SEPTEMBER 2022 - AudioFile
This well-researched, well-written dual biography of the two great Lakota leaders Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse is a detailed account of their lives beyond their victory over the U.S. Army at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Shaun Taylor-Corbett’s baritone voice is a splendid vehicle to perform this account. Listening to this production, one hears the constant conflict between two mutually incompatible cultures and the amazing lives that Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull lived. Taylor-Corbett has an easy-to-follow staccato intonation. He is clear in his enunciation, and his performance is an excellent match of text and narrator. Those who are fascinated by the Plains Indian Wars will not be disappointed. An added treat is a pdf of the print version’s illustrations and sources. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
06/13/2022
Spur Award winner Gardner (Rough Riders) delivers a stirring account of the resistance campaign led by Lakota holy man Sitting Bull and war chief Crazy Horse in the 1870s. “Unwavering in their resolve to live separate from the white men steadily encroaching upon their lands,” the Lakota chiefs and their followers “recognized no treaties and no reservations.” The centerpiece of the narrative is the pair’s victory at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876, a clash that Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer instigated and horribly mismanaged, even though he was warned by his own Crow scout, Half Yellow Face, not to divide his troops against the overwhelming force of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. As Gardner makes clear, however, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse’s greatest victory set the stage for their eventual defeat. After Little Big Horn, they had the permanent attention of Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, who vowed to force the anti-treaty bands onto reservations, or “exterminate them.” Sharp characterizations and evocative imagery—“The warrior’s head was promptly cut off and taken to Deadwood, where it was paraded around town, earning its keeper enough whiskey to get him falling-down drunk”—make this a standout portrait of the Old West. (June)
From the Publisher
"In a year crowded with excellent Western history and biography, Mark Lee Gardner’s The Earth Is All That Lasts stands above the rest as the most ambitious history/biography in both the Western genre and general American biography. His use of primary resources, especially those of Native peoples, is exemplary. I believe it is the finest dual biography of Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull ever written." — True West, Best of the West 2023: Best Nonfiction Book of the Year
"Gardner has done prodigious research into the Indian wars, recounting battle after battle, from the glory days to the end for the Lakotas at the infamous Ghost Dance." — Denver Post, "Books to Read this Month"
"The Earth is All That Lasts, a tale of two indigenous heroes, tells the story of resistance and hope in a time when it was most needed." — BuzzFeed
"A stirring account of the resistance campaign led by Lakota holy man Sitting Bull and war chief Crazy Horse in the 1870s. ... Sharp characterizations and evocative imagery...make this a standout portrait of the Old West." — Publishers Weekly
"Spirited history of the great Sioux war leaders of the late 19th century and their valiant stand against White encroachment...A strong work of Western history that strives to bring the Native American view to center stage." — Kirkus Reviews
"A fast-paced and highly absorbing read." — Wall Street Journal
"Digging deeply into often-neglected primary sources, Mark Lee Gardner has written a lavish and powerful dual biography. ... Gardner fleshes out [Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull's] stories in nearly cinematic detail, giving us a fresh look into their characters, motivations, and passions. He also paints detailed images of the Western landscape and of all the diverse peoples who have made it — or are fighting to make it — their home. We’re gratefully left with a finer appreciation for the tragic struggle and selfless dedication of Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull." — Big Sky Journal
“Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull remain integral to the broader understanding of the Old West. … Gardner masterfully adds a fresh dimension to the lives of two men he views as freedom fighters.” — Wild West
"Excellent. ... Mark Lee Gardner is one of the best writers around. The pages fly by. ... A great read from a great author." — The Tombstone Epitaph
"With its clear prose and rich narrative ... The Earth Is All That Lasts effectively brings the Native American viewpoint to the fore, and it gives the reader a thorough account of important events in American history." — Military Heritage
"One of the finest books—in all genres—of the year." — True West
"Masterful." — Manhattan Book Review
"An extraordinary work of exhaustive research and meticulous scholarship." — Midwest Book Review
"A remarkable contribution to this tragic period in our history. ... A thrilling read." — The Battlefield Dispatch
“Engaging and well-written. … Many histories of the Sioux Wars have been written, but Gardner’s careful scholarship and deliberate inclusion of Native American voices give added layers of texture, depth, and insight.” — North Dakota History
"With The Earth Is All That Lasts, the renowned Western author sought to tell the story of the iconic battle from the Lakota and Cheyenne perspective" — Colorado Sun
Outstanding. ... The ideal chronicle of the Plains Indians Wars of the late nineteenth century is an articulate, well-researched endeavor that both an informed reader and a subject matter novice would consume and applaud. Mark Lee Gardner’s exceptional contribution to this extensive genre clearly meets this often elusive standard. ... Such an exemplary testament to the effective blend of academic and popular history belongs in the library of every student (and writer) of the Plains Indian Wars. — On Point: The Journal of Army History
USA Today on Rough Riders
A thrill ride for history buffs. ... A must read for Roosevelt aficionados and those who appreciate compelling stories of military history.
