In Whose Ruins: Power, Possession, and the Landscapes of American Empire

by Alicia Puglionesi

In this “first-rate work of historical research and storytelling” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), four sites of American history are revealed as places where truth was written over by oppressive fiction—with profound repercussions for politics past and present.Popular narratives of American history conceal as much as they reveal, presenting a national identity based on harvesting treasures that lay in wait for European colonization. In Whose Ruins tells another winding through the US landscape, from Native American earthworks in West Virginia to the Manhattan Project in New Mexico, this history is a tour of sites that were mined for an empire’s power. Showing the hidden costs of ruthless economic growth—particularly to Indigenous people—this book illuminates the myth-making intimately tied to place. From the ground up, the project of settlement, expansion, and extraction became entwined with the spiritual values of those who hoped to gain from it. Every nation tells some stories and suppresses others, and In Whose Ruins illustrates the way American myths have overwritten Indigenous histories, binding us into an unsustainable future. Historian Alicia Puglionesi? “makes a perfect guide through the strange myths, characters, and environments that best reflect the insidious exploitation inseparable from American dominion” (Chicago Review of Books). She illuminates the story of the Grave Creek Stone, “discovered” in an ancient Indigenous burial mound; oil wells drilled in the corner of western Pennsylvania once known as Petrolia; ancient petroglyphs that once adorned rock faces on the Susquehanna River, dynamited into pieces to make way for a hydroelectric dam; and the effects of the US nuclear program in the Southwest, which contaminated vast regions in the name of eternal wealth and security through atomic power, a promise that rang hollow for the surrounding Native, Hispanic, and white communities. It also inspired nationwide resistance, uniting diverse groups behind a different vision of the future—one not driven by greed and haunted by ruin. This deeply researched work traces the roots of American fantasies and fears in a national tradition of selective forgetting. Connecting the power of myths with the extraction of power from the land itself reveals the truths that have been left out and is “a stimulating look at the erasure and endurance of Native American culture” (Publishers Weekly).

Genres: History, Nonfiction, American History, Indigenous, Race, Politics

368 pages, Hardcover

First published April 5, 2022

Reviews

[Robert Wechsler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find it hard to believe how many great books have been written in recent years about the history of dispossession in the United States and elsewhere, all of it from the left and mostly without knocking the reader over the head, since it really isn’t necessary. The stories are sufficient. And the stories are especially well told by Alicia Puglionesi in this book.

Okay, the word “empire” isn’t really necessary here, and Puglionesi does bring out the hammer a bit too often for my taste, but this is a fantastic book that proceeds by stories that, for the most part, I didn’t know (even though some occurred not far from where I grew up in Pittsburgh) and I am glad I now do. Indigenous burial grounds destroyed and seen as the work of people from the Eastern Hemisphere who were killed off by the “Indians.” Oil struck and destructive to Native lands north of Pittsburgh. Petroglyphs destroyed by a hydroelectric dam built southeast of Pittsburgh. And nuclear bomb testing in New Mexico, without transparency or attempts at public health care for those indigenous to the area. A powerful book well told.

[Madeline · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Throughout these pages, the hidden work of making the landscape bend to such contradictory fables has unfolded; the hearty settler in his log cabin received a government bounty for indigenous scalps, investors in the West demanded federal dams to make their arid lands profitable, oil companies colluded to write the story of their industry as a divine benediction."

If you can learn to ski on the avalanche of information contained within this meaty book, you're in for a truly expansive and "holy hell it all makes sense now" reading experience. Deeply researched with a commitment to untying the knot that is American history as it hides and overlays indigenous history, Puglionesi examines how the ongoing and historical extraction of both spiritual and material resources have laid the foundations for indigenous poverty/erasure/genocide, destruction of land/waterways, and the collective illusions swirling around the history of the United States. You will become acquainted with the histories behind the gold/oil rush, the excavation of the petroglyphs, the shaping of "Native art" as a commodity, the damming of rivers and flooding of indigenous lands, and the ongoing search for a "lost white race."
Eloquently stated by Puglionesi, "U.S. history is a branch that grows from the tree of indigenous history, not the other way around. U.S. history is the covetous branch that thinks it is the tree."

I'm not kidding when I say that this is a *meaty* book. I considered giving up when the book decided to yeet me into the deep end within the first few pages; it encompasses/almost drowns its reader in a sea of facts, names, and places. Once I overcame this initial shock, I was like "holy shit, I need more." Puglionesi is a fantastically impressive historian and the entire premise of this book is an incredible feat for any historian, but she knocks it out of the park.
Is it surprising to learn that the growth of the United States was driven by disillusioned racists drunk on the promise of eternal wealth and happiness? No.
But is it surprising to be presented a mountain of evidence with a clear breakdown of how this inception of "America" came to be and continues to persist? I'd say so!

Overall, a brilliant (how many times can I call this book brilliant? *chef's KISS*) piece of indigenous activism, an even more brilliant work of history. I will surely be returning to this one in the coming years.

[Myra · Rating 3 out of 5]

I could go as high as 3.5 stars. Some very interesting insight into some lesser-known instances where white imperialism destroyed native lands in the guise of "civilizing" them or "benefitting" people. I grew up a stone's throw from Drake Well/Oil City/Petrolia in PA (and have the best picture of my sister ever on her visit there!!!), but I 100% don't remember there being any mention in their materials (this would have been in the 70s or maybe early 80s when I last visited) of how the whites just took over native land for their own profit. Sadly, I did find this section of the book fairly dull reading. I think the Susquehanna River section was probably the most interesting.

Definitely worth a read, but don't expect to be mesmerized.

[David Stephens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cultural artifacts and artistic expressions begin with specific meanings, but upon entering the public discourse, they become susceptible to change, sometimes accidentally, sometimes consciously. It’s a similar phenomenon with foundational stories. They begin as indigenous tales or value-neutral aspects of nature and then twist–or, rather are twisted by the stooges of empire–into the myths that shape a new culture.

This process of extracting helpful bits of the past for reappropriation is what Alicia Puglionesi calls the “mutations of a country.” Certain values are extracted while others are covered over. In America’s case, greed, selfishness, a sense of individuality, economic growth through competition, and technological advancement are all given precedence while community, connectedness, a genuine spirituality, and dialogue with nature are downplayed. The laws and incentives that were put in place to enable those things Americans hold dear are forgotten, and the manufactured American values are assumed to be universal.

In Whose Ruins contains four major sections: the moundbuilders, the oil boom, hydroelectric dams, and nuclear testing. In each case, stories of the land–that first most valuable commodity of the new world–are tailored around capitalism and colonialism, justifying the avarice and destruction that invariably come in their wake. If God buried the resources for energy and munitions production, then he must be fine with the concomitant mass death that will be unleashed at their usage. If well-constructed earthworks are of any merit, they must have come from a lost white civilization, undone by the Indians. Therefore, taking them back through force is only right and proper.

In the end, Puglionesi shows the cognitive dissonance of so much American thinking, as so many Americans assume that progress must come at a high cost, an uncomfortable notion unless that cost is paid by someone else with the wrong values or lack of industry.

[Cassie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m struggling to put my thoughts together on this one. This uses a similar narrative mechanism as Clint Smith’s “How the Word is Passed” by taking the reader through physical locations and tying them into a central storyline. While in Smith’s case it was effortless (albeit gut-wrenching) to follow that narrative line from place to place, Puglionesi’s was more difficult for me to follow. I think perhaps I went into this with a misunderstanding of what the through-line was. It was less about the people we treated poorly and more-so about the land that we wreaked havoc on, destroying and displacing the people (especially native peoples) in turn.
At times the writing, though well-done and powerful, felt sometimes a little dull and maybe too academic for what I was expecting. That said, I found myself wishing that each of the four locales she writes about was its own story. She tugged me into the deep end of each place, and then just as I began to swim fluidly underwater, I was plucked from the pool and dumped into a new one. Overall, the content was important and powerful, and deep reminder of how much harm has been done in the name of growth and expansion. Call it whatever name you’d like: manifest destiny, colonialism, expansionism, capitalism, etc. our history is dripping with myths we created to suppress the damage our expansionist hunger was fueled by. I recommend, but go in knowing that this is a book to make you think, to teach you something we should probably have been taught before, and that it’s not for enjoyment, but for understanding.

[Ajk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this deeply weird/unusual academic book. The underlying thesis - that the european conquest has a long tail of destruction of and weird affinity for indigenous life - is interestingly articulated. The four case studies, of mounds, oil, water, and uranium, were really beautifully and fascinatingly drawn. It's a book that leans heavily on Krazy Kat and 17th century travel writing.

I think it could have used another round of edits, or at least been more firmly either an academic book written for that audience, or a more broadly popular book. If the latter, it could have used a but stronger of an intro/conclusion to tie the case studies together.

