Oh What a Slaughter, Larry McMurtry
Oh What a Slaughter, Larry McMurtry
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Oh What a Slaughter
Massacres in the American West: 1846--1890

Author: Larry McMurtry

Narrator: Michael Prichard

Unabridged: 4 hr 22 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 11/01/2005


Synopsis

Here are the true stories of the West's most terrible massacres—Sacramento River, Mountain Meadows, Sand Creek, Marias River, Camp Grant, and Wounded Knee, among others. These massacres involved Americans killing Indians, but also Indians killing Americans and, in the case of the currently hugely controversial Mountain Meadows Massacre in 1857, Mormons slaughtering a party of American settlers, including women and children.

McMurtry's evocative descriptions of these events recall their full horror, and the deep, constant apprehension and dread endured by both pioneers and Indians. By modern standards the death tolls were often small—Custer's defeat in 1876 was the only encounter to involve more than two hundred dead—yet in the thinly populated West of that time, the violent extinction of a hundred people had a colossal impact on all sides. Though the perpetrators often went unpunished, many guilty and traumatized men felt compelled to tell and retell the horror they had committed. Nephi Johnson, one of the participants in the Mountain Meadows Massacre, died crying "Blood, blood, blood!"

McMurtry's powerful prose captures the gritty essence of this tumultuous and pivotal era, and the fascinating and remarkable men and women-American and Indian, celebrated and forgotten-who shaped the West, and would kill to keep it.

About Larry McMurtry

Larry McMurtry is the author of twenty-nine novels, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lonesome Dove. His other works include two collections of essays, three memoirs, and more than thirty screenplays, including the coauthorship of Brokeback Mountain, for which he received an Academy Award. He lives in Archer City, Texas.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Philip on November 16, 2018

4 stars for the subject matter, but just 2 for presentation. For a writer of McMurtry's stature, this was pretty sloppily put together. He wanders, he repeats himself, has a number of endless run-on sentences (example: "Tecumseh's brother, Handsome Lake, preached some such doctrine and - nearer in t......more

Goodreads review by Matthew on May 16, 2024

3.5- a brief, editorial look at several American massacres in the West. Interesting but not Larry’s best work.......more

Goodreads review by Ryan on May 08, 2025

It’s a good survey of the events covered for readers that are unfamiliar with them or the characters involved. There’s a decent bibliographical reference at the end as well. It’s a short book, but the clunky prose in various sections slowed me down quite a bit. It read like a rushed undergrad resear......more

Goodreads review by P.S. on December 22, 2017

This is a great book, even though it is heart breaking. The terrible massacres in America's history should never be forgotten and this book looks at them in a well written collection.......more

Goodreads review by Fara on October 19, 2008

McMurtry discusses six massacres that occurred in the American West between 1846 and 1890 - most of Indians, some of whites, and their causes and aftermaths. Periodically, he puts them in context to other massacres, historical and contemporary. It's a dark book, but a good one, a reminder of how our......more