The Complete Idiot's Guide to Native American History [Paperback]

Walter C. Fleming (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0028644697 | ISBN-13: 978-0028644691 | Publication Date: April 1, 2003

This book is a comprehensive overview of the history and culture of the peoples who are now known as the First Americans. Author Walter C. Fleming covers the many different tribes that stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific, including compelling biographies of their greatest leaders. He examines the beliefs, customs, legends and the myriad contributions Native Americans have given to modern society, and details the often tragic history of their conquest by European invaders, their treatment-both historical and recent-under the U.S. government, and the harsh reality of life on today's reservations.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 311 pages
• Publisher: Alpha (April 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0028644697
• ISBN-13: 978-0028644691
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #238,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Whining? Hardly., February 15, 2005

By 

Trisha Rose Jacobs - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Native American History (Paperback)

This book is as complete as any single volume can be in spanning Native American History. It covers terminology, law, and culture as well as an account of the United States government's treatment of Native Peoples.

And it does so without belaboring the obvious, that killing people and stealing their land is wrong. In fact, the author was restrained and in no single spot that I can recall did he resort to outright moralizing. Instead, he remained fairly neutral, making the topic approachable.

I would reccomend this book to any literate person.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is a survey book..., April 25, 2009

By 

K. Lyman "Paul D Trigger" (Bozeman, MT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Native American History (Paperback)

A basically a glance at everything from pre-columbian to the present. Obviously, this can be broken down into 1000s of subtopics. It's a good introductory book to the basic aspects of Native American studies.

The tone set by Fleming is obviously a native perspective. That's great, as we already have plenty of white perspectives. Regardless, some of the things he says are objectionable, but i highly doubt any of the facts are false. Ironically though, some of the things in this book are claimed false by other books. That's just the nature of this topic.

This book is best to be accompanied by other books. It's difficult finding accurate information on this subject though. It's best to stay away from scientific and anthropological books, which can be very inaccurate and biased.

3 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Hard to continue reading after glaring errors, October 28, 2009

By 

Jack W. Saunders - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Native American History (Paperback)

I bought this book as I was traveling in the Southwest. I enjoyed the first couple of chapters and looked forward to getting into the meat of the book. The style was fun and I picked up a lot of facts I hadn't been aware of.
I had just finished reading "The Wordy Shipmates" and so I was quite surprised to find that (according to the book) Squanto helped the settlers in Jamestown. That made it hard for me to enjoy the rest of the book. How many other errors are there that I didn't pick up? It made me suspicious of all the "Idiot's Guide"s I've purchased or thought of purchasing. Don't they require an expert reviewer?
I'm very sympathetic to the native american tragedy and the author had a chance to improve the general perception of the Europeans' conquest of the New World. He should have taken his job more seriously