Reading this book was like slogging down the Santa Fe Trail in the 1830's. Occasionally, the author gives excerpts from diaries and letters that bring life on the trail to life. But generally, what he seems to view as important are factoids: how many wagons there were in the caravan, how much merchandise it carried, and the value of the goods. Each caravan gets a dutiful few paragraphs summing it up.The offensive part is the treatment of conflict with the Indians. It's straight out of old Western movies - caravans are attacked by whooping columns of Comanches. There's no attempt at understanding the conflict, even from the point of view of the whites. Just savagery. I didn't think this sort of history was still being written.