Review: History of the Donner Party: A Tragedy of the Sierra

History of the Donner Party: A Tragedy of the Sierra

By Charles Fayette McGlashan

Available on: Amazon

Read as part of the Diversify Your Reading Challenge 2019.

Overview:

Blurb: A literal history of the Donner Party (1846-1847), the fates of the various peoples who perished, and the claims of cannibalism and murder. This book was written in 1880 and celebrated those that survived the ordeal.

Trigger Warnings:

Blood, Cannibalism, Death, Food, Gore, Gun Violence, Murder, Systemic Racism, Time Period Accurate Racism, Violence, Violent Imagery

Body Count: 42 of 90

The Specs:

• Genre
  • Technical Genre: State and Local History of the US, History
  • Theo Genre: Historical Non-Fiction
• POV: Factual 3rd
• Publication information:
  • Paperback page count: 185 pages/310KB
  • Publisher: Amazon Digital Services LLC
  • Language: English
  • ASIN: B0082TZQPU

Other Fun Stuff:

To Read or Not To Read (Again):

Donated

Rating out of five: 2.0 out of 5

Overall review:

Thoughts: The Donner Party’s fate is one I have been curious about for a while. I knew of the cannibalism to survive. But I did not know of the murders, nor of the women that made the trek to California to bring aid to their starving comrades. I did not know so many people died, nor that so many survived and that there were not one but three rescue parties that saved those stuck at Donner Lake.

It was an interesting read, but not one I would read again.

Was it engaging?

At times

Review format updated 5 March 2019