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Encounters at the Heart of the World
- A History of the Mandan People
- Narrated by: Christine Marshall
- Length: 10 hrs and 32 mins
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Publisher's summary
Winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for History.
Encounters at the Heart of the World concerns the Mandan Indians, iconic Plains people whose teeming, busy towns on the upper Missouri River were, for centuries, at the center of the North American universe. We know of them mostly because Lewis and Clark spent the winter of 1804-1805 with them, but why don't we know more? Who were they really? In this extraordinary book, Elizabeth A. Fenn retrieves their history by piecing together important new discoveries in archaeology, anthropology, geology, climatology, epidemiology, and nutritional science. Her boldly original interpretation of these diverse research findings offers us a new perspective on early American history, a new interpretation of the American past.
By 1500, more than 12,000 Mandans were established on the northern Plains, and their commercial prowess, agricultural skills, and reputation for hospitality became famous. Recent archaeological discoveries show how these Native American people thrived, and then how they collapsed. The damage wrought by imported diseases like smallpox and the havoc caused by the arrival of horses and steamboats were tragic for the Mandans, yet, as Fenn makes clear, their sense of themselves as a people with distinctive traditions endured.A riveting account of Mandan history, landscapes, and people, Fenn's narrative is enriched and enlivened not only by science and research, but by her own encounters at the heart of the world.
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Fur, Fortune, and Empire
- The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America
- By: Eric Jay Dolin
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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From the bestselling author of Leviathan comes this sweeping narrative of one of America’s most historically rich industries. Beginning his epic history in the early 1600s, Eric Jay Dolin traces the dramatic rise and fall of the American fur trade industry, from the first Dutch encounters with the Indians to the rise of the conservation movement in the late nineteenth century.
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a compilation of trivia
- By D. Littman on 07-18-10
By: Eric Jay Dolin
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Daniel Boone
- The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer
- By: John Mack Faragher
- Narrated by: Tom Parker
- Length: 12 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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In the first and most reliable biography of Daniel Boone in more than 50 years, award-winning historian Faragher brilliantly portrays America's famous frontier hero while illuminating the American hero-making process itself. Drawing from popular narrative, the public record, scraps of documentation from Boone's own hand, and a treasure trove of reminiscences gathered by nineteenth-century antiquarians, Faragher uses the methods of new social history to create a portrait of the man and the times he helped shape.
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Excellent book for history readers
- By James P Carter on 11-11-13
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Undaunted Courage
- By: Stephen E. Ambrose
- Narrated by: Barrett Whitener
- Length: 21 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson selected his personal secretary, Captain Meriwether Lewis, to lead a voyage up the Missouri River, across the forbidding Rockies, and - by way of the Snake and the Columbia rivers - down to the Pacific Ocean. Lewis and his partner, Captain William Clark, endured incredible hardships and witnessed astounding sights. With great perseverance, they worked their way into an unexplored West. When they returned two years later, they had long since been given up for dead.
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Narration kills a great book
- By Kindle Customer on 02-10-08
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Mountain Man
- John Colter, the Lewis & Clark Expedition, and the Call of the American West
- By: David Weston Marshall
- Narrated by: Jonathan Yen
- Length: 6 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1804, John Colter set out with Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on the first US expedition to traverse the North American continent. During the 28-month ordeal, Colter served as a hunter and scout, and honed his survival skills on the western frontier. But when the journey was over, Colter stayed behind. He spent two more years trekking alone through dangerous and unfamiliar territory, charting some of the West's most treasured landmarks.
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Piqued Curoisty
- By Julie on 01-30-22
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Mayflower
- A Story of Courage, Community, and War
- By: Nathaniel Philbrick
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 12 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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From the perilous ocean crossing to the shared bounty of the first Thanksgiving, the Pilgrim settlement of New England has become enshrined as our most sacred national myth. Yet, as best-selling author Nathaniel Philbrick reveals in his spellbinding new book, the true story of the Pilgrims is much more than the well-known tale of piety and sacrifice; it is a 55-year epic that is at once tragic, heroic, exhilarating, and profound.
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Fascinating book about a little-understood time
- By John M on 02-04-07
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A Voyage Long and Strange
- Rediscovering the New World
- By: Tony Horwitz
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 17 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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On a chance visit to Plymouth Rock, Tony Horwitz makes an unsettling discovery. A history buff since early childhood, expensively educated at university - a history major, no less! - he's reached middle age with a third-grader's grasp of early America. In fact, he's mislaid more than a century of American history, the period separating Columbus' landing in 1492 from the arrival of English colonists at Jamestown in 16-oh-something. Did nothing happen in between?
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Just Not For Me
- By Sara on 10-25-15
By: Tony Horwitz
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Blood and Thunder
- An Epic of the American West
- By: Hampton Sides
- Narrated by: Don Leslie
- Length: 20 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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In the summer of 1846, the Army of the West marched through Santa Fe, en route to invade and occupy the Western territories claimed by Mexico. Fueled by the new ideology of “Manifest Destiny,” this land grab would lead to a decades-long battle between the United States and the Navajos, the fiercely resistant rulers of a huge swath of mountainous desert wilderness.
