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b'Within the space for just three decades, monumental\\xa0episodes\\xa0of exploration and expedition, politics and violence, including the mapping the Oregon Trail, the acquisition of California, and the Mexican-American and Civil wars, forever changed the history of the United States and the shape of the American West. And one man, an illiterate\\xa0trapper, scout, and soldier,\\xa0was there for it all: Kit\\xa0Carson.\\n\\nIn his book\\xa0Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit\\xa0Carson\\xa0and the Conquest\\xa0of the American West, author and historian Hampton Sides follows\\xa0Carson\\xa0as a through-line in this extraordinary period.'