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  • Empire of the Summer Moon

  • Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
  • Written by: S. C. Gwynne
  • Narrated by: David Drummond
  • Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (582 ratings)

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Empire of the Summer Moon

Written by: S. C. Gwynne
Narrated by: David Drummond
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Publisher's Summary

Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son, Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches. 

Although listeners may be more familiar with the names Apache and Sioux, it was in fact the legendary fighting ability of the Comanches that determined just how and when the American West opened up. They were so masterful at war and so skillful with their arrows and lances that they stopped the northern drive of colonial Spain from Mexico and halted the French expansion westward from Louisiana. White settlers arriving in Texas from the Eastern United States were surprised to find the frontier being rolled backward by Comanches incensed by the invasion of their tribal lands. So effective were the Comanches that they forced the creation of the Texas Rangers and account for the advent of the new weapon specifically designed to fight them: the six-gun. 

The war with the Comanches lasted four decades, in effect holding up the development of the new American nation. Gwynne's exhilarating account delivers a sweeping narrative that encompasses Spanish colonialism, the Civil War, the destruction of the buffalo herds, and the arrival of the railroads - a historical feast for anyone interested in how the United States came into being. 

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio. 

©2016 S. C. Gwynne (P)2016 Simon & Schuster
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

Editorial Review

In a time of expansion in the American West, the Comanche tribe fought to halt and even roll back the drive of white settlers, the Spanish, and the French. Fighting so skillfully that settlers invented the six-gun to rival them, the Comanches had a staggering impact on the development of the fledgling America.

Writer S.C. Gwynne shares the harrowing tale of the four-decades-long struggle for the American West. From the gripping narrative of the Comanche tribe to the near-legendary rise of its last great chief, this is a historical account that feels like an epic fiction saga.

Narrator David Drummond is a highly seasoned professional with more than 150 releases under his belt. He won an AudioFile Earphones award for Love ‘Em or Lose ‘Em: Getting Good People to Stay, and is known for his nonfiction work. In Empire of the Summer Moon, David’s smooth and steady voice builds a colourful world where hours pass unnoticed as he brings history to life.

Gwynne was inspired to create an account of the Comanche after learning small pieces of information about the tribe, and realizing just how little he knew about early American settlement. Through original research and hard work, Gwynne created a narrative to enlighten countless listeners to this untold history.

This work has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

What listeners say about Empire of the Summer Moon

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Story Told From Colonial Stand Point

As an indigenous man it made me sick had to stop listening part way through. Derogatory terms used for indigenous all through out the story. but that is how it is in the world most stories are always told from the colonizers point of view. I come from a long lineage of First Nations artist storytellers and historians. This author had the audacity to say that we never kept a record of our history that's just hilarious!!!

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20 people found this helpful

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Descriptive Biased story telling

I have been reading many books on civilization, human nature, human experience to suffering and psychology. Because I am Canadian, I am greatly interested in how civilization progressed across North America and I got this book to learn more. It had great ratings. I was really unhappy with the biases that this book displays with word choices in general. It was also quite disheartening to find that the book wasn’t factual, yet the information is based on assumptions and undocumented or cited stories. This book would probably appeal to Republican or Conservative individuals. I come from a well read background and in my opinion this book was difficult to get through, as it’s sources were of poor quality and I wasn’t fond of the “story” style it was written in. I was hoping it to be based on facts and have citations of those facts or first hand accounts cited during the book. This is so that I could remember and refer to them later on, should I wish to delve in deeper of the background. However, with that said, the stories are very interesting and thought provoking. I often wondered why there was not enough documentation of these events and stories, but I do understand that during these times a lot of information was lost or destroyed. I hope to find more books surrounding the key events in this story and read more about it. Strangely, painful, I did enjoy moving through the book from this biased story telling point of view as it simply expands my understanding of how others think and interpret the world. I think I would like to do more research on this book to try and understand it better, which may change my point of view.

