illustrator of more than 100 children's books, including Ali, Child of the Desert. A gripping story of battling wild dogs and sea elephants, this simply told, suspenseful tale of survival is also an uplifting adventure of the spirit. (Ages 9 to 12)
Book Description
In the Pacific, there is an island that looks like a big fish sunning itself in the sea. Around it blue dolphins swim, otters play, and sea birds abound. Karana is the Indian girl who lived alone for years on the Island of the Blue Dolphins. Hers is not only an unusual adventure of survival, but also a tale of natural beauty and personal discovery.
Customer Reviews:
Indian.......2007-10-01
White people found her people and took them off island with lie of freedom. She escaped and remain on island with brother. Wolves eat brother. She walk alone and with a special wolf who is kind to her. one day she enter a water cave, found out the truth about her people fate. her people died and she survived. one day white people return to the island once again, she finally allow herself to join them. she became famous and she is buried in california. her clothing is in museum in Italy. wonderful story of her courage life.
Enchanting and riveting, this story will stay with you.......2007-08-27
I have to smile when reading these other reviews that say this book was one of their favorites as a child. It also was mine. I've read so many books, that most times the memory of the details within them grow dim, but not with "Island of the Blue Dolphins". I can still picture the breathtaking beauty of the island where Karana spent her growing years. I still remember her joys and trials of living alone for so long, after everyone had left. Her ingenuity and strength still amazes me. I can't wait until my children are old enough so I can enjoy this Newberry book with them. It's definitely one in a million.
Island Of The Blue Dolphins!.......2007-08-19
When I was on vacation at Martha's Vinyard I went to the book store and bought Island Of The Blue Dolphins for myself and I loved it!! I love it so much because of it's beautiful discriptions and details that I can picture in my mind. This book is beautifully written and has wonderful detail of natural survival of hunting, and making friends (Rontu and Rontu-Aru and the English girl Tutok, the fox and Won-a-nee the otter). How many wonderful and beautiful adventures of exciting survival can one indian girl have? I am 10 years old and recommend this book to whoever loves reading and is a fan of detail and beauty!!!!!!!!
May be too adult for 10 or 11 yr olds.......2007-08-15
My 11 yr old enjoyed this book but says it was too sad for her taste. Kids!
good.......2007-08-13
THIS BOOK WAS FOR MY GRANDDAUGHTER. She liked it very much. I am looking for some other books for 7th graders do you have any suggestions?
Average customer rating:
- Alexie is brilliant
- "Everybody in this book is drunk or in love with a drunk."
- Hilarious and Heart Breaking
- great book, Indian reservation look
- Wonderful collection of short stories..
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The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
Sherman Alexie
Manufacturer: Grove Press
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Reservation Blues
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ASIN: 0802141676 |
Book Description
When it was first published in 1993, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven established Sherman Alexie as a stunning new talent of American letters. The basis for the award-winning movie Smoke Signals, it remains one of his most beloved and widely praised books. In this darkly comic collection, Alexie brilliantly weaves memory, fantasy, and stark realism to paint a complex, grimly ironic portrait of life in and around the Spokane Indian Reservation. These twenty-two interlinked tales are narrated by characters raised on humiliation and government-issue cheese, and yet are filled with passion and affection, myth and dream. Against a backdrop of alcohol, car accidents, laughter, and basketball, Alexie depicts the distances between Indians and whites, reservation Indians and urban Indians, men and women, and, most poetically, modern Indians and the traditions of the past.
Customer Reviews:
Alexie is brilliant.......2007-09-28
This collection of short stories about the American Indian experience is brilliant. I teach this collection in my college lit classes and students love it. The story "Because My Father...." is a favorite. We read it along with analyzing clips of Jimi Hendrix playing the Banner at Woodstock. I've presented several professional papers at conferences of this story along with the Hendrix clips and the audience of lit profs like it too. Always generates a lot of discussion of the intersections of cultures and classes. Students also love Reservation Blues. (I can't get rid of the "Kid" tag. Definitely not for kids.)
