| | I read The Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism, and the Cant of Conquest by historian Francis Jennings as the 2nd of five for the Non-Fiction Five Reading Challenge. This is an examination of Indian and European contact in the colonial period of American history.
Part One is an overview of the history of contact in terms of colonization, the impact of diseases and the fur trade, and dragging the Indians into globalization. He also discusses the uses of the PR constructs of “the savage” versus “the civilized.” I didn’t know that the population of Indians in New England had been colossally diminished by epidemics as early as the 16th and 17th centuries. Nor did I know the brutal techniques to subdue the local population were so effective because the English first honed and practiced them in Scotland and Ireland.
Part Two provides a highly detailed examination – more than the lay reader needs – of the Puritan "oligarchs" and their subsequent historian-apologists. Harsh points are make about deceitful land grabbing by the Puritans and inter-tribal warfare egged on by the colonists. Jennings use of tough language such as “excruciating cant” and “clearly deceitful intent” will attract us non-expert readers but dismay historians who will tut-tut.
For the general reader, this history may be a bit too much, but for serious students of the topic or readers who enjoy reading the work of historians with a tough truth-telling bent, this is the ticket.
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| | Posted 7/3/2009 7:47 AM - 6 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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