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A review by jeremy_bearimy
Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory by Claudio Saunt
4.0
I learned a lot about the processes of deportation, expulsion, and extermination of indigenous Americans in the 1830s. Definitely lots of “how the heck did I not learn about this in school?” moments. I knew about the Trail of Tears, but not the broader political and social context that led up to it, or the broad (and impressive) array of ways different tribal leaders tried to resist. While I would never expect a recounting of such a horrifying chapter of history to be a pleasurable read, I found it easier to stay engaged once I gave up on trying to keep all the different people and statistics straight since this is a very deeply researched book.
Three main arguments:
1) the state-administered mass expulsion of indigenous people from land east of the Mississippi in the 1830s was unprecedented - soooooo much bureaucracy as politicians tried to justify it as a humanitarian effort
2) this expulsion transformed the country by creating a westward-moving frontier that set the stage for future conflicts throughout the 19th century
3) this expulsion was not inevitable - it was a calculated policy decision fueled by greed and white supremacy that could have been avoided by things like a stronger federal government that actually enforced treaties and pushed back against Southern states that basically said “give us what we want (land for cotton plantations) or we will secede”
Three main arguments:
1) the state-administered mass expulsion of indigenous people from land east of the Mississippi in the 1830s was unprecedented - soooooo much bureaucracy as politicians tried to justify it as a humanitarian effort
2) this expulsion transformed the country by creating a westward-moving frontier that set the stage for future conflicts throughout the 19th century
3) this expulsion was not inevitable - it was a calculated policy decision fueled by greed and white supremacy that could have been avoided by things like a stronger federal government that actually enforced treaties and pushed back against Southern states that basically said “give us what we want (land for cotton plantations) or we will secede”