The Apache Wars by Paul Andrew Hutton - Review

I received this book free from the publisher

Book details:

Paperback: 528 pages

Publisher: Broadway Books; Reprint edition (May 2, 2017)

ISBN-13: 978-0770435837

About the book:

In the tradition of Empire of the Summer Moon, a stunningly vivid historical account of the manhunt for Geronimo and the 25-year Apache struggle for their homeland

They called him Mickey Free. His kidnapping started the longest war in American history, and both sides--the Apaches and the white invaders—blamed him for it. A mixed-blood warrior who moved uneasily between the worlds of the Apaches and the American soldiers, he was never trusted by either but desperately needed by both. He was the only man Geronimo ever feared. He played a pivotal role in this long war for the desert Southwest from its beginning in 1861 until its end in 1890 with his pursuit of the renegade scout, Apache Kid.

In this sprawling, monumental work, Paul Hutton unfolds over two decades of the last war for the West through the eyes of the men and women who lived it. This is Mickey Free's story, but also the story of his contemporaries: the great Apache leaders Mangas Coloradas, Cochise, and Victorio; the soldiers Kit Carson, O. O. Howard, George Crook, and Nelson Miles; the scouts and frontiersmen Al Sieber, Tom Horn, Tom Jeffords, and Texas John Slaughter; the great White Mountain scout Alchesay and the Apache female warrior Lozen; the fierce Apache warrior Geronimo; and the Apache Kid. These lives shaped the violent history of the deserts and mountains of the Southwestern borderlands--a bleak and unforgiving world where a people would make a final, bloody stand against an American war machine bent on their destruction.

My thoughts:

This was a very interesting book. I have not read a lot about this subject before but was interested in finding out more. I have always liked stories about Native Americans and their history. In my opinion they were dealt a very bad hand and were lied to and treated horribly. The author did a great job with his research and in doing so answered a lot of questions for me. This book was well written and read like a novel for me. I felt bad for Mickey Free as he was in the middle of this whole "war" all because he was kidnapped. I felt like I was transferred back to another time while reading this book. A very good telling of a bad situation.

Meet the author - Paul Andrew Hutton:

Paul Andrew Hutton is an American cultural historian, award-winning author, documentary writer, and television personality. He is Distinguished Professor of History at the University of New Mexico, a former director of the Western History Association, and former president of the Western Writers of America. Born in Frankfurt, Germany, he was adopted at six months of age by an American Air Force couple and was raised around the world, in Germany, England, and Taiwan. The four years he spent in San Angelo, Texas, however, had a profound impact--imprinting a love of all things Western, and most especially the history of the era known as the Wild West. It was Davy Crockett and the Alamo that first sparked this fascination. Educated in England, Texas, Taiwan, and Indiana, he received his doctorate in American history from Indiana University in 1981. He has published widely in both scholarly and popular magazines, and is a six-time winner of both the Western Writers of America Spur Award and the Western Heritage Award from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum for his print and film writing. His first book, Phil Sheridan and His Army,received the Billington Prize from the Organization of American Historians, the Evans Biography Award, and the Spur Award from the Western Writers of America. He is also the editor of Western Heritage (2011), Roundup (2010), Frontier and Region (1997), The Custer Reader (1992), Soldiers West (1987), and the ten-volume Eyewitness to the Civil War series from Bantam Books (1991-1993). His latest book, The Apache Wars, was just awarded the best nonfiction Spur Award from Western Writers of America (June 2017). From 1977 to 1984 he was associate editor of the Western Historical Quarterly and assistant professor at Utah State University, before moving to the University of New Mexico in 1984. From 1985 to 1991 he served as editor of the New Mexico Historical Review. He has written several short films for state and national parks as well as a dozen television documentaries and has appeared in over 300 television programs on CBS, NBC, PBS, BBC, Fox, Discovery, the History Channel and other networks. In 2003 he was historical consultant for the Ron Howard film The Missing, in 2010 repeated that role in Jon Favreau's Cowboys and Aliens, and again in 2016 on Gavin O'Connor's Jane Got a Gun, and even has a small speaking role in David Zucker's 1994 Naked Gun 33 1/3. He has also been active as a public historian with museums, guest curating major exhibits in 1985 on the Alamo at the DeGolyer Library in Dallas, in 1996 on the Custer legend at the Autry Museum of Western Heritage in Los Angeles, in 2002 on Davy Crockett at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin, in 2007 on Billy the Kid at the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History. His new exhibit on New Mexico film-making, opened in February 2017 at the Albuquerque Museum. He has five children--Laura, Caitlin, Lorena, Chelsea, and Paul Andy--and currently lives with his wife Tracy and two pups--lab Bucky O'Neill and boxer-mix Annie Oakley-- in Albuquerque