Blood and Thunder

Published in 2001, Blood and Thunder: An Epic of the American West is a narrative history of the turbulent period from the 1800s to the 1860s, the “settling” of the American West. It frames the transformation of America into a transcontinental power through the life story of Christopher “Kit” Carson, a larger-than-life frontiersman, guide, and army officer who assisted the conquest every step of the way. Blood and Thunder is not author Hampton Sides’s first foray into narrative history and literary nonfiction. He is also the acclaimed author of Hellhound on His Trail, Ghost Stories, On Desperate Ground, and he has twice been nominated for National Magazine Awards. The New York Times calls Blood and Thunder “a full-blown history, and Sides does every part of it justice.” This study guide refers to the Google Play edition.

Book 1, “The New Men,” covers the beginning of the Mexican-American War through the arrival of the Army of the West in Santa Fe. President James K. Polk declares war on Mexico, eager to extend the boundaries of the United States from coast to coast. The New Mexicans, waiting in trepidation for American troops, suffer the raids of an older and more familiar enemy: the Navajo.