"Everybody in this book is drunk or in love with a drunk.".......2007-09-03
States Alexie in the introduction (pp xviii, xix) to this collection of short stories. Of his leap from literary obscurity to published author and member of the middle-class, he writes, "all because I wrote stories and poems about being a poor Indian growing up in an alcoholic family on an alcoholic reservation." And that about sums them up. Read the introduction and you can't help but like the guy (especially his brief experience with a too big for her britches agent). His tales are unusual, spiritual, and immensely important, but often sad. Even so, after reading several with similar themes, most will have had their fill. It is possible to have too much of a good thing. Likers of Alexie's stories may also enjoy: Love Medicine by Louis Erdich, The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera, The Bone People by Keri Hulme and Ordinary Wolves by Seth Kantner.
Hilarious and Heart Breaking.......2007-05-16
Sherman Alexie fearlessly confronts the problems faced by the Native Americans of Spokane, Washington. With his sense of hilarity and deep berevity, Alexie points to such problems as alcoholism, broken families, drug abuse, poverty, loss of culture, loss of community, and loss of pride. While it may appear as though Alexies' musings are all "fun-and-games," it will not be difficult for the reader to discern that there is something deeply troubling about most of the characters in Alexies' writings. One gets the sense that when ALexie paints a verbal picture of the reservation, a sense of utter hoplessness prevades the entire situation. Just look at the picture on the book cover. If one were to look closely, they would be able to see a pickup truck making its way away from the reservation. The reservation that it is leaving appears to be in flames. One of the main character's father drinks himself to death, and his son is too poverty stricken to even come collect the remains. It is not all bad, however. Alexie does offer a corridor of redemption when the main character ( a young Indian named Victor) adopts a child and turns his life around, leading one to beleive that all hope is never lost. All in all, this read is both heart breaking and hilarious as Alexie writes some genuinely funny material.
great book, Indian reservation look.......2007-05-12
I had to read this book for my comp. lit class, and I am very glad to have had the chance. Throughout the stories, the location of hope and hopelessness on the reservation is made apparent, and while in general there is much poverty and degeneration described within the community, the narrators of the stories within Alexie's novel bring hope and a human touch to the experience.
Wonderful collection of short stories.........2007-02-19
There's nothing more powerful than a good story. And Sherman Alexie proves it with this collection of stories about life on the reservation. Many stories touch up on very personal elements of Alexie's as well as his past love life and mix ins with racial inequality outside of the reservation (these stories are printed in the newer editions of this book). Overall a thorough read and I am very glad I brought it to read during a long trip.
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- Calculations are only as good as your numbers
- Pants on fire?
- Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
- Very Interesting
- History as Science Fiction
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History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
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ASIN: 2913621058 |
Book Description
Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.
Customer Reviews:
Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03
Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.
Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19
Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09
There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.
For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.
Very Interesting.......2007-03-07
It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.
History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10
Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.
I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.
Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.
Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.
I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.
This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.
Amazon.com
First published in 1970, this extraordinary book changed the way Americans think about the original inhabitants of their country. Beginning with the Long Walk of the Navajos in 1860 and ending 30 years later with the massacre of Sioux men, women, and children at Wounded Knee in South Dakota, it tells how the American Indians lost their land and lives to a dynamically expanding white society. During these three decades, America's population doubled from 31 million to 62 million. Again and again, promises made to the Indians fell victim to the ruthlessness and greed of settlers pushing westward to make new lives. The Indians were herded off their ancestral lands into ever-shrinking reservations, and were starved and killed if they resisted. It is a truism that "history is written by the victors"; for the first time, this book described the opening of the West from the Indians' viewpoint. Accustomed to stereotypes of Indians as red savages, white Americans were shocked to read the reasoned eloquence of Indian leaders and learn of the bravery with which they and their peoples endured suffering. With meticulous research and in measured language overlaying brutal narrative, Dee Brown focused attention on a national disgrace. Still controversial but with many of its premises now accepted, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee has sold 5 million copies around the world. Thirty years after it first broke onto the national conscience, it has lost none of its importance or emotional impact. --John Stevenson
Book Description
Now a special 30th-anniversary edition in both hardcover and paperback, the classic bestselling history The New York Times called "Original, remarkable, and finally heartbreaking....Impossible to put down"Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is Dee Brown's eloquent, fully documented account of the systematic destruction of the American Indian during the second half of the nineteenth century. A national bestseller in hardcover for more than a year after its initial publication, it has sold almost four million copies and has been translated into seventeen languages. For this elegant thirtieth-anniversary edition -- published in both hardcover and paperback -- Brown has contributed an incisive new preface.Using council records, autobiographies, and firsthand descriptions, Brown allows the great chiefs and warriors of the Dakota, Ute, Sioux, Cheyenne, and other tribes to tell us in their own words of the battles, massacres, and broken treaties that finally left them demoralized and defeated. A unique and disturbing narrative told with force and clarity, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee changed forever our vision of how the West was really won.
