Born and raised in Colorado, Megan Kate Nelson is a writer and historian now based in Boston, Massachusetts. She has written about US western history, the Civil War, and American culture for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Slate, Time, and Smithsonian Magazine. Nelson earned her BA in history and literature from Harvard University and her PhD in American studies from the University of Iowa. She is the author of Saving Yellowstone; The Three-Cornered War, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Ruin Nation; and Trembling Earth.
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Praise for Saving Yellowstone
"The author displays her strong commitment to including the Native presence in any account of Western history ... A readable and unfailingly interesting look at a slice of Western history from a novel point of view."
—Kirkus Reviews
"In Saving Yellowstone, Megan Kate Nelson has accomplished something truly pathbreaking. She has written a new history of Reconstruction, one that shows how the exploration and conquest of the American West intersected with the ill-fated attempts to establish an interracial democracy in the South. While these two strands of American history are often thought of as parallel, Nelson reveals startling new connections. A masterful storyteller, Nelson’s prose is as captivating as the landscapes she describes. This book is a must-read for anyone who appreciates deep research and powerful narrative.”
—Carole Emberton, author of Beyond Redemption: Race, Violence, and the American South after the Civil War
"Megan Kate Nelson has a remarkable ability to take an unfamiliar event and not only bring it to light, but also use it as a lens for viewing much larger and more familiar events in new ways. In Saving Yellowstone, she presents the making of the first national park as a multi-dimensional story of exploration and conflict and as a new vantage point on the meaning of Reconstruction."
—Steven Hahn, author of A Nation Without Borders
Praise for Megan Kate Nelson's The Three-Cornered War
"Terrific... a very good telling of a story that is unknown to most Americans."
—The Reconstruction Era, blog review
“Engaging and unsparing… A gripping history that integrates the Southwest into broader histories of American expansion.”
—Booklist
“Based on extensive archival research, Nelson’s work expands our understanding of how the Civil War affected Indigenous peoples and helped to shape the nation. [A] nuanced portrait of the era.”
—Library Journal, starred
“Brisk and well-sourced… American history buffs will relish this entertaining and eye-opening portrait.”
—Publishers Weekly
"With lucid storytelling, using nine remarkable characters, Nelson reveals a chaotic, desperate struggle of Union against Confederate, Native peoples against other Native peoples, and Natives on both sides... Rarely is a Civil War book so readable and so new to our understanding."
—David W. Blight, author of the Pulitzer-prize winning Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom
"A gripping story, powerfully told."
—Clay Risen, author of The Crowded Hour
"Fast-paced and suspenseful... This history of invasions, battles, and forced migration shapes the United States to this day—and has never been told so well."
—T.J. Stiles, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America
"[A] bautifully written account."
—James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era
"Gripping... The Three-Cornered War brings this battle between peoples, armies, agendas, and the environment to living breathing life."
—Joanne B. Freeman, author of The Field of Blood and editor of Alexander Hamilton: Writings
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