In this fascinating narrative, New York Times bestselling author Blaine Harden delves into one of the most persistent "alternative facts" in American history: the story of the Whitman Massacre, a myth that forever altered the western United States. In 1836, the Christian missionaries Dr. Marcus Whitman and Reverend Henry Spalding traveled west to present-day Washington State and Idaho, where they aimed to convert members of the Cayuse and Nez Perce tribes. Both would fail spectacularly. But Spalding would succeed as a propagandist, inventing a story that recast Whitman as a hero, and help to fuel the massive westward migration that would lead to the devastation of those they had purportedly set out to "save." This impeccably researched account traces the ripple effect of these events across the century that followed, reminding us of the true costs of American expansion, and of the legacy of a history told only by its victors. Book jacket.