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The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the Nation Illustrated Edition, Kindle Edition

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 281 ratings

George Washington's place in the foundations of the Republic remains unrivalled. His life story--from his beginnings as a surveyor and farmer, to colonial soldier in the Virginia Regiment, leader of the Patriot cause, commander of the Continental Army, and finally first president of the United States--reflects the narrative of the nation he guided into existence. There is, rightfully, no more chronicled figure.

Yet American history has largely forgotten what Washington himself knew clearly: that the new Republic's fate depended less on grand rhetoric of independence and self-governance and more on land--Indian land. Colin G. Calloway's biography of the greatest founding father reveals in full the relationship between Washington and the Native leaders he dealt with intimately across the decades: Shingas, Tanaghrisson, Guyasuta, Attakullakulla, Bloody Fellow, Joseph Brant, Cornplanter, Red Jacket, and Little Turtle, among many others. Using the prism of Washington's life to bring focus to these figures and the tribes they represented--the Iroquois Confederacy, Lenape, Miami, Creek, Delaware--Calloway reveals how central their role truly was in Washington's, and therefore the nation's, foundational narrative.

Calloway gives the First Americans their due, revealing the full extent and complexity of the relationships between the man who rose to become the nation's most powerful figure and those whose power and dominion declined in almost equal degree during his lifetime. His book invites us to look at America's origins in a new light.
The Indian World of George Washington is a brilliant portrait of both the most revered man in American history and those whose story during the tumultuous century in which the country was formed has, until now, been only partially told.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"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

About the Author

Colin G. Calloway is John Kimball Jr. 1943 Professor of History and Native American Studies at Dartmouth College. His previous books include A Scratch of the Pen and The Victory with No Name.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B079SDYW17
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press; Illustrated edition (March 9, 2018)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ March 9, 2018
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 6992 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 639 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 281 ratings

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Customers find the book's research and presentation excellent. They appreciate the detailed information and interesting examples that help them understand the origins of Washington. The book provides a unique perspective on our first president, which customers believe is accurate.

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15 customers mention "Research quality"15 positive0 negative

Customers find the book's research quality good. They say it provides a fascinating look at an aspect of George Washington. The book is packed with detail and interesting examples that pin point the origins of his actions. It's very good for understanding our past, providing a well-described account of General and President Washington's dealings.

"...Colin Calloway puts into perspective with a clear and precise examination of George Washington and American Indian relations before and during the..." Read more

"...It is packed with detail, some of which it’s difficult to digest, as the violent nature how man treats man was not overlooked...." Read more

"Professor Calloway’s book is exceptionally well researched and a corrective to the long ingrained and overly sympathetic image of George Washington..." Read more

"The writer is a historian, a student of history both US and Native American willing to reveal a far more realistic picture of George Washington and..." Read more

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Customers like the book's presentation. They say it provides a unique look at our first president, but one they believe is accurate.

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It is a well descriptive account of General & President Washington's dealing with the Native Americans.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2019
    Historian Colin Calloway puts into perspective with a clear and precise examination of George Washington and American Indian relations before and during the beginning of a New Republic within "The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of a Nation." If one thought that there was not enough written of the first president of the United States and how the country came to be, after reading this book one may be proven right. Much similar to the major Founding Fathers Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, or John Adams, and even furthermore, Abraham Lincoln who will expand on the previous contributions of the former, not all stones have been turned. Calloway may open the lens of history's past more than ever.

