Rate this book

The Comanche Empire (2008)

by Pekka Hämäläinen(Favorite Author)

4.13 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0300126549 (ISBN13: 9780300126549)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Yale University Press

review 1: "Empire" is a misnomer--there was no emperor, no imperial government, hardly any government at all. As the author himself says, the Comanches were nomadic pastoralists, like the ancient Scyths, the Huns before Attila, or the Mongols before Genghis Khan. They pioneered the horse-centered way of life of the plains Indians, and developed a kind of parasitic economy in the southern prairie. It produced only buffalo and horses, and the Comanches relied on the surrounding settled peoples for everything else they needed, trading or raiding as opportunity offered--iron tools, guns, powder, bullets, carbohydrates, slaves. They became quite powerful. Twice they nearly destroyed the adjacent colonies in Texas and New Mexico by repeated raiding, and they occasionally sent large r... moreaids 1000 miles into central Mexico. They drove the Apaches out of southern Texas with their slave raids. They did make peace with the colonies from time to time, perhaps weakened by plagues, perhaps realizing they were killing the golden goose. They eventually overhunted the buffalo (well before white hunters arrives in numbers) and were severely weakened when the US took over the area from Mexico. The Civil War allowed them a breathing spell and resurgence. Afterwards the US Government moved in with a "Peace Policy," led by a Quaker and intended to persuade the Comanches to give up rading and slaving and take up agriculture on a reservation. The policy failed, so the US Cavalry forced the Comanches to accept the reservation by destroying their winter stores.The author has done a great service. He has written a well-researched and well-told history of the Comanches from their point of view, showing their cultural originality, strength, and influence. However, he wants us to see the Comanches as a powerful empire pursuing imperial interests, rather than as a primitive warrior society opposing civilization with brutal violence. The story he tells nevertheless clearly supports the latter view. The author sees Comanche initiative and maneuvering behind every poltical change in the region, but their actions seem equally well explained by opportunism and luck. The last chapter sets one's teeth on edge with academic jargon of race, class, and ethnic identity, unlike the mostly factual and objective point of view of the rest of the book. I get the impression that he wrote the conclusion first. He laments the final pacification of the Comanches as the "eradication of a way of life," forgetting that the whole book has shown how that way of life was based on raiding, theft, and slave-taking.
review 2: One of the best histories on the Southwest U.S. especially as it pertains to the Comanche prior to U.S. citizens began taking their land. It presents a thesis that the Comanche were the most powerful people in the South Plains bar none for about 2 centuries. The author gives a reasonable explanation that the Comanche were in decline when they finally met the U.S. army. Even the Texans pre-civil war were unable to effectively contest for control of the South Plains. less

Download links for: The Comanche Empire

Advertising