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Summary: Reviews
Review: "Fehrenbach is a highly interpretive and original writer, whose works rest on solid scholarship. His book ranges grandly across the disciplines from folklore to anthropology to history." --Southwestern Historical Quarterly"[This] detailed, sweeping, balanced, and finely illustrated story deserves a large audience." --Library Journal
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Summary: Unbalanced Reporting
Review: A fascinating history that gave me a thorough understanding of the world of the Commanche. That said, I did have some serious issues with the book, which in my opinion was racially biased. American Indians were continuously referred to as "Savages" and "Barbarians" (Cherokees having the dubious honor of being referred to as "High Barbarians"). The book illuminated the reasons why war between the Commanche and anglos was inevitable, but while atrocities were certainly committed by both sides, violence perpetrated by the indians was described in brutal, bloody, cruel, detail. In contrast, a U.S. Cavalry massacre of entire camps (typically mostly women and children) was noticeably abbreviated. In fact the author even makes a point of trying to assert that these women and children "were as dangerous as the warriors themselves" in defense of the wholesale massacres. White armed forces, who were essentially waging a war of extermination, were typically described as "valiant" and "courageous". The Indians "murderous", "bloody", and "mindless". In a war between two cultures, how one side can be "heroic" and the other " murderous" is very questionable. But then we all know that history is written by the victor. Seemingly the only Indian the author express any real admiration for is Chief Quanah Parker. But then coincidently Quanah was half white.
The book is determined to unfairly dehumanize an entire people, and succeeds in doing just that.
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Summary: The Comanches -- The Destruction of a People
Review: An excellent book! In this book, Mr. Fehrenbach provides a valuable service in this day and age when he describes, unflinchingly, the utter savagery employed by Indian tribes' particular brand of "warfare" - not warfare at all really but more of a rite of passage for males in the band. A rite in which the systematic rape, mutilation and gruesome torture of one's helpless captives was considered perfectly acceptable - and not limited to only white men, women and children either - other enemy Indian tribes were just as imperiled. He also pulls no punches with regard to the reciprocating treachery, hatred and savagery employed Europeans settlers. But, more important than anything that could be construed as fault-finding, he highlights the underlying cultural ethos that were at work when describing the clash of cultures that occurred between red men and white and brings home the inevitableness of this clash and the hopelessness of accommodating the Indian's way of life amid the title wave of immigration and settlement that occurred throughout the 19th century. This book should be required reading in all our Colleges and Universities.
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Summary: WD in Texas
Review: An outstanding work of narrative history. Fehrenbach occasionally refers to works he has cited but most often presses forward with the story uninterrupted by footnotes. A bibliography is included following the text.
This is a wide-ranging look at the Comanche spanning their first known origins and their ethnic, cultural, and environmental evolution into the ultimate horse Indians. The tribe's history is set in the context of the history of the land they occupied. First, Fehrenbach lays out the Spanish conquest of northern Mexico, and the imperial policies that governed their frontier, and delineates how those policies and practices fostered the advance of Comanches as a horse culture built on raiding and marauding. Then with the demise of the Spanish as a power, he juxtaposes the Comanche against the advancing Anglo-Texan population. Not only does this paint a complete picture of the Comanche, it provides an overview of the history of the region and great insight into the differing approaches to empire among the Spanish, French, and Anglos and the results those policies produced on the ground. Not dull stuff at all the way he tells it.
Fehrenbach's writing style is fluid and transparent, designed to tell the story not to draw undue attention to himself as a writer. He has a novelitst's sense of pace and drama that never allows the story to bog down. He also has an eye for character and detail that deftly draws together the telling elements that make his vignettes poignant and memorable. Most of all, however, he formulates deductive historical insights that pinpoint the causative factors shaping the direction of history. And all this in a text as readable as a finely crafted novel.
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Summary: The Definitive Book on the Comanche
Review: Fehrenbach explores the Comanche from the mysterious and inauspicious beginnings in Wyoming or Montana to the final days of the Quahadi on the Staked Plains of Texas. When a few horses came into their hands the tribe found a niche in history and elbowed their way into country better suited to them. They destroyed their enemies who already occupied that land from horseback, the Fara'on and Lipan Apache were extinguished. The Jicarilla Apache became a friend to the Spanish because of the Comanche of the high plains. Penatekas harried and almost overcame the ancient Tonkawans of Central Texas. When the Penateka raid to Linnville, Texas, ended their reign the raids continued four decades until Ranald McKenzie destroyed the Quahadi horse herd. Afoot, the Comanche was lost. This is a book you want.
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Summary: The truth about the Comanches
Review: Fehrenbach tells the truth about the Comanches - as opposed to 'Dancing with Wolves' and other radical distortions. The Comanches were a proud, savage people who adapted brilliantly to the horse and the plains. The Texans were also a proud, savage people who adapted brilliantly to the challenge of the Horse People. Great Book. It even has the story of Cynthia Ann Parker - a legend in Texas.
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Summary: Tracing their origins from prehistory
Review: First published in 1974, Comanches: The History Of A People by T. R. Fehrenbach is a classic history of one of the most influential Native American tribes. Tracing their origins from prehistory, down to the wars fighting to turn back the advance of European colonization, and then on to the ultimate dismantling of their old ways by the implacable forces of the American government, The U.S. Army, and the Texas Rangers, Comanches is the absorbing saga, and a welcome addition to Western American History reading lists and Native American Studies reference collections.
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Summary: As readable as Michener
Review: I am a Texan, so it is hard for a history of Texas to meet my expectations, without touching a tender myth. Fehrenbach has made this history a sensitive retelling of Texas history which is as readable as Michener's book, but, of course, much more factual. And he destroys the loved Texas myths with gentleness and sensitivity. A must read for any American history buff, and for many who didn't think they were. This is also an excellent book to give to someone who thinks they don't like history
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Summary: Manifest Destiny apologist
Review: I find the author's unqualified, and rather anectodal, anthropological conclusions about a 100 years out of date("barbarian" and "savage" aren't scientific terms). Rather than quoting primary sources so support his facts he seems to prefer re-interpreting them in his own bias; on occasion I happened to have read the source text and found he had grossly misrepresented it, which makes me very suspicious of the rest of his facts. The whole book is extremely biased in favour of manifest destiny - it often reads like a justification for destructions of the native peoples and their culture.
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Summary: Comanches
Review: I've read other books about American Indians and have seen how it can be done well. This is the worst book on any group of American Indians that I have ever seen. The auther starts out with 100 or more pages of anthropological speculation that he unqualified and unfit to enter into. If you make it through this first grueling hundred pages or so you find a book that is hamstrung by the authors bias. Don't waste your money on this book.
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