Review by New York Times Review
CERTAIN STORIES in American history carry archetypal power, and the dark majesty of the Donner catastrophe is one of them. In the winter of 1847, when the first skeletonized survivors stumbled out of the Sierra Nevada, the Donner story seized the American imagination and has never let go, generating a vast but unreliable historical record burdened with exaggeration, lies, melodrama and prurient disgust. Cannibalism was the prime reason the story lodged itself in our national psyche; but more than that, the fate of the Donner party was a denial, a violent repudiation, of the myth of Manifest Destiny: Here were a group of westward pioneers, the very picture of courage, resourcefulness and pluck, who ended up reduced to a level of squalor and barbarism almost beyond words. The latest work to engage this untrustworthy myth is "The Best Land Under Heaven," by Michael Wallis, a historian who has written several books about iconic American subjects, including Billy the Kid and Route 66. Wallis has delved into an extraordinary mass of original material, documents, diaries, accounts and letters, as well as new sources apparently not available to previous authors, and produced not only a definitive account of the Donner tragedy, but also a book so gripping it can scarcely be put down. Wallis knows how to tell a story, but he also knows when to step back and let the participants speak for themselves, often with eloquence. He judiciously picks a number of key characters to follow, among them George Donner; his interesting wife, Tamzene; James Reed and his spirited 13-year-old daughter, Virginia; and Lewis Keseberg, who would become the most vilified survivor, branded the "human cannibal." The saga began in April 1846 when a prosperous band of emigrants left Springfield, Ill., heading for new lives in Alta California, then part of Mexico. At the Little Sandy River in Wyoming, 87 souls under the leadership of George Donner made a fateful decision: to follow the Hastings Cutoff, a new shortcut championed by a mountebank named Lansford Hastings. The cutoff routed them southward of the established trail, through the Wasatch Mountains and the Great Salt Lake Desert, where they were forced to build a road, suffered terribly from thirst and lost many oxen. Discipline broke down: One man was murdered for his gold; another had killed in self-defense and was banished; and a third, unable to walk, was left behind to die. By the time the emigrants reached the foothills of the Sierra in late October, they were fatally behind schedule, demoralized and already starving. Not far from the pass, an apocalyptic blizzard descended on them. The next morning, Keseberg wrote, "All I could see was snow everywhere. I shouted at the top of my voice. Suddenly, here and there, all about me, heads popped up through the snow. The scene was not unlike what one might imagine at the resurrection, when people rise up out of the earth." But it was anything but a resurrection. Fifty-nine people in the vanguard were forced to take refuge near Truckee Lake (now Donner Lake), while the rest of the party, consisting of 22, was snowbound in a meadow six miles back. There most of them remained for months, as storm after storm piled up about 20 feet of snow, burying their rough cabins, lean-tos and crude shelters. In these filthy hovels they starved and began to die and eventually ate the dead - cooking flesh and organs, cracking bones for marrow, boiling them for grease, and processing them down into nubbins. Four rescue expeditions were organized, but the snow was so deep that it took until April 29 for the last survivor to be fetched out. The rescuers described scenes that transfixed the country: children "sitting upon a log, with their faces stained with blood, devouring the half-roasted liver and heart of the father" while "around the fire were hair, bones, skulls and the fragments of half-consumed limbs." With a keen eye for the particulars, Wallis has done a superb job sifting through lurid tabloid moralizing and unreliable accounts to explore the complex truths of human beings pushed to the absolute limits of exist-ence. The tale did indeed have its heroes and villains, but even so, as Wallis notes, "there were no shades of black and white, but only gray." Forty-one people died, and 46 survived. Virginia Reed wrote about her ordeal to a cousin in Illinois, concluding with some sturdy and practical American advice: "Remember, never take no cutoffs and hurry along as fast as you can." ? DOUGLAS PRESTON'S most recent book is "The Lost City of the Monkey God."
