Hey, this is Brett. This is a re-broadcast of episode number 681,

the epic exploits of Kit Carson with historian Hampton Sides.

Hope you enjoyed. We'll see you on Wednesday with a brand new episode.

Brett McKay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Manliness podcast.

Within the space of just three decades, monumental episodes of exploration and expedition,

politics and violence, including the mapping of the Oregon Trail, the acquisition of California,

and the Mexican-American Civil Wars forever changed the history of the United States

in the shape of the American West. And one man, an illiterate trapper, scouting soldier,

was therefore to all. Kit Carson. In his book, Blood and Thunder, the epic story of Kit Carson,

the conquest of the American West, author and historian Hampton Sides follows Carson as a

throughline in this extraordinary period of American history. Today on the show,

Hampton I discuss how Kit Carson became a living legend through embellished accounts of his

rowings, and yet undertook real life exploits that were nearly as unblewable as the tall tales

told about him. We explore how Carson joined the grizzled fraternity of mountain men in his youth

and the wide array of skills that helped him excel as a trapper. We discuss how Carson then

parlayed those skills and became a scout on expeditions that took him from St. Louis to California

over the rocking Sierra Mountains and all throughout the wild, rugged West. Hampton shares how these

expeditions turn Carson into a national celebrity in what this frontier has been thought of as fame.

Hampton also impacts Carson's complex relationship with the American Indians. Now he respected

and adopted the ways of some tribes and yet fought viciously against others. And we in our

conversation with why he decided to become an officer in the Union Army during the Civil War,

his initially reluctant and then brutal campaigns against the Navajos in his legacy today.

...