Description: How biology influenced the survival of emigrants facing cold and starvation on the western trail
Review Quotes: "Grayson's analysis is powerful and provides excellent new grist for understanding complex human dramas."--American Historical Review
"Enlightening, disquieting and thought-provoking. . . You could not ask for a better summary of the events surrounding these catastrophes than Grayson provides."--Dennis Clark, The Association for Mormon Letters "Sex and Death offers a fresh way of looking at these tragic emigrant trail disasters. Many readers will certainly wonder what the outcome might have been had not the two handcart companies received timely rescue. Would these two religious companies have resorted to eating their comrades to stay alive? It's hard not to ponder this question when reading Sex and Death."--BYU Studies Quarterly "This book deserves commendation, for both its argument and its audacity.... Historians with open minds will finish reading this book and begin looking at their own research in a different light, wondering how biology may or may not apply to their findings."--Pacific Historical Review "Grayson brings a brisk storytelling style and a wry, even humorous sensibility to the tales of the Donner Party of 1846-47 and to the Martin and Willie handcart companies of 1856, in which more than 240 lost their lives."--Utah Life "Without question, Grayson's book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the overland emigrant experience in the American west and the context within which it took place. Historians of the American frontier and historical archaeologists will find it especially appealing. Future research on the history and archaeology of traveling emigrant parties should take this book into consideration."--American Antiquity "Is human behavior fully predicable by biology and genetics? Some environmental historians have turned to just such a view in debates over the Anthropocene, but many historians still hesitate at the thought. Can human behavior exist on a plane above or separated from our biologically programmed 'animal instincts'? Perhaps one of the most thought provocative results of Grayson's study is that he confronts us with just such questions."--Western Historical Quarterly "For those who like a good 'yarn' (Don is a great story-teller) and interesting interpretations that involve numbers, this is the book for you. We could never conduct experiments on the ability of humans to tolerate extreme stress, but the three examples in this book provide natural experiments and an insightful look into how adaptable humans can be under the direst of circumstances."--Journal of California and Great Basin Archaeology "Recitation of mortality figures by age and sex is not typically gripping reading, but Grayson bridges that sterile ground with engaging background, data analysis, and interesting--sometimes compelling--inferences. His writing linking the similarities and points of difference between these survival cases makes for engaging reading."--Dennis H. O'Rourke, Foundation Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, University of Kansas "Noted anthropologist Donald K. Grayson writes with wit, confidence, and authority. His landmark study examines how men and women on the overland trail responded to disasters involving freezing and starvation. He asks the right questions--often ones no one has asked before."--Will Bagley, author of So Rugged and Mountainous: Blazing Trails to Oregon and California