Publishers Weekly
02/19/2018
Calloway (The Victory with No Name), a Dartmouth professor of history and Native American studies, uses George Washington’s life as a lens for uncovering forgotten history in this detailed account of interactions between Native and white Americans during the latter half of the 18th century. Following Washington from his early days as a land surveyor to his colonial service in the French and Indian War and his later command of the Continental Army command, Calloway highlights the complex and often ambiguous relationship between indigenous politics and the young republic. In particular, the desire to buy and sell Native land with impunity shaped key moments in Washington’s political life: a British proclamation limiting land purchases pushed him toward patriot resistance, and treaties forged under his presidency sought to expand the nation westward into Native territory. Calloway does not shy away from detailing Washington’s violence toward Native communities, including an infamous command to torch Iroquois cornfields, and he includes the perspectives of Native Americans whenever possible. Even so, it’s Washington who emerges as the most fully-formed character; the Native leaders Calloway mentions, however intriguing, receive less attention, suggesting another book awaits writing on the subject. (Apr.)
From the Publisher
"In addition to his lively prose, Calloway includes a number of excellent maps, as well as a helpful list of important Native Americans, often with their English and transliterated native names. This book should prove valuable to scholars and interesting to a general audience" — Robert M. Owens, The North Carolina Historical Review
"Colin Calloway demonstrates how profoundly George Washington's life was interwoven with the Indian world of North America. This book will forever change our understanding of the first president and the very meaning of the new nation he helped to create."—David Preston, author of Braddock's Defeat"Calloway has written an important and original interpretation of critical years in the formation of federal policies toward the claims and rights of Native Americans." — Booklist "An expansive history...a detailed, impressively researched history of white-Indian relations during Washington's lifetime. Insightful and illuminating." — Kirkus Reviews "In The Indian World of George Washington, Colin Calloway thoughtfully and lucidly recovers a lost time, when Indian peoples' diplomacy and resistance helped to shape the new United States. No American President had a greater impact on natives or was more affected by his interactions with them." — Alan Taylor, author of American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804 "Finally, one of the best historians of colonial native America has taken up the challenge of putting one of the most important pieces of George Washington's life and experience back into the narrative. Calloway's monumental analysis helps us understand a half century of powerful and impactful native American history more clearly, and gives a fresh take on Washington's own challenges, frustrations, and successes-which together helped shape the destiny of American Republic." — Douglas Bradburn, President and CEO of George Washington's Mount Vernon " The Indian World of George Washington describes a critical moment in American history with the beginning of the collapse of what Richard White calls 'The Middle Ground' between white settlers and Indians. Elegantly and engagingly written, Calloway makes a major case for the centrality of Indians in George Washington's America." — Dr. Andrew J. O'Shaughnessy, Vice President of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (Monticello) and author of The Men Who Lost America "From callow frontier fighter to venerated Founding Father of the United States, George Washington was intimately acquainted with 'Indian Country,' lured by its seemingly boundless potential for personal wealth and national expansion. But as Colin Calloway demonstrates in this ground-breaking study, Washington's vision for the West was contested by powerful tribes and charismatic Native leaders who prized independence as highly as he did. Bolstered by outstanding research, deep knowledge, and keen insight, Calloway's new book offers a sophisticated and original study of a cultural confrontation that was fundamental both for the shaping of Washington's character, and for America's destiny." — Stephen Brumwell, author of George Washington: Gentleman Warrior "Essential reading in Native American studies, as well as for those seeking a deeper understanding of George Washington and the Native populations of the early republic." — Library Journal "The fateful relationship between George Washington and the Indian tribes that bordered the new Republic is the subject of Colin Calloway's brilliantly presented and refreshingly original The Indian World of George Washington. . . . An essential new entry in the literature of George Washington and the early Republic." — Wall Street Journal
"Provocative and deeply researched." - The Daily Beast"Calloway's depth of research, incorporation of the latest scholarship, and analytical talents provide the reader with a thorough understanding of the diplomatic, military, and social interactions that underlay the president's policies." —Michigan History Review
Library Journal
03/15/2018
This is "not another biography of Washington," as Calloway (history, Dartmouth Coll.; A Scratch of the Pen) writes in the introduction. In fact, it is much more important than that. Calloway masterfully executes a journey down a path through history that links George Washington's own military and presidential history with the Native tribes who were vital to his success, whose stories are rarely told. Calloway acknowledges that Washington can be both a paragon of Republican virtue and a man who knew that expanding America's frontier would come at the expense of Native lives. The author does not seek to separate those two images of Washington, but rather to combine them in a way that illuminates a more complete picture of early America as well as the untold story of Native leaders such as Shingas, Bloody Fellow, and Little Turtle, in addition to leaders from the Iroquois Confederacy, Lenape, Creek, and Delaware tribes. VERDICT Essential reading in Native American studies, as well as for those seeking a deeper understanding of George Washington and the Native populations of the early republic.—Jessica Holland, Univ. of Kentucky, Lexington
Kirkus Reviews
2018-01-10
An expansive history of our first president and his interactions with Indian countries and how "the future he envisioned would be realized at the expense of the people who lived there."During George Washington's presidency, the bulk of the federal budget was spent on wars against Indians and their affairs. After beginning with this jolt, Calloway (History and Native American Studies/Dartmouth Coll. The Victory with No Name: The Native American Defeat of the First American Army, 2014) delivers a detailed, impressively researched history of white-Indian relations during Washington's lifetime. An ambitious young man in the 1750s, Washington already owned shares in the Ohio Company, which claimed immense tracts mostly in present-day Ohio. He made numerous official trips to assert his claims and those of the British, oppose the rival French, and recruit Indian support. All failed, culminating with Gen. Edward Braddock's disastrous defeat in 1755. Historians traditionally describe this as a painful education that contributed to Washington's later greatness, but Calloway maintains that ignorance of Indian culture and bad military advice bear major responsibility for the debacles. Many tribes sided with Britain during the Revolution, and Washington responded with cruel, almost genocidal campaigns that laid waste cities and farms and killed everyone in sight. Calloway concludes that "Washington spent a lifetime turning Indian homelands into real estate for himself and his nation," and as president, he worked hard to further this agenda. It involved several brutal frontier wars, described ably by Calloway; however, readers will also have to wade through tedious diplomacy, negotiations, treaties, and bickering. At his death, Washington owned tens of thousands of acres of former Indian land, and frontier tribes were in steady retreat. Calloway is no revisionist. Historians agree that Washington's treatment of Indians was marked by self-interest, ignorance, and racism, but they prefer to emphasize areas where he did better.Insightful and illuminating but relentlessly squirm-inducing.
