Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West

The Donner Party has been 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 archeological evidence, recent research on topics ranging from survival rates to snow-fall totals, and heartbreaking letters and diaries made public by descendants a century-and-a-half after the tragedy, Ethan Rarick offers an intimate po…