Before I decided to pick up and read this, I would always think of Josh Groban’s song “Weeping” whenever I’d see the title of this book. While I read the last two chapters, I played this song on repeat, and I personally found it weird how this song can be connected with the story told in this book.
This book made me so upset — but upset in a good way. Throughout the entire book, I found myself either near-yelling at many of the U.S. generals because of what was happening to the Indian people of North America during this time period.
“The Earth is Weeping” is such an apt title for the book. In my opinion, I think that Cozzens chose this title so well due to how closely connected the native people of North America were (and are) to the Earth and everything in/on the earth.
As you read through the book, you sadly see the resistance of the Indians slowly waning from what it was at the beginning.; even at the beginning, however, resistance was not that good because of how disunited most of the tribes were.
As I said, this book made me very upset; and it also really annoyed me. Throughout it, you can see how racist — and stupid — many white people during this time were, especially towards Indians.
This is a really good — yet really hard — read. I highly recommend it. ( )

Very well written and depressing (note to self, don’t read about the Indian Wars, Holocaust or American slavery for an uplifting story). So much deceit and manipulated crises. A part of U.S. history that I wasn’t taught. ( )

Well written. I didn't understand how complicated it all was and how simplistically we approached our natives. ( )

In my experience, there are two types of history book which you know as soon as you pick up will be nothing but unrelieved tragedy. Books about the Holocaust, and books about the Native Americans. This is as good an entry as I have read in the latter field, giving a balanced view of the 30 years between 1861 and 1891 when Native Americans fought bravely but hopelessly against the surge of white settlement. There were heroes and villains on both sides (many more of the latter on the white side, inevitably). I think the best thing about the book is the even spread of coverage of all the conflicts. Famous and well-covered campaigns like Little Bighorn and the Apache wars are given no more than their fair share amongst lesser-known stories like the Modoc war, the running battles of the Nez Perce and the bitter Ute wars. But overall the sense of inevitable tragedy is overwhelming, the book ending on a wistful note of complete loss. This is not an enjoyable book, but its absorbing, wrenching and extremely well-written. ( )

Thorough, well researched, readable history. This was truly a clash of civilizations. Along with Empire of the Summer Moon, one of the best books about the Indian wars and the American West. Sad, brutal, wrenching on both sides. ( )