The Comanche Empire

By: Pekka Hamalainen

Narrated by: Carla Mercer-Meyer

Length: 19 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's Summary

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, a Native American empire rose to dominate the fiercely contested lands of the American Southwest, the southern Great Plains, and northern Mexico. This powerful empire, built by the Comanche Indians, eclipsed its various European rivals in military prowess, political prestige, economic power, commercial reach, and cultural influence. Yet, until now, the Comanche empire has gone unrecognized in American history.

This compelling and original book uncovers the lost story of the Comanches. It is a story that challenges the idea of indigenous peoples as victims of European expansion and offers a new model for the history of colonial expansion, colonial frontiers, and Native-European relations in North America and elsewhere. Pekka Hämäläinen shows in vivid detail how the Comanches built their unique empire and resisted European colonization, and why they fell to defeat in 1875. With extensive knowledge and deep insight, the author brings into clear relief the Comanches' remarkable impact on the trajectory of history.

©2008 Yale University (P)2016 Tantor

Critic Reviews

"A fascinatingly informative volume." ( Booklist)

A comprehensive evaluation

I have to chuckle at the review of this book that read “The most boring book ever.” I am certain that for many this would be true. However I thoroughly enjoyed it. For sure it is a comprehensive study and evaluation of the Comanche nation dealing with the forces of nature, society and economy that drove the development, existence and failure of Comanche life. I learned so much more about Native American culture that other wonderful books don’t have time to delve into. I cannot give it five stars overall as it was difficult to hang with and needed to take it in stages. I have to wonder if it has been used as a textbook.

Incredibly thorough

it's like a technical manual for the Comanche Empire. its definitely not a light listen..

This is a greatly detailed documentary.

The information comes fast and furious. It's hard to keep up at times. The latter part of the Comanche history as presented dove tails somewhat with all the fictional Westerns of yester year.

That's where my real enjoyment started.

Should you be looking for a more visceral, laid bare reporting of the history of young America, then I haughtily recommend this book.

Can I make money off my thesis?

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

This was a struggle. If is was 50 to 60 percent shorter it would have been worthwhile. This was like somebody reading their thesis.

Would you be willing to try another book from Pekka Hamalainen? Why or why not?

Probably not. This read like a thesis, saying the same thing over and over in a slightly different way. I found my mind wandering frequently. I kept thinking about stopping but overall it is a topic I am interested in. It was a painful listen.

Did Carla Mercer-Meyer do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

The pronunciation of many words was confusing since they were not being pronounced the way I am used to hearing them. Once I figured out what she was trying to say I understood, but why?

Could you see The Comanche Empire being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

If I think of The Comanche Empire being made into a move, all I think of is Heaven's Gate.

Superb

A well reasoned update to the history of the southwestern USA. This work gives a much fuller picture of the Comanche people. It shows them as people and not some type of mythical being or brute savage.

Wow a real perspective on this area of the US.

Excellent book!!! informative and sheds new life to the history of the southwest that I call home.
people in this area that state that this country belonged to Spain and then Mexico and that it was stolen from them and native Americans by the Euro-Americans will gain a new perspective. This area belonged to the Comanches for centuries!!!

outstanding

simply brilliant. This will change your perspective on many subjects. it is well worth the read

Wow, the worst book ever

I am an avid reader and an avid audio book listener, nearly 700 audio books and I have never listened to a worse book. Both the book itself which is tedious and laboriously written and one of the most terrible narrators I have ever cringed through.

The book is like a doctoral thesis in which the author quotes a source, states a date and then goes on to another source and quotes a date... I kept waiting for it to get better, but it NEVER did. I do sympathize with the narrator a bit, as reading something like this would be mind numbing, but she flawlessly pronounces Spanish and French names while mispronouncing the english words, and her diction is awful.

I was hoping for a book about the Comanche culture, their history, their struggles, their triumphs... but what I got was the authors socio-political ramblings hour after hour. I don't know who the people are who rated this book highly, I can't imagine. This is not only not entertainment, it isn't interesting in the least... I tried. There are much better books about the Comanche "Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History" is superb. Spend your credits on that book, not this one.

An exceptional history of the Comanche.

This was an outstanding reframing of Comanche and southwest American history that joins a select set of histories rethinking the Native American experience.

Adjust Your Perspective

This text helped me to visualize a people who I knew of by name but had no real source to understand. It fills in the intentional blank in the history of the last two hundred years.

Thorough and insightful

If you're looking for a ripping yarn about the Comanches that you can retell in the pub, this book mightn't be for you. Rather it is an academically minded account of the Comanches as a human society situated within an incredibly complex geo-political setting. At times it can be a bit dry and I would have liked some more anthropology looking at the religious beliefs of the Comanches which are mentioned only in passing and further insight into their sense of self and their day-to-day lives. The occasional glimpses we get into their individual personalities are fascinating but rare. That said, this is an amazing book, excellently read, that is probably a must for anyone seeking genuine information on the Comanches and the southern plains as opposed to the cliches and stereotypes which to be honest the author sets out to dispel. Overall, a great listen, this is my first book on native American history so I literally know nothing. Chapter one was a bit long-winded for me as a general reader and concerns the author's academic standpoint but the book starts proper in chapter two. Twenty hours well spent and not a ripped-out heart in sight!