Dreams of El Dorado, H. W. Brands
Dreams of El Dorado, H. W. Brands
5 Rating(s)
List: $38.99 | Sale: $27.30
Club: $19.49

Dreams of El Dorado
A History of the American West

Author: H. W. Brands

Narrator: Matt Kugler

Unabridged: 17 hr 11 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 10/22/2019

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

"Epic in its scale, fearless in its scope" (Hampton Sides), this masterfully told account of the American West from a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist sets a new standard as it sweeps from the California Gold Rush and beyond.
In Dreams of El Dorado, H. W. Brands tells the thrilling, panoramic story of the settling of the American West. He takes us from John Jacob Astor's fur trading outpost in Oregon to the Texas Revolution, from the California gold rush to the Oklahoma land rush. He shows how the migrants' dreams drove them to feats of courage and perseverance that put their stay-at-home cousins to shame-and how those same dreams also drove them to outrageous acts of violence against indigenous peoples and one another. The West was where riches would reward the miner's persistence, the cattleman's courage, the railroad man's enterprise; but El Dorado was at least as elusive in the West as it ever was in the East.

Balanced, authoritative, and masterfully told, Dreams of El Dorado sets a new standard for histories of the American West.

About H. W. Brands

H. W. Brands taught at Vanderbilt University and Texas A&M University before joining the faculty at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is the Dickson Allen Anderson Centennial Professor of History. A writer on American history and politics, his books include Traitor to His Class, Andrew Jackson, The Age of Gold, and The First American. Several of his books have been bestsellers, and two, Traitor to His Class and The First American, were finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. He lectures frequently on historical and current events, and can be seen and heard on national and international television and radio programs.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Blaine on June 18, 2020

Brands is one of my favorite historian/authors. He has a way of telling a story that does not come off as overly professorial or long-windedly boring. This is another great example of his works. This book focuses on the development of the West, from the time of Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase to Tedd......more

Goodreads review by Laura on August 03, 2019

This will make a great research tool for those looking to understand some of the history of events like the Gold Rush of 1849 or the Indian Wars. Sadly, there are connections missing between events and it feels as though the author isn't making a coherent argument or telling a full story. That's not......more

Goodreads review by Micah on October 15, 2024

Review to come.......more

Goodreads review by James on August 03, 2020

Brands's historical method is the story rather than analysis and interpretation of events. So Dreams of El Dorado is the story of the American west rather than its history. All the iconic events are here, framed by 2 presidents: Thomas Jefferson who sprung the Lewis and Clark Expedition into the new......more

Goodreads review by Deb (Readerbuzz) on November 26, 2020

Historian H. W. Brands tells the story of the American West, including tales of the early fur trappers, the Lewis and Clark expedition, the mountain men, the beginnings of Texas, the Oregon Trail, the Gold Rush, the Native Americans, and the first cowboy in the White House. Brands zooms out for each......more

Quotes

"Lively...[Brands] knows how to write in a popular style that draws us in and holds our interest...[He] also pauses to make some thought-provoking insights, which round out the narrative and present his subject in a fresh light...An engaging, eminently readable introduction."—Wall Street Journal

"An exciting new history of the American West and how it was settled, from the California gold rush to the Oklahoma land rush and more."—New York Post

"[Brands] has a deft narrative touch and a talent for highlighting the human drama undergirding historical events...History as adventure story."—Los Angeles Reviewof Books

"[A] fine new history."—Houston Chronicle

"Brands surveys the past three centuries of the West, chronicling all-too-human tales of hope, greed, triumph, tragedy, and irony. His history is propelled by the stories of amazing characters, some famous, others obscure...A marvelous short history of the West, rewarding both expert and neophyte readers."—Booklist (starredreview)

"Brands is a master storyteller...[Dreams of El Dorado] will enthrall aficionados of 19th-century American history."—Library Journal

"A lively, well-written survey full of novel observations on a region shrouded in legend."—Kirkus

"Brands argues convincingly that the reality of the American West was very different than the way it was mythologized...Lucid prose and short, tightly focused chapters...This broad but clearly structured study, with its many well-chosen illustrations, is likely to have wide appeal."—Publishers Weekly

"The expansion of the United States across what would become the American West is the sort of sprawling, tumultuous epic that is best told by a calm and concentrated mind. Fortunately the author of this book is H.W. Brands, who has the vision and supreme narrative skill to braid the chaotic tendrils that make up the past into a story that is almost as exciting for its coherence as it is for the heroic and heartbreaking events it so vividly renders. Dreams of El Dorado is the latest reason to think of Brands as America's go-to historian."—Stephen Harrigan, author of Big Wonderful Thing and The Gates of the Alamo

"A subject this monumental demands prose to match it, and I am pleased that to report that, in this sprawling epic, H. W. Brands is at his sparkling best. He is of the American West and grew up in its myths, which may explain why he writes about it with such passion and clarity."—S. C. Gwynne, New York Times bestselling author of Empire of the Summer Moon and Rebel Yell

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List