The Best Land Under Heaven: The Donner Party in the Age of Manifest Destiny Paperback – 29 May 2018

For anyone with an interest in American history, this book is fascinating! Incredibly well researched without reading as too academic. I could barely put it down.

This is an amazing, humane, contextualized recounting of what is usually referred to as the Donner Party - the pioneers who got trapped by early snows in the Sierra Nevada, ultimately leading some to cannibalize their dead. Wallis puts their exodus from Illinois in the broader perspective of the westward movement of settlers in the US at the time. There was an urge among some to pick up and move frequently when the land they had was becoming exhausted, or their surroundings too inhabited, or just because there was promise of something better. We get excellent character sketches of the men who uprooted their families to head out to California or the Oregon territories, often setting off with pregnant wives, numerous toddlers, and way too much furniture. Mr Reed, a neighbor and friend of Mr Donner, is a particularly intriguing character - a serial entrepreneur who helped form the Reed-Donner party to escape huge debt after a failed investment in a railroad. Wallis covers the whole trip - there were many hardships before they got to the Sierra Nevada - but he recreates in vivid detail the dread the settlers must have felt once they realized their predicament, how relations broke down between the households, the super-human attempts made by some to cross the mountains in the snow (both settlers trying to get out and rescuers trying to get in). Forty-six people survived out of the 87 who started out. A recurring thought I had was that most Americans wouldn't have lasted a week under their circumstances, much less a whole winter. In this telling, it is clear they tried every means of sustenance, including trying to boil down the horse harnesses, before those that resorted to cannibalism (not all did). A compelling story very well told.

Very interesting, history that I have not explored much. Not just the Donner party but the trials of westward expansion and what it was really like. Well written and well researched, with some first hand accounts included.

Incredible, fascinating read about the grit and desperation of pioneers. It’s amazing to learn about the lengths people went to domestically for new opportunities as well as how many responds under duress.

A compelling story told quite well. The chapters detailing suffering and cannibalism are challenging to stay with, however. And the 'bad guys' in the end are maddening.