American Indians remain familiar as icons; yet poorly understood as historical agents. In this ambitious book that ranges across Utah; Nevada; New Mexico; Colorado; and eastern California (a region known as the Great Basin); Ned Blackhawk places Native peoples squarely at the center of a dynamic and complex story as he chronicles two centuries of Indian and imperial history that profoundly shaped the American West.On the distant margins of empire; Great Basin Indians increasingly found themselves engulfed in the chaotic storms of European expansion and responded in ways that refashioned themselves and those around them. Focusing on Ute; Paiute; and Shoshone Indians; Blackhawk illuminates this history through a lens of violence; excavating the myriad impacts of colonial expansion. Brutal networks of trade and slavery forged the Spanish borderlands; and the use of violence became for many Indians a necessary survival strategy; particularly after Mexican Independence when many became raiders and slave traffickers. Throughout such violent processes; these Native communities struggled to adapt to their changing environments; sometimes scoring remarkable political ends while suffering immense reprisals.Violence over the Land is a passionate reminder of the high costs that the making of American history occasioned for many indigenous peoples; written from the vantage point of an Indian scholar whose own family history is intimately bound up in its enduring legacies.
#1358163 in Books Harvard University Press 1998-08-19 1998-09-18Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.25 x .90 x 6.13l; 1.30 #File Name: 0674015932360 pages
Review
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful. Important workBy Seth J. FrantzmanThis wonderful and important work documents what Jews were doing and where they were between 1100 and 1500. It examines demographic and culture as well as religion and tradition and never forgets to examine the role of Jews in society and pose the question: how important and visible was the Jewish role in society in western world; how did Jews live and what was their culture and place in European history? A very interesting book; scholarly and not exceedingly interesting; but nonetheless important.Seth J. Frantzman8 of 13 people found the following review helpful. Book is full of detail; but duller than dirtBy A CustomerThis book is good source material. Only experts in Jewish history should read it. At times; the book is hard to follow and can leave you confused. I do recommend it for research material though. I read this book in Religion 301- Early Jewish history to 1492: Expulsion from Spain.
