Throne of Grace: an epic look into a relatively unknown historical figure

Throne of Grace: A Mountain Man, an Epic Adventure and the Bloody Conquest of the American West by Tom Clavin and Bob Drury shines light on a historical figure largely forgotten in the push West. The legendary adventurer Jedediah Smith and the Mountain Men explored the American frontier after the Lewis and Clark expedition of the Louisiana Purchase and the birth of Manifest Destiny. Stories of friendly deals and bloody battles with the indigenous tribes, the strange beasts and animals they encountered and the gorgeous landscapes before their eyes. From the Rocky Mountains to the western coast, Smith’s explorations became legendary although he fell into obscurity for seventy years after his death. Throne of Grace is a gripping narrative about an relatively underreported era in US history and brings to life one of the great American explorers. 

Whenever I am given the opportunity to read a new historical book by Tom Clavin and Bob Drury, I jump at it. They give the full view of history and its events in its reality and with honesty. Throne of Grace sets out to provide an epic narrative of America’s greatest and yet relatively unknown pathfinder in Jedediah Smith. As their standard, Clavin and Drury provide a painstaking researched story with amazing details and insights into the historical figures and events.  While it is Smith’s story that drives the main narrative, the story of settling west is told through the eyes of the ordinary and memorable men and women who witnessed it, both settlers and indigenous. If you love historical non-fiction, you cannot go wrong with Clavin and Drury’s books. I highly, highly recommend Throne of Grace. 

Throne of Grace: A Mountain Man, an Epic Adventure and the Bloody Conquest of the American West is available in hardcover, eBook and audiobook

The Last Stand of Fox Company: a grueling picture of the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir

The Last Stand of Fox Company: A True Story of US Marines in Combat by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin is a detailed account of one of the coldest battles on record. In November 1950, General MacArthur ignored Mao’s warnings and pushed his UN forces deeper into North Korea. The 10,000 First Division Marines find themselves surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered by the 100,000 Chinese soldiers near the Chosin Reservoir. Fighting their way south through the Toktong Pass, a narrow gorge, is their only chance for survival. Led by Captain William Barber and the 234 Marines of Fox Company, the courageous but undermanned unit of the First Marines. They climb seven miles of frozen terrain to a rocky point overlooking the pass where they will endure four days and five nights of unrelenting Chinese attempts to take Fox Hill. Three-quarters of Fox Company are killed, wounded, or captured. Only a daring and impossible mission to cut through the Chinese lines may be their only chance for survival. 

I have been fascinated with learning more about the Korean War since learning that my late father-in-law fought in the war. The Last Stand of Fox Company is an in depth, no-holds-bar account of the Battle of Chosin Reservoir (November 26 - December 13, 1950) which is often referred as Frozen Chosin as it was the coldest winter on record in 30 years. I know that Marines have a reputation for being tough as nails with a lot of bravado. However, reading about the courageous and determined men of Fox Company, they have certainly earned that bravado. Drury and Clavin do a nice job spotlighting the many men who played an important part in the battle from the leadership to the enlisted men in the foxholes. They also do not shy away from the horrors of battle and the aftermath that these men went through. I highly recommend The Last Stand of Fox Company. It has opened my eyes to the Korean War than just dates and important battles. 

The Last Stand of Fox Company is available in paperback, eBook, and audiobook. 

Blood and Treasure: a well-researched and enjoyable history book

Blood and Treasure by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin focuses on Daniel Boone and his role in the fight for America’s first frontier. In the mid-18th century, the drive to conquer and settle the area beyond the Appalachian Mountains, North America’s “first frontier.” That drive would commence a series of bloody battles against the Native American tribes, the French and lastly British as the fight for independence intensifies. Drury and Clavin provide an epic narrative of Daniel Boone, as America’s first and great pathfinder, whose explorations would become legend, while tearing down the coonskin cap-wearing caricature that many Americans are familiar with. Blood and Treasure is more than just Daniel Boone’s story. It is the story of the ordinary and the extraordinary men and women, colonists and Native, who witnessed the road that led to the birth of the United States. The reader is placed in the middle of America's first frontier and the tales of courage and sacrifice that occurred there. 

I have been interested in Daniel Boone’s story ever since I discovered that his older sister, Sarah Boone Wilcoxson (1724-1815) is my 14th great grandmother on my paternal grandfather’s side. I dived into Blood and Treasure as I was eager to learn more about the man and how he became a legend. It is evident that Drury and Clavin painstakingly researched the story of Daniel Boone and the events surrounding his life. Boone was a man born with wanderlust and the perfect individual to explore the unexplored. While the information seemed overwhelming, and it took me a few days as I carefully read, Drury and Clavin are able to take a complicated history and provide a fast-paced, fiery narrative and honest depiction of the frontier. What I liked about the book is, while the main focus is on Daniel Boone, his contemporaries were allowed to have a voice and help provide a bigger picture of the events than just through Boone’s own recollections. Blood and Treasure provides a clearer picture of who these men and women really were, the good, the bad and the ugly, and not the just pedestal heroes that we have been led to know.  I highly recommend Blood and Treasure. 

Blood and Treasure is available in hardcover, eBook, and audiobook.