Customer Reviews

The Seminole Wars: America's Longest Indian Conflict (Florida History and Culture)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There were actually three wars between armed forces of the United States government and the Seminole Indian tribes of Florida. The first was led by General Andrew Jackson in 1817 and was a facet of the attempt by Americans to acquire Florida from Spain by force of arms. The second of the Seminole Wars raged over seven years and resulted in the deaths of more than 1,500 soldiers and the forced removal of more than 3,000 Seminole Indians from Florida -- along the deaths of hundreds (perhaps thousands - the true number is unknown) of others. The third and last of the Seminole Indian Wars took place in 1858 when the country was on the eve of the Civil War and was an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to remove the final remnants of the Seminole Nations from their homes and hunting grounds within in the Florida Everglades. In The Seminole Wars: America's Longest Indian Conflict, historians John and May Lou (they serve on the board of directors of the Seminole Wars Historic Foundation) draw upon diaries, military reports, and archival newspapers to reveal new aspects and impacts of the Seminole Wars upon the relationships between the three conflicts, the pre-Civil War issues of slavery, as well as the then prevalent attitudes toward Native Americans, and the political/military attempts to establish national security. The Seminole Wars is an impressively informative contribution and a welcome addition to 19th Century American History Studies and Native American Studies reading lists and library reference collections.

My assigning of three stars is more a reflection on the publisher than on the work of the authors. The writer admitted she entered into her master's work with little knowledge of the Seminole and the wars of Florida; while the text is solid, the book is basically a fine student's paper and not really a scholarly outline of the Seminole wars. Too much social commentary and less analysis than should be found. This book really should have been published by a local trade company and not the UF Press. A good book for a casual history reader or a advanced history high school student, but a little less than what I was looking for.

It is not easy to find books about seminole war. The proposal of this book is quite good because comprises all seminole wars.
The text gives to reader a good overview and overall point to start , but surely this book deserves more pictures, specially in color and more maps. Lacks a timeline too.
Can be improved.

Very well done book on the longest Indian Wars Conflict in US history. I liked it, have used the information and recommend it.

For someone who knew ziltch about the Seminole wars, this book is not only a great primer but may be the best that includes all three wars. The authors have a great style and readability but include enough details to make sure one understands their sources, They also show no bias explaining both the white and India points of view, good or bad. The only negative is the very small, virtually unreadable maps. Likely this was a publisher's decision, but it makes the geographic narrative sometimes difficult to follow.

In the esoterica, while Distant Drums is a favorite movie, the reader will find it bears little resemblance to history!

Highly recommended.