John Milius
As Hollywood’s resident expert on Theodore Roosevelt, I found Mark Lee Gardner’s Rough Riders to be a finely-honed and fresh look at this country’s only ‘cowboy’ regiment to ever see combat. A true tribute to those ‘Children of the Dragon’s Blood’ who charged with Roosevelt up the Kettle and San Juan hills that fateful day in 1898.
Dallas Morning News on Rough Riders
Mark Lee Gardner’s excellent book blends history, biography, and well-detailed combat narrative as it shows how Lt. Col. Theodore Roosevelt and the Rough Riders became national heroes.
New York Times Book Review on Shot All to Hell
Rollicking. ... Equal parts violent melodrama and meticulous procedural... with enough bloody action to engage readers enthralled by tales of good versus evil.
Washington Post on Shot All to Hell
Rewarding. ... Gardner’s re-creation of the Northfield Raid... orchestrates the often-unwieldy particulars of the event with considerable virtuosity. ... It would be hard to imagine a more thorough account.
Library Journal
01/01/2022
New York Times best-selling authors Abrams and Fisher join forces with Gray, the young Black lawyer who served as Martin Luther King's defense attorney when King was tried for his part in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, to tell the story of the trial in Alabama v. King (150,000-copy first printing). Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Bissinger chronicles The Mosquito Bowl, a football game played in the Pacific theater on Christmas Eve 1944 between the 4th and 29th Marine regiments to prove which had the better players (400,000-copy first printing). In The Spy Who Knew Too Much, New York Times best-selling, Edgar Award-winning Blum recounts efforts by Tennent "Pete" Bagley—a rising CIA star accused of being a mole—to redeem his reputation by solving the disappearance of former CIA officer John Paisley and to reconcile with his daughter, who married his accuser's son (50,000-copy first printing). Associate professor of musicology at the University of Michigan, Clague reveals how The Star-Spangled Banner became the national anthem in O Say Can You Hear? Multiply honored for his many history books, Dolin returns with Rebels at Sea to chronicle the contributions of the freelance sailors—too often called profiteers or pirates—who scurried about on private vessels to help win the Revolutionary War. With The Earth Is All That Lasts, Gardner, the award-winning author of Rough Riders and To Hell on a Fast Horse, offers a dual biography of the significant Indigenous leaders Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull (50,000-copy first printing). With We Refuse To Forget, New America and PEN America fellow Gayle investigates the Creek Nation, which both enslaved Black people and accepted them as full citizens, electing the Black Creek citizen Cow Tom as chief in the mid 1800s but stripping Black Creeks of their citizenship in the 1970s. Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter Hoffman's Give Me Liberty profiles Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá, who founded the Christian Liberation Movement in 1987 to challenge Fidel Castro's Communist regime (50,000-copy first printing). Forensic anthropologist Kimmerle's We Carry Their Bones the true story of the Dozier Boys School, first brought to light in Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Nickel Boys (75,000-copy first printing). Kissinger's Leadership plumbs modern statecraft, putting forth Charles de Gaulle, Konrad Adenauer, Margaret Thatcher, Richard Nixon, Lee Kuan Yew, and Anwar Sadat as game-changing leaders who helped create a new world order. From a prominent family that included the tutor to China's last emperor, Li profiles her aunts Jun and Hong—separated after the Chinese Civil War, with one becoming a committed Communist and the other a committed capitalist—in Daughters of the Flower Fragrant Garden. New York Times best-selling author Mazzeo (Irena's Children) reveals that three Sisters in Resistance—a