The Best Land Under Heaven

Starred review from February 13, 2017
Adopting an empathetic approach bolstered by studious research and geographical contextualization, biographer Wallis (David Crockett) reclaims the horrific story of the infamously ill-fated wagon train from the annals of sensationalism. Though nearly synonymous with cannibalism in pop culture lore, the Donner Party's 1846â1847 journey receives from Wallis a balanced treatment, showing that the surviving members who chose cannibalism did so as a last resortâand largely because saving their starving children was their priority. Wallis effectively mixes survivors' accounts, trip diaries, and other contemporary sources, delving deep into the backgrounds and dynamics of the multiple families involved in the four-months-long winter wilderness encampment. For example, Tamzene Donner transformed from a botanist who planned to open a school into a resilient mother and wife who fed her children human flesh and refused to leave her desperately ill husband during three different rescue efforts. Wallis explains that the caravan suffered multiple setbacks, including livestock thefts by Native Americans and an unusually long and harsh winter. The leaders also routinely made bad decisions, such as trusting an untested "shortcut" promoted by an armchair guidebook author. The Donner Party's struggles and determination continue to fascinate, and Wallis's comprehensive account of bravery, luck, and failure illuminates the realities of westward expansion.

March 15, 2017
Prolific popular writer Wallis (David Crockett: Lion of the West, 2011, etc.) brings his storytelling skills to an unusual episode in American westward expansion.Within the grand story of Manifest Destiny, the quest for land and settlement from coast to coast, lies the ill-fated saga of two diverse families that set out by wagon train from Springfield, Illinois, and then to the traditional jumping-off point of Independence, Missouri, en route to California. When they began their trek in early 1846, the extended Donner and Reed families had already been part of the great wave of immigration from Europe as well as Southern, border, and Midwestern states. Initially part of a larger convoy, they and their employees--eventually nearly 90 people in all--chose to break off and pursue a separate, nontraditional route. That proved to be a disastrous mistake, both because of their relative inexperience and the string of obstacles that confronted them. Internal dissension, wagon breakdowns, the loss of livestock, difficult terrain, and extreme weather dogged the travelers. But looming ahead was the most difficult challenge: the impending winter in the Sierra Nevada. As Wallis recounts in his fluid narrative, heavy snow brought widespread starvation and death. Nearly half the party perished, and after four relief efforts, the most shocking aspect of the expedition was discovered: some survivors had resorted to cannibalism. Although the Donner Party has attracted attention over the years and has achieved a certain macabre fascination in Western lore, Wallis succeeds in offering new documentary evidence as well as an absorbing narrative. He provides valuable insight into a 19th-century phenomenon in which thousands of pioneers sought land, new opportunities, and adventure in support of American exceptionalism. Solid Western history that enhances the understanding of a tragic tale by highlighting the strong human dimension through the accounts of participants before, during, and after the expedition.

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Starred review from April 15, 2017

Wallis (Billy the Kid) offers a vivid, new look at the ill-fated Donner Party. The 89 members of this group were a cross-section of American socioeconomic classes in 1846. Heeding the call of Manifest Destiny to conquer lands west of the Mississippi River, the settlers all had a common goal: wealth and prosperity with new lives in California. The Donner and Reed families dominated the group, often vying for leadership, and were greatly influenced by an emigrant guidebook written by Lansford Hastings, which advocated taking a shortcut from Fort Bridger, WY, around Utah's Great Salt Lake, and on to California. Their journey was plagued by bad decisions, poor advice, greed, and an early winter that trapped them in the Sierra Nevada. Wallis recounts the efforts of the four rescue parties that brought 46 people out of the mountains. The emigrants had survived months of harsh weather and with little food; some resorting to cannibalizing their dead compatriots. VERDICT Wallis's use of primary sources, together with his dynamic writing style, turns a familiar retelling into a real page-turner. A welcome addition to all history collections. [See Prepub Alert, 10/17/16.]--Patricia Ann Owens, formerly at Illinois Eastern Community College, Mt. Carmel

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