Ethan Rarick

Desperate Passage: the Donner Party's Perilous Journey West Ethan Rarick

Publisher Marketing: In late October 1846, the last wagon train of that year s westward migration stopped overnight before resuming its arduous climb over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, unaware that a fearsome storm was gathering force. After months of grueling travel, the 81 men, women and children would be trapped for a brutal winter with little food and only primitive shelter. The conclusion is known: by spring of the next year, the Donner Party was synonymous with the most harrowing extremes of human survival. But until now, the full story of what happened and what it tells us about human nature and about America s westward expansion remained shrouded in myth. Drawing on fresh archaeological evidence, recent research on topics ranging from survival rates to snowfall totals, and heartbreaking letters and diaries made public by descendants a century and a half after the tragedy, Ethan Rarick offers an intimate portrait of the Donner Party and their unimaginable ordeal: a mother who must divide her family, a little girl who shines with courage, a devoted wife who refuses to abandon her husband, a man who risks his life merely to keep his word. But Rarick resists both the gruesomely sensationalist accounts of the Donner Party as well as later attempts to turn the survivors into archetypal pioneer heroes. The Donner Party, Rarick writes, is a story of hard decisions that were neither heroic nor villainous. Often, the emigrants displayed a more realistic and typically human mixture of generosity and selfishness, an alloy born of necessity. A fast-paced, heart-wrenching, clear-eyed narrative history, Desperate Passage casts new light on one of America s most horrific encounters between the dream of a better life and the harsh realities such dreams so often must confront." Review Citations: New York Times Book Review 02/03/2008 pg. 12 (EAN 9780195305029, Hardcover) Contributor Bio:  Rarick, Ethan As a journalist, Ethan Rarick covered politics in California and Oregon for 15 years before writing "California Rising. "His work has appeared in many publications, including the "Los Angeles Times "and the "San Francisco Chronicle. "Contributor Bio:  Prince, Christopher Damon Geller serves as CEO of Wholesale Direct Metals and is one of the most respected gold and hard asset managers in the industry. His trend analysis is widely read and quoted, and he is often invited to appear on financial radio and television programs nationwide. Damon's insights are carefully derived from Fed and monetary policy, debt-based economies and the history of money. This background supports his exceptional ability to interpret how current policy frameworks affect numerous investments. Damon doesn't reserve his expertise and trend forecasting for high net-worth clients only; rather he freely shares his views and knowledge with anyone seriously interested in investing in gold and other precious metals. Damon's company, Wholesale Direct Metals, has received the highest marks in client services, delivery time, investment returns and customer service. Damon received an economics degree from The University of California-San Diego. Damon's feature analysis, "Ask the Expert," can be read on his company website, www. WholesaleDirectMetals.com.