Unsettling the West: Violence and State Building in the Ohio Valley

Early American Studies

by Rob Harper

The revolutionary Ohio Valley is often depicted as a chaotic Hobbesian dystopia, in which Indians and colonists slaughtered each other at every turn. In Unsettling the West , Rob Harper overturns this familiar story. Rather than flailing in a morass, the peoples of the revolutionary Ohio Valley actively and persistently sought to establish a new political order that would affirm their land claims, protect them against attack, and promote trade. According to Harper, their efforts repeatedly failed less because of racial antipathy or inexorable competition for land than because of specific state policies that demanded Indian dispossession, encouraged rapid colonization, and mobilized men for war.

Unsettling the West demonstrates that government policies profoundly unsettled the Ohio Valley, even as effective authority remained elusive. Far from indifferent to states, both Indians and colonists sought government allies to aid them in both intra- and intercultural conflicts. Rather than spreading uncontrollably across the landscape, colonists occupied new areas when changing policies, often unintentionally, gave them added incentives to do so. Sporadic killings escalated into massacre and war only when militants gained access to government resources. Amid the resulting upheaval, Indians and colonists sought to preserve local autonomy by forging relationships with eastern governments. Ironically, these local pursuits of order ultimately bolstered state power.

Following scholars of European and Latin American history, Harper extends the study of mass violence beyond immediate motives to the structural and institutional factors that make large-scale killing possible. The Ohio Valley's transformation, he shows, echoed the experience of early modern and colonial state formation around the world. His attention to the relationships between violence, colonization, and state building connects the study of revolutionary America to a vibrant literature on settler colonialism.

Genres: American History

296 pages, Hardcover

Published January 19, 2018

About the author

Seasoned executive Rob Harper has over 16 years of experience in the banking industry and journalism. His career in the finance industry started in Citibank, where he held various managerial positions, including deciding who to hire and who to layoff. He was laid off on his 15th anniversary with the company. Harper’s articles have been featured on CNN, CNNiReport and The Huffington Post, where he writes on employment and politics. He resides in New York City and is originally from Camden, Arkansas.

Reviews

[Jaime Bennington · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a historical recollection of the formation of the Ohio Valley, Rob Harper does an excellent job in keeping honest about the violence and self-interest that built our country. However, it is more than a little disappointing that such a thorough book on the colonization of the Ohio Valley would regularly refer to its Native American elements as Indians over the more appropriate genus of Native Americans on the basis of keeping things simple for the audience. I don’t want to make any assumptions about author Rob Harper’s racial leanings or possible intention in the use of the genus “Indians” to describe the Native American population of the Ohio Valley. Or of the likely audience of a novel like Unsettling the West: Violence and State Building in the Ohio Valley. So I won’t. All I will say is that where Harper goes out of his way to identify the many disparaste elements at play in the colonization of the Ohio Valley, too and include the dozen or so Native American tribes, it is odd that the demographic that bares the brunt of such generalization happens to be that of the “Indians.” I can understand that this criticism may be a bit underwhelming but it matters. Representation matters. There is nothing less complicated in saying “Native Americans” over “Indians.”

[Teddy Dodger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for an essay and read quickly/ skimmily so won't attempt to summarise hypothesis but a good overview of the Ohio Valley 1763-1789, looking at recent scholarship and a new analytical approach to the notion of 'government'.

Nice+short, would recc if interested in period.