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Hampton Sides is a newspaper correspondent and columnist. He is the author of the international bestseller GHOST SOLDIERS. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, New Republic and the Washington Post, among others. He lives in Santa Fe.Author Location: Santa Fe, New Mexico, USAGHOST SOLDIERS (0 349 11788 8)
'Absorbing and well written ... Anyone who has read Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian or grew up on John Ford westerns will be enlightened. Those yet to read that novel or see the movies will find that this book adds deep resonances to their pleasure' Michael Moorcock Guardian (10/3/07) 'Hampton Sides' outstanding narrative history has all the virtues: stirring set pieces, deft character studies, colourful descriptions of battles and of nature... a riveting tale where, for once, the word "epic" is not hyperbole' Frank McLynn, Independent on Sunday 'A familiar story [told] with compelling narrative zest' Robert McCrum, Observer 'Sides eloquently paints the landscape and history of the 19th century Southwest, combinIng Larry McMurtry's lyricism with the historian's attachments to facts' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 'The type of sweeping history that was written by the likes of Bernard DeVoto and David Lavender ... [but] he populates his story not just with white Americans but also with diverse Indian peoples and Mexicans. And he does so with balance and sensitivity ... As you read it you can see it as an epic movie' TLS 'Sides' aptly named Blood and Thunder is a stunning history ... brilliantly written' HISTORICAL NEWS REVIEW
'Absorbing and well written ... Anyone who has read Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian or grew up on John Ford westerns will be enlightened. Those yet to read that novel or see the movies will find that this book adds deep resonances to their pleasure' Michael Moorcock Guardian (10/3/07) 'Hampton Sides' outstanding narrative history has all the virtues: stirring set pieces, deft character studies, colourful descriptions of battles and of nature... a riveting tale where, for once, the word "epic" is not hyperbole' Frank McLynn, Independent on Sunday 'A familiar story [told] with compelling narrative zest' Robert McCrum, Observer 'Sides eloquently paints the landscape and history of the 19th century Southwest, combinIng Larry McMurtry's lyricism with the historian's attachments to facts' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 'The type of sweeping history that was written by the likes of Bernard DeVoto and David Lavender ... [but] he populates his story not just with white Americans but also with diverse Indian peoples and Mexicans. And he does so with balance and sensitivity ... As you read it you can see it as an epic movie' TLS 'Sides' aptly named Blood and Thunder is a stunning history ... brilliantly written' HISTORICAL NEWS REVIEW
Although delivering little in the way of new information, Sides, an Outside magazine editor-at-large and bestselling author (Ghost Soldiers), eloquently paints the landscape and history of the 19th-century Southwest, combining Larry McMurtry's lyricism with the historian's attachment to facts. Inevitably, Sides's main focus is the virtual decimation of the Navajo nation from the 1820s to the late 1860s. Sides depicts the complex role of whites in the subjugation of the Navajos through his portrait of Kit Carson an illiterate trapper, soldier and scout who knew the Native Americans intimately, married two of them and, without blinking, participated in the Indians' slaughter. Books about Carson have been numerous, but Sides is better than most Carson biographers in setting his exploits against a larger backdrop: the unstoppable idea of manifest destiny. Of course, as counterpoint to the progress of Carson and other whites, Sides details the fierce but doomed defense mounted by the Navajos over long decades. This culminated in their final, desperate "stand" during 1863 at Canyon de Chelly, more than a decade after a contingent of federal troops operating under a commander whose last name of "Washington" seems ironic in this context killed their great leader, Narbona. (Oct. 3) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
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