If you like to listen to the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, then you know that Rogan is not shy about letting his listeners know about what things he has been enjoying recently. This will range widely from fringe health treatments like getting stem-cell shots, to sensory deprivation float tanks, and everything in between.
While his latest reading list is not as common a topic as say, his favorite bow (Hoyt) or his favorite type of sports car (Porsche), he was especially vocal about a book he was reading in late 2019, and even went to far as to have the author on.
Surprisingly, it was a book about Native Americans and the history of the old west. Particularly, the rise of the Comanche Indian nation. So if you have been listening to Joe rant about Native American history lately, or are just plain curious about the nuances of American history, then this may be a good read for you.
I must say, Joe Rogan has pretty eclectic tastes, but overall, he is usually right when referring a good read or a good subject to look into. Despite his constant self-deprecating humor, usually around the fact that he is a dumb ape, he is clearly intelligent and has a good grasp of what the average American would find interesting.
And this book was no exception.
Empire of the Summer Moon
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.
Although readers may be more familiar with the tribal names Apache and Sioux, it was in fact the legendary fighting ability of the Comanches that determined when the American West opened up. Comanche boys became adept bareback riders by age six; full Comanche braves were considered the best horsemen who ever rode. They were so masterful at war and so skillful with their arrows and lances that they stopped the northern drive of colonial Spain from Mexico and halted the French expansion westward from Louisiana. White settlers arriving in Texas from the eastern United States were surprised to find the frontier being rolled backward by Comanches incensed by the invasion of their tribal lands.
The war with the Comanches lasted four decades, in effect holding up the development of the new American nation. Gwynne’s exhilarating account delivers a sweeping narrative that encompasses Spanish colonialism, the Civil War, the destruction of the buffalo herds, and the arrival of the railroads, and the amazing story of Cynthia Ann Parker and her son Quanah—a historical feast for anyone interested in how the United States came into being.
Top Reader’s Review: “A very fascinating account of the evolution of the Comanche Nation and Quanah Parker in particular. It proves to be a compelling insight into how the Comanche evolved, how vast the American continental lands they roamed over, and their conflict with the intrusion of the whites into what they believed to be theirs. Hounded as barbaric in their day, they were fighting for their very lives, but were finally defeated as all the native Americans Nations by bad management, treaties that were permanently broken, and systematic victimization after they finally lost everything. Savage they may have been to our own ideals, but their ways grew out of their beliefs and waring with other native tribes, and this transferred against the invading forces of whites. In the end, Quanah Parker had to accept our ways to survive, and I could not only admire him for this.”