lizmart88's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
3.5
Dense but incredibly informative narrative of the US expansion with Indigenous Nations placed at the center. A retelling of the usual history from an entirely different viewpoint. I learned so much! The caveat is that it's so dense that it was very slow reading and I feel like I already forgot much of it!
sprague's review against another edition
3.0
For well-researched history of Native America, you can't go wrong with Pekka Hämäläinen, whose previous book transformed my thinking about the Great Plains Indians. But especially in this case, the writing is often so tedious that it distracts from the bigger picture. It's the worst combination of academic and popular -- endless, exhaustive lists of tribe names, often with non-standard (but historically accurate) spelling, tiny irrelevant details.
That Big Picture, which I enjoyed, is that maybe the Indians were actually the *winners* during most of the long European settlement of North America. When even through the Civil War, US officials looked a maps of the country, huge swathes were not under their control. The "Comanche and Lakota Empires" (as the author refers to them) covered most of the area between the Great Plains, from Canada to Mexico, areas that Americans entered at their peril.
Ultimately the book is too ambitious, covering too many people over too long a period. Until a more succinct and engaging writer comes along, use this book as a reference and don't bother reading the whole thing.
That Big Picture, which I enjoyed, is that maybe the Indians were actually the *winners* during most of the long European settlement of North America. When even through the Civil War, US officials looked a maps of the country, huge swathes were not under their control. The "Comanche and Lakota Empires" (as the author refers to them) covered most of the area between the Great Plains, from Canada to Mexico, areas that Americans entered at their peril.
Ultimately the book is too ambitious, covering too many people over too long a period. Until a more succinct and engaging writer comes along, use this book as a reference and don't bother reading the whole thing.
readingtheend's review against another edition
4.0
I did not intentionally finish this on the 4th of July, but I'm not mad about it!
for Booklist: Native scholars like Dina Gilio-Whitaker and Ned Blackhawk have long worked to correct the version of American history that emphasizes anemic indigenous resistance and the inevitability of white westward expansion. Hämäläinen (The Comanche Empire and Lakota America) builds on their work in a magisterial chronicle of Native agency in the face of settler colonialism. For centuries after first contact, indigenous nations employed a strategic blend of diplomacy, trade, and warfare to limit European and American influence, playing the colonial powers against each other to secure advantageous trade routes and treaties. In general, the most numerous losses of life among Native nations were attributable to encounters with European diseases, rather than European military forces. Although the colonizing powers claimed ownership over an ever-growing swathe of the continent, Hämäläinen argues that they typically lacked the resources to enforce that ownership, leaving space for indigenous nations to maintain and expand their own spheres of influence. Indigenous Continent will appeal to fans of Beacon Press’s ReVisioning History series and any readers seeking a more complete understanding of American history.
for Booklist: Native scholars like Dina Gilio-Whitaker and Ned Blackhawk have long worked to correct the version of American history that emphasizes anemic indigenous resistance and the inevitability of white westward expansion. Hämäläinen (The Comanche Empire and Lakota America) builds on their work in a magisterial chronicle of Native agency in the face of settler colonialism. For centuries after first contact, indigenous nations employed a strategic blend of diplomacy, trade, and warfare to limit European and American influence, playing the colonial powers against each other to secure advantageous trade routes and treaties. In general, the most numerous losses of life among Native nations were attributable to encounters with European diseases, rather than European military forces. Although the colonizing powers claimed ownership over an ever-growing swathe of the continent, Hämäläinen argues that they typically lacked the resources to enforce that ownership, leaving space for indigenous nations to maintain and expand their own spheres of influence. Indigenous Continent will appeal to fans of Beacon Press’s ReVisioning History series and any readers seeking a more complete understanding of American history.
oisin175's review against another edition
challenging
informative
slow-paced
4.0
Overall I think this book did an excellent job at conveying the history of indigenous groups in North America with regard to colonialism. This is especially important when it comes to clearing the evidence and demonstrating that the blinkered take mostly taught in school is both simplistic and wrong. Overall I liked this book, but I think the organization got a little disjointed at times. This must have been an incredibly difficult book to organize initially, but the author didn't always do a great job of sticking to the specific timelines specified for the various sections of the book. I'd recommend, but it might be useful to create a timeline of events as you go since there is a good deal of jumping around in both time and space.
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