Description: Empire of Shadows is the epic story of the conquest of Yellowstone, a landscape uninhabited, inaccessible and shrouded in myth in the aftermath of the Civil War. In a radical reinterpretation of the nineteenth century West, George Black casts Yellowstone's creation as the culmination of three interwoven strands of history--the passion for exploration, the violence of the Indian Wars and the "civilizing" of the frontier--and charts its course through the lives of those who sought to lay bare its mysteries: Lt. Gustavus Cheyney Doane, a gifted but tormented cavalryman known as "the man who invented Wonderland"; the ambitious former vigilante leader Nathaniel Langford; scientist Ferdinand Hayden, who brought photographer William Henry Jackson and painter Thomas Moran to Yellowstone; and General Phil Sheridan, Civil War hero and architect of the Indian Wars, who finally succeeded in having the new National Park placed under the protection of the U.S. Cavalry. George Black's Empire of Shadows is a groundbreaking historical account of the origins of America's majestic national landmark.
Brief description: Jack de Golia is "the voice of character." He's a veteran stage actor and public relations professional. Jack brings depth, warmth, and a wide range of character voicing to his audiobook narrations. He's a skilled character actor, with accomplished accents in High (RP) British English, Russian, Spanish, Texan, German, Southern, New York, and rural Western American English, among many others. Jack has pleased voice-over clients with commercials, video games, and e-learning work in addition to narrating over 110 audiobooks. Jack won AudioFile magazine's Earphones Award in 2018. He was also a 2018 nominee for best mystery narration by the Society of Voice Arts & Sciences. In 2015, he also earned the special designation of "Audible Approved Producer" for the quality of his audiobook work. A number of his books have been given very positive reviews in AudioFile magazine, Audiobook Reviewer, and reviewer blogs. Jack holds a BA in dramatic art, and graduated with High Honors from the University of California, Davis. He's a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society. He worked for over thirty-five years as a park ranger and later, a public information officer, for federal land management agencies in national parks, national forests, and other public lands in the West, as well as during wildfire emergencies nationwide. His work took him to national parks like Yellowstone, desert public lands in Arizona, and a national forest in Montana. Jack has two grown sons and a grandchild. Jack and his wife, a geoscience professor at UNLV, live in Henderson, Nevada.
Review Quotes: . . . a masterful and riveting history of the exploration of Yellowstone. Empire of Shadows will forever change our understanding and conception of this sacred American place.-- "David Grann, author of The Lost City of Z"