THRONE OF GRACE A Mountain Man, an Epic Adventure, and the Bloody Conquest of the American West

As soon as listeners hear Johnny Heller's easy Western drawl, they'll know they're in for a story about the Old West. This engrossing account begins in 1822 when bright, strapping, historically neglected Jedediah Smith joined 100 "Enterprising Young Men" to open trade routes and explore the vast Rocky Mountains in a race to expand a young nation's opportunities and boundaries. Heller's folksy intonation and optimistic tone accentuate Smith's many accomplishments as a trailblazer, cartographer, and mountain man. However, the word "bloody" is in the title, and it does seem that every time fur trappers, entrepreneurs, and early settlers following in Smith's footsteps met with any number of Indigenous Americans, violence ensued. Smith himself was killed by Comanches in 1831. Still Manifest Destiny marched on. B.P. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2024]