The First Frontier: The Indian Wars and America's Origins, 1607-1776

by David Horowitz

1978 Simon & Schuster hardcover, full number line. 0671225340. David Horowitz. The first frontier of the United States and the tricky relationship between the settlers and Native Americans

Genres: History, Native Americans, American

251 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

David Joel Horowitz was an American conservative writer and activist. He was a founder and president of the David Horowitz Freedom Center (DHFC); editor of the Center's website FrontPage Magazine; and director of Discover the Networks, a website that tracks individuals and groups on the political left. Horowitz also founded the organization Students for Academic Freedom.
Horowitz wrote several books with author Peter Collier, including four on prominent 20th-century American families. He and Collier have collaborated on books about cultural criticism. Horowitz worked as a columnist for Salon.
From 1956 to 1975, Horowitz was an outspoken adherent of the New Left. He later rejected progressive ideas and became a defender of neoconservatism. Horowitz recounted his ideological journey in a series of retrospective books, culminating with his 1996 memoir Radical Son: A Generational Odyssey.

Reviews

[Mark Schultz · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Last Frontier: The Indian Wars and America’s Origins, 1607 – 1776, by David Horowitz, 1978. I read this book in college, and since then have always kept it on my shelf because it was an example to me of a work of history that enlightened. I picked it up again this year, because I am interested in the interweave of the establishment of the United States and American democracy, with the murder, theft, and genocide practiced against the original inhabitants of the land. Also a key part of the story is the growing definition of the white race and the enslavement of Africans.

To understand the American War of Independence, one must understand the desire of the Americans to establish a new empire (the “patriots’” own word, frequently used), far enough distant from Great Britain to achieve independence, an independence that was important in order to rid the land of the native peoples who inhabited it. The British sought, weakly, to protect the Indian tribes and their lands. The Americans wanted it for their own. Washington in particular was after land in the Ohio Valley, but so too were most of the storied names of American Independence. And so a war was fought, and won, and the American empire was born. The book is eye-opening – the history of white supremacy is told in its pages. Well worth reading.

Note: Horowitz himself has gone off the rails as a right-wing publicist and advocate of Donald Trump -- strange stuff. But this earlier book has merit.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Early conflicts with Native Americans on the east coast as North America is settled by Europeans.