{"product_id":"the-lost-cities-of-el-norte-coronados-quest-the-unconquered-west-and-the-birth-of-american-indian-resistance","title":"The Lost Cities of El Norte: Coronado's Quest, the Unconquered West, and the Birth of American Indian Resistance","description":"\n\u003ctable align=\"center\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\"\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd class=\"productDetailSmallElements\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"With vivid detail and infectious energy, Peter Stark is a uniquely gifted storyteller who makes history feel immediate and alive.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDORIS KEARNS GOODWIN, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Leadership: In Turbulent Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"More than two and a half centuries before Lewis and Clark embarked on their famous trek, another exploring party, less well-known today but in many ways more ambitious and consequential, headed into \u003ci\u003eterra incognita\u003c\/i\u003e to unlock the secrets of the American West. In Peter Stark's fresh and dramatic telling, Coronado's epic expedition comes alive in a narrative that deftly alternates between European and Indigenous perspectives, giving us a thoroughly modern take on one of history's classic sagas of adventure and first contact.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eHAMPTON SIDES, author of The Wide Wide Sea, In the Kingdom of Ice, and Blood and Thunder\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"Chronicles Coronado's expedition and the Native American resistance to the Spanish incursion. Stark smoothly alternates between Spanish and Native American perspectives as he brings to life his cast of characters along with their aspirations and conflicts. . . . Fascinating.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePETER COZZENS, Wall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"A gripping, engrossing story of the American Southwest in the 1540s, when the dreams of would-be conquistadors riding north from New Spain crashed into the spectacular landscape and a resourceful Native culture which, together, undid them. History's pivot balanced on Francisco de Coronado's strivings, cruelty, sufferings, and ultimate failure of vision. In Stark's place-sensitive prose you can smell the desert heat and the Great Plains dust.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eIAN FRAZIER, author of Great Plains\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"A richly detailed history of Coronado's ill-fated journey.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Denver Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\"[A] vivid history of the famed Spanish quest for fabled cities of gold. . . . . Native resistance, Stark notes, soon pushed the Spanish back into Mexico. If it had not, he adds provocatively, the Spanish Empire might well have extended all the way to the Mississippi, containing the United States on the opposite shore and creating a culture 'of Indigenous and European, something like today's Brazil.' It makes for a fine thought experiment to close a highly readable historical yarn. A welcome addition to the literature of Hispanic America and the American West.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher Marketing\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Peter Stark is a uniquely gifted storyteller.\" -DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eBy the bestselling author of \u003ci\u003eAstoria, \u003c\/i\u003ea thrilling and masterfully crafted narrative of \"one of history's classic sagas of adventure and first contact\" (Hampton Sides): Conquistador Francisco Coronado's expedition across 2,500 miles of the vast, unconquered North American interior--\"El Norte Misterioso.\"\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1540, the grandest exploring expedition ever assembled in the Americas paraded north from the ruins of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, a glittering column of 2,000 men heading into the unknown. Their destination was \u003ci\u003eEl Norte Misterioso\u003c\/i\u003e--The Mysterious North, present-day United States--where fabulous cities of gold were rumored to shine beyond the horizon. Two years later, survivors began stumbling back, half dead. Lost to poisoned arrows, brutal deserts, starvation, cold, desertion, and countless other hardships, 90% of those who left would never return.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLed by Francisco Coronado and backed by the full weight of the Spanish empire, the superpower of its day, they had expected to seize the land, steal its riches, and subjugate its peoples, just as they had so recently done to the mighty Aztec and Inca empires. But instead they encountered the unconquered American West, populated by complex societies of indigenous nations, masters of a vast and unforgiving landscape who fiercely resisted this European \"incursion\" onto their lands.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCoronado and his people traversed 2,500 miles of unmapped terrain, ranging across the present-day U.S. states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and finally Kansas. They were the first Europeans to gaze upon the Grand Canyon and the Rocky Mountains; made first contact with the Puebloan peoples; crossed the Sonoran Desert and the Great Plains, where they encountered endless herds of bison and the nomadic tribes who followed them. After leading the largest exploring cavalcade ever assembled in the New World, wearing his gilded armor and bobbing plume, Coronado retreated back to Mexico City two years later accompanied only by a hundred or so hangers-on and carried on a litter, a broken man. America's Southwest and Plains would remain unconquered for the next 300 years.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA Reading the West Bestseller!\u003cbr\u003eA Pacific Northwest Independent Bestseller!\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations:\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eBooklist\u003c\/span\u003e 04\/01\/2026 (EAN 9780063383883, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/span\u003e 02\/15\/2026 (EAN 9780063383883, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eContributor Bio:\u003c\/strong\u003eStark, Peter\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePeter Stark \u003c\/strong\u003eis an adventurer and historian. He is the author of \u003cem\u003eAstoria: Astor and Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire\u003c\/em\u003e, a \u003cem\u003eNew York Times \u003c\/em\u003ebestseller and a PEN USA Literary Award finalist. A former correspondent for \u003cem\u003eOutside\u003c\/em\u003e magazine, Stark has also been published in \u003cem\u003eSmithsonian\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe New York Times Magazine\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eMen's Journal\u003c\/em\u003e. His other books include \u003cem\u003eYoung Washington: How Wilderness and War Forged America's Founding Father, \u003c\/em\u003ea finalist for the George Washington Book Prize; and \u003cem\u003eGallop Toward the Sun: Tecumseh and William Henry Harrison's Struggle for the Destiny of a Nation\u003c\/em\u003e. Based in Montana, he and his family have also lived in Mozambique and Brazil.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n","brand":"Mariner Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51496125235478,"sku":"9780063383883","price":42.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0857\/9910\/8886\/files\/9780063383883.jpg?v=1783053572","url":"https:\/\/lusper.myshopify.com\/products\/the-lost-cities-of-el-norte-coronados-quest-the-unconquered-west-and-the-birth-of-american-indian-resistance","provider":"Lusperbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}