Book Review - Blood and Thunder

Author: Hampton Sides

Sides does a fantastic job weaving together the collision of culture that occured between Americans, Mexicans, and the indigenious peoples. With history often feeling one-sided here the author offers the leader a lot of room to make their own judgements. For example, when warring tribes, and even the hero Kit Carson, enslave each other children it’s discussed as “something that’s always been done”. Take this passage that highlights the difference between “chattel” and I guess the other-kind? of slavery:

Doolittle was finally absorbing the uncomfortable truth that the united states had fought a bloody war in large part to banish the evil of chattel slavery still had slavery flourishing in various pernicious forms in the West (pg. 480).

This means that when he chooses to inject his own thoughts into the story, the words weigh mightly. Even after a few hundred pages, the usage of “cold-blooded” when refering to how Kit Carson shot down two unarmed sons of an enemy, is burned into my memory.

Traditionally not a history reader, this book was an egaging step away from my usual preferances. With the West feeing like a uniquly American experiance, the perspctive from a midwestern high school history student was very focused on the east coast. The West consisted of a few land purchases/grabs, a fun craft in building a pueblo, and of course, a week long deep dive about the Alamo. Even the West’s involvement in the Civil War seemed largely ignored. Finally we learn about the tip of the atrocities commited against Native Americans and the final chapter usually involves white people building amazing cities. That’s not the case here, Sides captures the reality of dozens of cultures going back and forth for a hundred years all culminating in a giant struggle for superiority. Even though it ends with Caron’s death, and as is often the case, there’s still a feeling like we’re living with all these choices today.

The real hero of the book Kit Carson sits on the stage with men like TR, where I’ve already mentioned what it must feel like to be a [[lynchpin of history#]]. Yet while Theodore feels like a man who grabbed destiny by the reins, Kit feels like they were thrust upon him. A true western superhero. Born into a life of trapping he quickly becoms the last of his kind where he makes a name for himself as a guide to men with more fame. Through a series of events that feel like he could have lead his whole party to ruin had he been thinking about vainglory he comes out as a natioinal figure. And yet just as the nation is ready to move onto a new story Kit manages to find himself serendipitiously saving a pioneer or killing indians. While I feel deeply envious of being at the center of national attention, if Kit’s story is to be a lesson to anyone, it’s that doing the right thing well whenever you can has the potential to lead to unimaginable outcomes.

Why not 5?