While I’m no stranger to the writings of H.W. Brands, having read various articles published in Texas Monthly over the years, I had never read one of his books. I picked a great one to acquaint myself with his work in this impressive treatise of storied American Western expansionism.

The American West drew adventurous souls from near and far, most dreaming of finding their very own “El Dorado”, which translated from Spanish means “the golden one”.

Although all dreams weren’t exclusively about physical gold, many a seeker dreamed big only to fall on hard times. The West was not a place for the faint of heart.

Theodore Roosevelt is a great example of a big dreamer. He loved the West, and for awhile during his self-imposed hiatus from public life following the untimely death of his beloved first wife, he seemed right at home in Dakota territory. Reality set in, however, after a brutal winter decimated cattle stocks across North and South Dakota (and beyond).
As Brands points out, the West’s “elusiveness simply added to its allure” as “Dreams of El Dorado inspired one generation of Americans after another to head west.” Dreams of El Dorado starts where the American West really began – the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, and continuing through the early twentieth century even as more Western dreams awaited future generations.

A good deal of this book has been highlighted for my own personal reference. I enjoyed the book so much that I purchased it for my own collection of important American history resources. Even though the book is over 500 pages, you won’t be bored – not for a second!

Brands offers a comprehensive overview of three centuries of history in the American West. His examination of the economics of the era is particularly strong, emphasizing the greed and corruption that was a hallmark of the Gilded Age. Historical vignettes throughout the work introduce voices of often historically overlooked people. The inclusion of perspectives of people of color, indigenous peoples, and women, are a refreshing and necessary corrective to a narrative often dominated almost exclusively by white men.

The book will function as an effective survey text for college/university level courses and the lively style will appeal to a general audience.

After coming to love historical novels, I discovered a large gap in my knowledge of the development of the United States. The historical fiction series The Daughters of the Mayflower began the journey raising so many interesting questions and giving me a snapshot of what really transpired at the close of each novel. Dreams of El Dorado by H.W. Brands is the continuation of that journey for me and it’s been a great education!

“Any work of history must have a beginning and an end. This one commences with the Louisiana Purchase at the start of the nineteenth century, when the United States first gained a foothold—a very large one—beyond the Mississippi. It ends in the early twentieth century, when the West had become enough like the East to make the Western experience most comprehensible as a piece of the American whole rather than as a place apart. Western dreams didn’t die; Hollywood and Silicon Valley would be built on such dreams. But the dreams were no longer as distinctively Western as they once had been.” - Dreams of El Dorado by H.W. Brands

And this book does exactly that! Brutally honest (I read with my eyes closed over some of the carnage left by the wars fought during this period), the author doesn’t flinch from sharing what took place during this land-grabbing mania. I knew anecdotally what happened in major movements such as the Californian Gold Rush but, without context, it didn’t have any meaning to me. Walking through this history, the sequence of events which lead to the end of the “wild” west, was fascinating and tragic!

“The destruction of the Tonquin dealt a heavy blow to the Astor project; it also revealed the simple but ineluctable theme of violence in the history of the American West: of humans killing one another in the struggle for control of Western resources. As time would prove, violence would be the defining characteristic of the West. When the violence diminished to the background level of the rest of the country, the West would no longer be the West but simply another part of America.” - Dreams of El Dorado by H.W. Brands

Living in South Africa, land claims is a sensitive subject and I found it interesting to reflect on how land was handled just a century and a half earlier in the Americas! I had no idea the Mexicans and Spanish were in Texas so late into the 1800s nor how the Chinese were essential to the building of the railroad nor the way cowboys calmed thousands of longhorn cattle by circling them as they crossed the plains…All these nuggets of fascinating happenings! This book is jam-packed full of them and yet the narrative thread is so strong, it pulls the reader through intrigued to know how the politics will unfurl! In fairness, this may partly be due to my ignorance and those more familiar with the history may find it less astonishing but the reviews I’ve read suggest H.W. Brands really has written something quite exceptional!

If history interests you, this is one to pick up and relish! Whilst I flew towards the end, I was relieved to be reaching the end of this bloody period of time, I was sad to see the end of this book and I’ll be looking for more form H.W. Brands! Carefully researched, beautifully compiled and compellingly written, I highly recommend it! It’s a five out of five on the en-JOY-ment scale.

thoroughly enjoyable account of a vast subject highlighting particular episodes to paint a broad canvas that celebrates the extraordinary variety of the American West

Dreams of El Dorado takes the reader on a journey into the settling of the West from its early frontier days through the establishment of the Western National Parks. Brands frames his book by not only introducing personalities but also issues that drove western settlement. He focuses on the quest for independence, economic reasons, religious freedom, health, scientific curiosity and a new start. Clashes between different ethnic groups and political factions are also portrayed.

Reading this book is like investigating the fabric of a patchwork quilt. Each chapter (a patchwork square) has something to offer, a new insight, a new connection, a way of seeing what you thought you understood. Taken together the book seamlessly introduces the West as an iconic American experience, sometimes seen now as both real and mythical. Highly recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this title.

A sweeping and ambitious history of the development of the western US. Brands begins with the fur trappers of the northern Rockies and the Lewis and Clark expedition and goes all the way to Teddy Rosevelt and the establishment of national parks. He covers the settlement of Texas and its war for independence from Mexico, the Indian wars, the gold rush, the building of the railroad, the Oregon and Santa Fe Trails, the cattle drives and everything in between. Entire books have been written on each of these topics, but Brand does a good job of giving the highlights and keeping the book interesting. At times the book slows into rite history, but for the most part he tells the story through personal narratives. Once I got into the book I couldn’t put it down.
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing a prepublication copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first HW Brands. It won't be my last. His writing flows so well! Really enjoyed this one. Would like some of the various pieces to have been maybe put together tighter but that is a quibble. Well done. Highly recommend,

I love westerns and nonfiction, so when this came up for review I was very excited. I'm glad I was able to check this out as I really enjoyed reading it. It was well-researched and well written, you could tell the author enjoyed the topic.