Ethan Rarick talks about Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West.
Let's allow Simon Winchester to describe Rarick's new book: "This sober, unflinching look at one of the great tragedies of America's pioneering past tells us a great deal that is new about the Donner Party's trials. Rarick scythes away the myths of one of the nation's better-known sagas, and offers up this horrific but ennobling tale in all its freshly researched detail. Readers take heed: this is a tough book, but a gripping one."
Ethan Rarick's last book was California Rising: The Life and Times of Pat Brown- Cody's Books
Bio
Ethan Rarick
Ethan Rarick is acting director of the Center on Politics, and acting director of publications for the Institute of Governmental Studies. As a journalist, Rarick covered politics in both California and Oregon for more than 15 years, and has written for the Associated Press, United Press International, the Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle.
He is the author of California Rising: The Life and Times of Pat Brown, which has been described as "colorful and masterful" by the Los Angeles Times, "shrewd" by The Economist, and "lively, fast-paced, critical and fully informed" by Publishers Weekly.
When I was a kid, I always thought "The Donner Party" was referring to something fun. I had this image in my head of a bunch of pioneers up in the mountains, sitting around their Conestoga wagons, eating...cake. Or something.
Yeah, cake. Not, like, each other.
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But words - words are not enough! - Klaus Kinski