Choosing Sides on the Frontier in the American Revolution
Walter S. Dunn
Description: Contrary to common understanding, in the backcountry at least, the American Revolution was fought over land rather than democratic ideals. In this book, historian Walter Dunn reveals the true nature of the conflicting interests on the frontier, demonstrating that the primary issues there, land and the fur trade, were, in fact, the basis of the conflict between the local colonists and Britain.
Diverse Indian groups, wealthy land speculators, humbler settlers, fur traders, and the British government all had conflicting designs on the rich lands west of the Appalachian Mountains. The conflict on the frontier during the Revolution has been described as one of heroic settlers defending their farms against attacks by the British army, the Tories, and the Indians. In truth, the situation was far more complex. For many on the frontier, the primary motive for fighting was not defending farms, but acquiring vast tracts of land for later resale at enormous profit. Native Americans, in contrast, were motivated by the desire to retain control of their homeland, for without their hunting grounds and cornfields, they would starve.
Going beyond accepted theory, Dunn explores why those on the frontier reacted to the conflict as they did. He demonstrates how the various economic groups were forced to decide whether they should side with Britain or the colonists or if possible remain neutral, and the forces that governed those choices. Finally, he reveals how the decisions made on the frontier during the Revolution had a lasting impact on the post-war situation in the West, delaying western expansion by nearly two decades.
Author Information:
WALTER S. DUNN JR. is an independent researcher and retired museum curator. He has published a dozen books on World War II and on colonial and local history.
List Price: $49.95 Pages: 200 Publication: 9/30/2007
http://www.greenwood.com/catalog/C9429.aspx
ISBN: 0-275-99429-5
ISBN-13: 978-0-275-99429-7
DOI: 10.1336/0275994295
200 pages, n/a
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 9/30/2007
List Price: $49.95 (UK Sterling Price: £27.95)
Media Type: Hardcover
The Native Peoples of North America [Two Volumes]
A History
Bruce E. Johansen
Description:
From the earliest traces of first arrivals to the present, the Native peoples of North America represent a diverse and colorful array of cultures. From Central America to Canada, from recent archaeological discoveries to accounts of current controversies, this comprehensive study uses both traditional story telling and a powerful narrative to bring history to life. Johansen provides a critical narrative of European-American westward expansion through use of Native American voices, including compelling personal sketches of key figures such as: Tecumseh, alliance builder in the Ohio Valley; Chief Joseph the Younger, leader of the Nez Perce "long march"; and Susette LaFlesche, an Omaha Indian who reported on the Wounded Knee massacre for the Omaha-Herald.
Endorsement From Dr. Joy Porter author of To Be Indian and co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to Native American Literature:
“A serious and accessible history that doesn't shy away from the controversy--this is just what American History needs right now.”
Endorsement From Kay Marie Porterfield
co-author of The Encyclopedia of American Indian Contributions to the World:
“A compelling overview that sparks critical thinking about the meaning of the North American frontier and its impact on contemporary society.”
Author Information:
BRUCE E. JOHANSEN is Professor of Communication and Native American Studies at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. List Price: $99.95 · ISBN: 0-275-98159-2 · Publication: May 30, 2005
George Washington's War on Native America
Barbara Alice Mann
Description:
This important work recounts the tragic events on the forgotten Western front of the American Revolution--a war fought against and ultimately won by Native America. The Natives, primarily the Iroquois League and the Ohio Union, are erroneously presented in history texts as allies of the British. However, Native America was working from its own internally generated agenda to prevent settlers from invading the Old Northwest. Native America won the war in the West, holding the land west and north of the Allegheny-Ohio River systems. While the British may have awarded these lands to the colonists in the Treaty of Paris, the Native Americans did not concur.
Endorsement From Ward Churchill
author of A Little Matter of Genocide:
“Barbara Mann has done it again. Abundantly documented, lucidly written and, best of all, utterly unequivocal in its conclusions, this is quite simply the best book ever written on the topic.”
Author Information:
BARBARA ALICE MANN teaches in the English Department at the University of Toledo, Ohio.
