This book was exactly what I hoped it would be, a rigorously researched, meticulously detailed, and well written account of the whole history of the Donner Party. I started this book after getting about halfway through History of the Donner Party by C.F. McGlashan. This book, published by a journalist in 1880, no doubt paved the way for latter books on the subject, however, the writing reads like what I imagine 1880’s tabloids or penny dreadfuls, full of overwrought melodrama in a historical account that scarcely needs the embellishment. Added to this, the McGlashan book has some odd passages to say the least, for instance, when the forward party decide to kill their native American guides from Fort Sutter (the only time in the whole ordeal humans were killed for food) the writer describes the guides docile souls, grateful for being killed. While this is certainly a possibility it seems a remote one but the author endorses it wholeheartedly.

Michael Wallis’s book suffers from none of these short comings. In addition to ample footnotes and background research, Wallis adds historical context to the Donner Story, placing it squarely in the age of American expansionism and Manifest Destiny. The writer takes us through the whole thing, starting off with small biographies of key figures back east and their decision to move west, following them along the trail and through Hastings cut off, the ordeal at Donner Lake and the Sierras, and afterwards when the survivors went on to live their lives.