Customer Reviews:
BURY MY HEART ! (the truth of how our government "won" the west).......2007-10-10
I first read Dee Brown's book, Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee (1970) as a college assignment. It changed the way I looked at America/our country, America/our history, and America/our land. The book is subtitled "An Indian History Of The American West", and focuses on the period of 1860 to 1890. This was after "The Trail Of Tears" of the 1830s, when the Cherokee, Choctaw, and other Indian nations were forced against their will to evacuate the eastern United States and move west. The book covers the Apaches, the Navajo, the Cheyenne, the Nez Percez, and the Sioux, among others. The wars, the injustices, and the sad fate of men, women, and children who died trying to pack up and move their lives yet once again. Brown doesn't portray the Indians as saints, either, but only as people with limited resources who, too many times, trusted the promises of a government that would, time and time again, go back on it's word, and forcibly humiliate them. Brown also points out that sometimes the Indians overreacted by attacking innocent non-military settlements. Mostly the book is a concise account of the real Manifest Destiny story, and it expels the myths of the old American History 101 textbook, and the romantic Hollywood cowboy/injun-fighter version of our history. It's a tragic and cruel story, really. It's the true story of the progress of one generation of people at the expense of a civilization. Unfortunately that progress was paved with broken promises, injustice, and lives forever lost.
A Wake-up Call for Americans .......2007-09-05
I just (July 2007) acquired my new copy coming from Amazon. I lost my old copy in 1995. I was not naive about politics and government in 1995. Any scintillas of trust in politics and government,are now gone for even more different reasons. This book seems to keep me awake and keeps my ears wider open to what can happen in this country and this world. It is not just about the shameful and bloody acts in our westward expansion. The word "treaty" from these times is a joke. I can also see more about international expansions. America makes large wrongs, as do other countries do to their own people in history. My heart feels buried because Americans, we, made such innumerable, horrendous and cruel acts. This book remains to me as a great "jolt" to my consciousness. He put together a great example of what America did do to the Native American Peoples. Look at the status of the Native American Peoples who are left today.
Original Eye-Opener.......2007-08-03
This book was and contines to be a wake-up call to the asleep teaching of American History. Especially that of Native Americans and most notably our utter ignorance of our history with Latin America.
A great book.......2007-07-01
Bury my heart at wounded knee is a oustanding account of native american history. Very informative and captivating, piquing my interest in native american's. The words tell of a people heroic,caring,hospitable, and understanding almost pushed to the point of annihilation at the hands of conquistadors,whites and others. Sadness,anger,hate, and sympathy are just some of the feelings brought out by reading this book. If you want an unflinching account of native american history this a great place to start.
bury my heart at wounded knee.......2007-06-27
I was told to read this book as i like to read about american history. this is one of the best book i have read. dee brown really did a lot of backgroud work on it .