List Price: $49.95 · ISBN: 0-275-98177-0 · 316 pages · Publication: March 30, 2005
To order, visit www.greenwood.com, call 1-800-225-5800
Origins of Legislative Sovereignty and the Legislative State
Volume Six
American Traditions and Innovation with Contemporary Import and Foreground
Book 1: Foundations
(to Early 19th Century)
A. London Fell
Description:
This first book of the sixth volume centers on the Revolutionary and Constitutional eras in early American history, while also carrying the story ahead into the early 19th century. How did the American founders adapt and utilize European thought in their political and legal ideas on sovereignty, state, and legislation? Because of the seismic impact of European thought (and classical traditions) on America's foremost founders, it should come as no surprise that some of the most basic documents in the emergent new Republic were significantly influenced by European writings. Subsequent studies will take up the same basic themes in American thought and events from the mid-19th century to the present period.
Author Information:
A. LONDON FELL has been a long-time teacher at New York and Fordham Universities, with broad experience across a wide range of disciplines, periods, and world areas.
List Price: $119.95 · ISBN: 0-275-93976-6 · 488 pages · Publication: July 30, 2004
To order, visit www.greenwood.com, call 1-800-225-5800
The Transformation of the North Atlantic World, 1492-1763
An Introduction
M. J. Seymour
Description:
Between Columbus' first expedition in 1492 and the Peace of Paris in 1763, West Europeans created empires of trade and settlement that re-made the social, economic, and political environments not only of their own peoples, but also those of the other societies around the North Atlantic. This study invites readers new to early modern Atlantic Studies to consider some possible explanations for these extraordinary transformations of the lives of millions of people, free and unfree, and of the political powers of societies that previously had been separated, rather than linked, by the ocean. In particular, Seymour invites readers to ponder how the first century of, in effect, Iberian monopoly, became displaced by an Anglophone hegemony.
Reviews:
"In a series of interconnected topical and chronological essays, Seymour writes about the creation of an Atlantic world after 1492 as a result of Columbus's voyage, the Hispanic empire that followed, and the English Atlantic empire that replaced it at the end of a period of global conflict in 1763. Seymour's essays provide an interpretive survey of the secondary literature and form the basis for his compelling analysis of the history of the early modern Atlantic world. Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above." - Choice
Author Information:
M. J. SEYMOUR is Postgraduate Administrator at Lancaster University. Educated at Cambridge University and the University of Pennsylvania, Seymour has taught widely on early modern history programs for Cambridge University, University of Florida, Gainsville, University of Texas, Austin, and the University of California, Los Angeles. He has also worked at Boston University.
List Price: $92.95 · ISBN: 0-275-97380-8 · 272 pages · Publication: August 30, 2004
The Eliot Tracts
With Letters from John Eliot to Thomas Thorowgood and Richard Baxter
Michael P. Clark
Description:
The Eliot Tracts collects for the first time a series of 11 documents published in London between 1643 and 1671 that describe missionary work by the British among the Indians in New England. Written by John Eliot, Thomas Shepard, and other intellectual and political leaders among the colonists, these tracts constitute the most detailed and sustained record of missionary activity by the English in the New World in the first century of settlement. They are also one of our richest sources of ethnographic information about the Indians of Southern New England in the 17th century as recorded by the British settlers. In addition to the tracts, the volume contains two letters written by John Eliot that argue for the millennialist significance of the missionary work and so situate the missionaries' project within one of the most important theological debates of the time.
Reviews:
"The Eliot Tracts reprinted in this volume fully describe Eliot's missionary endeavor. They are thus the New England counterpart of The Jesuit Relations of the French colonies and the Spanish mission activities described in narratives of New Spain. Missionaries' records and narratives, used cautiously, can be good sources for ethnographic information about indigenous peoples. Researchers mine them with the knowledge that missionaries' observations have been filtered through preconceptions and culturally shaped perceptions and judgments." - Choice
Author Information:
MICHAEL P. CLARK is Associate Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Planning and Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Irvine.
List Price: $99.95 · ISBN: 0-313-30488-2 · 464 pages · Publication: November 30, 2003
To order, visit www.greenwood.com, call 1-800-225-5800
October 24, 2007