Book Description
The Cherokees, the most important tribe in the formative years of the American Republic, became the test case for the Founding Fathers' determination to Christianize and "civilize" all Indians and to incorporate them into the republic as full citizens. From the standpoint of the Cherokees, rather than from that of the white policymakers, William McLoughlin tells the dramatic success story of the "renascence" of the tribe. He goes on to give a full account of how the Cherokees eventually fell before the expansionism of white America and the zeal of Andrew Jackson.
Customer Reviews:
The seminal history of the pre-removal Cherokee Nation.......2004-11-13
This is THE seminal history of the Cherokee Nation prior to removal. Written by a professor of religious history at Brown University, it is easy to see how he got swept away from his area of expertise and into the amazingly interesting story of the early years of the Cherokee Nation.
McLoughlin does not romaticize the Cherokee Nation, as many other historians do, but tells a clear story of a complicated time and place. His research is impeccable, and the book is well written. As to the merit of his historical analysis, it is mind-numbingly and brilliantly ground-breaking: the sort of stuff that a historian goes his entire life looking to discover. All that I can say is that this book completely changed the direction of my personal study and when I get a PhD in early American History with a concentration on the Cherokee Nation, it will be entierly due to this book.
I also heartily recomend "Cherokees and Missionairies." McLoughlin also has a very good essay on Samuel Worcester in the book "Massachusetts and the New Nation" which is a major undiscovered gem.
30 years of Cherokee History.......2003-10-08
From 1794 until 1834 the Cherokee Nation underwent a change unlike any civilization in the world, past, present or future. It is this time period on which the book focuses. The author covers the years before and after his "Cherokee Renascence" in the first and final chapter.
When people write the history of the Cherokee in Georgia it is understandable that they concentrate on the years leading up to the "Trail of Tears." This tragic event overshadows the history of this Nation, and as William McLoughlin shows us, it is a history rich with acheivement and accomplishment, from the development of a written language by Sequoyah to the adaptation of that language by a majority of the Nation in a 6-month time frame, establishment of a government and newspaper (the Cherokee Phoenix, first American Indian newspaper) and many other accomplishments.
McLoughlin does not pull punches, as many who cover the time period and he does not have an agenda. He accurately recounts the details of the flourishing civilization while describing the evolution of a second society, those who disagreed with the decidedly nationalistic moves of its leaders to protect itself against the desires of the United States and the government of Georgia. Interestingly, Sequoyah was one of the Cherokee against the movement towards nationalism.
A compelling read, factually backed and well researched.
A gripping history.......1998-02-18
A comprehensive history of the Cherokees up to the Trail of Tears. This history covers the building of a great nation that was able to maintain its own culture while integrating with the developing America, and its subsequent downfall.
Average customer rating:
- A Seminal Work
- Another biased treatment of Jewish diaspora history
- Very Readable
- Very Readable
- Unreadable
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A People Apart: The Jews in Europe, 1789-1939 (Oxford History of Modern Europe)
David Vital
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Amazon.com
In 1744, at the height of the War of the Austrian Succession, Empress Maria Therese came to believe that the Jews of Prague were plotting against her, in league with Austria's Prussian enemies. She decided accordingly to expel every member of the city's long-established Jewish community--"a brutal sanction," Anglo-Israeli historian David Vital notes, that "would have put an entire population on to the roads of Europe to march through lands in which they were highly unlikely to be allowed to settle in search of one in which they might." Maria Therese relented eventually, but the Jews of her empire were reminded once again of their precarious position, always potential victims of a ruler's whim.
Half a century later, for the first time in European history, the Jews of France were accorded equal rights of citizenship in the wake of the revolution. From that time on, Vital writes in his encyclopedic history of Jews in early-modern Europe, secularism replaced the former hierarchy of ghetto leaders and rabbinical authority. Able to move more or less freely in the larger society, Jews no longer had to band together for protection, and in short order many of them played important roles in finance, government, and industry. Reaction to their rise was swift: with it came an increase in anti-Semitism and militant nationalism throughout Europe, opposition from both right and left. Their communities now weakened, Jews were ever more vulnerable to attacks by their enemies. These tendencies would culminate in Holocaust, a nightmare of history that, Vital shows, was decades in the making. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
The twentieth century has seen both the greatest triumph of Jewish history and its greatest tragedy: the birth of the nation of Israel, and the state-sponsored genocide of the Holocaust. A People Apart is the first study to examine the role played by the Jews themselves, across the whole of Europe, during the century and a half leading up to these events. David Vital explores the Jews' troubled relationship with Europe, documenting the struggles of this 'nation without a territory' to establish a place for itself within an increasingly polarized and nationalist continent. He examines the clash within the Jewish community between politically neutral traditionalists and a new group of activists, whose unprecedented demands for national and political self-determination were stimulated both by increasing civil emancipation and the mounting effort to drive the Jews out of Europe altogether. Controversially, Professor Vital concludes that the history of the Jewish people was indeed in crucial respects although certainly not all of their own making; at times by their own autonomous action and choice; at others by inaction and default. This powerful and stimulating new analysis represents a watershed in our understanding of the history of the Jews in Europe.
Customer Reviews:
A Seminal Work.......2000-08-24
A fantastic book, full of ideas, that will be rewarding even for readers who know quite a bit about Jewish History. Most histories of the Jews in Europe, even those written by Jews, are written from a Eurocentric (Christian) viewpoint, looking at the Jews from the outside. This book is from a Jewish point of view, and makes no apologies. Does anyone remember what happened to the Jews in Europe, and not just during the Third Reich?
This is a demanding book, Vital likes long sentences, but doesn't waste words. Anyone who reads this book will be in a position to think more clearly about the position of the Jews in history and of minorities in the Western world. I wish every intelligent person would read this book.
Another biased treatment of Jewish diaspora history.......2000-03-27
I picked up Mr. Vital's book in the hope of finding in it a balanced, scholarly treatment of the much-misunderstood subject of Polish-Jewish relations from the late 19th century up to 1939. Unfortunately, "A People Apart" only repeats the old, ethnocentric, anti-Polish sentiments without even the slightest attempt at objectivity.
One of the most glaring examples of this partisan attitude is the fragment regarding the "pogrom" in Lvov in November 1918 (p.738). There exists a large literature on the subject in Polish, which presents a completely different picture; Mr. Vital supports his scathing condemnation of the Poles with a single quote from a propaganda brochure written by a Jewish author in French!
This selective attitude toward the sources is very visible in the bibliography. Although Mr. Vital's discussion of Polish Jewry takes several hundred pages, and the quoted publications number close to 500, I could find there just one(!) text in Polish, and even this one only tangentially related to the subject. If this was done because of the linguistic difficulties for the non-Polish reader, why quote dozens of works in Hebrew? In any case, Polish authors writing in French or English didn't fare much better (four or five references).
All in all, Mr. Vital's book, although rather monumental in scope, is quite parochial in perspective.
Very Readable.......1999-12-06
I enjoyed this book in spite of the above review. In fact I was so enthralled I read it in a very short time. The reader should be warned that it is far from a complete history of the Jews in that time period. The author focuses almost entirely on political Jewish nationalism, Jewish socialism, and Zionism. I think that although most European Jews at the time were traditional or orthodox, those that assimilated were a very diverse lot politically, culturally, and socially. Really the book touches on only a small minority of Jews. Mr. Vital's focus and the book's title would have one think otherwise. With those caveats in mind I highly recommend this book.
Very Readable.......1999-12-06
I enjoyed this book in spite of the above review. In fact I was so enthralled I read it in a very short time. The reader should be warned that it is far from a complete history of the Jews in that time period. The author focuses almost entirely on political Jewish nationalism, Jewish socialism, and Zionism. I think that although most European Jews at the time were traditional or orthodox, those that assimilated were a very diverse lot politically, culturally, and socially. Really the book touches on only a small minority of Jews. Mr. Vital's focus and the book's title would have one think otherwise. With those caveats in mind I highly recommend this book.
Unreadable.......1999-08-31
You have eliminated the review I submitted. You obviously don't want the truth. This book is interesting but it is written so badly and so ponderously that no one will want to make the effort to finish it, as I have.
Customer Reviews:
Top-notch history.......2001-04-04
If you are interested in the history of African kingdoms, the former Slave Coast, kingdom politics or just ethnography, this book is worth your time to read. It is not "gender history," it is a well-rounded, well-researched examination of an unusual kingdom, presenting many sides of the complex society which produced and supported the monarchy, including the wives of the kings and their important roles.
I live and work in Benin, West Africa (formerly Dahomey) among the descendents of the very people Edna Bay has written about. Many of my friends trace their lineage to the kings of Dahomey and Allada. I spend my time in their villages, speak their languages (Ayizo & Fon), listen to their stories, and share their lives. In several cases Bay's discussion of the way things "were" describe very well the way things are right now in the lives of my village friends. Several of her observations also helped to clarify and articulate cultural attitudes that differ from my own. In other words: she's done her research well.
Bay's commentary on history and how it's written, particularly in the context of the kingdom of Dahomey, is fascinating all by itself. Her more general first chapters are informative. The subsequent chapters, which are divided by the reigns of the kings, are more detailed. Although keeping track of some of the titles and the players can get a little tricky, the chapters are well-woven and paint a strong picture of the kingdom and its development.
No work is perfect, of course, and there are a few items which differ from my experience or the information provided by my Beninoix friends, but without doubt this book is worth reading.
On a technical note I would suggest that the title of the book would be better as "Mothers of the Leopard" since "Kpojito" is literally translated as "the leopard giving-birth person."
All in all, it's a book worth having.
Book Description
This is the first in-depth historical study of Comanche social and political groups. Using the ethnohistorical method, Thomas W. Kavanagh traces the changes and continuities in Comanche politics from their earliest interactions with Europeans to their settlement on a reservation in present-day Oklahoma.
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Equal Subjects, Unequal Rights: Indigenous People in British Settler Colonies, 1830-1910 (Studies in Imperialism (Manchester, England).)
Julie Evans ,
Patricia Grimshaw ,
David Phillips , and
Shurlee Swain
Manufacturer: Manchester University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0719060036 |
Book Description
This book focuses on the ways in which the British settler colonies of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa treated indigenous peoples in relation to political rights, commencing with the imperial policies of the 1830s and ending with the national political settlements in place by 1910. Drawing on a wide range of sources, its comparative approach provides an insight into the historical foundations of present-day controversies in these settler societies.
Book Description
This exciting study demonstrates the central role of "the people," the empire, and the citizen in eighteenth-century English popular politics. Pioneering in its focus on provincial towns, its attention to the imperial contexts of urban politics and its use of a rich and diverse array of sources--from newspapers, prints and plays to pottery and tea-cloths--it shows how the wide-ranging political culture of English towns attuned ordinary men and women to the issues of state power and thus enabled them to stake their own claims in national and imperial affairs.
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- ýPublic opinion is a democratic invention.ý
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To Speak for the People: Public Opinion and the Problem of Legitimacy in the French Revolution
Jon Cowans
Manufacturer: Routledge
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0415929725 |
Book Description
Although there is now a great deal of literature on the concept of public opinion in the 18th century France, it is almost entirely devoted to the pre-revolutionary years. No book has tackled the concept of public opinion in the French Revolution itself. To Speak for the People is a lucid and innovative study that finally fills this gap. Historian Jon Cowans adds a strong and genuinely original voice to the historical debate over the problem of legitimacy during the Revolution drawing on the works of such luminaries as Jürgen Habermas, Keith Baker, François Furet, and Nancy Fraser. He then examines the uses of terms such as "public opinion," 'the public," and "the people" in political debates during the Revolution and analyzes those terms' changing meaning and the role they played in attempts to secure political authority. While shedding new light on the Revolution itself, the book raises broader issues by addressing the problem of legitimacy that has haunted all revolutionary and democratic governments throughout the modern period. Jon Cowans is a graduate of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. He received his Ph.D. in History at Stanford University. He has published articles on French political culture, cultural politics, and memory in French Historical Studies, the Journal of Contemporary History, and History and Memory. He teaches in the History Department of Rutgers University and lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Customer Reviews:
ýPublic opinion is a democratic invention.ý.......2001-09-11
Some scholars of public opinion regard public opinion as an ahistorical category. They define public opinion as a force or reputation which influence on the people's conducts (i.e., Noelle-Neumann, even historian Paul Veyne who studied Roman Empire), or on the king's policy against people (i.e., Lowell). Thus, they say that public opinion has existed over there and over time; even in monarchy, king was subject to public reputation. Unfortunately, this kind of idea continuously lingers in current research on public opinion whose analytical object is representative democracy.
