The Shawnees and the War for America: The Penguin Library of American Indian History series (Penguin's Library of American Indian History) [Hardcover]

Colin Calloway (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0670038628 | ISBN-13: 978-0670038626 | Publication Date: July 5, 2007 | Edition: 1ST

Long before the American Revolution, the Shawnees lived in Ohio, hunted in Kentucky, and traveled as far afield as Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Missouri. White settlers, however, sharply curtailed their freedom. With the courage and resilience embodied by their legendary leader Tecumseh, the Shawnee tribe waged a war of territorial and cultural resistance that lasted for more than sixty years. For a time the Shawnees and their allies met American forces on nearly equal terms—but their story is of an embattled nation fighting to maintain its cultural and political independence.

Here is the account of the early American settlers’ drive to occupy the West, the Shawnees’ unwavering defense of their homeland, and the bitter battles that resulted. Here too are the alliances that the Shawnees forged with their Indian neighbors to present a united resistance, as well as instances of cooperation, collaboration, and intermarriage between the opposing forces.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In placing the Shawnee center stage, Calloway (editor of the Penguin Library of American Indian History and Dartmouth Native American studies chair) achieves a remarkably accessible distillation of Shawnee history. He guides the reader through a thicket of wandering as the Shawnees' forced movement scatters them from the Ohio Valley during the late 17th century, before they reassembled in Ohio in the mid-18th century, and then gathered again in Oklahoma in the 19th century. The Shawnees stand out as hard liners when it came to defending Native lands, Native rights, and Native ways of life, says Calloway. Indeed, their history is a cycle of killings and revenge killings, battles and massacres by both sides, swallowing up those who made accommodations (Black Hoof and the model farm at Wapakoneta) as well as those who resisted (the legendary brothers, Tenskwatawa and Tecumseh). Daniel Boone, who played a key role in destroying the Shawnees' world in Kentucky, is part of that history, as is General Amherst, who advocated using germ warfare. The treks and treaties are not always easy reading, but Calloway's text is enlivened with judicious first-person excerpts and his passion for his subject. His heart is with the Shawnees, but he writes with balance of the fateful meeting of the cultures on the frontiers. (July)
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From Booklist

Calloway is the editor of this newly launched Penguin Library of American Indian History and the author of its initial title on the Shawnees. His discussion focuses on the history of the Shawnees in the Ohio Valley, where they became the hub of tribal networks stretching from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico as the valley became the focal point of the contest between Britain and France for control of Ohio country. Calloway traces Shawnee attempts to stem America's push westward after the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (a "blueprint for national expansion") and their vision of an independent Indian state—a vision that "died with Tecumseh" in 1813. Donovan, Deborah
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Viking Adult; 1ST edition (July 5, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0670038628
• ISBN-13: 978-0670038626
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #585,277 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful, May 5, 2009

By 

R. Albin (Ann Arbor, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Shawnees and the War for America: The Penguin Library of American Indian History series (Penguin's Library of American Indian History) (Hardcover)

This concise and well written book is a nice history of Shawnee interactions with European settlers. The author is a distinguished historian specializing in Native American history. Many readers will probably be at least somewhat familiar with the most famous Shawnee leaders, the warrior Tecumseh and his brother, the religious leader Tenkswata. In the period of the War of 1812, they attempted to form an eastern Indian coalition to resist American encroachment on what is now much of the Midwest and South. Calloway relates this story quite well and links it to a series of larger themes. One is the persistent role of the Shawnee in resistance to European encroachments. Originating in the Ohio Valley, Shawnee bands, like many Native American groups, migrated through several regions of eastern North America during the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries. Calloway suggests that the peripatetic Shawnee had a broad perspective on conflict with European settlers and often became leaders in resistance against European and American settlers. Shawnee leaders participated in Pontiac's rebellion and conflicts with Americans in the early years of the republic.

Calloway uses the experience of the Shawnee to illustrate the general history of eastern Indians. The Shawnee and other Indian societies faced huge disadvantages in terms of population, access to modern weapons, and epidemiology. They were also often disunited and victims of their decentralized political traditions. Calloway provides nice overviews of Shawnee society, the sad narrative of their encounters with Europeans, and good analysis of the underlying forces.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shawnees and America, March 16, 2008

By 

Myron Paine (Martinez CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Shawnees and the War for America: The Penguin Library of American Indian History series (Penguin's Library of American Indian History) (Hardcover)

Shawnees and the War for America is an excellent history of the Shawnee experience during the two centuries of their struggle to hold onto the land they occupied when the EurAmericans invaded.

The author has included names and described Shawnees in action with words that create pictures. The tale of travail of Cornstalk is compelling. The descrlption of the Shawnee's defeat of the American Army under St.clair, which "effectively distroyed the new nation's only army" deservers more text in our history books.

The book is concise, brief amd well writtened with a neutral viewpoint, but there is no way to make the plot have a better ending.

The Shawnees we see today are the survivors of a genocide that swept away 95% of their ancestors and took most of their land to build a nation almost as worthy a Shawnee nation.

Read this book!

The book referenced below tells the heroic tale of the Shawnees coming to America.

Frozen Trail to Merica: Talerman

You will have a better perspective.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shawnee history, February 15, 2011

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Anarchos - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Shawnees and the War for America: The Penguin Library of American Indian History series (Hardcover)

I'm part Shawnee and this is about as an impartial and a complete view of the Shawnee history from someone outside of the Native American culture as a person could hope for. Lots of research went into this book, and it is far from being another run of the mill dry regurgitation of facts. This book is a great read.