Review (PDF) American Settler Colonialism: A History
Over the course of three centuries, American settlers helped to create the richest, most powerful nation in human history, even as they killed and displaced millions. This groundbreaking work shows that American history is defined by settler colonialism, providing a compelling framework through which to understand its rise to global dominance.
File Size: 1838 KB
Print Length: 266 pages
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 2013 edition (December 5, 2013)
Publication Date: December 5, 2013
Sold by: Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B00HP4KEW8
Text-to-Speech: Enabled
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Lending: Not Enabled
Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
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I tried to read all of this book, I really did. The topic is an important one. Hixson is a good writer and the book appears to be well-researched, but it is part and parcel of a contemporary academic debate. Some of the text is academic polemic which the general reader may find incomprehensible. I've read a number of such books and while I could wade my way through it, I no longer see that as worthwhile. This would be an appropriate source for a graduate school paper, perhaps even as a textbook in some classes. As polemic it is good, as history, I am not so sure.I'm not sure what his basic point is. He does write early in the book that there is a continuing connection between the settler colonialism tendency to self-righteous violence, and our current practices in war. He may have a point there, but that could lead to some unfortunate conclusions. If our dispossession and murder of so many Indian peoples instilled in us a militantly self-righteous view about violence, terrorists against Americans seem something like freedom fighters taking revenge for past history. Readers can work it out for themselves. Perhaps if Hixson were less strident the reading would be easier--he may be late in the book, but wading through dense opinion (even if backed by facts) makes it unlikely many readers will make it that far.I think he also engages in some exaggeration. He states that American history "is the most sweeping, most violent and most significant example of settler colonialism in world history,,," Clearly we Americans sinned on a quite large scale, in the sense of condemnatory history this book documents, but I suspect the conquest and settlement of Siberia was on a somewhat larger scale in terms of lives extinguished and altered.
American Settler Colonialism: A History American History: The People & Events that Changed American History (People's History, American, United States of America, American Revolution, Patriot, United States History Book 1) The Settler's Cookbook: Tales of Love, Migration and Food Between Indigenous and Settler Governance A Viking Settler (Everyday Life of Series) Settler Sovereignty: Jurisdiction and Indigenous People in America and Australia, 1788-1836 (Harvard Historical Studies) Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism (American Encounters/Global Interactions) The Murder of Joe White: Ojibwe Leadership and Colonialism in Wisconsin (American Indian Studies) Beyond Colonialism and Nationalism in the Maghrib: History, Culture, and Politics Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism (Princeton Series in Culture/Power/History) Africa and the West: A Documentary History: Volume 2: From Colonialism to Independence, 1875 to the Present History: Human History in 50 Events: From Ancient Civilizations to Modern Times (World History, History Books, People History) (History in 50 Events Series Book 1) History: British History in 50 Events: From First Immigration to Modern Empire (English History, History Books, British History Textbook) (History in 50 Events Series Book 11) American Indians and the Law: The Penguin Library of American Indian History (Penguin's Library of American Indian History) Constructions of Colonialism: Perspectives on Eliza Fraser's Shipwreck Colonialism by Proxy: Hausa Imperial Agents and Middle Belt Consciousness in Nigeria Of Revelation and Revolution, Volume 1: Christianity, Colonialism, and Consciousness in South Africa Living with Colonialism: Nationalism and Culture in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan South Sudan: Colonialism, Resistance and Autonomy Rhodesia's Death Europe's Funeral: European to Wall Street Colonialism
