A review by qjbrown96
Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History by S.C. Gwynne

5.0

Easily the best history book I’ve ever read. It’s crazy the absolute horrific atrocities that humans have done to each other and this wasn’t 200 years ago. The narrative of today’s history is “look what the evil white man did to the poor innocent natives” when there is so much more to the story then you could ever perceive on your own. Yes the white man did horrible, awful things to innocents but the sheer barbarism the Native warriors not only did to innocent whites, but to other tribes, is something out of a nightmare.

This book tells more about the Comanches as a whole more than Quanah Parker but I’m honestly glad of that since he’s probably the least interesting part of the whole book. The story sheds some light on how tragic frontier life was. Cynthia Ann Parker being abducted several times, living a life of misery. Quanah living a life of vengeance. Pioneers and natives facing horrific murders. It really is a sad story but extremely interesting and I would recommend to anyone.