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10 people found this helpful

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"Awe-inspiring"

S.C. Gwynne holds back little in their writings of the Comanche and their struggle to hold power over the great plains during the American expansion of the 19th century. The graphic detail of the Comanche raiding party "rituals" as well as the American government's "solution" to the Comanche give an unparalleled recount of the not so distant history of that region. One should also note the anthropological significance of this novel. A thorough and descriptive display of Nomadic horse culture which one cannot help but find similar to that of people of the Steppe in the 13th century. I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in American history.

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6 people found this helpful

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A book that stays with you after your done with it

A great book. Eye opener, but cant get over the fact how the author seems to over rationalize the nasty stuff the whites did and on other hand over exaggerate what the natives did. Non the less take everything lightly. 8.5/10

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5 people found this helpful

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Extraordinary!!!

Easily one of the very greatest book I've experienced. Horrifying and tender, brutally violent and all-too-human, every chapter of this book was extremely engaging. I will forever view North American history differently as I have a new lens to filter my knowledge through. Gwynne's writing is shocking in it's well researched first-hand accounts, as well as it's clarity and coherence. Such a pleasure to breeze through this fascinating history. Highly recommend.

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3 people found this helpful

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  • Kb
  • 2019-12-16

Amazing listen

Captivating, and in my opinion extremely objective. The author describes the Old West in vivid detail, and brings out the perspectives of both settlers and Natives in the Great Plains.

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3 people found this helpful

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Phenomenal Look Into A Relatively Forgotten Past

This book simply blew me away. To think that a character such as Quanah experienced the transition from Plains Indian to rancher within a lifetime is simply astonishing. An excellent look into life of the Comanches and Americans during the settling of the southern USA/Mexico region. Fascinating stories that highlight the ills of colonization, empire and the beauty within the human experience. Very easy to listen to and narrated very well.

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1 person found this helpful

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amazing book but emotionally hard to get through

amazing book but emotionally hard to get through. this is one of the best untold stories of American history.

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Well researched.

Gives you an appreciation for the brutality of life on the plains during the reign of the Comanche. Might make you grateful for the security of your life today.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Very Educational

Shed a lot of light on the state both natives and Europeans found themselves in with arriving in America. Brutality of native against native, white man against natives, the practice of slavery on both sides. All the more reason we should all learn to live in peace.

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  • fowler
  • 2019-12-21

Difficult to endure narrator

The narrator is difficult to endure. The voice cadence is unnatural, inflection of tone also unnatural. Almost robotic. Book however is fascinating.

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84 people found this helpful

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  • wms2003
  • 2017-06-30

Great story in need of better narration

Such a fascinating dive into a distinct part of history. The only critique is it seems the narrator was emotionally disengaged from the book's content, which left more to be desired from such a powerful story.

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74 people found this helpful

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  • Shlomo Tuchband
  • 2018-06-21

Well written and very interesting.

This is a history book, written in story form. I checked a number of statements and accounts of events and they agreed with outside sources. I have no reason to doubt the author but some of the events were completely new to me. This was very well written, especially when considering that many related things were happening and different viewpoints were shaped at the same time in different parts of this vast land. This subject is not a huge hobby or interest for me to follow but I was fully engaged in this book. Highly recommended.

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67 people found this helpful

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  • Josiah D. Blaisdell
  • 2019-08-30

Pride and shame

Wow, this was such a good book. I laughed, I cried, I cringed. There was good, bad and ugly but it was all real. I don’t think a book has ever given me simultaneous feelings of such pride and shame for history. I really hope someday that Quanah’s home can be restored. If you google it, it’s still there in Oklahoma but is in disrepair.

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 2020-01-13

A story that needed telling.

In Empire of the Summer Moon, Gwynne details not only what the daily lives were like for the Comanche people, but how their presence and strength hindered America's westward expansion into the great plains. It provides much needed perspective for people who do not understand the intricacies and danger of a life lived in the "wild west".

Hearing about a woman who was abducted by the Comanches and then refused to assimilate back into american culture when "saved" really tells you something about the life on the land that the Comanches had. I learned so much and the time flew by while listening to this book.

