Osceola's Legacy [Paperback]

Dr. Patricia Riles Wickman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 30, 1991

A bestselling, up-to-date evaluation of a legendary Indian leader.

  

*Named Outstanding Book by the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights

 

*A Dan Josselyn Memorial publication

Editorial Reviews

Review

"It is both exciting and refreshing to see a historian use material culture as a primary source of information; Wickman is to be applauded for her work. Throughout the book she shows herself to be a consummate researcher and offers significant insights into the life of a Native American who captured the imagination of the American people."

—South Carolina Antiquities

"Osceola's Legacy is simply fascinating. Wickman has proven herself to be equal parts curator, historian, and detective. The book is solid history yet reads with the thrill of a good detective story."

—Robert Bradley, Alabama Department of Archives and History

About the Author

Patricia Riles Wickman is a Florida historian and former Senior Curator for the State of Florida.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: University Alabama Press; 1 edition (March 30, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0817304835
• ISBN-13: 978-0817304836
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,426,573 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gee, I thought it was great..., March 17, 2002

By 

Leah Bowe - See all my reviews

This review is from: Osceola's Legacy (Paperback)

I thought this work was marvelous. It's prodigiously and compassionately researched and written, exploring such varied facets of a single individual's life from what his parentage was (and how that may have shaped his identity,) what he wore (and how *that* may have shaped his identity,) the mistakes he made during his lifetime, who he might have been romantically involved with, and the disposition of his body after his death.

It's not a very theoretically-oriented text, but as a biography of the most famous Seminole who ever lived -- I though it made Osceola jump off the page. Only note of warning: this does contain a rather graphic couple of chapters on both Osceola's decapitation by his doctor immediately following his death and the exhumation of his corpse in the sixties. Sensitive readers should be aware of this.

BTW, Dr. Wickman is currently the Director of the Department of Anthropology and Geneaology at the Seminole Tribe of Florida, and was formerly the state of Florida's historian. I'm not saying this makes her unimpeachable as an historian, but I really do think she knows what she's talking about.

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Ivy-covered research, July 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Osceola's Legacy (Paperback)

If you're into reading heavy-handed college textbooks then this book is for you! Exhaustively researched and abstrusely (look that one up!) written, it makes Osceola's dynamic and fascinating life as exciting as stale crackers. The author even has the audacity to rate other researchers in the back. The research is exhastive and you will be too once you finish this book. It gave my dictionary a good workout tho!

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Wickman's disrespect for Osceola'a legacy, August 6, 2000

By 

Arnie Powell (Conyers, GA United States (Note: I would prefer to leave out my physical location--though the E-mail address is okay.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Osceola's Legacy (Paperback)

I wanted to request a refund on the amount of money that had been wasted on this terrible piece of writing, but it was much more fun to use the book in building a fire. Wickman's research was padantic; obsessively detailed. However, there was no linear (or other) thinking involved in the final synthesis. In fact, having read the same research literature as Dr. Wickman had poured through, it is amazing to me that someone could write so many pages that are comprehensible only to people who have actually read the same research literature. Her writing evokes a rememberance of a criticism of Henry James (slightly reworded): "This author (not a writer) fills a much needed void." Let us pray that the Seminole Tribe of Florida will soon experience a void that once was occupied by this author. Osceola was a great War Chief, and a very interesting individual. Wickman's work does great injustice to both legacies.