Thought I would throw out several good reads you might enjoy. Cannot go wrong with any of these IMO

My 9 Years With The Indians - fascinating book about a young man who got captured by Indians and eventually returned to civilization - lots of Texas locations

Blood and Thunder - Story of Kit Carson and conquest of the American West

The Mountain Men - the history and lore of the First Frontiersmen

You'd probably enjoy "Goodbye to a River" by John Graves

The Killer Angels. A historical novel about the civil war. Excellent.

"Charles Goodnight Cowman, Plainsman"

"Empire of the Summer Moon"

Read them in that order.

"The Boy Captive" is next on my list.

One of my favorites. I need to get another copy and read again.

Kit Carson is always worth reading about. I’ll have to check out the 9 years with the Indians. That sounds good.

I have read the Empire of the Summer Moon and is a great book too

Another very good book by S.C. Gywnne is "Rebel Yell." It is about the very complicated Stonewall Jackson.

I read Empire of the Summer Moon and thought it was really good. I will throw in a good read I enjoyed - Crazy Horse The Lakota Warrior's Life Legacy by The Edward Clowne Family and William B. Matson.
Evidently there has been other books and various families try to claim a relation with Crazy Horse. This book backs up the Clowne family ties with various Probate Hearing papers and Family history charts.
It is like comparing what Putin is doing invading Ukraine as the very same thing the US government & the first white supremist American President did to the American Indian. After the Union was finished raping, destroying and stealing from the South he let loose his generals on the Indian land and the western frontier to create an empire.

That's exactly right.

The Native Americans suffered greatly and were conquered in their own land.

Today we are enjoying the conquest, but I can still say what was done to them was wrong.

I watched a documentary about the Lahkota tribes on a flight to CO this past week. I had read about their war with the US, the Souix led by Red Cloud in the book The Heart of Everything There Is...fascinating book and the documentary picked up with that and was fascinating as well. Realy makes you appreciate how we tore the land from them, signed peace treaties and other treaties and broke every one of them. I can totally empathize with their claims they are owed their land back, I would feel the exact same if something similar happened to me, and I know most in Texas would claim the same if current day Texas went through the same things.

Excellent book to read: The Heart of Everything That Is


On a totally differet subject, the Book Masters of the Air is an amazing tribute tot he bomber pilots of WW2.

A book every Texan should read

Agree with this book recommendation. I have read 3 books on Stonewall Jackson is this one was the most complete and most entertaining to read! Gwynne just knows how to write non-fiction/history in a way that flows like a novelist.

Rebel Yell was good. I just finished True Believer, by Jack Carr, and it was top notch. He writes fiction about Seals, and he was a combat Seal. I suspect it isn’t complete fiction. Reading Dead Mountain now, by Preston and Child, and it has me hooked.

I’ll also second a few mentioned.

Blood and thunder
My 9 years with the Indians
Rebel yell
Goodbye to a river
Empire of the summer moon

I’m currently reading “on the border with Mackenzie” written by a 4th cavalry officer who served in Texas under Mackenzie and was stationed all over Texas during the 1868-1874 Indian wars in Texas. Quite interesting perspective and like his descriptions and depictions of places i know and am familiar with.

A few others I’ve read in the last year I’d recommend highly

-rising tide - book on the 1927 flood that changed Mississippi basin and politics/society forever

-over the edge of the world- book on Magellans voyage

-no surrender, my 30 year war - ww2 Japanese soldier wrote of his 30 year fight and ultimate regret and recognizing the pointlessness of it after his surrender in 1974.

-endurance -Shackletons incredible voyage

Thank you. I have added it to my list.

Some say, the official Texas history book is:

"Lone Star a History of Texas and the Texans".

I've read 70% of it. It is heavy duty! Almost as big a task as the Bible.

Add me to the list of fans of :

Goodbye To a River (read it 3 times)
Empire of the Summer Moon (read it twice)
Blood and Thunder
Rising Tide (fascinating book)

and I add these to the list of suggested titles;

Charlatan-America's Most Dangerous Huckster, The Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam (about "Dr." John R. Brinkley who made a fortune implanting goat testicles in men to restore male virility)

Hot Time in the Old Town- The Great Heat Wave of 1896 and the Making of Theodore Roosevelt

Yakblue, the 1927 flood was something my grandparents lived through. i grew up in NE Louisiana, right on the river. The dry side of the levee. My grandfather owned a pharmacy in Waterproof, Louisiana in 1927, when the levee north of town broke (or was dynamited, depending on who tells the story). He said he could hear the water coming across the fields and through the trees. He said it made a roaring sound. My youngest sister wrote her thesis years ago on the flood and interviewed all the old folks for their memories. Recorded the sessions too.

The “27 Flood” was something that often discussed by the old folks.

Very cool!
Some of the stats and facts stated in the book were mind boggling. The amount of water rushing and the amount of acreage flooded in just minutes after the levees burst was hard to believe. Ultimately something like 25k square miles or more was inundated, and not just for a few days, but weeks…just insane.

over the edge of the world is an awesome read for sure

Thanks gang. Ordered "Goodbye to a River" and "The Heart of Everything That Is."

Westering Man: The Life of Joseph Walker

JR

"On the Border with Mackenzie" is a great book. Ranald Mackenzie was by far the best plains Indian fighter in American history and he didn't even get his command chopped to bits while destroying the Comanches will and ability to fight.