Book Description
If you've always wanted to garden with native plants, this book is for you. With entries for nearly 700 species of native trees, shrubs, vines, ferns, grasses, and wildflowers from the northeastern quarter of the U.S. and eastern Canada, its comprehensive horticultural coverage is unsurpassed by any other single volume. The natural ranges of many of the plants discussed extend beyond the Northeast; the information on horticultural uses applies to any garden. Each plant description includes information about cultivation and propagation, ranges, and hardiness. An appendix recommends particular plants for difficult situations, as well as attracting butterflies, hummingbirds, and other wildlife. Illustrated throughout with color photographs.
Customer Reviews:
northeastern natives.......2007-09-16
The book is a good list of plants, shrubs and trees for the area. I find the text to be a little technical for the novice/intermediate gardener.
Wonderful Plant Guide for the Northeast.......2007-07-20
I know how to garden in Kansas, Maryland, Australia, South Texas and Florida, but now I'm learning what plants work for New England. This book is a life saver with descriptions of ferns, grasses, wildflowers, vines, shrubs and trees suited to the region.
The photos are good, full-color, but aren't always on the same page as the description. Each plant is listed with its scientific name, followed by its common names and family group. It gives the zones, soil requirements, and light needs plus a short description. There are propagation tips for each and notes for special information and an indication of the plant's natural range. It is really a pretty exhaustive book.
Some helpful lists at the end includes:
Plants that tolerate wet soil
Plants that tolerate dry soil
Plants that tolerate shade
Plants with flowers that attract butterflies and hummingbirds
Plants with fruits that attract birds
Plants with fruits that attract mammals
This can be used as a wildflower identification book or to select plants for special needs in your northeast garden.
Going native........2007-02-12
For anyone in the Northeastern part of the USA, this book will become a well thumbed reference. The developing of a web of life based upon the system of native flora and fauna is clearly and compellingly presented. In a world where native plants are often thought of as weeds, this book is a fresh look at what makes the Northeast its own special region.
Very helpful.......2007-02-11
This book proved to be a big help in determining native plantings for my yard. The latin names helped eliminate "look alikes" in plant catalogs. It is worth the money
Native Plants of the N.E. by Donald Leopold.......2007-01-11
I am in landscape design and wish to use native plants as much as possible. My yard has been certified by National Wildlife for years and everyone loves it. I needed to learn more about "natives" so I can incorporate them into designs. This book has been pretty helpful in this area. One problem with this is that plant width is NOT listed...only height. Also, it would be very helpful to have sections within the chapters. Trees and shrubs would be more useful if sectioned into size and evergreen or deciduous.
Average customer rating:
- GREAT for earliteen to adult
- Touching spirit bear school assignment
- Excellent Story for at-risk students
- Excellent!
- Jesse's Awesome Book Review
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Touching Spirit Bear
Ben Mikaelsen
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ASIN: 038080560X
Release Date: 2002-04-30 |
Amazon.com
Cole Matthews is angry. Angry, defiant, smug--in short, a bully. His anger has taken him too far this time, though. After beating up a ninth-grade classmate to the point of brain damage, Cole is facing a prison sentence. But then a Tlingit Indian parole officer named Garvey enters his life, offering an alternative called Circle Justice, based on Native American traditions, in which victim, offender, and community all work together to find a healing solution. Privately, Cole sneers at the concept, but he's no fool--if it gets him out of prison, he'll do anything. Ultimately, Cole ends up banished for one year to a remote Alaskan island, where his arrogance sets him directly in the path of a mysterious, legendary white bear. Mauled almost to death, Cole awaits his fate and begins the transition from anger to humility.
Ben Mikaelsen's depiction of a juvenile delinquent's metamorphosis into a caring, thinking individual is exciting and fascinating, if at times heavy-handed. Cole's nastiness and the vivid depictions of the lengths he must go to survive after the (equally vivid) attack by the bear are excruciating at times, but the concept of finding a way to heal a whole community when one individual wrongs another is compelling. The jacket cover photo of the author in a bear hug with the 700-pound black bear that he and his wife adopted and raised is definitely worth seeing! (Ages 12 and older) --Emilie Coulter
Book Description
Within Cole Matthews lie anger, rage and hate. Cole has been stealing and fighting for years. This time he caught Alex Driscal in the, parking lot and smashed his head against the sidewalk. Now, Alex may have permanent brain damage'and Cole is in the Biggest trouble of his life.