That all said, I dogeared like 10% of the pages because they had a great anecdote or argument in them. The ghostliness and hauntedness it discussed reminded me a lot of Colin Dickey's Ghostland, but maybe for a more grad-school-y audience. The line "Americans read signs and portents as opportunities" is going to stick in my head for a good long while.

[Kasey Lawson · Rating 4 out of 5]

“At each of these sites, new origin stories evolved in tandem with the needs of the moment, always concealing or justifying casualties. Manifest Destiny, the idea that certain deserving white Americans were chosen by God to rule from sea to sea, was not a single policy or campaign—some US leaders opposed territorial expansion, while others schemed to seize the entire North American continent. A belief with many permutations can still converge on the same result. It is completely obvious that this logic served resource extraction and the murder of Indigenous people. Yet it becomes easy to dismiss a simple Oregon Trail version of Manifest Destiny as a thing for history books, which ended with the closing of the Western frontier; another bad, antiquated prejudice. In fact this belief never stopped mutating; it’s just one name for a stare of anxious consumption. American culture continues to produce new stories that justify the violence of the past and fantasize its recurrence in an apocalyptic future.”

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some interesting stories of places now forgotten, lost to the demands of economic growth and expansion. But I'm not sure that Puglionesi tied these together in a way that was persuasive. This was due, I think both to content and form: each chapter felt like its own piece. While some of the chapters pointed to a new interpretation of the expansion of American Empire and the role of Manifest Destiny, not all of them did. One chapter relied on travel writing, another on the Krazy Kat cartoons. The lack of coherence or consistency made it hard for me to feel like there was any build to the book, or that Puglionesi had done more than collect a series of somewhat interesting stories.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, but rounded up. Mostly east of the Mississippi. I expected a takedown of white American archaeologists & anthropologists (got it) and indictments of the greed of energy companies (got those too, and a swipe at the carceral system too).

Unexpected treats along the way: learning about a 19th century Metis woman writer and a Native woman scientist at Los Alamos and Argonne, as well as the Black artist who created the Krazy Kat comics.

Some great writing throughout. The parts that felt like workouts weren't b/c of poor writing but b/c all the challenges to what I was taught in school (and have been trying to unlearn) were giving me brain fatigue.

[Slestein · Rating 5 out of 5]

A moving and often infuriating history of American settler colonialism and the stories people have told to justify violence, extraction, and exploitation. I finished this with a much deeper understanding of indigenous and American history and of the myths about both that were forced on me growing up in the US. I also found the book surprisingly hopeful. We do not need to keep following the patterns of the last six centuries; better worlds are possible--and necessary.

[Sarah Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkably rich yet easy read, Puglionesi brings together the (hi)stories that are embedded within the land and that are so quickly forgotten, just as the resources that are extracted from it. Anyone interested in learning about Indigenous sovereignty, land use, and resource extraction should read this. I especially enjoyed the focus on how the spirit world and supernatural was, and continues to be, appropriated for the growth of capital.

[Colin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really fascinating book I got from the library about the archaeology and landscape of America and how white supremacist colonialist imperialist thinking has skewed our perspective about the nature of these artifacts and relics and the original inhabitants of the land. Highly recommended for all Americans.

[James M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not an easy read. But very interesting especially in that its portrait of Americas history and especially the native Americans is different than the typical descriptions. There was a lot that was new for me at least to read and absorb.

[Mark · Rating 2 out of 5]

A pretty good and detailed exegis of a lot of our cultural schizophrenia involving Indigenous Peoples. See past the few instances of her pro-B.L.T.G.Q.X.Y.Z.- bias, and there's some lucid fact-finding.
But I could have used the time better I think.

[Corben Laidler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think this will make sense to anyone else but this is a spiritual successor to The Power Broker. America is broken and terrifying. The dudes experimenting with radium so casually and nuking beautiful tidal reefs will haunt me forever.

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not an easy read, but an important one

[Margie Dickinson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an eye opening exploration of the narratives that were created to justify the treatment of indigenous people and their land during the period of Expansionism through modern times.

[Jennifer Adair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Struggled through the first half and really enjoyed the second.

[Jackson Wehrli · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit too academic for me. The self-recognition of the style of the storytelling at the end was nice.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one required a lot of focus. Examines questions of ownership, inequality, and impermanence.

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this read and found it extremely informative. I personally found the last quarter to drag a bit but still overall thought it was wonderful.