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41 people found this helpful

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  • Sare
  • 2017-05-09

Sweeping, Epic, Thorough, Efforltess Listen

Would you consider the audio edition of Empire of the Summer Moon to be better than the print version?

Listening to the story gives it that around the campfire feel that seems very appropriate for this book.On the other hand, this kind of book has lots of information, and I prefer to have a hardcopy in those cases, so that I can make quick notes and refer back to previous passages.

What did you like best about this story?

I loved that it weaved together a pretty thorough story of the settling of the West, the frontier in Texas, history of firearms, the influence of Spain and Mexico, the Comanche culture, pioneer ignorance and ingenuity, Texas Rangers, and the transition of Quanah into a statesman.

What about David Drummond’s performance did you like?

He's very even! No issues with voice or volume modulation and his voice is very pleasant. He does a minimum interpretation of characters, very few character voices, and that is something I definitely appreciate.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

There's a lot of history here. Better broken off and chewed in pieces.

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  • Lemons
  • 2019-11-13

A Flawed, Important History: Troublesome Narration

Living on the Llano Estacado, I enjoyed listening to Gwynne's history. It is a narrative largely obscured from the land, save for some historical markers and large arrows that signal where Quannah's band stayed. It becomes important, then, for us to acknowledge who dwelt on the land before cities like Lubbock and Amarillo.

Gwynne does well in setting up the narrative, although there are some potential problems. I appreciated how he did not shy away from the horrors of Comanche (Nʉmʉnʉʉ) and Texas Ranger raids. Writing about the Texans, he uses historical records to show how they viewed indigenous people. While Gwynne does recognize the Nʉmʉnʉʉ's strength in combat and economy (discussing the network of comancheros and horse trades), there were times where his descriptions on the Comanche bands relied too heavily on terms like "savage." It suggests a common narrative for indigenous American tribes: they were doomed to disappear once settlers encroached on their lands. Reading this text alongside additional Comanche accounts and Pekka Hämäläinen's Comanche Empire might be useful to get a broader account of the conflict that drove the Nʉmʉnʉʉ to their reservation.

My chiefest complaint with the audio recording is the performance. The narrator often pronounced Spanish words like Llano Estacado and Blanco Canyon incorrectly. These moments made the narrator sound unprofessional and took me out of the narrative. It also suggests that the production company did not exercise due diligence in researching the correct pronunciation.

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  • Kendra
  • 2019-08-16

Not actually about the Comanches

This is a great book for people who want to learn about interactions between white settlers and the Comanches *with an emphasis on white settlers.* If you actually want substantive information about the Comanches, their history, their culture, their lives before colonization, don't read this. I learned more about the training regimen and culture of the Texas Rangers than about the Comanches.
The POV of this book is not the Comanches'. A perfect example is that the book talks about the intricate and beautiful moccasin Cynthia Ann Parker (a white Comanche woman) made for her daughter, and then almost immediately says that she was taught sewing when she was captured and kept with white people. Clearly it wasn't white people who taught her to sew, but the book simply cannot fathom that she may have learned this skill exclusively from Native people.
I finished the book hoping and praying for it to get better and match its title, but it never did. There is certainly a lot of interesting history in this book, and some of it is Comache history, but by and large this is a book about white people and how they interacted with the Comanches and not the Comanches themselves. So make your choice whether or not to purchase accordingly.

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28 people found this helpful

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  • Sharon
  • 2018-05-07

Educational

This was a hard lesson on American history. The domination of man over man expressed in horrific ways. I will listen to it again after my feeling stop hurting.

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19 people found this helpful

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  • jstewart
  • 2020-08-25

Very informational but very biased

This is a prime example of how history is taught and told by the conquerors. There are many times I had to ignore that author's racist portrayal about the Native Americans. I would much prefer if the facts were just told and the author didn't make statements saying that the Comanches were much less civilized, etc. There were definitely a lot of atrocities committed by the Comanches, but clearly, nations defend their land and sovereignty in violent ways. War is horrible period. Colonialism breeds war.

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16 people found this helpful

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