American Indians

by William T. Hagan, Daniel M. Cobb (Revision), Patricia Nelson Limerick (Foreword)

William Hagan's classic "American Indians "has become standard reading in the field of Native American history. Daniel M. Cobb who studied with William Hagan, has taken over the task of updating and revising the material, allowing the book to respond to the times. Spanning the arrival of white settlers in the Americas through the twentieth century, this concise account includes more than twenty new maps and illustrations, as well as a bibliographic essay that surveys the most recent research in Indian-white relations. With an introduction by Cobb, and a foreword by eminent historian Patricia Nelson Limerick, this fourth edition marks the fiftieth anniversary of the original publication of American Indians.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

249 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

Reviews

[Cameron Barham]

“Although the expenditures of church groups increased over what they had been in the early nineteenth century, the record was still quite spotty. The idea of a Chinese person on the banks of the Yangtze remained more romantic and challenging than an Indian sitting in the dust of an allotment.”, p. 101

[Daniel Elliott]

As many people have complained about this book, it’s actually about US Indian policy, not really about Indians themselves. But for being what it is, it is pretty good. It’s hard to do justice to something to sprawling in a short space. My complaint, as usual, is that I always want more quantitative social history as a backbone for super events-heavy political history. Probably this would be best paired with a book that explains a lot of the legal weirdnesses of Indian policy (like Henderson’s book reviewed above).

[Jack]

A good book on Indian policy and attitudes.

[Bonnie]

This was the text for the first half of my course in the American West. It was a comprehensive book on the subject, yet short, only 200 or so pages. It's a bit dated, as it was last updated in the early 1980s. It did the job, but I would be interested in what other books are out there.