Discuss the stories of the Southwest with the Southwest Reads book club, the 4th Wednesday of every other month!

This month's read is The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native Peoples in the Fight for the West by Megan Kate Nelson:
 

Exploring the connections among the Civil War, the Indian wars, and western expansion, Nelson reframes the era as one of national conflict involving not just the North and South, but also the West.

Against the backdrop of this larger series of battles, Nelson introduces nine individuals: John R. Baylor, a Texas legislator who established the Confederate Territory of Arizona; Louisa Hawkins Canby, a Union Army wife who nursed Confederate soldiers back to health in Santa Fe; James Carleton, a professional soldier who engineered campaigns against Navajos and Apaches; Kit Carson, a famous frontiersman who led a regiment of volunteers against the Texans, Navajos, Kiowas, and Comanches; Juanita, a Navajo weaver who resisted Union campaigns against her people; Bill Davidson, a soldier who fought in all of the Confederacy s major battles in New Mexico; Alonzo Ickis, an Iowa-born gold miner who fought on the side of the Union; John Clark, a friend of Abraham Lincoln s who embraced the Republican vision for the West as New Mexico s surveyor-general; and Mangas Coloradas, a revered Chiricahua Apache chief who worked to expand Apache territory in Arizona.

As we learn how these nine charismatic individuals fought for self-determination and control of the region, we also see the importance of individual actions in the midst of a larger military conflict. The Three-Cornered War is a captivating history based on letters and diaries, military records and oral histories, and photographs and maps from the time that sheds light on a forgotten chapter of American history..

Pick up a copy of this month's book from the Downtown Library Information Desk.

Email libraryprograms@flagstaffpubliclibrary.org or call 928-213-2331 for additional information.

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