German spy, an American socialite, and Mussolini's daughter—risked their lives to hand over the secret diaries of Italy's jailed former foreign minister, Galeazzo Ciano, to the Allies; the diaries later figured importantly in the Nuremberg Trials (45,000-copy first printing). A Junior Research Fellowship in English at University College, Oxford, whose PhD dissertation examined how gay cruising manifests in New York poetry, Parlett explains that New York's Fire Island has figured importantly in art, literature, culture, and queer liberation over the past century (75,000-copy first printing). Author of the New York Times best-selling Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy and a former CIA officer, Reynolds argues in Need To Know for the importance of U.S. intelligence during World War II in securing victory. As he reveals in Getting Out of Saigon, White was directed by Chase Manhattan Bank to close its Saigon branch in 1975 and went beyond orders by evacuating not just senior Vietnamese employees but the entire staff and their families (75,000-copy first printing).
SEPTEMBER 2022 - AudioFile
This well-researched, well-written dual biography of the two great Lakota leaders Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse is a detailed account of their lives beyond their victory over the U.S. Army at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Shaun Taylor-Corbett’s baritone voice is a splendid vehicle to perform this account. Listening to this production, one hears the constant conflict between two mutually incompatible cultures and the amazing lives that Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull lived. Taylor-Corbett has an easy-to-follow staccato intonation. He is clear in his enunciation, and his performance is an excellent match of text and narrator. Those who are fascinated by the Plains Indian Wars will not be disappointed. An added treat is a pdf of the print version’s illustrations and sources. M.T.F. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
2022-04-26
Spirited history of the great Sioux war leaders of the late 19th century and their valiant stand against White encroachment.
Is it possible to say anything more about George Armstrong Custer? Perhaps not, and Gardner, a practiced historian of the West, doesn’t really try. Instead, he places Custer’s demise in the context of a complex Native political and military milieu, with two leaders of widely different dispositions in the forefront. One was Sitting Bull, who, as a holy man endowed with a gift of vision, not only launched a concerted war against the Whites, but also foresaw Custer’s defeat in specific detail. Another was Crazy Horse, the “mysterious Oglala war chief,” whose bravery in the Battle of Little Bighorn verged on the suicidal. Gardner broadens the narrative to embrace related episodes such as the so-called Red Cloud War and the Starvation March, the latter of which made Sitting Bull’s name a household word—so famous that once he surrendered, he joined Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show. (See Deanne Stillman’s excellent Blood Brothers for more.) Gardner does a good job of showing how events large and small conditioned the last 20-odd years of the Sioux Wars. For example, as he writes of the Yellowstone region, sacred ground to many Native groups, “the Panic of 1873 put a temporary stop to the Northern Pacific [Railroad], but it didn’t put a stop to the white man’s incursions.” Deals cut behind closed doors in Washington, D.C., were as significant as closer-to-home developments such as the Ghost Dance—and, as Gardner shows, unbending federal policies and their enforcers proved fatal to both Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull, who “would not suffer the ignominy of being imprisoned.” A grim highlight of the book is the denouement, which recounts what happened to Sitting Bull’s body in the years after his murder in 1890.
A strong work of Western history that strives to bring the Native American view to center stage.