Back in print--the definitive account of 15 hours that changed the course of world history. This narrativently recreates how itoo familiar story . . . with objectivity . . . (and) explosive detail. . . . (A) stirring book".--The New Yorker.

Hope. Hardship. Cannibalism. Incorporating the diaries of the Donner party survivors and other contemporary documents, Stewart wrote the definitive history of that ill-fated band of pioneers, an astonishing account of what human beings may endure and achieve in the final press of circumstance. "Excellent".--New York Times.

In 1841 and 1842 small groups of emigrants tried to discover a route to California passable by wagons. Without reliable maps or guides, they pushed ahead, retreated, detoured, split up, and regrouped, reaching their destination only at great cost of property and life. But they had found a trail, or cleared one, and by their mistakes had shown others how to take wagon trains across half a continent. By 1844 a great migration was in progress. Each successive party learned from those who went before where to cross rivers and mountains, when to rest, when to forge ahead, and how to find food and...