![]() ![]() ![]() If you have yet to become acquainted with the operatic three-generation story cycle of both the Indian and Anglo sides of the Parker clan, this well-distributed and -advertised title is an entertaining and easy-to-read starting point. If there is a freshman anthropology class in your background, you may well ask, "Is this 'Empire of the Summer Moon' a tribe in emperor's robes, or is it really an empire?" Or, "Who was the emperor of the tribe, and is that even possible?" Or, as the exceedingly long title may compel one to ask, "Was this Comanche thing a tribe until the summer moons, when the Comanche then turned into an empire?" You won't find those sorts of debates, let alone answers, here the arrival of an "empire" is one of those "just so" stories we encounter in Texana. ![]() GwynneĮmpire of the Summer Moon is really two books: an awkwardly romanticized account of the Anglo and Native branches of the Parker family tree, grafted onto some even more wispy strands of Comanche social history.Įven if you take the spotty and secondhand historical sources (sometimes culled from yellowed and racist early 20th century books with titles like History of the Manifest Destiny) as gospel fact, Gwynne gives insufficient reason to conclude that the Comanche tribe formed an empire. Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History by S.C. ![]()
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