Dakota

by Matt Braun

HE CAME WEST HAUNTED BY DEATH AND GRIEF...
In 1884, a Harvard-educated legislator from New York set off for Dakota Territory. Staggered by the deaths of his mother and wife on the same tragic night, Teddy Roosevelt was returning to a place he had visited the year before, a place that had struck him with its fierce beauty and its bounty of big game and big opportunity. By the Little Missouri River, Teddy Roosevelt established a ranching empire, and soon stood at the center of a storm...

AND IN A VIOLENT LAND, HE WAS REBORN...
Less than a decade after an Indian rebellion and the Battle of the Little Big Horn, Dakota was being settled by the brave, the ambitious, and the restless. While some men were grabbing power, some were getting away with murder. For Roosevelt, using local cowboys and transplanted Easterners as his ranch hands, this was a place to make his mark, to make a stand and to look a killer in the eye. And this was a time to bring wild Dakota into the heart of America...

Genres: Historical Fiction, Westerns

306 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 30, 2005

About the author

Matt Braun is an author of fifty-six books, most of which are in the Western genre and has over 40 million copies in print.

Reviews

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

As with most of Braun’s books it was entertaining from start to finish. It is a work of fiction that does manage to catch the spirit of Roosevelt and how the West influenced his life just after the untimely death of his wife and mother in the same day.
I chuckle a bit at the readers who read Braun and believe it is an accurate account of the characters. It is commercial fiction and Braun does not pretend to be giving an accurate account. Much like the movie Tombstone, it is for entertainment purposes and not to be used as a literature source of information.

[Kaitlin Jundt · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75 stars for a fun little western set in Medora, ND with Teddy Roosevelt as the star and the Marquis de Mores as the villain. The author did a good job at incorporating true facts about TR's time in the Badlands, but there was quite a bit added that was purely fictional.

[Keith B · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good fictional cover of Theodore Roosevelt's Dakota territory days. Bought it not realizing I had already read it but once I got started it clicked. Still good the second time through

[Seth · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was my introduction to Teddy Roosevelt, who I have been wanting to read about for a long time. Not a fan of the writing style--Braun tries to write history like it's a novel, filling in gaps in dialogue and perhaps more with his imagination--but I came away from it thoroughly impressed with Roosevelt. The man had an insanely interesting life (this book covers only his mid to late 20's). Favorite part--where an arrogant Frenchman challenges him to a duel, and Roosevelt (bluffing) chooses shotguns as the weapons, ensuring that both of them would be killed or disfigured. Wow! Pretty gutsy bluff, but it worked.

UPDATE! WARNING! WARNING! I just read a respectable biography about Roosevelt by David McCulloh, and either Braun or McCulloh is making stuff up about Roosevelt's Dakota days. I'm betting it is Braun, and that is so irritating. Even the "shotgun" incident I mention above was probably a huge exaggeration, and I was sooo disappointed. Dang you Braun! Don't try to Hollywoodize a man who needs no embellishment!

[Coleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found it interesting that I loved the parts of the book where Roosevelt is in New York- and I was puzzled as to why I lost interest when he was in Dakota. I wanted to like this book- but I couldn't keep interested with the "out west" characters.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]