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utopiancitizen's review against another edition
dark
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.0
A must read for an oft overlooked layer of American expansion.
betweentheshelves's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
Definitely a must-read for anyone wanting to learn more about the history of the United States. I know they recently released a YA version of this, and I'd be interested in seeing how they changed it for that. Would definitely be a good addition to an American history class.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Racism, and Violence
Moderate: Child abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault
Minor: Alcoholism, Mass/school shootings, and Murder
lydia_hennessy's review
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
3.5
Informative, meditative, well-researched. Fascinating, but a bit dry.
maren_notkaren's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
emmabeckman's review
Only the last 50 or so pages were what I was actually looking for in this book. I learned some new information from the first section of the book, but it wasn't the information I was hoping to gain from this book. I would still recommend this one for a brief overview of specifically the history of the US government/military massacres of the Indigenous peoples of this land. But it is definitely a BRIEF overview and it is very group-heavy where I was more interested in individual stories. I'm hoping Treuer's The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee will be closer to what I'm looking for. I wanted to read this one because I have a few other memoirs and fiction from Indigenous authors that I wanted some context for before reading them.
The other downside of this book is that it is really written like an academic dissertation. I would NOT recommend this to anyone looking for an introduction to this topic, as even I felt extremely bogged down while reading. I think introductory texts MUST keep the reader engaged and interested to continue in their journey, and this is not that...
No rating, because my reading experience was really not great, but I think this is still a valuable text, so I don't want to give it a low rating a deter future readers just based on that. Hopefully my review explains my position better than a rating would.
The other downside of this book is that it is really written like an academic dissertation. I would NOT recommend this to anyone looking for an introduction to this topic, as even I felt extremely bogged down while reading. I think introductory texts MUST keep the reader engaged and interested to continue in their journey, and this is not that...
No rating, because my reading experience was really not great, but I think this is still a valuable text, so I don't want to give it a low rating a deter future readers just based on that. Hopefully my review explains my position better than a rating would.
mcbibliotecaria's review against another edition
4.0
Not as in depth as people's history obviously. But combined with Bury me at Wounded Knee, a good overview especially through governmental non-action (or bad action, you know, systematic genocide is at our foundation and no one ever taught me that).
alreadyemily's review against another edition
5.0
Wow! If you've lived in America or ever enjoyed American culture (movies, music, etc.) you owe it to yourself (and all those who came before) to read this. A vital correction of some fundamental American myths that are passed off as truths.