2024 the best land under heaven review

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(as of Nov 15, 2024 02:26:08 UTC - Details)

Cutting through 160 years of mythmaking, best-selling historian Michael Wallis presents the ultimate cautionary tale of America's westward expansion.

"Westward ho! For Oregon and California!"

In the eerily warm spring of 1846, George Donner placed this advertisement in a local newspaper as he and a restless caravan prepared for what they hoped would be the most rewarding journey of a lifetime. But in eagerly pursuing what would a century later become known as the "American dream", this optimistic yet motley crew of emigrants was met with a chilling nightmare; in the following months, their jingoistic excitement would be replaced by desperate cries for help that would fall silent in the deadly snow-covered mountains of the Sierra Nevada.

We know these early pioneers as the Donner Party, a name that has elicited horror since the late 1840s. Now, celebrated historian Michael Wallis - beloved for his myth-busting portraits of legendary American figures - continues his life's work of parsing fact from fiction to tell the true story of one of the most embroidered sagas in Western history.

Wallis begins the story in 1846, a momentous "year of decision" for the nation, when incredible territorial strides were being made in Texas, New Mexico, and California. Against this dramatic backdrop, an unlikely band of travelers appeared, stratified in age, wealth, education, and ethnicity. At the forefront were the Donners: brothers George and Jacob, true sons of the soil determined to tame the wild land of California; and the Reeds, headed by adventurous, business-savvy patriarch James. In total the Donner-Reed group would reach 87 men, women, and children, and though personal motives varied - bachelors thirsting for adventure, parents wanting greater futures for their children - everyone was linked by the same unwavering belief that California was theirs for the taking.

Skeptical of previous accounts of how the group ended up in peril, Wallis has spent years retracing its ill-fated journey, uncovering hundreds of new documents that illuminate how a combination of greed, backbiting, and recklessness led the group to become hopelessly snowbound at the infamous Donner Pass in present-day California. Climaxing with the grim stories of how the party's paltry rations soon gave way to unimaginable hunger, Wallis not only details the cannibalism that has in perpetuity haunted their legacy but also the heroic rescue parties that managed to reach the stranded, only to discover that just 48 had survived the ordeal.

An unflinching and historically invaluable account of the darkest side of Manifest Destiny, The Best Land Under Heaven offers a brilliant, revisionist examination of one of America's most calamitous and sensationalized catastrophes.

Reviewer: David T Burner
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: PAINFUL READ
Review: Knowing what happened to the Donnerr Party in such detail was a painful read but with such detail was fascinating. Living a few miles from and looking up the canyon of Donner Lake and imagining the difficulties this group faced was humbling. The extent of those rescue groups was especially fascinating to me but again as many found out the parties of travelers had to time their crossing to California or even Utah and Oregon country before the severe winters stopped them and to say the least "dead in their tracks." Thank you MW for a fascinating read!

Reviewer: DK,NY
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Not just the Donner party but the trials of westward expansion and what it was really like. Well written and well researched
Review: Very interesting, history that I have not explored much. Not just the Donner party but the trials of westward expansion and what it was really like. Well written and well researched, with some first hand accounts included.

Reviewer: PracAdemic
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: An excellent, fair treatment of the fateful Donner party's winter in the Sierra Nevada
Review: This is an amazing, humane, contextualized recounting of what is usually referred to as the Donner Party - the pioneers who got trapped by early snows in the Sierra Nevada, ultimately leading some to cannibalize their dead. Wallis puts their exodus from Illinois in the broader perspective of the westward movement of settlers in the US at the time. There was an urge among some to pick up and move frequently when the land they had was becoming exhausted, or their surroundings too inhabited, or just because there was promise of something better. We get excellent character sketches of the men who uprooted their families to head out to California or the Oregon territories, often setting off with pregnant wives, numerous toddlers, and way too much furniture. Mr Reed, a neighbor and friend of Mr Donner, is a particularly intriguing character - a serial entrepreneur who helped form the Reed-Donner party to escape huge debt after a failed investment in a railroad. Wallis covers the whole trip - there were many hardships before they got to the Sierra Nevada - but he recreates in vivid detail the dread the settlers must have felt once they realized their predicament, how relations broke down between the households, the super-human attempts made by some to cross the mountains in the snow (both settlers trying to get out and rescuers trying to get in). Forty-six people survived out of the 87 who started out. A recurring thought I had was that most Americans wouldn't have lasted a week under their circumstances, much less a whole winter. In this telling, it is clear they tried every means of sustenance, including trying to boil down the horse harnesses, before those that resorted to cannibalism (not all did). A compelling story very well told.

Reviewer: Professor Davenport
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: very enjoyable read
Review: Very descriptive and detailed account of the Donner party disaster. My friend and I each bought a copy and read it simultaneously. This book is a page turner. My only criticism, shared by my friend, is that the author didn't make clear how Reed could be comfortably making land deals in San Jose while his wife and five children were starving in the snow. Our guess is that Reed decided, after the first attempt with the thirty horses, that there was nothing to do but wait until winter was over and be ready at the first weather opportunity. The author also didn't comment on why Reed, after getting his wife and five children to safety in California, apparently abandoned the remainder of the rescue effort. There was no further effort on Reed's part and we felt like this reflected badly on him but with no explanation other than our guesses..exhaustion, needing to tend to his family, not willing to take the risk. Was he not more responsible than anyone but Hastings for the mess they got into?

Reviewer: YLA
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Incredible read
Review: Incredible, fascinating read about the grit and desperation of pioneers. It’s amazing to learn about the lengths people went to domestically for new opportunities as well as how many responds under duress.

Reviewer: terry
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great book
Review: Very informative,lots of facts

Reviewer: Dr.Z
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: 2nd Donner Party Book
Review: Having read Daniel James Brown’s “The Indifferent Stars Above”, I read this version for a comparison. This book is somewhat more detailed about the preparations and personalities of the emigrants, but the details of what happened to the survivors is more complete in Brown’s book. The day to day events is more chronicled in this book, but the totality of the events is virtually the same. Having recently visited the Donner monument and museum, I can enthusiastically recommend both books for a tragic tale of human suffering and survival. A visit to the monument and museum in Truckee, Calif. brings home the reality of these events.

Reviewer: sgazzetti
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Vaguely underwhelming
Review: I had high hopes for this book after hearing the author interviewed on the radio. I found it highly comprehensive in detailing the many characters and relationships among them in the ever-changing Donner-Reed Party, but this (at times wearying) detail came at the expense of other material I anticipated as being essential to a detailed examination of this topic. The author leaves under-examined such subtopics as Manifest Destiny, the history of westward expansion and the emigrant experience, effects on the body of hypothermia and starvation, details of the terrain and route, to name a handful. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I expected more from this. Compare with the truly excellent and riveting "In The Kingdom of Ice."

Reviewer: 263EL
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: For anyone with an interest in American history, this book is fascinating! Incredibly well researched without reading as too academic. I could barely put it down.

Reviewer: MCP
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: So much work went into this book. It’s well written, readable, and full of details. Truly appreciated the citing of sources as well as the follow up chapter at the end to explain how the story of the Donner Party got so inflated. Bravo!

Reviewer: Kindle Customer
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Hardly any heroes, but plenty of human sacrifice, murder hard decisions and cannibalism. An interesting adventure into human behaviour and how the civilised can turn into savages!

Reviewer: Thomas A. Regelski
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: A compelling story told quite well. The chapters detailing suffering and cannibalism are challenging to stay with, however. And the 'bad guys' in the end are maddening.

Reviewer: Ron
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: Absolutely excellent. Gripping.