What are you reading?

[Tsuga8]

Undaunted Courage has been sitting in my 'to read' shelf for a while. Maybe 2025 is the year I get to it.

 

[Black_Fly]

@Robin Trap Lines North is by Stephen W Meader? Growing up we had a little one-room library with loads of old cloth-bound classics - Hardy Boys and all that. They also had 'The Black Buccaneer' by Stephen W Meader. I read that one every summer and loved it. Eventually I got a copy as a birthday present. I'll have to check out Trap Lines North.

@Black_Fly I started 'Empire of the Summer Moon' a few years back but gave up due to the descriptions of brutal and horrible deaths. I know it's the reality but I can't stomach that as much depressing depths of humanity these days, since I get plenty just reading the news. I've been meaning to instead get Pekka Hamalainen's 'Comanche Empire'. I listened to his 'Lakota America' year back and got a lot out of it. It's on the drier, more academic side. One still gets the sense of the brutality but there's less graphic description, at least that's my memory having read/listened to these books >5yrs ago.

Yes, men of all races did horrible things to each other, without reason and to innocents. Treaties were never written to be followed. Extermination was an overt goal, particularly in Texas, even with regard to peaceful tribes. All very disturbing. It all reminds me of the Middle East today. Really, mankind has not advanced, just the weaponry of destruction.

Still, lots of good information in this well researched book. I found the history of the rangers enlightening. Except for the brief Jack Hays leadership period, they were pretty inept at Indian fighting. The Dragoons were laughable, with their heavy, slow shooting weapons and inability to ride anywhere near fast enough to chase Comanches. The brutality subsides somewhat later in the book, if that’s any consolation.