Cole is offered Circle Justice: a system based on Native American traditions that attempts to provide healing for the criminal offender, the victim and the, community. With prison as his only alternative, Cole plays along. He says he wants to repent, but in his heart Cole blames his alcoholic mom his, abusive dad, wimpy Alex -- everyone but himself -- for his situation.
Cole receives a one-year banishment to a remote Alaskan island. There, he is mauled by Mysterious white bear of Native American legend. Hideously injured, Cole waits for his death His thoughts shift from from Anger to humility. To survive, he must stop blaming others and take responsibility for his life. Rescuers arrive to save Cole's but it is the attack of the Spirit Bear that may save his soul.
Ben Mikaelsen paints a vivid picture of a juvenile offender, examining the roots without absolving solving him of responsibility for his actions, and questioning a society in which angry people make victims of their peers and communities. Touching Spirit Bear is a poignant testimonial to the power of a pain that can destroy, or lead to healing
Customer Reviews:
GREAT for earliteen to adult.......2007-10-10
Initially picked up this book on a Inland Passage Alaska cruise - got it for my almost 12 year old - I read it and was impressed and shared it with my MD 86 year old brother and he wanted the book so I ordered it from you for him. GREAT lessons for all of us but particularly struggling teens who might be facing some tough problems. GREAT excitement!
Touching spirit bear school assignment.......2007-10-09
Touching Spirit Bear
Touching Spirit Bear is an interesting book. Imagine a 15 year old kid with anger problems whose parents are alcoholics. Sounds like a typical story, well it isn't. In fact it's probably as far away from that as you can get.
The story starts out with him being rowed out to a deserted island off the coast off Alaska and about three pages in he has a flashback. That is the format of the book. It gives the book a jumpy feeling because every few pages it changes the time and the place kind of unnoticabley.
The story mainly takes place in Minneapolis, Minnesota Where he severely hurt a kid by bashing his head against a sidewalk because he had told the Police about a robbery that Cole (the boy) had committed. After the fight he was forced into a detention center where all he thought about was the fight. Throughout that time he decided he would blame it on Cole because he hadn't fought back.
During his stay at the detention center he learned about circle justice. Circle justice is an old indian tradition about curing the soul. It is a unique approach to resolving conflicts between victims and victimizers.
Throughout the book he acts like a typical teenager until he gets mauled by a bear, except the bear who mauled him was not just any bear. It was a special kind of white furred black bear called a spirit bear. After that experience he changes a lot and stops being angry. It was a a turning point. After he gets out of the hospital he starts acting more composed and quiet. He doesn't care what people think of him anymore so he does odd things on the island, like doing "the whale dance" and carving a Totem Pole. In the end he decides that the only way to help the boy who he hurt is to bring him to the island.
Excellent Story for at-risk students.......2007-09-27
I am currently using this book as a literature unit for special education students at the high school level. They are all involved and eager to read. We listen to the story on tape as well as follow along with the book. It's so interesting how quiet they become when the character describes his troubled homelife and abusive father. Although they don't say so, I feel that many of these at-risk students come from a similar background. This is just a wonderful story for them to learn about life and change in peoples' lives.
Excellent!.......2007-07-04
Touching Spirit Bear is the story of Cole Matthews - a young man who is angry and totally lacking in compassion. The story begins as Cole Matthews is being punished for brutally beating a young boy. Following the Native American tradition of Circle Justice, Cole is being abandoned on a remote island in Alaska and must survive for a year. During that year, he is alone to contemplate his life.
This novel is not just an adventure story, but is a book of wisdom based on Native American beliefs. Once you begin to read it, you won't be able to put it down.
I have taught this book to my 8th grade students for several years now. The students love the book and learn a great deal from it. To read the book is to become part of the Circle of Justice.
