Kit Carson

DUNLAY, THOMAS W. Kit Carson And The Indians. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln: 2005.

528 pages. Often portrayed by past historians as the greatest guide and Indian fighter in the West, Kit Carson (1809-68) has become in recent years a historical pariahNa brutal murderer who betrayed the Navajos, an unwitting dupe of American expansion, and a racist. Many historians now question both his reputation and his place in the pantheon of American heroes. In Kit Carson and the Indians, Tom Dunlay urges us to reconsider Carson yet again. To Dunlay, Carson was simply a man of the nineteenth century whose racial views and actions were much like those of his contemporaries. Tom Dunlay (1944-2003) was a freelance writer and historian, and the author of Wolves for the Blue Soldiers: Indian Scouts and Auxiliaries with the United States Army, 1860-90 (Nebraska 1982). "Dunlay succeeds in presenting a man who spent much of his life and efforts solving the problems of both Native Americans and the white settlers, a man who can be criticized and lauded but who clearly contributed to what America has become."NPublishers Weekly "Almost every paragraph bristles with thoughtful analyses achieved by studying primary source materials and Carson's earlier biographers. . . . Dunlay achieves his goal of providing a balanced account of the life of Kit Carson, not the mythic frontier hero he was so often portrayed to be for more than a century, nor the brutal racist who perpetrated genocide on the Navajos and other Indians as he has been portrayed the last three decades."NWestern Historical Quarterly "A valuable contribution to our knowledge of one of the West's more colorful historical figures."NBooklist "Though Carson has been portrayed both as a great guide and an Indian guideNas well as a brutal murderer who betrayed the NavajosNthe author of this book asks readers to further reconsider this historical figure."NDavid Steinberg, Sunday Journal 2001 Gaspar P rez de Villagr Award, sponsored by The Historical Society of New Mexico, winner 2000 Co-Founders "Best Book" Award, sponsored by the Westerners International, winner Softcover. Brand new book.

[SW: (Key Words: Kit Carson, Native Americans, Thomas W. Dunlay, American Indians, Navajo Indians, American West).]

Details

David Roberts. A Newer World : Kit Carson John C Fremont And The Claiming Of The American West. Simon & Schuster, 20010101
0684870215 Amazon Review Unlike, in many ways, but forever joined, the figures of Kit Carson, frontier scout and soldier, and John Fremont, politician and bureaucrat, loom large in the history of the American West. Carson is remembered today as something of a dime-novel hero or as a villain responsible for the deaths of innocent women and children during the Long Walk of the Navajo. For his part, Fremont, famed in the mid-19th century, is all but forgotten. Fremont was a complicated, flamboyant, and scandal-ridden figure whose quest for fame proved to be his undoing. David Roberts, the author of several popular histories of the West, describes Fremont's undeniable contributions to the growth of the American nation in A Newer World, a narrative account of the explorer's career in the West from the early 1840s to the advent of the Civil War. "Fremont's expeditions," Roberts writes, "were significant not so much for crossing land never before seen by Americans as for thrusting the Great West into the awareness of a nation hungry to expand. He was the classic example of the right man in the right place at the right time." So, too, was Kit Carson, the taciturn frontiersman who guided Fremont and saved his life on more than one occasion. Roberts's sympathetic but not uncritical tale of their crossed destinies puts human faces on two men lost to legend. --Gregory McNamee --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Publishers Weekly Kit Carson (1809-1868) and John Fremont (1813-1890) are not generally regarded as a pair the way Lewis and Clark are in terms of exploring new territory. Indeed, Carson and Fr?mont are only teamed in two of the four expeditions recounted by Roberts in his stirring tale of the opening of the American West. But the author makes a strong case that the two explorers contributed as much as anybody to America's westward movement. Of the four expeditions described by Roberts (Escape Routes, etc.), a frequent contributor to Outside and other magazines, two are the most intriguing: Fremont and Carson's 1845-1846 excursion into California, which played a major role in the U.S. taking control of that territory from Mexico, and Fremont's 1848-1849 trek that began as a search for a railroad path through the Rockies, but ended in disaster. Roberts has such a tremendous feel for his subject that it is disappointing that he didn't devote more space to Fremont's role in California's Bear Flag revolt. But the ground Roberts covers captures the beauty and harshness of life on the frontier in a vivid and passionate style. The treatment of Native Americans during America's march west is another prominent story line: while Roberts is quick to criticize the nation's Indian policy, he puts it in the context of the times. With Carson and Fremont surrounded by a cast of colorful characters, Roberts delivers an engrossing story of a period in American history when explorers never knew what they would find around the next bend in the trail. (Jan.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title..

SC, Very Good

[SW: kit carson, old west,]

Details

GUILD, THELMA S.; CARTER, HARVEY L. Kit Carson: A Pattern For Heroes. University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln: 1984. ISBN: 0803221185

367 pages. Kit Carson was shown on the cover of an old dime novel slaying six Indians with one hand while protecting a fair maiden with the other. Stories about him, mainly apocryphal, circulated well before his death in 1868 and have been handed down in a multitude of biographies. [This is] the fullest, most authoritative biography of Kit Carson ever written. Includes an Index. Softcover. Good condition.

[SW: (Key Words: Amewrican West, Kit Carson, Thelma S. Guild, Harvey L. Carter, Indian Killing, Lieutenant General; William Teccumseh Sherman, John Charles Fremont, Jim Bridger, Biography).]

Details

Carson, Kit ( Christopher ) & Fremont, J. C.. THE DARING ADVENTURES OF KIT CARSON AND FREMONT AMONG BUFFALOES, GRIZZLIES, & INDIANS, BEING A SPIRITED DIARY OF THE MOST DIFFICULT & WONDERFUL EXPLORATIONS EVER MADE. OPENING THROUGH YAWNING CHASMS & OVER PERILOUS PEAKS, THE GREAT PATHWAY TO THE PACIFIC. 1885.
Modest wear and corner bumps to brown cloth w/gilt title. Penciled inscription, new fep tissued engraved frontispiece of Carson and his horse. First 70pp. Is a biography of Kit Carson and the second part Fremont's report to the army about explorations of the Missouri , Kansas and Platte Rivers and a route through the Rocky Mountains. Text evenly and lightly browned but very readable. ; 8vo ; 493 pages.

Hardcover, Hurst; Arlington Edition; Very Good- with no dust jacket.

[SW: Americana: Exploration Western Americana Kit Carson Military Native Americans J.C. Fremont,]

Details