Indigenous Continent, Pekka Hamalainen
Indigenous Continent, Pekka Hamalainen
2 Rating(s)
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Indigenous Continent
The Epic Contest for North America

Author: Pekka Hamalainen

Narrator: Kaipo Schwab

Unabridged: 18 hr 44 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 11/29/2022


Synopsis

There is an old, deeply rooted story about America that goes like this: Columbus "discovers" a strange continent and brings back tales of untold riches. The European empires rush over, eager to stake out as much of this astonishing "New World" as possible. Though Indigenous peoples fight back, they cannot stop the onslaught. White imperialists are destined to rule the continent, and history is an irreversible march toward Indigenous destruction.

In Indigenous Continent, acclaimed historian Pekka Hämäläinen presents a sweeping counternarrative that shatters the most basic assumptions about American history. Shifting our perspective away from Jamestown, Plymouth Rock, the Revolution, and other well-trodden episodes on the conventional timeline, he depicts a sovereign world of Native nations whose members, far from helpless victims of colonial violence, dominated the continent for centuries after the first European arrivals.

Hämäläinen ultimately contends that the very notion of "colonial America" is misleading, and that we should speak instead of an "Indigenous America" that was only slowly and unevenly becoming colonial. Necessary listening for anyone who cares about America's past, present, and future, Indigenous Continent restores Native peoples to their rightful place at the very fulcrum of American history.

About Pekka Hamalainen

Pekka Hamalainen is Rhodes Professor of American History at Oxford University and the author of The Comanche Empire, winner of the Bancroft Prize, and Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power. He lives in Oxford, England.


Reviews

Goodreads review by William2 on May 09, 2023

An astonishing new book! The main myth that the book refutes is that in colonial American the Indians were just a sideshow. Author Hämäläinen shows that, in fact, it was the indigenous populations who were in charge most of the time. Therefore the book fills in many gaps left in the standard America......more

Goodreads review by Greg Flakus on October 17, 2022

Comprehensive Account of Indigenous Powers in the Americas The best part of the book is found in the first chapters. The main point the author drives home with multiple examples is that the American continents were not unoccupied when Europeans arrived from 1492 to the 1600s. In fact, the European co......more

Goodreads review by Colleen on December 29, 2022

This book turns much of what has been taught and understood about American history and specifically the role of Native Americans in that history on its head. Instead of the usual fare served up of the discovery of a new world open for exploration and claiming as one's own, it presents a picture of t......more

Goodreads review by Dave on November 21, 2022

Good history, oversold the thesis. Hämäläinen can't disguise that A) Colonial numbers were overwhelming (generally by about a factor of 10 no matter the theater) B) Indigenous victories were temporary in the face of expanding U.S. hegemony. Yes, the U.S. routinely claimed lands they weren't really i......more

Goodreads review by Dave on September 26, 2023

It has become something of a truism that history books are written by the winners. In this book Pekka Hamalainen (I apologize for not having a keyboard that allows me to put the little dots above his As") provides a narrative that while not written by the indigenous peoples of North America, certain......more