The Book Prize Index

Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History

S.C. Gwynne

Describes the actions of both whites and Comanches during a 40-year war over territory, in a story that begins with the kidnapping of a white girl, who grew up to marry a Comanche chief and have a son, Quanah, who became a great warrior.

HistoryAmerican History · medium confidenceAmerican History81 signalsLlm Classifier: American History -> American HistoryOpen Library: Biography -> BiographyOpen Library: Parker, quanah, 1845?-1911 -> BiographyIndigenous HistoryAsia & the PacificAfrica & the African Diaspora

Award History

0 wins · 2 total

AwardYearResultCategory / Notes
Pulitzer Prize in General NonfictionMajor2011FinalistSecondary source
National Book Critics Circle Award for NonfictionMajor2010FinalistSecondary source
View all award history (2)
Experimental book profileGenerated by GPT-5.4 nano · may contain inaccuracies

This is an unverified interpretation of the catalog description, offered as an opt-in discovery experiment—not as bibliographic fact.

  1. 01 Central figures

    • Quanah Parker92%

  2. 02 Central places

    None extracted with sufficient confidence.

  3. 03 Suggested argument

    No argument inferred with sufficient confidence.

    This suggestion did not meet the normal display threshold and is more likely to be wrong.

    The book portrays the Comanches’ power and eventual decline as driven by decades of territorial conflict involving both whites and Comanches, beginning with a kidnapping that leads to Quanah Parker’s rise as a warrior.

    Model confidence 58%

  4. 04 Reading orientation

    35 / 100 academic

    Serious trade

    An estimate of intended readership and scholarly apparatus—not quality or importance.

Confidence percentages are the model's own estimates. Profile confidence: 76%.