Title: Empire of the Sun
Author: S. C. Gwynne
Publisher: Scribner
Date: 2010
Pages: 371
Empire Of The Sun (book review)
As America was being established and growing, the people met many different Indian tribes across the land that were native to the continent. S. C. Gwynne, the author, takes a good, detailed look at one of those Indian tribes, the Commanche Nation, and its rise and fall in America.
The story begins with a Commanche Indian tribe attacking some Americans and taking captive a very young girl, Cynthia Ann Parker, in the early 1830s. Commanche Indians, at that time, were a very fierce warrior group of Indians. Traveling all over the land, they would raid other Indian tribes and outposts and massacre everyone, taking very few prisoners. Often only women and children were captured.
Cynthia grows up, becoming a part of the tribe and their culture and has a son, Quanah. Years later, when she is set free, she does not want to assimilate back into normal white American culture and always tries to go back until her death.
Throughout the book, the author looks at various raids that the Commanche Indians did and the retaliation that Americans did against them. Treaties that were made and broken by both sides were seen. The focus became that the Commanche Indians were to be subdued and kept in a small area on a reservation. Quanah begins his life as a strong force against the Americans and later supports America and helps the Commanche Indians get what was needed.
If you like to read about history or are interested in Commanche Indian life in America, this book would be a good read. It will open one’s eyes to the good and evil done by both the Commanche Indians and the Americans. Parts of it is very gruesome in details of the massacre and there is a little language in it.
Leave a Reply