Valley of the Guns

The Pleasant Valley War and the Trauma of Violence

By: Eduardo Obregón Pagán

Narrated by: Peter Lerman

Length: 8 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

In the late 1880s, Pleasant Valley, Arizona, descended into a nightmare of violence, murder, and mayhem. By the time the Pleasant Valley War was over, 18 men were dead, four were wounded, and one was missing, never to be found. Valley of the Guns explores the reasons for the violence that engulfed the settlement, turning neighbors, families, and friends against one another.

In this audiobook, author Eduardo Obregón Pagán explores how geography and demographics aligned to create an unstable settlement subject to the constant threat of Apache raids. The fear of surprise attack by day and the theft of livestock by night prompted settlers to shape their lives around the expectation of sudden violence.

Drawing from history, geography, cultural studies, and trauma studies, Pagán uses the story of Pleasant Valley to demonstrate a new way of looking at the settlement of the West. Writing in a vivid narrative style and employing rigorous scholarship, he creatively explores the role of trauma in shaping the lives and decisions of the settlers in Pleasant Valley and offers new insight into the difficulties of survival in an isolated frontier community.

©2018 University of Oklahoma Press (P)2019 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Add Valley of the Guns to the short list of key works on the violent ordeals that made the American West." (Stephen Aron, author of How the West Was Lost)

"This important revisionist work advances our understanding of western violence...." (Brian Cannon, author of Reopening the Frontier)

An Interesting History

Valley of the Guns: The Pleasant Valley War and the Trauma of Violence.. Good clear narration easy to listen too. About a little known period of the history of Pleasant Valley. This is what I describe as little history - the history and events of ordinary people.
Very interesting book I highly recommend it for anyone who is interested in the history of the West.
I was given a free copy of this audiobook at my own request, and voluntarily leave this review.

Every Arizonan must read this book!

I have lived in Arizona since 1974 and this story brought to life facts of my state's history I had no idea about it discusses fairly the native American conundrum that of wanting to stay in control of their traditional lands and their lifestyle juxtaposed against the settlers who came to the territory to begin afresh new lives and also discusses in great detail how sometimes even those on the same side could become violent enemies I especially enjoyed the authors discussions of the effects of trauma on those individuals a subject that we are just now beginning to truly understand. this will be on my Christmas list for a long time to come

Valley of the Guns

I received this Audible book for free in exchange for a honest review 😎. If looking for interesting history of the West this is a good read👍.

Must read for Arizona History Buffs!

Unfortunately most listeners will never have heard of this event in US history so there probably isn't a great demand for more information. Obviously very well researched, it can't help but be a little dry. Anyone that is a buff of Southwest US history will be fascinated. For the rest of us it takes Peter Lerman's enthusiastic narration to keep your interest sustained. He does a great job of presenting a huge amount of facts in a way you want to hear. This is one of those books that I feel is much better listened to than read.

A Great Historical Read

This is a great historical read. It held my attention and I learned about this event the narrator was good. I would recommend this audio book

wow

great story these guys were all Lawless to some extent even the so-called law men. the women were tough as nails.

Great!

what a great and honest story! Enthralling throughout! I never new about Pleasant Valley AZ

avoid.

The author drones on and on and on on. tough to listen to and I gave up.

I wanted to enjoy this...

Disclaimer: I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

So the overall story is pretty interesting, and the author seems to have a lot of knowledge on the subject, but what really got to me was that it's written like a research paper and can be very repetitive. The Author seems to be making an argument more than telling a story. That made it very slow going for me. I wanted to learn more, but I was not excited to get back to the book itself.

I do enjoy quite a bit of non-fiction, but unfortunately, this still felt very dry for me, but if you're interested in this particular incident or enjoy more 'scholarly' pieces, this could be you.