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creolelitbelle's review
3.0
A solid firsthand account of the Santa Fe Trail and farther through Mexico in a woman's perspective.
The foreword of this book gave a great overview of Susan Shelby Magoffin's life. Throughout the diary she detailed practically daily accounts of life on the trails, through the wilderness, and in Mexican cities and villages. Magoffin truly appreciated the culture of different people she came across and her appreciation shows in how she steadily tried to learn Spanish and incorporate it into her diary entries. She also wrote of learning other ways of living such as sewing different types of clothing and learning new recipes. I'm amazed at how many influential, historical people she came into contact with, oftentimes not even knowing how important those people would later become. The footnotes, while feeling a little excessive, provide wonderful history lessons of the Mexican-American War and other events including the lives of men she met in her travels. While at times this book felt heavy with content, largely due to the footnotes, the diary itself could be a great teaching tool for that time period of Mexican and American history during the mid-1940's.
The foreword of this book gave a great overview of Susan Shelby Magoffin's life. Throughout the diary she detailed practically daily accounts of life on the trails, through the wilderness, and in Mexican cities and villages. Magoffin truly appreciated the culture of different people she came across and her appreciation shows in how she steadily tried to learn Spanish and incorporate it into her diary entries. She also wrote of learning other ways of living such as sewing different types of clothing and learning new recipes. I'm amazed at how many influential, historical people she came into contact with, oftentimes not even knowing how important those people would later become. The footnotes, while feeling a little excessive, provide wonderful history lessons of the Mexican-American War and other events including the lives of men she met in her travels. While at times this book felt heavy with content, largely due to the footnotes, the diary itself could be a great teaching tool for that time period of Mexican and American history during the mid-1940's.
emlickliter's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
5.0
Down the Santa Fe Trail and into Mexico: The Diary of Susan Shelby Magoffin, 1846-1847 by Susan Shelby Magoffin -- Such a cool first hand account! Happy Reading!
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