Winter of Entrapment: A New Look at the Donner Party

by Joseph A. King

During the winter of of 1846-47 over eighty men, women and children of the Donner Party wagon train were trapped in the snows of California's High Sierras. thiry-nine perished on the trail or in the mountain camps. Some survived by eating the dead. This book gives a thorough and readable account and corrects many misconceptions of previous writers.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

257 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1992

Reviews

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very odd book. It's based entirely on a profound hatred of George Stewart's famous book on the Donner Party, Ordeal By Hunger, and really a hatred of Stewart himself, for the alleged crime of only using the 'wrong' sources in writing his book, such that he slanders certain members of the party. But, ironically, to have any sense of what happened to the Donner Party, it wouldn't do you any good to only read Winter of Entrapment. You'd have to read Ordeal too.

King really seems to be personally angry at Stewart. It's kind of strange. Stewart's book is great because it recounts the story as, well, a story. It's compelling reading. King's book is just a lot of dry facts and arguments without any real story. It includes a lot of orginal material, such as Breen's diary and Keseberg's statement and letters and such. So that's something.

Too often King's arguments are literally to claim that one version of events 'sounds' unbelievable, whereas another doesn't. He thinks Eddy and Reed were liars, and that the Breens were all truth-telling heroes. But there's no basis for this other than his personal preference.

So I guess what Entrapment is good for is to show that it's not so clear what actually went down in certain incidents, and that the people involved weren't so clearly good or bad. But what it doesn't do is show you what 'really' happened. We'll never know that for sure.

[Esther · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author–Catholic and of Irish extraction himself–has an axe to grind, true, and he grinds with great pertinacity. That is, that Lewis Keseberg and Patrick Breen, ethnic German and Irish Americans respectively, have gotten a bad rap these last 170-odd years.

Especially Patrick Breen and his wife, Peggy, who, being not only Irish, which was forgivable, but Catholic, which was not (forgivable, I mean; James Reed was Irish, after all, but not Catholic), were of a minority much distrusted and disliked by many Americans of the day.

If there was blame to be laid for any of the worst behaviors exhibited by the immigrants–those unfortunate members of the Donner Party trapped east of the Sierras that winter of 1846-47–it was to fall on the least favorite individuals in the group: an Irish Catholic family and a sometimes irascible Prussian.

The first chroniclers of the Donner Party's fate, being contemporaries of the immigrants if not the immigrants themselves, were bound to be susceptible to the prejudices of the era. Later writers right up until the present day have relied on the histories compiled in an earlier period.

This author, Joseph A. King, may lean way far the other way, but he makes a good point, several good points. More importantly, disjointed though his record may be, it is meticulously researched.

I have read quite a number of the books with which King takes issue and consider myself reasonably well versed–at least more so than the average person–on the history of the Donner/Reed disaster, but this book, Winter of Entrapment: A New Look at the Donner Party, was an eye opener. I am grateful I happened to come across it.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good book on Donners, but Kristin Johnston told me later that it had several errors.

[Rae · Rating 5 out of 5]

In many ways, this is a response to the well-known book Ordeal By Hunger, which is an account of the Donner party and its fate in the California mountains during the winter of 1846-47. King examines new evidence, including forensic, and overlooked accounts to get at the truth and tell a more complete story.

[Nancy Loe · Rating 2 out of 5]

One glaring error in supposition and biased, but still worth reading.

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in college and was amazed at what what I was reading. I could not imagine the decissions that had to be made.

[Gina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating!