American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World

Book Description

For four hundred years--from the first Spanish assaults against the Arawak people of Hispaniola in the 1490s to the U.S. Army's massacre of Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee in the 1890s--the indigenous inhabitants of North and South America endured an unending firestorm of violence. During that time the native population of the Western Hemisphere declined by as many as 100 million people. Indeed, as historian David E. Stannard argues in this stunning new book, the European and white American destruction of the native peoples of the Americas was the most massive act of genocide in the history of the world. Stannard begins with a portrait of the enormous richness and diversity of life in the Americas prior to Columbus's fateful voyage in 1492. He then follows the path of genocide from the Indies to Mexico and Central and South America, then north to Florida, Virginia, and New England, and finally out across the Great Plains and Southwest to California and the North Pacific Coast. Stannard reveals that wherever Europeans or white Americans went, the native people were caught between imported plagues and barbarous atrocities, typically resulting in the annihilation of 95 percent of their populations. What kind of people, he asks, do such horrendous things to others? His highly provocative answer: Christians. Digging deeply into ancient European and Christian attitudes toward sex, race, and war, he finds the cultural ground well prepared by the end of the Middle Ages for the centuries-long genocide campaign that Europeans and their descendants launched--and in places continue to wage--against the New World's original inhabitants. Advancing a thesis that is sure to create much controversy, Stannard contends that the perpetrators of the American Holocaust drew on the same ideological wellspring as did the later architects of the Nazi Holocaust. It is an ideology that remains dangerously alive today, he adds, and one that in recent years has surfaced in American justifications for large-scale military intervention in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. At once sweeping in scope and meticulously detailed, American Holocaust is a work of impassioned scholarship that is certain to ignite intense historical and moral debate.

Customer Reviews:

In answer to conservative pseudointellectuals..........2007-09-24

All of the big words and "references" in the world won't change history for you, unfortunately. I notice that among the people who did not like this book, they all pretty much said the same thing: That Stannard didn't paint an accurate picture of the natives of the western hemisphere. That he didn't acknowledge cannabalism (he did), that he didn't acknowledge human sacrifice (he did - to the tune of 20,000 per year in the Inca capital), and that he didn't acknowledge inter-tribal warfare and cruelty (he most certainly did). One of the reasons I liked this book so much was its extensive reference section (with explanations as to most of the references, so if you have any questions about something...LOOK IT UP). It'd do you all some good, rather than blindly naysaying whatever doesn't fit your racist little mold. Does it really MATTER whether or not native peoples practiced unsavory rituals? They're all dead.

In any case, the book was superb and whatever your views are regarding the native peoples mentioned in the book, one point remains irrefutable: They were exterminated. It was deliberate. It was planned, sanctioned, supported, and financed by every exploratory realm in Europe and by the American government throughout it's short and brutal history. You all know it.

This is one of the most important books that you will ever read in your entire life.......2007-04-29

It is amazing that we live in a country that was built upon holocaust but we yet we are in complete denial. And not just the U.S., the entire Americas. This book discloses the atrocities committed by the Spaniards and and other Europeans. It also dispels the myth that prior to the arrival of Columbus, America was nothing more than open prairie lands. And it reveals that the so-called new world was heavily populated before the mosting devasting and the largest genocide committed in history. It does more than reveal the diseases that the Spaniards and other Europeans brought to the new world. It uncovers the enslavement and intentional massacres of countless natives of the new world. A sad thing about this book is that those who need to read this book most (the ones in denial), will probably never read this book and continue to perpetuate the lie that no holocaust or genocide was ever committed in the Americas by the Spaniards and other Europeans. If you only read one book over the next decade, this should be it.

Simplisitc and sensationalistic.......2007-03-26

Almost every time someone uses the word 'holocaust' when they are not referring to the actual Holocaust between 1939 and 1945, they use it in an incorrect and sensationalistic manner, comparing the incomparible. This is no exception. It is true that millions of people died following the arrival of Europeans in the New World in 1492. However 90% of them died from Disease. This was an extraordinary number, but there is a difference between planning to murder so many and having them die for biological reasons(not being immune to disease). Indeed many of even the most cynical Spaniards were dismayed that the Indians were dying, either because they could no longer be used as slaves or because they could no longer be enslaved. It is rediculous to pretend that this was a 'holocaust' unless the black Plague that swept Europe in the 13th-14th centuries was also a holocuast.

In addition this book accuses the Europeans of 'racism' which is a patent lie. Race did not propell Europeans across the seas in 1492 and the years afterword. It is true that Europeans looked different than the indigenous people of the New World, but it is not true that this was what motivated colonization, ensalvement, war or exploitation.

Just as the rise of most empires, such as the Chinese or Ottoman, are not accused of being tied up in racism, it is comical to pretend that men like Columbus had any concept of the 19th century ideas of race. The notions are neither found in thier writings or documents and that is why none are quoted in this book. In fact many Spaniards defended the Indians, such as Bartholemew De Las Casas, but all those people are conveniently ignored here. Not a suprise.

Seth J. Frantzman

Crimes of Aggression and Occupation Revealed.......2007-03-18

David Stannard reveals the awful truth of Aggression and Occupation, misnamed "Discovery" and "Settlement," in the Americas. Readers who, in the names of education and religion, have been exposed to five centuries of revisionist history should be horrified at the truth. If they aren't, it will be a testament to the effectiveness of the church, school and university propaganda to which they have been exposed. The horrors of other holocausts are not excused by recognition that the holcaust in the Americas, perpetrated by European Christians against ancient civilizations were the most horrible in the history of mankind. They continue to this day.

THE SINGLE FINEST AND MOST ESSENTIAL BOOK OF THE AGE .......2006-06-06

A masterpiece of scholarship and analysis.

This book is nothing less than the single most important work that you will ever read.

Our entire culture is built on Holocaust Denial while those most responsible for this abnesia drape themselves in the flag of holocaust memorialism but have little honesty in their true agenda. An agenda that allows in North America alone for there to be at least 50 Holocaust memorials, museums and monuments...
only problem is they are ALL about the Holocaust that happened in Europe and NOT about the colossal extermination that took place where they live. It is not only denial on the part of the nations of the Americas and Europe but those responsible for this Holocaust Denial in relation to Indian America insist on an image of being the world's caretakers of holocaust memory. What a bloody audacity.

Why do we let the Spanish off the hook so lightly? Why is there no demand for Spain to make its Mea Culpa? Why is there no AMERICAS HOLOCAUST memorial in Madrid, Washington, London and Ottawa ?

This brilliant book re-addresses the imbalance.

POST SCRIPT....

There is a reviewer further down who uses the monica of
"history buff" who rejects the value and integrity of this work. In fact he utterly insults Mr Stannard and his thesis.

So I thought I would check out his other reviews...oh boy!

One of the remarks he makes in a book claiming that Saddam was behind 9/11 goes "But it is very difficult to argue with the facts that were available to the agencies which pointed to a direct link between Saddam and Al Qaeda." This example of his world view is the mild end of it. So people consider the character of the self-described "history buff" who rejects Stannard's brilliant thesis on the Holocaust in the Americas.

The reviewer "history buff" has a world view that comes straight out of the 1950's HUAC committee (he associates all Left wing thought with the Soviet Union not knowing that the Bolshevik regime prohibited the platform of the revolution and that its first victims were in fact the most sincere and dedicated Left revolutionaries. Clearly he has never read the finest autobiography in the history of English language autobiography; Emma Goldman's LIVING MY LIFE volume 1 and volume 2. The latter volume includes a first hand account of the destruction NOT construction of socialism by Lenin and his cohorts ).
.

First Peoples: A Documentary Survey of American Indian History Second Edition

Average customer rating:

Informative study of Native American history
Great Read
Outstanding textbook about Native American History

First Peoples: A Documentary Survey of American Indian History Second Edition
Colin G. Calloway
Manufacturer: Bedford/St. Martin's
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0312398891

Customer Reviews:

Informative study of Native American history.......2006-04-26

I just finished a class on Native American history. The use of the text "First Peoples: A Documentary Survey of American Indian History," by Calloway was very informative. I found that the book expressed the true history of the Native American people. As I read the different chapters, I found my self able to clearly picture the different events that took place. This is coming from a person who purposely saved my history requirement until my second to last class to graduate from college. I have never enjoyed history. This book really changed my views on history!

Great Read.......2005-08-11

A very effective survey of the Native tribes in America from before the whites until present times. The book provided a lot of information regarding the legal fights of the tribes over times, which I found to be very interesting. This includes governmental policies, including the gaming issues. Also, how the tribes have hung onto their culture and identity, which was equally interesting. It was interesting to read of hte mascot issue at the end of the book as well, due to the current issues dealing with them.

Calloway also includes many legal documents which give a greater insight to the happenings of the time. These documents also help to see the issues from both points of view, native and white.

Outstanding textbook about Native American History.......2000-08-02

This was the textbook in my Native American History Class this summer at the University where I am persuing a History Degree with a minor in Teacher Certification. I must say that this is one of the best textbooks that I have used since I began college. The author has taken a wide and complex field of Native American (Indian) History and has effectively narrowed it to interesting and important events. This is a textbook that reads very well. The tragic story of the Native American is told with sensitivity and accuracy. From the beginning of recorded American Indian History to the tragic consequences of dealing with European Invaders-Explorers and its aftermath. The accounts of the Colonial Indians, 5 Civilized Tribes, Indian Wars to present day wounded knee, and so much more are given excellent focus to the student/reader. I highly recommend this book to any Professor who will teach Native American History.

Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New Nation

Average customer rating:

Nicely paced read...I learned a lot and enjoyed it
Timely read! Made me want to visit Jamestown again!
What a great read, please tell us more of Smith's earlier story
Good, readable popular history, but with a doozy of a mistake
Engaging

Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New Nation
David A. Price
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

ASIN: 1400031729
Release Date: 2005-01-04

Book Description

A New York Times Notable Book and a
San Jose Mercury News Top 20 Nonfiction Book of 2003

In 1606, approximately 105 British colonists sailed to America, seeking gold and a trade route to the Pacific. Instead, they found disease, hunger, and hostile natives. Ill prepared for such hardship, the men responded with incompetence and infighting; only the leadership of Captain John Smith averted doom for the first permanent English settlement in the New World.

The Jamestown colony is one of the great survival stories of American history, and this book brings it fully to life for the first time. Drawing on extensive original documents, David A. Price paints intimate portraits of the major figures from the formidable monarch Chief Powhatan, to the resourceful but unpopular leader John Smith, to the spirited Pocahontas, who twice saved Smith’s life. He also gives a rare balanced view of relations between the settlers and the natives and debunks popular myths about the colony. This is a superb work of history, reminding us of the horrors and heroism that marked the dawning of our nation.

Customer Reviews:

Nicely paced read...I learned a lot and enjoyed it.......2007-07-10

I really enjoyed this work and enjoyed its pacing and the way the author weaved the historical narrative with the characters and the sense of timeline. A great overview of the period and I would recommend this one. A well balanced book to help the reader understand the period and how things were viewed. In fact I was anxious to see if I could get other books by this author!

Timely read! Made me want to visit Jamestown again!.......2007-05-07

Easy read. Couldn't imagine how I missed some of these details in US History, but nonetheless so glad I picked it up - could not put it down.

What a great read, please tell us more of Smith's earlier story.......2007-04-12

Love and Hate in Jamestown is a very enjoyable and very readable antidote to the usual Pocahontas nonsense cooked up by disney and more recently presented in the new world. Chock full of well researched facts and anecdotes about this remarkable chapter in America's history. Price's accounts about John Smith's life before he came to Virginia sounds at least as fascinating as what he achieved once he was in Virginia. He stands as one of the archetypes of the early Americans, combining all of those qualities good and bad, which have ultimately defined us as a people.

Good, readable popular history, but with a doozy of a mistake.......2007-04-05

Smoothly written and, for the most part, well edited, this is probably a fine introduction to the history of the Virginia colony in the early 17th century.

There are two flaws, one minor and one major. First, the author (or, more likely, the editors) sometimes dumbs down too much (e.g., he takes a paragraph to explain what "trade winds" are, and defines "longitude"--readers would either know about these already or have a dictionary at hand). Second, the book's one map of eastern Virginia has an inexcusable error: Jamestown is shown to be in the area of modern-day Fort Eustis, about 10 miles east of where it really was! This is equivalent to publishing an account of the New Netherlands with a map showing New Amsterdam in the Bronx, or one of the New England Puritans that has them siting Boston where Newton is. I hope this was noticed and fixed for the paperback and other editions.

Engaging.......2007-01-20

I really enjoyed reading this book. I found myself anxious to get home to read it every night. Price was very informative and his writing flowed nicely. My wife and I look forward to our trip to Jamestown for the 400th anniversary.

Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America

Average customer rating:

Bad History
"Eastward" Approach of Studying Native Americans
Informative and analytical
Refreshing switch of viewpoint
Thinking Opposite and Otherwise

Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America
Daniel K. Richter
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0674006380

Book Description

In the beginning, North America was Indian country. But only in the beginning. After the opening act of the great national drama, Native Americans yielded to the westward rush of European settlers.

Or so the story usually goes. Yet, for three centuries after Columbus, Native people controlled most of eastern North America and profoundly shaped its destiny. In Facing East from Indian Country, Daniel K. Richter keeps Native people center-stage throughout the story of the origins of the United States.

Viewed from Indian country, the sixteenth century was an era in which Native people discovered Europeans and struggled to make sense of a new world. Well into the seventeenth century, the most profound challenges to Indian life came less from the arrival of a relative handful of European colonists than from the biological, economic, and environmental forces the newcomers unleashed. Drawing upon their own traditions, Indian communities reinvented themselves and carved out a place in a world dominated by transatlantic European empires. In 1776, however, when some of Britain's colonists rebelled against that imperial world, they overturned the system that had made Euro-American and Native coexistence possible. Eastern North America only ceased to be an Indian country because the revolutionaries denied the continent's first peoples a place in the nation they were creating.

In rediscovering early America as Indian country, Richter employs the historian's craft to challenge cherished assumptions about times and places we thought we knew well, revealing Native American experiences at the core of the nation's birth and identity.

Customer Reviews:

Bad History.......2007-09-29

The book has many problem sin my view as a history graduate student. Although many important arguments were included in this work, I found it to be a struggle to determine which was an "Eastern" view or an actual fact. Richter used his imagination a bit too much. Sometimes historians have to make the best possible interpretation but going on a limb and guessing what someone may have thought is not HISTORY. Furthermore, Richter is somewhat unclear throughout the work. He switches between imagination and reality, and sometimes it becomes a task in itself deciphering what is his idea or fact. Richter uses almost NO missionary documents when trying to argue his point. Very few examples of missionary texts were given, creating a situation of where did your idea come from. Furthermore, Richter generalizes far too much. A tribe in Delaware is not going to react similar to one in S. Carolina. While trying to put his point across he fails to discuss changing regimes in Europe (England, France, and Spain) and their effect on colonial policies against natives. He mentions that Louis XIV wants natives wiped out, but says nothing of the Stuarts or Hapsburg policies.

Now I understand this was supposed to be a work facing east, not west, but Richter seemed to go too far outside the scope of the sources and use his imagination a little to often. What happen to American Natives was sad, but imagining history to glorify them does not do justice to them or the faculty of history.

"Eastward" Approach of Studying Native Americans.......2007-05-18

Traditional histories of Native Americans have focused on the point of view, or history, of European Americans. But in 2001, historian Daniel Ricther breaks this trend in his novel work - Facing East From Indian Country. The "eastward" approach incorporates the interpretations, or stories, of early Native Americans who observed the movements of Europeans from eastern America. His research is by no means exhaustive, but advances a fresh perspective of the scant pre-existing primary sources on early Native Americans. His sophisticated synthesis and analysis of the aforementioned sources, coupled with his incisive imagination shed light on a virtually untold Native American history.

Richter chronologically organizes his work and concentrates heavily on early colonial times in his opening chapters, which appear to be his area of expertise. His passages of primary sources are often lengthy and precariously worded, but his strong narrative and eloquent articulation of Indian culture supersede these minor distractions.

Revisiting the oft told stories of Pocahontas and Metacon, Ricther articulately portrays these individuals as being champions of peaceful co-existence, and cooperation, in the New World. In addition to the previously noted amenable traits, Native Americans also possessed sound diplomatic skills. For instance, Richter provides considerable detail about the sophisticated "treaty protocol" that early Americans utilized. Noting that this process "ideally consisted of nine stages," ( 135) Ricther explicitly detailed the expectations of Iroquois during these meetings in the mid-eighteenth century and illuminated the European's poor cultural understanding of these protocols. These examples, and others, highlighted the European's ignorance of Indian culture.

The latter chapters chronicle the Indians transgression from peaceful co-existence with the Europeans in the eighteenth century to all out war with them in the early nineteenth century. In the mid-eighteenth century, for instance, Ricther convincingly argues that "diversity wrought an increasingly pervasive view that Indians and Whites were utterly different, and utterly incompatible." (180) These views became more solidified in the nineteenth century. And Indians gradually surrendered more rights, and property, in the New World.

In the epilogue, which was more suited for the introduction or opening chapters, Ricther outlines the writings of Native American writer William Apess who sought to promote an eastward narrative of Indian history in the early eighteenth century. According to Richter, his work was silenced by European histories.

This work, in closing, creates new opportunities for scholars to re-interpret Native American history. This paradigm shift will likely lead to more sophisticated studies of early Indian culture in the New World, and ultimately add to our rather meager understanding of Indian history. A must read for Native American scholars and graduate and undergraduate history students who wish to broaden their understanding of early American history.

Informative and analytical.......2007-03-06

Mr. Richter does a fine job of deftly parsing small bits of information to imagine the Indian American's point of view. I was rather expecting an I-hate-America diatribe, but that's not at all what this is. It DOES show that between the clash of cultures in North America, the natives were much more adept to adapting (because they had no choice) than were the Europeans. And adapt they did, somewhat successfully until the war of Independence was fought between the US and Britian. After that, well, there were so many indefensible acts by the new US that it came down to "civilize-or-die" to the natives. Even those that did civilize were not safe, being punished by vigilantes for 'outrages' by other Indians - not even of the same linguistic group.
Those few who understood the complicated culture of the natives were by and large ignored, while small bands of cunning Indians would sell land that wasn't even theirs.
Sometimes it is said that there's enough blame to go around; if by that it's meant that because all Natives were not "Good Injuns" we should exterminate those who refuse to be deported, well okay.
Some say slavery was the darkest blot on our history, I believe it was the lies, broken treaties, forced removals, genocide and outright stealing of land that is that darkest chapter.
Read also Eve Ball's "indeh", and Britton Davis' "The Truth About Geronimo."

Refreshing switch of viewpoint.......2006-08-30

The author does an excellent job tracking down the limited available sources that shed light on the earliest Native American perspectives of Colonial history in a way that never come out in our traditional histories. This is a very readable book that is superior to "Mayflower" in providing a detailed analysis for the Indian view of that history. Facing East doesn't stop with the Pilgrims, but explores its theme through numerous early interactions between Native and European peoples.

Thinking Opposite and Otherwise.......2006-08-29

Most historians have sufficient presence of mind to clear from their brains the Panglossian cant which insists we live in the best of all possible worlds. The best histories, of which Daniel K. Richter's Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America is most certainly one, are able to envision a historical narrative where paths not taken would lead to a counterfactual narrative to our own.

To this end, Richter musters the sources traditional to any historian--varied secondary sources, the journals of participants of historical interactions between Natives and Europeans, literary sources by Natives and sundry oral sources likely to be their own. Utilizing a vast knowledge of the period between the first arrival of Europeans in the Americas through the period of "Jacksonian Democracy," Richter paints a lucid picture of European interaction with the tribes of North America, and how it altered the behavior of all parties involved. This narrative is neither a record of triumphant civilization moving west, nor is it an account of genocide moving ferociously from East--though Richter makes clear both of these fit, respectively, into American myth and American realty--he is much more concerned with how the cultures interacted with each other in creating the circumstances that Natives lived under and how they viewed their changing world.

Richter's approach to understanding how the world did and would appear to Natives is grounded in the understanding that commerce, politics, environment, and ideologies will be discernibly altered by any new presence. Just as North America became a new market for European goods, so Europe allowed for the prospering of some tribes through a need for raw materials such as leather and beaver pelts. The same interaction could, and did, sometimes, lead to intertribal and international conflict (as well as a combination of both at once) or to the unforeseen environmental degradations associated with depopulating a large area of beavers. Richter's understanding of history acknowledges the law of unforeseen consequences--a law that is in fact central to his explanation of how so many Native communities were wiped out, radically altered, even created by European diseases--and how a good deal of the history between Europeans and Natives was the result reciprocal relations and not conflict, to say nothing of an irreconcilable conflict.

Perhaps the most interesting area Richter explores is in the realm of culture. The importation of European goods, African slaves, and Christianity led to profound changes in the ways that many natives lived. The foreseeable creations of Moravian, Catholic, or Anglican communities of Natives; changes in work wrought by iron made tools and warfare through the importation of muskets; expansion of world views due to contact with truly foreign cultures: all of these were the logical consequences of European arrival in North America. These facts were do as much to reciprocity and basic cultural interchanges as they are to the unequal relations that materialized between the two cultures as time passed. Richter is keen to point out that none of this was solely the result of the conqueror and subject role which so Natives were forced to accept.

Richter does not shy away from showing the disgraceful, murderous, and ultimately tragic side Euro-American and Native American relations. Throughout the whole of the book, Richter carefully records the injustices, massacres, broken promises and treaties, as well as the demagoguery that insured Natives even less than second class status. Richter quite convincingly argues that it is the proliferation of all of these factors which led to the creation of an ideology of irreconcilable conflict between Natives and Europeans--later Americans. By implication, Richter shows that this myth required those who believed it to repudiate, if not altogether forget, much past history.

To steal a phrase from Professor Ronald Takaki, Richter is able to look at history through a different mirror. Through his creative reading of the history of Native contact with their own New World, Richter does much illuminate what was one of the most central tragedies of American history.

Average customer rating:

Indispensible
Excellent resource for teachers
drivel........
Excellent
Rethinking All History Books

Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years

Manufacturer: Rethinking Schools Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 094296120X

Book Description

This is a revised and expanded edition of a popular 1991 booklet that changed the way "the discovery of America" is taught in classroom and community settings. The new edition has over 100 pp. of new material, including a role-play trial of Columbus, materials on Thanksgiving Day, resources, historical documents, poetry, and more. It will help readers replace murky legends with a better sense of who we are and why we are here -- and celebrates over 500 years of the courageous struggles and lasting wisdom of native peoples.

Customer Reviews:

Indispensible.......2007-08-19

As a history teacher who feels it is my responsibility to teach histories that have been marginalized and to teach truth that has been denied, Rethinking Columbus (and other books put out by Rethinking Schools) is tremendously useful, not only for the practical ideas for lesson plans and activities (which are wonderful), but also for the general message of the importance of critical thinking among students and teachers. I wish curriculum of this sort had been shared with me in my teacher education program.

Excellent resource for teachers.......2007-03-10

Rethinking Columbus provides a variety of resources, includign articles, essays, poems, song lyrics. lesson plan ideas, maps, lists, book reviews, and itnerviews. All around the central theme of finding an accurate interpretation of the Native American experience in the Americas since Columbus landed here in 1492. It is especially useful as a place for alternative resources that might be used in the classroom in the form of copyable pages that could be read to or by students, depending on their reading level. The status quo in our system is to teach about Columbus as a hero who "discovered" America. This book gives us an alternative version, where Columbus's actions instigate mass genocide, the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and issues of opression that Native American's still suffer today.

The book does not contain fully detailed lesson plans, but has several pages of ideas for lessons with appropriate resources. There is an elementary and a secondary section, the secondary section covers mroe modern issues Native Americans face, while the elementary section covers more of the history. The book has two articles that review children's literature surrounding Columbus. The article on traditional literature shows the massive dismissal in a majority of the books of Native People as human beings of worth, only the white people have names, they are heroes, it is told from only their point of view. The second article reviews books that attempt to be more culturally relevant, while all of these also have problems. I was frustrated reading this, because it did not review books that were completely apprppriate, and maybe there aren't many. They did list a few in the back of the book. But by having the reviews of where there could be problems with the literature, teachers can still use the resources and discuss with their students how the author might have gotten it wrong.

Since the book is comprised of a series of articles, it is not one you have to read front to back. You can pick it up and easily read a section, and it could be something you could come to with a specific topic and easily find a resource without dredging through long passages.

The book could go into further detail about connections outside social studies, such as the accomplishments of native peoples in the areas of science, math, and other areas.

drivel...............2006-06-05

Bigelow seeks to shamelessly use the schools as the propaganda arm for his obsolescent pseudo Marxist horse hockey - despite having absoltuely no democratically mandated authority to do so; thus, like a true apparatachik, he boldly goes where no sane person wants to go, onto slef-initiated committees where he and his ilk rhetorically bludgeon their way to exclusive membership and hope to use the mechanism of bureaucratic state coercion to cram their communist agenda deep into the...well, you get the picture. The odd thing about the Bigandlow type is they generally bring with them a trailing retinue of glassy- eyed women who nod stone faced as the Bigandlow Chairman pours forth venom against the perfidious pawns of the profiteers in meatings no sane person would attend more than once.

Photos of Bigelow bending down to help black students smiling at their desks and working earnestly at their studies are eerily similar to pictures of Hitler petting his dogs who have come to sniff his vegetarian meal.

The next 500 years in the title should give you a pretty good idea that this totalitarian millenialism all over again. Will Bigandlow take his case to the voters and run an HONEST campaign as a communist? Of course not. Like any good Stalinist - Leninist, he knows damn well that the capitalists will simply pervert the election and sway the gullible masses with fear. Thus Bigandlow doesn't mind lying about his intentions until he feels the people are ready for communnism. And he and his ilk have annointed themselves the cultural army that will transform consciousness.

Excellent.......2004-03-12

This is a wonderful book about atrocity and genocide. It should be reqiured in every public school in the U.S.

Rethinking All History Books.......2001-11-08

I always thought that there was another story to every history event. They always just told us about the preditures doings and not what happened to the victims. I never knew the whole truth about the Columbus aventure. I also never heard of the way they treated Native Americans when they came into our country. I recommend this book to all school systems. All students and adults should know the truth about their hero. This book also made me look at other events in the past that the regular history books left out. I hope to learn more about the truth from other history events that happened. This is the best book that I read in a long time.

The First Americans, Third Edition: Prehistory-1600 (A History of US, Book 1)

Average customer rating:

Incredibly well written!
All kids' books should be this good.
The first volume in Joy Hakim's "A History of US"
The first volume in Joy Hakim's "A History of US"
Great history book for homeschooling!

The First Americans, Third Edition: Prehistory-1600 (A History of US, Book 1)
Joy Hakim
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0195153200

Book Description

Thousands of years--way before Christopher Columbus set sail--wandering tribes of hunters made their way from Asia across the Bering land bridge to North America. They didn't know it, but they had discovered a New World. The First Americans is a fascinating re-creation of pre-Columbian Native American life, and it's an adventure of a lifetime! Hunt seals with the Inuit; harvest corn on a cliff-top mesa; hunt the mighty buffalo; and set sail with Leif Erickson, Columbus, and all the early great explorers--Cabot, Balboa, Ponce de Leon, Cortes, Henry the Navigator, and more--in this brilliantly told story of America before it was America.

Customer Reviews:

Incredibly well written!.......2007-04-07

I wish this text had been available when I was in school.

First of all, it is not in the slightest bit boring. It's so well written.

Second, unlike so many histories of America intended for our kids, it starts at the real beginning with the ancient civilizations of America - not only Aztecs, Incas, and Mayas, but the amazing Chaco Canyon and Mississippian city-states as well, along with the farming village cultures and hunter-gatherers that lived all over our continent. This in contrast to even an otherwise pretty good ancient history storybook, like Susan Bauer's Story of the World, in which Ms. Bauer gives the impression that all ancient North Americans were nomads wandering around aimlessly (a glaring error).

Third, when it comes to Columbus and the Spanish Conquistadors, she neither glorifies the conquerors nor the conquered. She tells the good, the bad, and the ugly, on both sides.

Why I didn't give it five stars: I'm sorry, but I don't think we should go overboard in teaching kids to be part of a fan-club for the US government. She just raves about how protected we are from bad government, saying things like "even the President has to obey" the constitution because he can be impeached. Hmmm. I'll just leave everyone to decide on their own whether they agree with that - I found it unbelievably naive.

One other glaring thing I read was her comment that the Plains Indians became wasteful with the buffalo. Since I'm not an historian, I could be missing some information, and maybe the Indians did get less thrifty - I don't know, it's certainly not what I was taught elsewhere. But to state that without putting it into context - which is that non-Indians, including our government, systematically wiped out the buffalo as a tool to reduce the Indians ability to fight for their land - I found very objectionable. (More evidence of the naive fan club mentality about our government?)

Even with those caveats, because ALL historians have biases and errors in their work, I'm still loving this and finding it the best kids history of the US I've ever seen!

All kids' books should be this good........2004-07-03

I thought my 4-year-old was only half listening as I read "The First Americans" to her sister (age 6). But the other evening at story time, her face lit up and she begged for "history"! I can give it no higher praise.

This volume covers the first 12,000 years--give or take a few millennia--of human life on our continent. Hakim strikes a good balance between outlining the broad sweep of the period, and focusing in on interesting stories, people, and trivia ("fun facts" in my girls' lingo). She doesn't gloss over difficult subjects, such as the massacre of the Aztecs by the Spaniards under Cortés. But she relates these events with balance and sympathy, helping her young readers to understand them from different points of view (in this case the Aztecs; their neighbors who were victims of cruel Aztec rituals; and the Spaniards who wanted Aztec gold, but also were abhorred by Aztec viciousness towards their neighbors). What's more, Hakim openly invites them to think about and even reject her own judgements.

She has sparked many good conversations in our household. For instance, she used the example of Cortés to illustrate some tough ethical questions that philosophers debate to this day. I talked about these questions with my daughters, and helped them to express and refine their own thoughts. Then I invited them to think up some other tough questions. My younger one took the cake with "what is 'is'?". She had offered it in jest, but to her surprise I pulled out "Being and Time", one of several big books on my shelf devoted to that very question. She was amused, but quite pleased.

No doubt you will find something to disagree with in this, as in any good history. When that happens, do what the author suggests: use it as an opportunity to debate her conclusions with your kids, and sharpen their critical skills. For the rest of it, enjoy a great story well-told. I can hardly imagine a better history for this age group.

The first volume in Joy Hakim's "A History of US".......2003-07-29

A History of US is basically an attempt to write a juvenile history of the United States that will speak to a generation of young readers who get most of their information from computers and the Internet. That means Joy Hakim offers up lots of information with lots of illustrations, but it also means been very much aware of the mind set of her readers. When Hakim describes the scope "The First Americans: Prehistory-1600" we get a clear sense of this perspective: "This book begins in the Ice Age with some people who hiked and canoed from Asia to a New Land and, thousands of years later, got called Indians by Christopher Columbus, who didn't know where he was." This first volume begins with the first human beings crossing the land mass that once connected Asia and North America and ends with the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the event that signaled the beginning of the end of Spain's empire in the New World and the start of English colonization of the land that would become the United States.

The volume is basically divided into two main sections. After establishing the value of studying history, Hakim looks at how human beings crossed Beringia to a new continent and how these first Americans became Indians. The first section looks examines the Indians on a regional basis, from the Eskimos of the far north to the Cliff Dwellers of the southwest, as well as from the people of the Northwest coast and the Plains Indians to the Mound Builders and People of the Long House in the East. Chapter 13 is a transitional section that covers how the Vikings came to the New World. The rest of the book is devoted to the European voyagers of exploration to the Americans and the early colonization efforts of the Spanish and French. Consequently Hakim tells the stories of Columbus, Balboa, Magellan, Cortes, Ponce de Leon, and Coronado. The establishment of New Spain and New France is contrasted with the lost English colony of Roanoke.

Throughout the volume there are features on related topics from the Vikings at L'anse Aux Meadows and the first map to include "America," to stories of how the world began and how to ravel by canoe and portage, including excerpts from the writings of explorers Christopher Columbus and John White. The margins are crammed with additional information such as quotations, definitions, names to know, and even some jokes. The volume is illustrated with mostly historic etchings, drawings, and maps, as well as contemporary photographs of ancient sites and artifacts, (accurate) maps of voyages, and quotations from primary and secondary sources. The back of the volume offers a Chronology of Events, a list of More Books to Read, and a series of Maps: Old and New.

The strength of "The First Americans: Prehistory-1600" is that it is written as if it were actually being taught in a classroom. Hakim knows when to stop and explain the material, the same way a teacher would talk to their students about what they were reading. For example, she discusses the various names used to talk about the First Americans, pointing out that not even the Indians are really "native" Americans and then later addresses the question of what would have happened if Columbus had actually found Cathay as he expected. I can see why these volumes would be popular with parents who are home schooling their children, because Hakim is able to assume the role of teacher within the pages of her textbook (besides, I am not sure how many school districts can afford a 10-volume American history textbook or how many years it would take to get students to read them all). She also constantly asks her young readers to imagine themselves as specific people in particular situations to appreciate what it was like to live during these time periods, and I find such role-playing to be another key ingredient of computer life for young students in the 21st century.

The first volume in Joy Hakim's "A History of US".......2003-07-29

Great history book for homeschooling!.......2003-02-28

I am currently using the first book in The History of US to teach history to my homeschooled children, ages 9 and 6. Written for children, the books tell a story of being a time and space traveller, and visiting chronologically the stages of development of the Unites States. The first book starts in the Ice Age, with Asians crossing the land bridge, and follows up through Native American tribes, ending with explorers from Europe.

I'd say these books are probably around a 6th grade reading level, and they are fun, interesting, and capture the imagination as well as teach an awful lot about history. The perspective of the books is that no one view of history is correct, and your child is expected to formulate his/her own ideas about what is right and wrong (for example, about forcing "native americans" to live on reservations.)

Book Description

From an award-winning Native American storyteller comes this captivating re-telling of a Cherokee legend, which explains how strawberries came to be. Long ago, the first man and woman quarrelled. The woman left in anger, but the Sun sent tempting berries to Earth to slow the wife's retreat. Luminous paintings perfectly complement the simple, lyrical text. Complete harmony of text and pictures: altogether lovely. -- Kirkus Reviews, pointer review Joseph Bruchac is an award-winning storyteller whose books for children include Eagle Song, Children of the Longhouse, and Arrow to the Sun (all Dial). He lives in Greenfield Center, New York. Anna Vojtech lives in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

Customer Reviews:

A beautifully illustrated book about reconciliation.......2007-07-09

This beautifully illustrated lyrical book is very special. It's story of thoughtless words, anger and forgiveness is told simply, but powerfully. It is a lesson both adults and children can hear over and over. The lush watercolor illustrations are breathtaking. I buy this book as a wedding present, and read it on the last day of classes that I teach, and think of it whenever I bite into a ripe, sweet strawberry.

Get this book!.......2000-12-03

I love this book both for it's great story and because it is a terrific resource for teachers. It's one of those books (like Where the Wild Things Are or Runaway Bunny) that just grabs kids up and speaks directly to things they are deeply connected to. In this case: inequity, anger and how to deal with those feelings.

If you are a teacher (or parent) and want a book that addresses these issues witout being overly complicated or inauthentic - run, don't walk and buy this wonderful book!

First Strawberries - a definite pick!.......2000-05-17

This Cheyenne tale is a great lesson about how words of anger hurt and about forgiveness. Also a nature pour-quoi tale! Can be shared easily with very young, important message for older boys and girls as well as adults. After reading this, eating strawberries will be just a little sweeter!

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CREATIVE, SCHOLARLY, & VASTLY ENTERTAINING
I'm Sorry...

The American Discovery of Europe
Jack D. Forbes
Manufacturer: University of Illinois Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

Expeditions & Discoveries | World | History | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0252031520

Customer Reviews:

CREATIVE, SCHOLARLY, & VASTLY ENTERTAINING.......2007-08-29

What a treasure to read a well researched, provocative book in the intellectual desert of the mainstream. Dr. Forbes' book is an oasis of reason and evidence measured against mainstream books seeking to make career gains by parroting the already said.
Dr. Forbes is Professor Emeritus, and although his career is not over, he certainly doesn't have to publish or perish. Clearly, this book was a labor of love, and it is filled with hard work and creativity that few can match.
This work challenges the omnipresent mindset that Europeans discovered America and challenges the concomitant assumption that Native Americans do not have agency, nor do they explore or do anything of importance. In other words, Dr. Forbes' book challenges the status quo, something every one of his books has done over the last five decades.
I have read almost every book Dr. Forbes has written, and I can say without equivocation that this book delivers.
Now, when you challenge the status quo you have to have your game down and provide plenty of evidence to support your case. You have to cite, cite, cite or the naysayer conformists will crucify you and your work.
Of course, the naysayer conformists will still crucify you with the complaint that you cited too much. What they are truly upset about is that you provided too much evidence and reason, so they are mad you whooped them on their own court with their ball. So they whine.
For the scientific at heart, for people looking for truth and reason in a mainstream fraught with destitute intellectual anomie, this latest book by Dr. Forbes is a refreshing feast of evidence, creativity, and reason spun with his unique blend of humor, wit, and irony.
Be sure to read this intellectual work par excellence!

I'm Sorry..........2007-07-27

"The American discovery Of Europe" by Jack D. Forbes.
University of Illinois Press, 2007.

I'm sorry. I wanted to like this book based upon the central thesis alone, but. The central thesis is wonderful: due to the prevailing winds and prevailing waves, flotsam from the American continents must have washed up on European shoes long before Christopher Columbus made his voyage of discovery in 1492. As a person of Irish descent, I am happy to see a neglected area of history/geography investigated which would make Ireland more important in the story of mankind. But! Then...

It appeared to me that the author quoted person after person SO his first chapter (entitled "Americans Across The Atlantic"), seemed to be filled more with other people's words than the author's original work. (As an example, look at pages 30 & 31.) My historiography professor once corrected me and told that I had to put some original ideas in between all the citations.

And then!! The author wants to be more than just a little bit politically correct, and he tells us that he will use three (3) different names for Christopher Columbus: English, Italian and Spanish. I looked at the publisher: University of Illinois Press, so I figured that the book was intended for an English-speaking audience ... and all the three different names did was to interrupt the flow of reading the book. Do you know what a Colon is in human anatomy? This kind of political correctness ain't worth it. In future books, I do hope that the author, Jack D. Forbes, uses Karl der Grosse for Charlemagne and Maria Antonia for Marie Antoinette, or is that kind of political correctness not acceptable?

