Hampton Sides - Live at the Aspen Institute

Hampton Sides is a narrative historian, best-selling author, and editor-at-large for Outside magazine. Mountain & Prairie listeners probably know Hampton best from his book "Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West," but the reality is that Blood and Thunder represents only a fraction of his work. "Hellhound on His Trail," "In the Kingdom of Ice," and "Ghost Soldiers" are a few of his other notable books, not to mention countless articles for Outside, National Geographic, and other well-known magazines. Hampton is originally from Memphis, Tennessee, but now splits his time between Santa Fe, New Mexico and Colorado Springs, where he’s the Journalist in Residence at Colorado College. • This podcast is a live recording of a conversation that Hampton and I had in front of an audience at the Aspen Institute in Aspen, Colorado. This public event was part of a four-day seminar about the history of the 19th Century American West, which was hosted by the Aspen Institute's Society of Fellows. Since the overall theme of the week was the West, Hampton and I focused our conversation on "Blood and Thunder," and chatted about the many topics presented in the book: the Navajos, the life of Kit Carson, Carson’s obsession with loyalty, Manifest Destiny, historical misconceptions about the time period, Hampton’s process for researching the book, and more. There are also a few minutes of Q&A from the audience toward the end of our talk. The Aspen Institute also filmed the event, so be sure to visit the podcast webpage if you want to watch the video. • Having the opportunity to speak with one of my all-time favorite authors at such an exceptional, world-renowned institution was a real dream come true. Endless thanks to the Aspen Institute for inviting me, and the same to Hampton for being so engaging, funny, knowledgeable, and down to earth. You’re going to learn a lot from this episode, so I hope you enjoy listening… or watching! And if you haven’t already, you should order and read Hampton’s books as soon as possible—you won’t be disappointed. ••• VIDEO and EPISODE NOTES: http://mountainandprairie.com/hampton/ ••• TOPICS DISCUSSED: 2:40 - Welcome from the Aspen Institute 4:45 - Ed’s intro 6:30 - Background on Navajos 9:15 - Overview of Kit Carson 13:30 - Polarizing views of Kit Carson 14:45 - Growth of the legend of Kit Carson 20:20 - Carson and John Fremont 24:45 - The downside of Carson’s loyalty 27:45 - How to evaluate historical figures according to their time 32:30 - How Hampton researched the book 35:45 - Modern day societies attempts to right the wrongs 39:30 - Ideas for getting past today’s divisiveness 41:40 - Hampton’s book recommendations 43:50 - Heroes and mentors 47:00 - Audience Q&A 1:08:20 - Closing