Jesse's Awesome Book Review .......2007-06-13
Picture your self alone on an small island, you're the only person that lives on this island. You have to survive on this island by yourself, and even worse you don't think you belong there. That is exactly what Cole Mathews is going through.
My first reaction to this book was that it wasn't going to be very good. I was very wrong, I really enjoyed reading this book and was rather upset when it ended.
Whether through a weird twist of fate, good friends, or bad friends, or just luck, Cole finds himself having to survive alone on a small island for a year. He has to learn to control his anger, and to be a better person before he has to leave the island, or it will be too late.
There was a part in this book where Cole is trying to escape from the island, and he tries and tries and in the end finds that he hasn't gotten any where. And it makes him so angry because he's used to being in control, he's used to being able to scare people into doing what he wants, and it starts at this point where he realizes that he isn't in control of every thing.
The theme of this book is something like; you aren't in control of every thing, you can't always get your way.
Book Description
For four hundred years--from the first Spanish assaults against the Arawak people of Hispaniola in the 1490s to the U.S. Army's massacre of Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee in the 1890s--the indigenous inhabitants of North and South America endured an unending firestorm of violence. During that time the native population of the Western Hemisphere declined by as many as 100 million people. Indeed, as historian David E. Stannard argues in this stunning new book, the European and white American destruction of the native peoples of the Americas was the most massive act of genocide in the history of the world. Stannard begins with a portrait of the enormous richness and diversity of life in the Americas prior to Columbus's fateful voyage in 1492. He then follows the path of genocide from the Indies to Mexico and Central and South America, then north to Florida, Virginia, and New England, and finally out across the Great Plains and Southwest to California and the North Pacific Coast. Stannard reveals that wherever Europeans or white Americans went, the native people were caught between imported plagues and barbarous atrocities, typically resulting in the annihilation of 95 percent of their populations. What kind of people, he asks, do such horrendous things to others? His highly provocative answer: Christians. Digging deeply into ancient European and Christian attitudes toward sex, race, and war, he finds the cultural ground well prepared by the end of the Middle Ages for the centuries-long genocide campaign that Europeans and their descendants launched--and in places continue to wage--against the New World's original inhabitants. Advancing a thesis that is sure to create much controversy, Stannard contends that the perpetrators of the American Holocaust drew on the same ideological wellspring as did the later architects of the Nazi Holocaust. It is an ideology that remains dangerously alive today, he adds, and one that in recent years has surfaced in American justifications for large-scale military intervention in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. At once sweeping in scope and meticulously detailed, American Holocaust is a work of impassioned scholarship that is certain to ignite intense historical and moral debate.
Customer Reviews:
In answer to conservative pseudointellectuals..........2007-09-24
All of the big words and "references" in the world won't change history for you, unfortunately. I notice that among the people who did not like this book, they all pretty much said the same thing: That Stannard didn't paint an accurate picture of the natives of the western hemisphere. That he didn't acknowledge cannabalism (he did), that he didn't acknowledge human sacrifice (he did - to the tune of 20,000 per year in the Inca capital), and that he didn't acknowledge inter-tribal warfare and cruelty (he most certainly did). One of the reasons I liked this book so much was its extensive reference section (with explanations as to most of the references, so if you have any questions about something...LOOK IT UP). It'd do you all some good, rather than blindly naysaying whatever doesn't fit your racist little mold. Does it really MATTER whether or not native peoples practiced unsavory rituals? They're all dead.
In any case, the book was superb and whatever your views are regarding the native peoples mentioned in the book, one point remains irrefutable: They were exterminated. It was deliberate. It was planned, sanctioned, supported, and financed by every exploratory realm in Europe and by the American government throughout it's short and brutal history. You all know it.