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [July 16, 2017]
Review by Booklist Review
In 1846, a varied group of hopeful settlers left Illinois bound for the well-publicized paradise of California, which was still under Mexican sovereignty. They were ostensibly led by the brothers George and Jacob Donner, who would give their name to the ill-fated party. Best-selling Wallis' (David Crockett, 2011) account of their tragic and thoroughly avoidable trek is well-researched, detailed, and well-written. He reveals that, from the start, mistakes were made that helped doom them. They started across the plains late, and they accepted poor information when choosing an alternative route. They were plagued by the stubborn arrogance of some of their leaders and constant backbiting. Finally, they were victimized by rotten luck as an early, unusually heavy snowstorm left some of them stranded in the High Sierra, where they resorted to cannibalism to survive. Wallis recounts their bad decisions and sufferings as well as the heroic efforts to rescue them with sympathy and eloquence while placing them within the broader context of the pursuit of the Manifest Destiny to expand across the continent. This is an excellent reexamination of an infamous saga.--Freeman, Jay Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Adopting an empathetic approach bolstered by studious research and geographical contextualization, biographer Wallis (David Crockett) reclaims the horrific story of the infamously ill-fated wagon train from the annals of sensationalism. Though nearly synonymous with cannibalism in pop culture lore, the Donner Party's 1846-1847 journey receives from Wallis a balanced treatment, showing that the surviving members who chose cannibalism did so as a last resort-and largely because saving their starving children was their priority. Wallis effectively mixes survivors' accounts, trip diaries, and other contemporary sources, delving deep into the backgrounds and dynamics of the multiple families involved in the four-months-long winter wilderness encampment. For example, Tamzene Donner transformed from a botanist who planned to open a school into a resilient mother and wife who fed her children human flesh and refused to leave her desperately ill husband during three different rescue efforts. Wallis explains that the caravan suffered multiple setbacks, including livestock thefts by Native Americans and an unusually long and harsh winter. The leaders also routinely made bad decisions, such as trusting an untested "shortcut" promoted by an armchair guidebook author. The Donner Party's struggles and determination continue to fascinate, and Wallis's comprehensive account of bravery, luck, and failure illuminates the realities of westward expansion. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Wallis (Billy the Kid) offers a vivid, new look at the ill-fated Donner Party. The 89 members of this group were a cross-section of American socioeconomic classes in 1846. Heeding the call of Manifest Destiny to conquer lands west of the Mississippi River, the settlers all had a common goal: wealth and prosperity with new lives in California. The Donner and Reed families dominated the group, often vying for leadership, and were greatly influenced by an emigrant guidebook written by Lansford Hastings, which advocated taking a shortcut from Fort Bridger, WY, around Utah's Great Salt Lake, and on to California. Their journey was plagued by bad decisions, poor advice, greed, and an early winter that trapped them in the Sierra Nevada. Wallis recounts the efforts of the four rescue parties that brought 46 people out of the mountains. The emigrants had survived months of harsh weather and with little food; some resorting to cannibalizing their dead compatriots. VERDICT Wallis's use of primary sources, together with his dynamic writing style, turns a familiar retelling into a real page-turner. A welcome addition to all history collections. [See Prepub Alert, 10/17/16.]-Patricia Ann Owens, formerly at Illinois Eastern Community College, Mt. Carmel © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Prolific popular writer Wallis (David Crockett: Lion of the West, 2011, etc.) brings his storytelling skills to an unusual episode in American westward expansion.Within the grand story of Manifest Destiny, the quest for land and settlement from coast to coast, lies the ill-fated saga of two diverse families that set out by wagon train from Springfield, Illinois, and then to the traditional jumping-off point of Independence, Missouri, en route to California. When they began their trek in early 1846, the extended Donner and Reed families had already been part of the great wave of immigration from Europe as well as Southern, border, and Midwestern states. Initially part of a larger convoy, they and their employeeseventually nearly 90 people in allchose to break off and pursue a separate, nontraditional route. That proved to be a disastrous mistake, both because of their relative inexperience and the string of obstacles that confronted them. Internal dissension, wagon breakdowns, the loss of livestock, difficult terrain, and extreme weather dogged the travelers. But looming ahead was the most difficult challenge: the impending winter in the Sierra Nevada. As Wallis recounts in his fluid narrative, heavy snow brought widespread starvation and death. Nearly half the party perished, and after four relief efforts, the most shocking aspect of the expedition was discovered: some survivors had resorted to cannibalism. Although the Donner Party has attracted attention over the years and has achieved a certain macabre fascination in Western lore, Wallis succeeds in offering new documentary evidence as well as an absorbing narrative. He provides valuable insight into a 19th-century phenomenon in which thousands of pioneers sought land, new opportunities, and adventure in support of American exceptionalism. Solid Western history that enhances the understanding of a tragic tale by highlighting the strong human dimension through the accounts of participants before, during, and after the expedition. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
