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| Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West | 
 enlarge | Author: Ethan Rarick
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
List Price: $28.00
Buy New: $15.94
You Save: $12.06 (43%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  19 reviews
Sales Rank: 34646
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.2
ISBN: 0195305027
Dewey Decimal Number: 979.437
EAN: 9780195305029
ASIN: 0195305027
Publication Date: February 4, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new item. Over 4 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Order with confidence. Code: B20090104225151T
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Product Description
In late October 1846, the last wagon train of that year's westward migration stopped overnight before resuming its arduous climb over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, unaware that a fearsome storm was gathering force. After months of grueling travel, the 81 men, women and children would be trapped for a brutal winter with little food and only primitive shelter. The conclusion is known: by spring of the next year, the Donner Party was synonymous with the most harrowing extremes of human survival. But until now, the full story of what happened, what it tells us about human nature and about America's westward expansion, remained shrouded in myth.
Drawing on fresh archaeological evidence, recent research on topics ranging from survival rates to snowfall totals, and heartbreaking letters and diaries made public by descendants a century-and-a-half after the tragedy, Ethan Rarick offers an intimate portrait of the Donner party and their unimaginable ordeal: a mother who must divide her family, a little girl who shines with courage, a devoted wife who refuses to abandon her husband, a man who risks his life merely to keep his word. But Rarick resists both the gruesomely sensationalist accounts of the Donner party as well as later attempts to turn the survivors into archetypal pioneer heroes. "The Donner Party," Rarick writes, "is a story of hard decisions that were neither heroic nor villainous. Often, the emigrants displayed a more realistic and typically human mixture of generosity and selfishness, an alloy born of necessity."
A fast-paced, heart-wrenching, clear-eyed narrative history, A Desperate Hope casts new light on one of America's most horrific encounters between the dream of a better life and the harsh realities such dreams so often must confront.
Praise for Desperate Passage:
"His is the first significant book, written, like Stewart's, in a novelistic mode and likely to gain popular readership, to incorporate this new data.... Rarick's account is not really about science; it's about humanity.... Rarick has done his homework."--New York Times Book Review
"Rarick takes an evenhanded and thorough approach to the story of the Donners' covered-wagon migration across the country and their winter entrapment in the Sierras. His telling is evocative and easy to read."--Seattle Times
"With a reporter's doggedness and a scholar's thoroughness, Rarick has clarified the historical details. ... Rarick makes this compelling frontier drama all the more so."--National Geographic Adventure Magazine
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| Customer Reviews: Read 14 more reviews...
Caught the history bug from my kids... December 28, 2008
Lack of snow in the Sierras earlier this winter found our family by chance at the museum and memorial near Donner Summit. I had always been fascinated with the obvious morbid realities of the Donner Party but the museum was interesting for all of us and completely captivated my kids. Particularly stunning for all of us were the two separate lists of the survivors and those who died, listed by name and age. This book really does, as many of the reviews have eloquently put, tell a complicated story in a thorough and accessible manner.
A fascinating book you can not put down... December 3, 2008
I already knew many details of the Donner Party from a PBS special I had seen a few years ago. But, I still read this book in two days and I would have finished it faster if I could have had the opportunity. The author did a wonderful job of bringing history to life and he especially did well with creating for us the desperate situations the people found themselves in. Books like this make you ask questions and think about moral dilemmas - I found myself wondering about actions the characters took to take care of their own family versus actions that might have been taken to take care of everyone in the group. Parts of this book do get rather gruesome with perhaps the ultimate moral dilemma but I think that in the end you will have a greater understanding of the decisions that the people in this group made.
Absolutely Amazing November 26, 2008
This book was so utterly amazing in every aspect that I won't be able to come up with the words to do it justice. The trials that The Donner Party were forced to endure are beyond comprehension, yet the author makes you feel like you are on the journey with them. The sense of place and time makes for some eerie and extremely uncomfortable reading, but it also makes one appreciate lying in a comfortable environment merely "reading" about it. The updated information about The Donner Party also sets this book apart from the rest of the stories about this ill-fated journey. I've been interested in this story ever since I was a little kid and we were driving from Washington State to Disneyland and my mom was telling us about the Donner Party. Since then I've always searched out information about them, but "Desperate Passage" is the best I've ever found. I highly recommend this book. One of the best books of the year, hands down.
 Wonderful research makes an intriguing story even better September 22, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Ethan Rarick's intriguing account of the Donner party's tortured attempt to reach California in the winter of 1846-47 is honest and well-written. In DESPERATE PASSAGE he has eschewed the tendency towards sensationalism found in so many other books about the emigrants and has relied on extensive research to tell the story of the small band of pioneers stranded in the Sierra Nevada mountains and its struggle for survival.
This book has many stories of heroism and cowardice, industry and sloth, resourcefulness and ignorance. The enigma of the way the group handled the dreadful conditions under which it eventually found itself is clearly laid out without being judgmental or overly lurid. When the Donner party is discussed today, cannibalism is the overriding theme attached to the story. Rarick certainly doesn't sugarcoat the details, but presents them in such a way that the reader can understand abandonment, homicide, or the eating of human flesh without feeling the revulsion that normally accompanies such ideas.
We often hear of humans suffering through hunger, filth, and horrific climatic conditions. The vast majority of us haven't actually experienced those types of conditions in person. It's more likely that we've read about them while munching on an apple and hearing the wind and rain assault the exterior of our comfortable houses. Or perhaps we've seen the starving children in third world countries pleading for help on television screens. Rarick will change all that for you. In this riveting account of real life suffering, your apple will not taste as sweet nor your coziness be as comforting. You'll actually feel the pain caused by hunger and cold. The cooking up of a loved one's liver might be a little more acceptable.
The sheer number of characters involved in the Donner story and the number of incidents makes the narration hard to follow. I had a little difficulty following who did what when, but that is my only criticism of this work.
As I've said many times, research makes the book. Rarick has done his and he has included some modern findings that shed new light on conditions found and decisions made in the Sierra blizzards that plagued the Donner party. His compilation of this enormous amount of background material into such a tight and compelling report is truly the mark of a great writer. I strongly urge you to read this book.
Best Yet on the Donner Party September 21, 2008
I live in the area where the Donner Party was trapped, and have read almost all that has been written on the subject. This is by far the most complete and accurate book I have read so far about this tragedy!!!
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