In reality, it may be possible that people's idea, opinion, and public expression influenced on those of other people, or of governmental bodies. But, in mentality, public opinion is a peculiar historical phenomenon which emerged with the rise of democratic governance. As Cowans (2001) points out, it is just opinions that have an influence or pressure on the conducts of the people, but it was not public opinion (opinion publique). The transformation of opinion from a pejorative term to a rather positive one is due to opinion's marriage with the qualifier public (Ozouf). The marriage was not, however, made possible not only by the expansion of people's power-namely, the rise of the bourgeois public sphere , as Habermas argues, but also, and more significantly, by the change of political elite's mentality. Methodologically, thus, the origin of public opinion should be found in the discourse (rhetoric) of political elites rather than in hard facts. And the historical studies of French Revolution may provide many insights into our conceptions of public opinion.
Customer Reviews:
The People - a convenient fiction.......2007-01-06
This book is a very perceptive examination of a central tenet of both the British and American democracies, that is, the one where the central government rests on popular sovereignty - on the people. The author shows that is mostly a convenient fiction, but one that must be honored to legitimate democratic governments. In the first place, "the people" is a most nebulous concept - sufficiently vague to not affix specific rights and duties.
The author devotes at least half the book to 17th century English political history where the divine right of kings was gradually replaced by popular sovereignty exercised by Parliament. He shows where the Long Parliament of 1640 assumed supreme authority in the name of the people with no mechanisms actually in place for the "people" to check Parliament. The Levellers of that time attempted to bridge the gap of empowerment for the people, but were essentially ignored and suppressed keeping power in the hands of the few.
In later years and in America, the myth of the power of people has been sustained in many ways: extolling the importance of the virtuous yeoman (farmer), requiring participation in local militias where local social hierarchies can be reinforced, elections where pre-selected, elite candidates pander for votes, and holding carnivals where the gentry and peasants pretend to swap social roles. In all of these cases there is the pretense of social equality. It is all an elaborate game where elites interact with the ordinary just enough to remind everyone both of their superiority and sameness and to deflect grass-roots efforts to exercise power.
There is a great deal of discussion concerning the agreement of men in a hypothetical past to emerge from a state of nature to form a community and then to establish a government. In theory the community of men retains its superiority over the government, but the problem is that once power is invested in representatives, presidents, judges, etc, how can the people regain the upper hand. In America, Constitution writing was a pre-government community activity that prescribed a government and had to be ratified by state conventions of the people. The author points out that during the time of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 in England, the Convention (actually Parliament) was unwilling to return to a pre-government state to construct a constitution - too much chance for actual people's voices.
Since the time of the founding much has changed in America. Landed elites have long since been surpassed by business and financial elites. The rise of mass communications while increasing information flows also facilitates the ability to sustain all manner of myths including the myth of popular empowerment. This is a good book to understand that some key political myths in this country have been with us a long time.
Boring but relevant.......2006-06-22
Inventing the People is a study of the relation between political ideas and political reality in the Anglo-American world. Morgan's ultimate goal is to explain the development of the American way of government. Morgan's thesis is that both the divine right of kings and the sovereignty of the people are political fictions designed to justify government of the many by the few. These fictions have been created by the people and
serve to both shape and reflect upon the nature of political reality.
Morgan's thesis is that both the divine right of kings and the sovereignty of the people are political fictions designed to justify government of the many by the few. These fictions have been created by the people and serve to both shape and reflect upon the nature of political reality.
Inventing the People is an examination of the relation between political thoughts and political reality in the Anglo-American world. Morgan's ultimate goal is to trace the development of the American style of government. Morgan's, Hume inspired, thesis is that both the divine right of kings and the sovereignty of the people are political fictions designed to justify government of the many by the few. These fictions have been created by the people and serve to both shape and reflect upon the nature of political reality.
A Great Book to Understand our Forefathers.......2006-03-11
I'm barely a quarter of the way through the book. It's very dense in that there is so much to read and ponder within its covers. But what I have read shows that he has done his homework, and is presenting the material in a way that makes me feel like I was part of the popular debate occuring in the halls of government at the time.
If you want to know why the constitution is written the way it is, where our forefathers got the crazy idea that men are inherently sovereign and have God-given rights, you'll need to get this book. It explains the slow, awkward, and surprising evolution of philosophy as people began to realize kings were no more endowed with a a mandate from God than men were. If you can't imagine what was really going on in people's minds between the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence, this book will fill in all of the missing gaps.
Getting back to basics, civicly speaking.......2002-11-12
We the People, right? Well, it's not obvious anymore, looking around at the usurping of many of our rights. This book states the obvious in simple terms that we can all understand at today's hectic pace. A very good history lesson.
Average customer rating:
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Aristocracy and People: Britain, 1815-1865 (New History of England)
Norman Gash
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0674044916 |
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