A review by readingtheend
Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America by Pekka Hämäläinen
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.