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Publisher's summary does not do it justice
- By Eric on 02-07-11
By: Hampton Sides
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Empire of the Summer Moon
- Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History
- By: S. C. Gwynne
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son, Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches.
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Difficult to endure narrator
- By fowler on 12-21-19
By: S. C. Gwynne
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The Blue Tattoo: The Life of Olive Oatman
- Women in the West, Book 1
- By: Margot Mifflin
- Narrated by: Kaipo Schwab
- Length: 6 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1851, Olive Oatman was a 13-year-old pioneer traveling west toward Zion, with her Mormon family. Within a decade, she was a white Indian with a chin tattoo, caught between cultures. The Blue Tattoo tells the harrowing story of this forgotten heroine of frontier America. Orphaned when her family was brutally killed by Yavapai Indians, Oatman lived as a slave to her captors for a year before being traded to the Mohave, who tattooed her face and raised her as their own.
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Mispronunciations
- By R. Brown on 06-07-18
By: Margot Mifflin
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A Life Wild and Perilous
- Mountain Men and the Paths to the Pacific
- By: Robert M. Utley
- Narrated by: Richard Davidson
- Length: 13 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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If you have ever wondered what is was like to be an explorer in the unspoiled American West of the early 1800s, then this is the audiobook for you. Not only a groundbreaking work of American history by critically acclaimed author Robert M. Utley, A Life Wild and Perilous is also a dramatic story of innovation and survival. Here is your chance to live in the very heart of the American wilderness with legendary trappers and mountain men like Jim Bridger, Kit Carson, Tom Fitzpatrick, and Jedediah Smith.
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A lot of good history and quite a story too.
- By David on 04-01-12
By: Robert M. Utley
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Clash of Cultures
- Prehistory-1638
- By: Christopher Collier, James Lincoln Collier
- Narrated by: Jim Manchester
- Length: 1 hr and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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History is dramatic - and the renowned, award-winning authors Christopher Collier and James Lincoln Collier demonstrate this in this compelling series aimed at young listeners. Covering American history from the founding of Jamestown through the present day, these volumes explore far beyond the dates and events of a historical chronicle to present a moving illumination of the ideas, opinions, attitudes and tribulations that led to the birth of this great nation.
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good context
- By MonicaB on 03-03-20
By: Christopher Collier, and others
What listeners say about Encounters at the Heart of the World
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jim Gwin
- 06-23-24
Native American life long before 1492
There were tribes across north and South America over two thousand years ago. They migrated from Asia across what is now the Bering strait. The shape of the continent has changed since then due to weather, receding glaciers, earthquakes, volcanoes, erosion and evolution. Remains of early inhabitants along the western shoreline are not found because they are now covered by 350 feet of water. The Mandans were a large tribe in the upper Missouri River area. They lived communally and their homes were similar to the tribal adobe structure in the SW and the Mayan structures in Mexico, in my opinion. The smallpox epidemic spread by new explorers and settlers from Europe hit the Mandan particularly hard in the mid 1800s due to their gregarious nature and their large social living conditions.
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- J. Aloysius
- 07-10-19
Good book
Very interesting and sad history of the Mandans, it explained and showed a lot of things that I suspected or did not know.
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1 person found this helpful
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- DaveF
- 11-10-19
Well deserved Pulitzer Prize winner!
It's easy to see why author Elizabeth Fenn won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for History for "Encounters at the Heart f the World". First, the book is an enjoyable read (or in my case, I listened to the audiobook). She is thorough, clear, and weaves a good story. Her in-depth research comes through clearly in her narrative.
The story of the Mandan people is ultimately tragic, decimated mainly by European diseases around the first contact with explorers, traders, and migrants from the east. Prior to that, these people lead rich, interesting lives and thrived in the northern Missouri River valley. Fenn makes clear that a lot of historic detail of the Northern Plains Indians has been lost, but piecing the fragments of knowledge together and speculating about the gaps provides for a fascinating look at a unique culture and way of life. Highly recommended!
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4 people found this helpful
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- Robert
- 01-16-17
A worthy Pulitzer winner!
Fenn's book kicks off a real understanding of the history of the Northern Plains and even adds helpful illumination to all of early American history.
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3 people found this helpful
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- CBuk61
- 07-14-22
A Balanced History
A well done, balanced history of these important native Americans in the history of the United States. Excellent detail placed in the amazing history of great plains and the upper Missouri river. A required read for anyone interested in American history.
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- Chris
- 11-03-15
Just okay
Lots of buzz on this book prior to reading it. It turns out to be, in my view, a day in the life chronology of the Mandan tribe. Of course, that's not a bad thing but it doesn't make for a truly scintillating read.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Frantic Gonzalez
- 05-12-18
north west america
the true Americans. got me thinking about how diseased and false promises created in itself a genocide to the natives in this region. but it also makes me want to visit something almost lost to the current map.
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3 people found this helpful
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- MR
- 07-15-19
Awful
Incredibly biased narrative that smacks with obnoxious progressive undertones. Had I not had to endure this for academics it would have found its way into a fire.
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3 people found this helpful