Monday, May 23, 2011

June Not Fiction Book Discussions

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 takes readers back to a time before "The Middle" of America was settled, before railroads, farms, and towns. Gwynne tells two interconnected stories. The first is of Cynthia Ann Parker, who was kidnapped by Comanches at the age of nine, and her mixed-blood son, Quanah Parker, who became the last great chief of the Comanches. The second is of the Comanche nation's forty-year war with the United States Government over the vast Great Plains and their resources. The Comanches, a nomadic and martial nation that depended upon the buffalo for its way of life and physical survival, effectively delayed the development of the center of the American nation and challenged the American sense of Manifest Destiny.

Both Cynthia Ann Parker and Quanah Parker are interesting case studies of cultural assimilation. Cynthia Ann adapted quickly to life with the Comanches, but she was unable to reassimilate to white culture when she was recaptured by American troops. Her "rescuers" could not understand her love of native life and desire to remain among the Comanche. Quanah adapted easily to his second life on the reservation after his eventual surrender, taking on a leadership role in both the white and native communities. Unfortunately, most members of his nation were, like Cynthia Ann, unable to accommodate themselves to the new dominant culture. Why are some people able to accept and adjust to new world views while others are not?

Gwynne's book also prompts questions about how history would have been different if the Spanish and French had been more successful in fighting the Comanches in previous centuries. Would America be the country it is today? And what if the Comanches had not been defeated by the United States Government? Would they have been forced to give up their way of life because of their inability and unwillingness to adapt to the increasingly technological and industrial world around them? As Karen R. Long, writing for The Plain Dealer, says, "Empire of the Summer Moon expands our sense of what it has meant to be an American."

Most of all, Empire of the Summer Moon is a compelling, epic story of our past, one that may keep you up reading by the light of the Comanche Moon. As Bruce Barcott, writing for the New York Times, says, Gwynne "pulls his readers through an American frontier roiling with extreme violence, political intrigue, bravery, anguish, corruption, love, knives, rifles and arrows. Lots and lots of arrows. This book will leave dust and blood on your jeans."

Listen to an NPR Fresh Air interview with Gwynne and read an excerpt from the book.

We hope you will join the discussion: Tuesday, June 7, at 6:30 p.m. at Main Library; Thursday, June 23, at 11:00 a.m. at West Ashley Branch Library; and here on the blog.