Bernard DeVotoAcross The Wide Missouri: Winner of the Pulitzer Prize

Bernard De Voto's meticulously detailed account of the last days of the fur trade reveal the lives of the sometimes inspired, often desperate, original survivors, not the faux survivors we now watch on "reality" TV. Drawing largely from journals and records of the traders -- and noting spots where he doubts their credibility -- De Voto creates a compelling picture of the goings-on between the fur men and various native Plains tribes, a relationship that in many respects confounds our current understanding. It seems it was more varied and complex then we've been led to believe. Sometimes an uneasy friendship and respect prevailed, sometimes murder, but often it seemed both native peoples and fur traders were striving to exploit each other for all they could get. Most particularly he distinguishes between the tribes, their customs and proclivities. Clearly a fur trader's survival often depended on his ability to understand these differences. But De Voto's over-arching story of survival -- and, ultimately, defeat -- involves the brutal competition between the fur companies as each attempts to rule the trade. De Voto's voice is smart, robust, sometimes quite humorous. (Watch for irony.) However, coming to us from an age before the Civil Rights Movement, before the Women's Movement, the author does not share the benefits of our deeper, subtler understanding. That's the bad news. On the good side, he writes without self-censorship, uncurtailed by the obedience contemporary historians must show to the various academic conventions of our era.

Most are aware that there were fur trappers among the early white settlers. This book provides in depth insight into who these men were and how they lived. It reveals the interactions between the whites and the Indians and dispels the myth that settlement of the west was as simple as white against Indian.But the book gets a little wordy and drags at some points. But still a very informative, illuminating book.

A very detailed and interesting history with a unusual take on the first American Indians encounter by the early trappers and explorers. Keep you wikipedia access handy, especially when you read the references.

Amazing book of our nation's continental beginnings with colorful characters and cultures. DeVoto's words and Miller's watercolors paint a rich landscape of real people that are larger than life....straight from actual journals and historical narratives and woven together by research and pure talent. A must read for those inspired by the short period of Mountain Men and indigenous cultures coming face to face.

I first read this book which I borrowed from my local Library about forty years ago, and I borrowed it again and again. I reckon I have read it about 15 times over the years!! Very well written with humour and knowledge. However some may be put off by the almost anecdotal and "folksy" style. The original hardback had the wonderful drawings and by Bodmer and Alfred Miller. These are sadly not reproduced in this edition, which was disappointing.

Greatest book ever written on this subject, prize winner.Central years of the fur trade with all the importantfigures. Also get:Rocky Mountain Rendezvous-Fred GowanForty Years a Fur Trader on the Upper Missouri-Charles LarpenteurRocky Mountain Life- Rufus B. SageLife in the Far West- George Frederick RuxtonJournal of a Trapper- Osborne RussellNarrative of a Journey Across the Rocky Mountains to the Columbia Riverby John Kirk Townsend

I got this book on the advice of a friend and am now deeply indebted to him! Just a great and very revealing history book about the Westward Movement in the U.S. circa: 1830-1845. If you'd like to know about the people - both White and Indian - that made this very interesting part of American history, read this book!

This book has been around long enough that reviews must abound, but my take is: just full of minutiae about a fascinating era in American history, and certainly not what you learned in high school. This is the real thing; what really happened and by who. Carefully researched, well-written, and just chockful of information.

I wish I had come across Bernard De Voto sooner so that I could have acquired the hardback version which would have had copies of pictures drawn at the time of the pioneers. This book is a real insight into the lives of the early pioneers and I have found this a really good read. This is not my normal reading fare , though I am so pleased to have found this book

A well-written, well-researched and accurate account of the life and times of Scotland's Sir William Drummond Stewart, an early western explorer, considering that it was written in 1947.

I'm very glad I bought this book! I was just looking for the literary source to the Movie and found a bonanza of information, with absolutely wonderful, and rare, colorplates! An absolute gem for the interested in the history of fur-trading, as well as a whole area, and the way people used to live and cope with each other. A very fine book to own. Grab it, if you can!