Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.4 AVERAGE
4.4 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
informative
sad
slow-paced
An extremely important book that holds up a mirror to the pervasive cultural myths about the founding of the United States. While the subject matter is incredibly heavy, it’s critical for people who are seeking to understand and advance racial justice in America to read and sit with the truth of our history as told in this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Genocide, Racism, Sexual violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Murder, Colonisation, War
Moderate: Alcoholism, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Police brutality, Mass/school shootings
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
If you’re looking for a history of Native Americans in North America, this is not it.
If you’re looking for a bitter, one-sided, biased, political rant against white America, that meanders all over time around the globe, then you’ve found your book.
It’s hard to voice how frustrating I found this book. I really want to learn about the Native Americans and their civilization prior to European colonization and US expansion. Instead I got an ass-whipping. In the introduction, the author explains that if you want a history of the various native american nations, then you can go consult references from each group to get their own history. You won’t find it here.
Instead you get a lot of rants against American domestic and foreign policy and a smear campaign against a list of historical American figures. In one breath, we’ll read about the Delawares or the Cherokee and in the next read about Tripoli or the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. Did you know the Vietnam War was actually a racial war of Americans trying to kill Asians? It is apparently modeled after the genocide of the peace-loving native americans and had nothing to do with helping South Vietnam fight communism.
There is plenty of name calling and extreme adjectives. Kit Carson was a blood-thirsty mercenary. The Alamo hosted legends such as the alcoholic Sam Houston, the mercenary Davy Crockett, the slave-owning William Travis, and other white supremacists. What the defense of the Alamo against the Mexicans has anything to do with Indigenous People history is beyond me, but it enables the author to do a little mudslinging.
I am 98% white with a small trace of Cherokee. I am extremely interested in learning more on this topic, but the author alienated me from the Introduction forward. She accuses the reader of ignorance and still believing in Manifest Destiny. She is still angry over the Columbus landing at Hispaniola. She rants over topics such as American concentration camps and the Final Solution.
The word “genocide” is used an average of once every 5 pages. I agree with the message, but felt beaten over the head. I’m sure getting a rise out of the reader was the author’s first intention, but it became a distraction.
The final chapters discuss modern activism by Native Americans and I did learn quite a bit there. It’s a sensitive topic and I wish I could have learned more in this book. The book is also filled with facts, but they are disorganized and most are found in others better written books.
If you want to learn about the genocide of the Native Americans during American western expansion, I encourage you to read Dee Brown’s [b:Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West|76401|Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee An Indian History of the American West|Dee Brown|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388209846s/76401.jpg|1240262]. If you want to learn about what all the various nations were doing prior to European colonization, then look elsewhere. I’d like to read that book too, if I could find it.
If you’re looking for a bitter, one-sided, biased, political rant against white America, that meanders all over time around the globe, then you’ve found your book.
It’s hard to voice how frustrating I found this book. I really want to learn about the Native Americans and their civilization prior to European colonization and US expansion. Instead I got an ass-whipping. In the introduction, the author explains that if you want a history of the various native american nations, then you can go consult references from each group to get their own history. You won’t find it here.
Instead you get a lot of rants against American domestic and foreign policy and a smear campaign against a list of historical American figures. In one breath, we’ll read about the Delawares or the Cherokee and in the next read about Tripoli or the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. Did you know the Vietnam War was actually a racial war of Americans trying to kill Asians? It is apparently modeled after the genocide of the peace-loving native americans and had nothing to do with helping South Vietnam fight communism.
There is plenty of name calling and extreme adjectives. Kit Carson was a blood-thirsty mercenary. The Alamo hosted legends such as the alcoholic Sam Houston, the mercenary Davy Crockett, the slave-owning William Travis, and other white supremacists. What the defense of the Alamo against the Mexicans has anything to do with Indigenous People history is beyond me, but it enables the author to do a little mudslinging.
I am 98% white with a small trace of Cherokee. I am extremely interested in learning more on this topic, but the author alienated me from the Introduction forward. She accuses the reader of ignorance and still believing in Manifest Destiny. She is still angry over the Columbus landing at Hispaniola. She rants over topics such as American concentration camps and the Final Solution.
The word “genocide” is used an average of once every 5 pages. I agree with the message, but felt beaten over the head. I’m sure getting a rise out of the reader was the author’s first intention, but it became a distraction.
The final chapters discuss modern activism by Native Americans and I did learn quite a bit there. It’s a sensitive topic and I wish I could have learned more in this book. The book is also filled with facts, but they are disorganized and most are found in others better written books.
If you want to learn about the genocide of the Native Americans during American western expansion, I encourage you to read Dee Brown’s [b:Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West|76401|Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee An Indian History of the American West|Dee Brown|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388209846s/76401.jpg|1240262]. If you want to learn about what all the various nations were doing prior to European colonization, then look elsewhere. I’d like to read that book too, if I could find it.
First audio book I've read, learned they are not for me. Will try to read the paper version!
informative
medium-paced
This could serve as a great intro to folks who've never previously studied or read in depth about any of the topics presented. However, it served more for me as a helpful refresher while providing the information almost more so as a data dump than in very much depth. I think you could easily make note of topics and further research them or find dedicated books if you're looking for more insight than the surface level rehashing of events as they're presented here. It's a lot of information to try to tackle in one book so obviously cannot present as much information as you may like about certain subjects before jumping on to the next subject.
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
challenging
informative
sad
medium-paced
Everyone living in the "United States" needs to read this. We have to face the reality of our history in a way we clearly have not done yet. Thank you Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz for this mirror, hard as it is to look into.