1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann  (194)
$10.85
|
First Peoples: A Documentary Survey of American Indian History by Colin G. Calloway (3)
$51.97
|
Indian Givers: How the Indians of the Americas Transformed the World by Jack Weatherford  (22)
$11.16
|
All Our Relations: Native Struggles for Land and Life by Winona LaDuke  (10)
$11.56
|
The Ecological Indian: Myth and History by Shepard Krech III  (24)
$11.53
|
This item is not eligible for Amazon Prime, but millions of other items are. Join Amazon Prime today. Already a member? Sign in.
|
|||||||||
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This superlative popular history of American Indian peoples distills two generations of scholarship into a rare combination of readability and reliability. For former Smithsonian and Natural History editor Page, who is also a prolific mystery novelist and editor, it is a magnum opus. The early chapters establish, with compelling detail that draws on Indian oral history, that the origins of North America's first inhabitants were varied (including relatives of the Japanese Ainu), and that they were numerous, mostly agricultural, organized as civil societies, and living in mystical harmony neither with nature nor with one another. The book's second half details how European diseases, notably smallpox, arrived before most of the guns or large-scale colonies, with appalling consequences for the cohesion and survival of many tribes. What followed was fighting among tribes (such as the fate of the Pawnee at the hands of mounted rivals like the Sioux), deliberate genocide and sometimes well-intentioned but almost always badly executed government policies that left entire peoples in ruin. There are reprieves from tales of destruction: the Pueblo staged a successful revolt against the Spanish in 1680, while the Iroquois and Cherokee created synthetic cultures that tried to adapt to changing circumstances. The book ends with the discovery of Kennewick Man (Ainu kin), the Red Power movement and the profitable and controversial casino ownership by tribes like the Pequot. A smooth, engaged narrative a useful bibliographic essay, make this a book that fills an enormous gap in the popular historical literature, written with a great feel for the many contexts it addresses.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Sweeping across the lands that became the U.S., Page's historical survey of the Indian/European interface over the centuries strives to envelop every significant event and personality within a one-volume format. Page is, therefore, constrained from overly effusive recounting, favoring a methodical chronicle of the inexorable displacement of the native tribes from their lands, noting the epidemics, violence, and chicanery by which that was accomplished. A certain economy must ensue from this approach, characterizing this presentation as an introduction for readers new to the historical contours of Indian-settler relations. Page does well to inform his audience of controversies in the archaeology and historiography of the subject while incorporating his personal view of disputed matters, imbuing his narrative with a certain amount of editorializing. Such readers further benefit from two themes that warrant Page's more detailed treatment: the spiritual life of the Indians, and episodes of pan-Indian resistance, from Pontiac to Tecumseh to the 1970s American Indian movement. As a gateway to more specialized biographies and histories, Page's work will see heavy library use. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
This superlative popular history of American Indian peoples distills two generations of scholarship into a rare combination of readability and reliability. For former Smithsonian and Natural History editor Page, who is also a prolific mystery novelist and editor, it is a magnum opus. The early chapters establish, with compelling detail that draws on Indian oral history, that the origins of North America's first inhabitants were varied (including relatives of the Japanese Ainu), and that they were numerous, mostly agricultural, organized as civil societies, and living in mystical harmony neither with nature nor with one another. The book's second half details how European diseases, notably smallpox, arrived before most of the guns or large-scale colonies, with appalling consequences for the cohesion and survival of many tribes. What followed was fighting among tribes (such as the fate of the Pawnee at the hands of mounted rivals like the Sioux), deliberate genocide and sometimes well-intentioned but almost always badly executed government policies that left entire peoples in ruin. There are reprieves from tales of destruction: the Pueblo staged a successful revolt against the Spanish in 1680, while the Iroquois and Cherokee created synthetic cultures that tried to adapt to changing circumstances. The book ends with the discovery of Kennewick Man (Ainu kin), the Red Power movement and the profitable and controversial casino ownership by tribes like the Pequot. A smooth, engaged narrative a useful bibliographic essay, make this a book that fills an enormous gap in the popular historical literature, written with a great feel for the many contexts it addresses.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Sweeping across the lands that became the U.S., Page's historical survey of the Indian/European interface over the centuries strives to envelop every significant event and personality within a one-volume format. Page is, therefore, constrained from overly effusive recounting, favoring a methodical chronicle of the inexorable displacement of the native tribes from their lands, noting the epidemics, violence, and chicanery by which that was accomplished. A certain economy must ensue from this approach, characterizing this presentation as an introduction for readers new to the historical contours of Indian-settler relations. Page does well to inform his audience of controversies in the archaeology and historiography of the subject while incorporating his personal view of disputed matters, imbuing his narrative with a certain amount of editorializing. Such readers further benefit from two themes that warrant Page's more detailed treatment: the spiritual life of the Indians, and episodes of pan-Indian resistance, from Pontiac to Tecumseh to the 1970s American Indian movement. As a gateway to more specialized biographies and histories, Page's work will see heavy library use. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
Product Details
|