    American history has its many strands and one of many and how many students of history have thoroughly studied about the early inhabitants of the continent of American? Unless one is an aficionado of history or studied about the American Indian and their contributions to the regions of the Americas and lived and thrived within the lands well before European settlements came about by the sixteenth and early seventeenth century, indeed, this part of history is still a vast landscape of further discovery. Within the book Calloway focuses upon George Washington and his relations with native leaders of the the numerous tribes that existed before colonial settlements took hold of territories once inhabited by the Shingas, Tanaghrisson, Guyasuta Attakullaku, Iroquois, Creeks, Cherokees, and many others that were the First Americans. The book is twofold, first how the Native Americans built a land and the territories and second, shaped the life of the man who shaped a nation. However, multiple events in Washington's life and its effect on the lives of so many Indians will intersect and later collide in terms of Indian affairs. Early European settlements that stretched as far off to the North from what is now New Hampshire to Pennsylvania and further South from Maryland to Florida; established by French and Spanish merchants and to follow the British and within Washington's home territory in Virginia with the Virginia Company, 1607 and a trading post along the James River. There are several interesting examples in the book the pin point the origins of Washington's interest in Indian territory but one that sheds an enormous understanding explains the deepest roots of early settlements in Virginia that shows the tremendous efforts by Indian inhabitants who were self-reliant and lived off the land by hunting and gathering deer, elk, fruits and nuts, and harvesting as much as fish and beans and potatoes and corn. The Algonquian-speaking Powhatan Indians thrived along the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers. Washington's great grandfather John would be the key by 1657 to how the region became much resourceful and contributed to the shift of the Virginia economy to one of frontier trade and dependent on agriculture, skins and slaves, Nathaniel Bacon and Robert Beverley would follow too. Within the over 450 pages of immense detail, Calloway shows how major upheavals between Indians and frontier settlers unraveled and the decline of the presence of Indian communities, especially in Tidewater Virginia and how lives changed and treaties would determine their place in the New World and the New Nation.

    "Indian World of George Washington" contains a series of events that readers may not have encountered in previous books about Washington that does not focus so much on the deity or symbol of heroism but the very much of the man who meticulously used Indians as allies and support in making a new nation within Indian country. After reading the book important names such as Six Nations and the Iroquois Confederacy and their place within the greater context of the Constitution of the United States may be understood of the major factors that helped to contribute to the founding of the country.
    13 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2019
    The author just was awarded the national book award for this work of nonfiction. It is packed with detail, some of which it’s difficult to digest, as the violent nature how man treats man was not overlooked. It takes discipline to get through. Our book club consensus was That that this material should be a part of every American history class. We are well aware of our Eurocentric educational system. Native peoples are just that... they were here. We should know about them/ourselves. Those with Appalachian roots will have a glimpse into the world from which they came.
  • Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2018
    Professor Calloway’s book is exceptionally well researched and a corrective to the long ingrained and overly sympathetic image of George Washington most Americans have held since childhood. Calloway comvincingly confirms that Washington’s early military exploits were debacles, and that he was a land speculator with few compunctions over prevailing treatment of the various Native Americans who had long claimed dominion over such territory. The book however would have benefitted from a more rigorous editing, as Calloway’s full, and near full, page paragraphs suggest a prolixity in need of curbing. Calloway repeatedly recounts certain themes in the book, such as (I) Washington’s dual postures of promising peace with the Indians while at the same time threatening extirpation of the Indians if peaceful methods failed, and (I) the ambivalent atttude Washington held toward Native Americans, i.e., that he like many of the English and Colonists didn’t trust them and thought little of their honesty and trustworthiness. Not that this was a hindrance to the colonists and the British in their recruitment of friendly or neutral tribes to assist in ousting the French from lands claimed by the British colonists, and of course the Native Americans.
    36 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2024
    Great book. Also, although used, it was in excellent condition.
  • Reviewed in the United States on June 6, 2023
    It shows how eventhough George Washington had good intentions, his policies of assimilation and land expansion through treaties that were supposed to be fair and just, were in the final analysis detrimental to native northamericans
  • Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2021
    The writer is a historian, a student of history both US and Native American willing to reveal a far more realistic picture of George Washington and his surveyor's skills, his political and military skills used to claim Indian territory for the USA. This history reveals the history of the Native American experience in a scholastic and matter of fact manner consistent with a true scholar's work. I have been naive. A real eye opener.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2020
    I'm writing a book about the period of Geo. Washington's presidency, and this new volume gives me terrific new information about his dealings and feelings about the Indians. His brilliance set the plan for a compassionate coesistance, since he had true respect for their cultures. The later misstreatments of our Indians, breaking the treaties, removal, and the rest were done long after GW was gone. He was a true giant, and remains a super hero of the USA.
  • Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2020
    The book is extensively researched and a fascinating look at an aspect of George Washington I did not know. It’s a sad account of how Europeans disregarded the rights of the native peoples and the state and Federal governments violated treaties setting precedence that continued for more than 100 years.

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