Blood in the Borderlands
Conflict, Kinship, and the Bent Family, 1821-1920
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Narrated by:
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Wayne M. Lane
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By:
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David C. Beyreis
About this listen
The Bents might be the most famous family in the history of the American West. From the 1820s to 1920 they participated in many of the major events that shaped the Rocky Mountains and Southern Plains. They trapped beaver, navigated the Santa Fe Trail, intermarried with powerful Indian tribes, governed territories, became Indian agents, fought against the US government, acquired land grants, and created historical narratives.
The Bent family’s financial and political success through the mid-19th century derived from the marriages of Bent men to women of influential borderland families - New Mexican and Southern Cheyenne. When mineral discoveries, the Civil War, and railroad construction led to territorial expansions that threatened to overwhelm the West’s oldest inhabitants and their relatives, the Bents took up education, diplomacy, violence, entrepreneurialism, and the writing of history to maintain their status and influence.
In Blood in the Borderlands David C. Beyreis provides an in-depth portrait of how the Bent family creatively adapted in the face of difficult circumstances. The Bent family history is a remarkable story of intercultural cooperation, horrific violence, and pragmatic adaptability in the face of expanding American power.
The book is published by University of Nebraska Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.
“A remarkable book about what may well have been the most remarkable family of the American West.” (Pekka Hämäläinen, author of The Comanche Empire)
“That rare volume that really should appeal to scholars and lay people alike.” (Andrew R. Graybill, author of The Red and the White: A Family Saga of the American West)
©2020 Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska (P)2021 Redwood AudiobooksListeners also enjoyed...
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An excellent coverage of early Arizona History.
- By AHB on 08-22-21
By: Karl Jacoby
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The Trail of Tears
- The Forced Removal of the Five Civilized Tribes
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: Dave Wright
- Length: 2 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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The "Five Civilized Tribes" are among the best known Native American groups in American history, and they were even celebrated by contemporary Americans for their abilities to adapt to white culture. But tragically, they are also well known tribes due to the trials and tribulations they suffered by being forcibly moved west along the "Trail of Tears".
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Not complete
- By Melissa on 06-14-15
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The Indian World of George Washington
- The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the Nation
- By: Colin G. Calloway
- Narrated by: Paul Heitsch
- Length: 23 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Colin Calloway uses the prism of George Washington's life to bring focus to the great Native leaders of his time and the tribes they represented: the Iroquois Confederacy, Lenape, Miami, Creek, Delaware; in the process, he returns them to their rightful place in the story of America's founding. The Indian World of George Washington spans decades of Native American leaders' interactions with Washington, from his early days as surveyor of Indian lands to his military career against both the French and the British to his presidency.
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A Washington hate book
- By EJ morris on 02-08-19
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The Other Slavery
- The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America
- By: Andrés Reséndez
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Since the time of Columbus, Indian slavery was illegal in much of the American continent. Yet, as Andrés Reséndez illuminates in his myth-shattering The Other Slavery, it was practiced for centuries as an open secret. There was no abolitionist movement to protect the tens of thousands of natives who were kidnapped and enslaved by the conquistadors, then forced to descend into the "mouth of hell" of 18th-century silver mines or, later, made to serve as domestics for Mormon settlers and rich Anglos.
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overall a good book
- By Paola V. Hidalgo on 01-23-17
By: Andrés Reséndez
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38 Nooses
- Lincoln, Little Crow, and the Beginning of the Frontier's End
- By: Scott W. Berg
- Narrated by: Paul Heitsch
- Length: 12 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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In August 1862, after decades of broken treaties, increasing hardship, and relentless encroachment on their lands, a group of Dakota warriors convened a council at the tepee of their leader, Little Crow. Knowing the strength and resilience of the young American nation, Little Crow counseled caution, but anger won the day. Forced to either lead his warriors in a war he knew they could not win or leave them to their fates, he declared, "[Little Crow] is not a coward: he will die with you."
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Powerful condemnation of Manifest Destiny
- By Buretto on 09-26-19
By: Scott W. Berg
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Lone Star
- A History of Texas and the Texans
- By: T. R. Fehrenbach
- Narrated by: John McLain
- Length: 39 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Here is a must-listen history of the Lone Star State, together with an insider's look at the people, politics, and events that have shaped Texas from the beginning right up to our days. Never before has the story been told with more vitality and immediacy. Fehrenbach re-creates the Texas saga from prehistory to the Spanish and French invasions to the heyday of the cotton and cattle empires. He dramatically describes the emergence of Texas as a republic, the vote for secession before the Civil War, and the state's readmission to the Union after the War.
