A History of Native America

by Ned Blackhawk

In these illuminating lectures from Professor Ned Blackhawk (Western Shoshone), a history of Native America is provided from the time shortly before the expeditions of Christopher Columbus to the present. Focusing on the Columbian Exchange, Indians and the American Constitution, American Indian Removal, the Civil War, and the modern age, Professor Blackhawk concludes his revealing course by addressing the issues that continue to affect Native Americans today.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Indigenous, Native American, American History

Audiobook

First published March 28, 2011

About the author

Ned Blackhawk (Western Shoshone) is Professor of History and American Studies at Yale University. The Native American and Indigenous Studies Association awarded Violence over the Land its Book of the Decade Award as "one of the ten most influential books in Native American and Indigenous Studies in the first decade of the twenty-first century."

Reviews

[Amy H. Sturgis · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the delivery was somewhat excruciating to endure, the content of Ned Blackhawk's survey (from the pre-Columbian era through the beginning of the Obama administration) was mostly solid. A few of his choices confounded me - for example, spending significant time on Mark Twain (?) while never even mentioning Tecumseh and his pan-tribal alliance or key role in the War of 1812 - but on the whole Blackhawk condensed a great deal of history into a streamlined and fairly audience-friendly narrative. His discussion is particularly strong when dealing with the important court cases and legal precedents that shaped U.S. American Indian policy, and those sections alone made me glad I invested time in this, despite its other shortcomings.

[Sariene Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't finish this. I so wanted to like it, this is an area of history that I'm very interested in, but this is impossible to listen to. It's extremely introductory, repetitive, and focuses much more than I was expecting on American and European governments than on the native populations. Add to that the fact that the professor speaks like a struggling fifth grader being forced to read out loud to the class, and I can't get more than halfway through.

[Honza Prchal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am rating this a bit higher than I ought to in some ways, and the reason is that Prof. Blackhawk tries very hard to be fair, which most historians of such subjects are not. The reasons it deserves a lower mark is that one chapter in the companion textbook was omitted from the audio lecture and the professor has a bland voice with almost no inflection.
Still, it is one of the only games in town, and his opinions are far better thought out than most reviewers give him credit for, and the accompanying materials are brilliant.

[Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quite solid history of Native America and its interactions with colonial and post-colonial governments. I know very little about this, so this is for me an introduction; on that basis, it has been very helpful for providing background, and giving joint local-national near-far perspectives, how the personal is political.

Some reviewers have criticised the author's voice and cadence, but I listen at >2x speed and the author's reading style is very conducive to listening at this speed. It makes this one of the clearest books I've listened to recently.

[Annie Pisarello · Rating 3 out of 5]

14 lectures by Professor BlackHawk of Yale University on the history of Native Americans. It begins before the time of Columbus and ends in the present day. I found it very informative, with a mix of new information, and a more in depth explanation of the reason for events I knew about. Good learning experience.

[Gordon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great stuff...

[Erika · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative book! It touches many aspects, periods and places concerning the history of the Native Americans, including Hawai'i's.

[Selena]

I tried, but the professor's voice keeps fading out and I had a difficult time understanding him because I missed parts of the sentence.

[Tchipakkan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm glad that I listened to this series of lectures, but I think the part that I didn't get going in was how much of an "introductory" class this was. I was constantly frustrated by the lack of facts. Ned Blackhawk gave blanket statements, which my well be true, but I'd have preferred to see them supported with examples. I understand that that's probably not possible in a subject of this scope, but still it was frustrating. The pre-Columbian world was mentioned in passing in the first lecture- yes, there were great civilizations before the Europeans arrived. Well, thanks, but could you talk about some of their achievements? This tendency to give an overview continued throughout the course, although more examples were given for the late 20th century. I wonder if Blackhawks speech patterns which struck me as monotone are a cultural affect, but it made it more difficult for me to listen, as I'm used to having the speaker's voice point to the most important parts of their material (and this makes me feel as if I may be a trifle racist, which I don't like). I also listened to the third through sixth lectures about three or four times each, because they didn't match up with the description in the accompanying "course guide". If lecture 5 covered the effect of native culture on the revolutionary republic, I couldn't catch it. I got the impression that they included two versions of the fourth lecture instead.
As with all the Modern Scholar courses, one gets so much more by reading the suggested course materials, and I'm now reading (or have sent for) Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee, New Worlds for All, The Columbian Exchange, Roughing it.. the ones available through our local ILL system. I would recommend it, but don't expect to learn much as much as to be given several directions in which to pursue independent study.

[DavidO · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dear modem scholar,

Don't hire
.
..
people for...


audiobooks
.
.
.
who pause.
.
.
.
every third.
.
.
.
or second.
.
.
.
word


David

[Kelly · Rating 1 out of 5]

The lecturer was just too boring. The info is very interesting to me, but I'll have to find another source.