Chapter 4, "Ancient Travelers And Migrations", was interesting, exhibiting the wealth of knowledge the author has on American Indians. But, even here, his prose turned me off. On page 83, he states "The Tuscarora also move north to join the Six Nations". Illogical! The Tuscarora moved north to join the FIVE Nations (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga and Seneca), to BECOME the Six Nations. See Wikipedia: "A sixth tribe, the Tuscarora, joined after the original five nations were formed." In my opinion, this is sloppy writing on the part of the writer..

The killer of it all is on the back cover. Professor Hartmut Lutz, Greifswald University, East Germany, is quoted as saying, "...the slaver Christopher Columbus". I would observe that any German professor in a German university should wait for a couple more centuries before he calls any historical figure a slaver, unless, of course, he is addressing Adolf or perhaps Hermann. I am surprised at the lack of sensitivity on the part of the editors of the University of Illinois. I was offended.

For a wonderful thesis: five stars. For writing that did not flow: one star. For silly political correctness: zero stars. If you are writing for an English speaking audience, use the common English names. For maps that are TERRIBLE: zero stars. (See pages 26 and 28. By the way, in this period of global warming, I think that the author's audience is terribly familiar with the effects of the Gulf Stream. If the Gulf Stream stops flowing, Ireland freezes.) Four into six is 1.5 stars, so round up to two stars.

Stars of the First People: Native American Star Myths and Constellations

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More hopeful than the Greeks: Native American star myths
a well-rounded presentation of North American star lore
Well-written book with information hard to find elsewhere

Stars of the First People: Native American Star Myths and Constellations
Dorcas S. Miller
Manufacturer: Pruett Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Folklore & Mythology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Astronomy | Astronomy | Science | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0871088584

Customer Reviews:

More hopeful than the Greeks: Native American star myths.......2005-07-08

Dorcas Miller's book is a gateway into our North American sky. I have already given my first copy to a scout leader. Her organization is superb: sky-watchers can pick a star or constellation and use the reference guide to access all its stories; ethnographers can follow the chapter organization by region and tribe. I will annotate her lists as I add other sources and tales.

Miller starts with the conventional Greek constellations that still map our sky for professional astronomers, providing myth summaries and seasonal sky maps. Her stick figures of these constellations are a delight and I copy their details onto the daily sky charts from the internet.

Both the Greeks and our First Peoples filled their skies with peoples and animals. Only a few identities, such as bear and dog, straddle both hemispheres. Greek heroes and heroines may be banished forever to the sky by the action of the gods as punishment, or placed by a friendly god to protect them from the angered one. Animals and humans are often antagonists. I can't think of a creation myth. The dead didn't go there.

Our First Peoples connection with the sky seems ongoing and personal- get lost and you may wander into it. Die and you may walk up the Milky Way, past guides and obstacles. Suffer and you may find an opening to the sky or a rescuer who will take you into it; you may be homesick, come and go, but finally choose the sky. If you navigate by the stars, why not? It may be a refuge. The myths feel contemporary, the characters often ordinary, and creation feels recent. The animals may be small and hungry, brave or lazy.

Miller provides the myth texts as she finds them, supplementing with discussion and drawings- maps of their known or probable stars and historic diagrams such as rock art that may be relevant. The bibliography is broad. This book will be a good anchor for collecting other North American books coming into print or reprint. `

a well-rounded presentation of North American star lore.......2005-02-18

Curious about the stories that different Native American peoples told about the stars? Dorcas Miller's "Stars of the First People" will go a long way towards satisfying your curiosity. Focusing on the peoples of North America, she has pulled together a robust collection of tales and star lore and grouped them by region. Plentiful sketches, star maps, and charts accompany the text to provide a visual reinforcement of the material contained in the stories.

In addition to the star lore, Dorcas has also included a decent amount of background information on the individual tribes to help the reader better understand the context of the star stories. In the back of the book you'll find an extensive set of notes and bibliographic references for those interested in further reading on this subject.

Don Childrey, author of "STAR TRAILS - Navajo"

Well-written book with information hard to find elsewhere.......2000-05-14

This is one of the most complete set of Native American star legends that I have seen. The author first reviews the standard Greek and Roman myths that have given us our constellation names. For each region of North America, he devotes an entire chapter to star legends from indigenous people that live in that region. At the end of each chapter he lists standard constellations and groups and the Native American legends behind each, and at the end of the book he provides an overall listing. Some interesting similarities come out - for example, the Big Dipper is a bear in standard Greek and Roman and in many Native American myths, and Sirius is a dog or wolf star in standard and in Native American myths. The stories are well written and can be used anywhere where storytelling is called for - for example, to groups of children. For a good summary of Native American myths, look to this volume. I just wish there was a similar compendium of ALL the world's indigenous star myths.

Archaeology at La Isabela: Spain:America's First European Town

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Archaeology at La Isabela: Spain:America's First European Town
Kathleen Deagan , and Jose Maria Cruxent
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Spain | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 0300090412

Book Description

In this important book, Kathleen Deagan and José María Cruxent present detailed technical documentation of their ten-year archaeological excavation of La Isabela, America's first colony. The artifacts and material remains of the town offer rich material for comparative research into Euro-American cultural and material development during the crucial transition from the medieval era to the Renaissance. The period when La Isabela was in existence witnessed great innovation and change in many areas of technology. The archaeological evidence of La Isabela's architecture, weaponry, numismatics, pottery, and metallurgy can be precisely dated, helping to chart the sequence of this change and revealing much that is new about late medieval technology. The authors' archaeological research also provides a foundation for their insights into the reasons for the demise of La Isabela.

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