MeatEater's American History: The Mountain Men (1806-1840)

De: Steven Rinella

Narrado por: Steven Rinella

From the creators of the New York Times bestselling audio series Campfire Stories and MeatEater’s American History comes a new audiobook original that plunges listeners into the untamed world of a celebrated and misunderstood group of nineteenth-century outdoorsmen: the Mountain Men.

Steven Rinella (The MeatEater Podcast) brings to life the legendary wilderness exploits of men such as Jim Bridger, Jedidiah Smith, and Hugh Glass, who headed out to the Rocky Mountains to trap beavers in the decades following the Louisiana Purchase. Living off the land and dodging grizzly bears, these colorful characters carved out an existence defined by their relationships with Native people, their capacity to endure the most trying conditions, and their intimate knowledge of the western landscape. This small fraternity of backwoodsmen—numbering only a few hundred at any point in time, and perhaps 3,000 total over the course of the era—not only lived in dramatic fashion, they died the same way: one in ten would suffer some sort of violent death in the wilds of the Rockies.

Their extraordinary feats—some heroic, others horrifying—helped define an era when the West represented not just unmapped territory, but untapped opportunity. And when a combination of economic and ecological factors caused their world to collapse, the mountain men left behind more than just tracks in the wilderness; they established an enduring archetype of independence, resilience, and an untamed spirit that still resonates through American culture today.

Narration

The pace of the book was refreshing. Easy listen. Easy learning. Another great book from the Meat Eater crew

Great book on the subject

Researched, organized, thoughtful, interesting. I enjoyed the listen. Good narration by the author. Learned a lot about the subject.

The amount of detail!

Love it! It really brings home what these extraordinary people went through just to earn a living and explore the west!

best book I've listen too...

Steven did a wonderful job writing and reading his book... Highly recommended.. already listened two times

Superb

Just flat out interesting and extremely well written. Covered everything from history of the times, The types of men it attracted, the biology of beavers, trapping techniques, politics, world business trade and fashion, indigenous complexities, and survival in the Rockies.

The only thing it didn’t cover is the ethical element of trapping and killing beavers. Would’ve liked to hear his perspective on that. Including, why in the world does anybody kill beavers now?