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The Last Americans : The Indian in American Culture
A comprehensive study of Indian civilizations and their interaction with white America includes a portfolio of native poetry.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
553 pages, Library Binding
First published January 1, 1974
47 people want to read
About the author
William Brandon
28 books3 followersWilliam Brandon was an American writer and historian.
During his long career Brandon published a variety of short fiction, essays, and poetry, which appeared in magazines such as Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, The Paris Review, The Saturday Evening Post, and Reader's Digest. However, he is best known for his historical work documenting Native Americans and the American West. Although Brandon's formal education ended after high school, his scholarship was sufficiently respected that he was from 1966–1967 a visiting professor at the University of Massachusetts, and later conducted a seminar series on Native American literature at California State College in Long Beach, California.
Brandon died in Clearlake, California, on 11 April 2002, of cancer.
-Wikipedia
During his long career Brandon published a variety of short fiction, essays, and poetry, which appeared in magazines such as Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, The Paris Review, The Saturday Evening Post, and Reader's Digest. However, he is best known for his historical work documenting Native Americans and the American West. Although Brandon's formal education ended after high school, his scholarship was sufficiently respected that he was from 1966–1967 a visiting professor at the University of Massachusetts, and later conducted a seminar series on Native American literature at California State College in Long Beach, California.
Brandon died in Clearlake, California, on 11 April 2002, of cancer.
-Wikipedia
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February 29, 2020
Brandon’s The Last American was written in the 1960’s into the early 70’s which one must keep in mind when reading. It’s arranged chronologically beginning with the introduction of the people into the lands of the Americas and moving toward the attempted eradication of natives by the Europeans in North America.
While many of the chapter in this book are worth reading, I found chapter X: the image makers to be particularly fascinating. The impact of the Europeans on the New World is tragic, but the impact the Native populations had on the Old World was significant and should not be overlooked.
Additionally, the focus on community vs. property is fascinating as it is difficult for one to imagine living as the other as the following paragraph illustrates:
“The gulf between the Indian and white view of life was at its most unbridgeable in the region that became the United States, colonize mostly by people to whom diligent labor, thrift, Benjamin Franklin’s advice to “remember, that time is money,” became the highest virtues, and work was literally man’s secret calling. The colonies of Catholic Spain to the south and Catholic France to the north, while by no means less interested in reaping golden pesos or gross sous, were less devoted to the principle of absolute utilitarianism – measuring fields, words, streams, people, and above all time, only by the yardstick of potential profit. In Protestant America this principle emerged as a ruling ethic. The summum bonum of this ethic, in the words of the economist Max Weber, was “the earning of more and more money, combined with the strict avoidance of all spontaneous enjoyment of life,” leading to gain, profit, acquisition that was thought of “purely as an end in itself.” In the light of this ethic the Indian attitude was more than troublesome, it was downright sacrilegious.” p. 297-8
While many of the chapter in this book are worth reading, I found chapter X: the image makers to be particularly fascinating. The impact of the Europeans on the New World is tragic, but the impact the Native populations had on the Old World was significant and should not be overlooked.
Additionally, the focus on community vs. property is fascinating as it is difficult for one to imagine living as the other as the following paragraph illustrates:
“The gulf between the Indian and white view of life was at its most unbridgeable in the region that became the United States, colonize mostly by people to whom diligent labor, thrift, Benjamin Franklin’s advice to “remember, that time is money,” became the highest virtues, and work was literally man’s secret calling. The colonies of Catholic Spain to the south and Catholic France to the north, while by no means less interested in reaping golden pesos or gross sous, were less devoted to the principle of absolute utilitarianism – measuring fields, words, streams, people, and above all time, only by the yardstick of potential profit. In Protestant America this principle emerged as a ruling ethic. The summum bonum of this ethic, in the words of the economist Max Weber, was “the earning of more and more money, combined with the strict avoidance of all spontaneous enjoyment of life,” leading to gain, profit, acquisition that was thought of “purely as an end in itself.” In the light of this ethic the Indian attitude was more than troublesome, it was downright sacrilegious.” p. 297-8
Displaying 1 of 1 review