A review by ashawp
Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory by Claudio Saunt

4.0

I read (listened) to this one rather quickly, and some of it blurs together in my brain. The main point seems to be similar to The Color of Law - showing that the government had an unequivocally primary role in taking Native land and essentially forcing them to relocate. The argument was made that most Native peoples did *not* want to move, that living side by side was mostly working. This was made a political issue by Southern plantation farmers and slave-owners who wanted more land and more white power. A close vote by the federal government made the decision for dispossession and relocation, and the government and its agents used different forms of coercion to make this happen, breaking all previous treaties. I don’t think you need me to tell you this was detrimental to all parties involved (aside from some individuals who profited, at least temporarily, although the author argues it was also a huge waste of government funds.)

I think the author did struggle to avoid bias in how he reported on some of the facts. He did write this to make a particular argument, after all. I don’t think it detracts from the narrative but it may make some readers distrustful.

I wanted to hear more of the author’s thoughts on what reparations should or could look like. I feel like that’s the obvious history tie-in to the present.