If Ms. Bellows’s book occasionally oversimplifies in the service of conveying a very big picture, her keen sense of story and her appreciation of her individual subjects tell us much that is new, and vividly.
An articulate, engaging study ... The author obviously has great affection and admiration for her subjects, and she knits together material from a wide range of primary and secondary sources.
Upbeat ... [Bellows] makes room for fairly forgiving looks at white frontier figures who have received more scrutiny in recent years ... Empathetic yet lacking some up-to-date critical perspective, this is a mixed bag.
