

Unworthy Republic
The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory
Author: Claudio Saunt
Narrator: Stephen Bowlby
Unabridged: 11 hr 36 min
Format: Digital Audiobook Download
Publisher: Highbridge Audio
Published: 03/31/2020
Synopsis
Drawing on firsthand accounts and the voluminous records produced by the federal government, Saunt’s deeply researched book argues that Indian Removal, as advocates of the policy called it, was not an inevitable chapter in US expansion across the continent. Rather, it was a fiercely contested political act designed to secure new lands for the expansion of slavery and to consolidate the power of the southern states. Indigenous peoples fought relentlessly against the policy, while many US citizens insisted that it was a betrayal of the nation’s values. When Congress passed the act by a razor-thin margin, it authorized one of the first state-sponsored mass deportations in the modern era, marking a turning point for native peoples and for the United States.