4 stars.
S.C. Gwynne's Empire of the Summer Moon was recommended to me by a bookseller as a Pulitzer Prize nominee for nonfiction. It lost to The Emperor of All Maladies, as well as losing the race for the National Book Critics' Circle Award to The Warmth of Other Suns. It was a truly stacked year for nonfiction.
Gwynne has written a dense but worthwhile book (I read well below my typical speed). I say it was dense because he provides readers with a lot of information at once, going into almost extreme levels of detail on relatively minor points. Furthermore, each chapter tells a slightly different story (all of which are entertaining), and sometimes various subjects are discussed in the same chapter. These stories converge more and more towards the end of the book.
The topics Empire of the Summer Moon explores are too numerous to mention. They include American settlement, the Comanche people (the main focus of the book), other Native American tribes, Spanish colonization of what is now the American West, the American Civil War, the frontier, the history of weaponry, the decline of the bison (called buffalo in the book) population, and several other topics, which are all interconnected.
One point I will make is that some other reviewers have called Gwynne a racist. This is largely because he gives a generally unflattering portrayal of indigenous Americans, at least in the first two-thirds of the book. He writes, "It is impossible to read Rachel Plummer's memoir without making moral judgments about the Comanches," (43) after describing in detail Comanche atrocities against settlers. The white majority is often seen as oppressors of indigenous people, a reputation we undoubtedly deserve. However, S.C. Gwynne gives an interesting look at their own practices. I say that Gwynne fairly shows both sides, especially towards the end of the book and when he quotes the great-granson of a Comanche captive as saying, "She always took up for the Indians. She said they were good people in their way." (107)
Thus Gwynne forces us to ask if he is chauvinistic. However, I see the story told as a simple report of historical fact, with one caveat: history is always written by the winners. Gwynne is aware of that and not denying it. He simply tells the best story he can with the material that he has.
Empire of the Summer Moon is not for the squeamish. Graphic depictions of historical violence (committed by both sides) on levels I am loath to discuss here pervade the book. I will even say that Gwynne could have afforded not to go into the detail he did with these acts.
I will also say that Empire of the Summer Moon reads somewhat like a Western novel. However, there are some important differences, such as the amount of exposition and detail, as well as the nonlinear narrative discussed earlier. Some nonfiction books have been adapted as narrative films and some as documentaries - this I could see as either. It is definitely suspenseful in some places, such as when the indigenous people lure the Spanish into a trap - the outcome is discussed at the beginning, which creates increasing dread for the reader (62-67). However, without spoiling anything, I will say the ending is seriously anticlimactic.
In summary, Empire of the Summer Moon is a well-researched (primary sources are quoted throughout) historical account that will entertain you and take you on a journey through many eras of American and pre-American history.
Total time spent reading: 10 hours, 32 minutes.
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