This is one of the most important books that you will ever read in your entire life.......2007-04-29
It is amazing that we live in a country that was built upon holocaust but we yet we are in complete denial. And not just the U.S., the entire Americas. This book discloses the atrocities committed by the Spaniards and and other Europeans. It also dispels the myth that prior to the arrival of Columbus, America was nothing more than open prairie lands. And it reveals that the so-called new world was heavily populated before the mosting devasting and the largest genocide committed in history. It does more than reveal the diseases that the Spaniards and other Europeans brought to the new world. It uncovers the enslavement and intentional massacres of countless natives of the new world. A sad thing about this book is that those who need to read this book most (the ones in denial), will probably never read this book and continue to perpetuate the lie that no holocaust or genocide was ever committed in the Americas by the Spaniards and other Europeans. If you only read one book over the next decade, this should be it.
Simplisitc and sensationalistic.......2007-03-26
Almost every time someone uses the word 'holocaust' when they are not referring to the actual Holocaust between 1939 and 1945, they use it in an incorrect and sensationalistic manner, comparing the incomparible. This is no exception. It is true that millions of people died following the arrival of Europeans in the New World in 1492. However 90% of them died from Disease. This was an extraordinary number, but there is a difference between planning to murder so many and having them die for biological reasons(not being immune to disease). Indeed many of even the most cynical Spaniards were dismayed that the Indians were dying, either because they could no longer be used as slaves or because they could no longer be enslaved. It is rediculous to pretend that this was a 'holocaust' unless the black Plague that swept Europe in the 13th-14th centuries was also a holocuast.
In addition this book accuses the Europeans of 'racism' which is a patent lie. Race did not propell Europeans across the seas in 1492 and the years afterword. It is true that Europeans looked different than the indigenous people of the New World, but it is not true that this was what motivated colonization, ensalvement, war or exploitation.
Just as the rise of most empires, such as the Chinese or Ottoman, are not accused of being tied up in racism, it is comical to pretend that men like Columbus had any concept of the 19th century ideas of race. The notions are neither found in thier writings or documents and that is why none are quoted in this book. In fact many Spaniards defended the Indians, such as Bartholemew De Las Casas, but all those people are conveniently ignored here. Not a suprise.
Seth J. Frantzman
Crimes of Aggression and Occupation Revealed.......2007-03-18
David Stannard reveals the awful truth of Aggression and Occupation, misnamed "Discovery" and "Settlement," in the Americas. Readers who, in the names of education and religion, have been exposed to five centuries of revisionist history should be horrified at the truth. If they aren't, it will be a testament to the effectiveness of the church, school and university propaganda to which they have been exposed. The horrors of other holocausts are not excused by recognition that the holcaust in the Americas, perpetrated by European Christians against ancient civilizations were the most horrible in the history of mankind. They continue to this day.
THE SINGLE FINEST AND MOST ESSENTIAL BOOK OF THE AGE .......2006-06-06
A masterpiece of scholarship and analysis.
This book is nothing less than the single most important work that you will ever read.
Our entire culture is built on Holocaust Denial while those most responsible for this abnesia drape themselves in the flag of holocaust memorialism but have little honesty in their true agenda. An agenda that allows in North America alone for there to be at least 50 Holocaust memorials, museums and monuments...
only problem is they are ALL about the Holocaust that happened in Europe and NOT about the colossal extermination that took place where they live. It is not only denial on the part of the nations of the Americas and Europe but those responsible for this Holocaust Denial in relation to Indian America insist on an image of being the world's caretakers of holocaust memory. What a bloody audacity.
Why do we let the Spanish off the hook so lightly? Why is there no demand for Spain to make its Mea Culpa? Why is there no AMERICAS HOLOCAUST memorial in Madrid, Washington, London and Ottawa ?
This brilliant book re-addresses the imbalance.
POST SCRIPT....
There is a reviewer further down who uses the monica of
"history buff" who rejects the value and integrity of this work. In fact he utterly insults Mr Stannard and his thesis.
So I thought I would check out his other reviews...oh boy!
One of the remarks he makes in a book claiming that Saddam was behind 9/11 goes "But it is very difficult to argue with the facts that were available to the agencies which pointed
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Sea of Thunder: Four Commanders and the Last Great Naval Campaign 1941-1945
Thunderstruck
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