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Top -10
- By JNW on 03-29-18
By: T. R. Fehrenbach
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The Iroquois and Diplomacy on the Early American Frontier
- By: Timothy J. Shannon
- Narrated by: George K. Wilson
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Distinguished history professor and author Timothy J. Shannon is a recognized expert on the Indians of colonial America. In this concise study of Iroquois diplomacy, Shannon paints a vivid picture of the American frontier's most successful Indian confederacy. This enlightening narrative explores the shrewd, sometimes treacherous, tactics the Iroquois used to withstand the juggernaut of colonization.
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Pleasant surprise
- By Robert B. Golson on 12-23-08
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The Barbarous Years
- The Peopling of British North America: The Conflict of Civilizations, 1600-1675
- By: Bernard Bailyn
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
- Length: 26 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Bernard Bailyn gives us a compelling account of the first great transit of people from Britain, Europe, and Africa to British North America, their involvements with each other, and their struggles with the indigenous peoples of the eastern seaboard.
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A feast for genealogy/history buffs
- By judithh on 07-21-16
By: Bernard Bailyn
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Three Roads to the Alamo
- The Lives and Fortunes of David Crockett, James Bowie, and William Barret Travis
- By: William C. Davis
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 27 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Three Roads to the Alamo is the definitive work about the lives of David Crockett, James Bowie, and William Barret Travis - the legendary frontiersmen and fighters who met their destiny at the Alamo in one of the most famous and tragic battles in American history - and about what really happened in that battle.
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Grandfather Dr. Death eats Applesauce on Christmas
- By McKinley L. Donnor on 07-15-20
By: William C. Davis
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The Taking of Jemima Boone
- Colonial Settlers, Tribal Nations, and the Kidnap That Shaped America
- By: Matthew Pearl
- Narrated by: Jeremy Arthur
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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In this enthralling narrative in the tradition of Candice Millard and David Grann, Matthew Pearl unearths a forgotten and dramatic series of events from early in the Revolutionary War that opens a window into America’s transition from colony to nation, with the heavy moral costs incurred amid shocking new alliances and betrayals.
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An American story with variety of perspectives
- By James on 11-12-21
By: Matthew Pearl
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The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears
- By: Theda Perdue, Michael Green
- Narrated by: George Wilson
- Length: 5 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Acclaimed historians Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green paint a moving portrait of the infamous Trail of Tears. Despite protests from statesmen like Davy Crockett, Daniel Webster, and Henry Clay, a dubious 1838 treaty drove 17,000 mostly Christian Cherokee from their lush Appalachian homeland to barren plains beyond the Mississippi. For 4,000, this brutal forced march lead only to their deaths.
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Great audio book
- By Steve on 03-23-08
By: Theda Perdue, and others
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The Horde
- How the Mongols Changed the World
- By: Marie Favereau
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Favereau takes us inside one of the most powerful sources of cross-border integration in world history. The Horde was the central node in the Eurasian commercial boom of the 13th and 14th centuries and was a conduit for exchanges across thousands of miles. Its unique political regime - a complex power-sharing arrangement among the khan and the nobility - rewarded skillful administrators and diplomats and fostered an economic order that was mobile, organized, and innovative.
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Golden Horde complete history, well done
- By Amazon Customer on 03-10-22
By: Marie Favereau
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The Strange Career of William Ellis
- The Texas Slave Who Became a Mexican Millionaire
- By: Karl Jacoby
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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To his contemporaries in Gilded Age Manhattan, Guillermo Eliseo was a fantastically wealthy Mexican, the proud owner of a luxury apartment overlooking Central Park, a busy Wall Street office, and scores of mines and haciendas in Mexico. But for all his obvious riches and his elegant appearance, Eliseo was also the possessor of a devastating secret: He was not, in fact, from Mexico at all. Rather, he had begun life as a slave named William Ellis, born on a cotton plantation in Texas during the waning years of King Cotton.
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Fascinating Tale of Racial Passing
- By Steven Schuster on 06-10-16
By: Karl Jacoby