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The Savage Mind: An American Legacy
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20 copies available
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A searing exploration of American violence in the vein of Eula Biss and Ta-Nehisi Coates, interweaving family memoir with settler and Indigenous history to reveal the wound at the heart of our nation—and to offer hope that the country, and we, might be healed.
In the wake of George Floyd's murder and the January 6 insurrection, as America seemed to be falling apart, Treuer decided to hold himself and his family together the only way he knew he sat down to write a letter. What resulted is The Savage Mind, the most innovative and powerful work of his storied literary career.
Ranging from Treuer's upbringing on the Leech Lake reservation in Minnesota to the experiences of his parents, a Jewish Holocaust refugee and the first American Indigenous woman judge, The Savage Mind reveals how frontier violence has defined our country, our culture, and our very selves. The frontier, Treuer shows, was a site of epic, phantasmagoric bloodshed, initiated by white settlers but perpetuated by all of us, on both sides of the physical borderline. Treuer shares how, after the geographic frontier closed in the late 19th century, it did not vanish from the culture. Rather, America’s frontier—and all its violent pathologies—migrated overseas and into Americans' hearts and minds, where it endures today. The atrocities in Gaza and the school shootings in the American heartland are bound together by this invisible filament—one that Treuer makes startlingly visible, and which he offers hope for burying once and for all, in The Savage Mind.
In the wake of George Floyd's murder and the January 6 insurrection, as America seemed to be falling apart, Treuer decided to hold himself and his family together the only way he knew he sat down to write a letter. What resulted is The Savage Mind, the most innovative and powerful work of his storied literary career.
Ranging from Treuer's upbringing on the Leech Lake reservation in Minnesota to the experiences of his parents, a Jewish Holocaust refugee and the first American Indigenous woman judge, The Savage Mind reveals how frontier violence has defined our country, our culture, and our very selves. The frontier, Treuer shows, was a site of epic, phantasmagoric bloodshed, initiated by white settlers but perpetuated by all of us, on both sides of the physical borderline. Treuer shares how, after the geographic frontier closed in the late 19th century, it did not vanish from the culture. Rather, America’s frontier—and all its violent pathologies—migrated overseas and into Americans' hearts and minds, where it endures today. The atrocities in Gaza and the school shootings in the American heartland are bound together by this invisible filament—one that Treuer makes startlingly visible, and which he offers hope for burying once and for all, in The Savage Mind.
- GenresNonfictionHistoryMemoir
272 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication October 6, 2026
About the author
David Treuer
19 books445 followersDavid Treuer is an Ojibwe Indian from Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota. He is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, and fellowships from the NEH, Bush Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He divides his time between his home on the Leech Lake Reservation and Minneapolis. He is the author of three novels and a book of criticism. His essays and stories have appeared in Esquire, TriQuarterly, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, Lucky Peach, the LA Times, and Slate.com.
Treuer published his first novel, Little, in 1995. He received his PhD in anthropology and published his second novel, The Hiawatha, in 1999. His third novel The Translation of Dr Apelles and a book of criticism, Native American Fiction; A User's Manual appeared in 2006. The Translation of Dr Apelles was named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, Time Out, and City Pages. REZ LIFE is his newest book and is now out in paperback with Grove Press.
Treuer published his first novel, Little, in 1995. He received his PhD in anthropology and published his second novel, The Hiawatha, in 1999. His third novel The Translation of Dr Apelles and a book of criticism, Native American Fiction; A User's Manual appeared in 2006. The Translation of Dr Apelles was named a Best Book of the Year by The Washington Post, Time Out, and City Pages. REZ LIFE is his newest book and is now out in paperback with Grove Press.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
David Treuer’s Savage Mind seems like the book he was meant to write, and the book he was always seeking, in his life, to write. This is no insult to his fictional (Prudence), critical (Native American Fiction: A User's Manual), autobiographical (Rez Life), or historical (The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee) work of the past; it’s just that the Savage Mind combines all of these tacts, and it has centered them all on a critical thesis—incarnated in America’s beginnings, and precipitated by the fascistic turbulence of America’s present, the savage mind persists in all of us—every race, gender, across all class divides.
The whole book is framed as a letter to his children and a letter to the US citizens in general. He relates his complicated history with his parents, the lessons born from his mentors (Toni Morrison, being one), and the thoughts about abhorrent events of recent (genocide of the Palestinians, the US ritual of school shootings). All of these threads coalesce towards the overarching fact of US history and the personal history of all Americans; the traumatic beginnings of American, and it’s continued culture of violence, has instilled a savage mind in all of us. The major societal events targeted in this text, are the argument that US school shootings are rituals of violence (all kinds of people enact them,the Red Lake school shooter, for example, was a Native neo-Nazi, but it’s mostly white men), and the Palestinian Genocide being carried out by some of the descendants of the victims of the Holocaust. The major point, I think, being that the victim does not automatically inherit or articulate a good counter position; often, the violent evils done, form within the minds of the victims and must be noted and worked on, otherwise we have the Red Lake shooting, the Palestinian genocide, internalized racism (Native, Black, etc,), etc.
(Based on ARC from NetGalley)
The whole book is framed as a letter to his children and a letter to the US citizens in general. He relates his complicated history with his parents, the lessons born from his mentors (Toni Morrison, being one), and the thoughts about abhorrent events of recent (genocide of the Palestinians, the US ritual of school shootings). All of these threads coalesce towards the overarching fact of US history and the personal history of all Americans; the traumatic beginnings of American, and it’s continued culture of violence, has instilled a savage mind in all of us. The major societal events targeted in this text, are the argument that US school shootings are rituals of violence (all kinds of people enact them,the Red Lake school shooter, for example, was a Native neo-Nazi, but it’s mostly white men), and the Palestinian Genocide being carried out by some of the descendants of the victims of the Holocaust. The major point, I think, being that the victim does not automatically inherit or articulate a good counter position; often, the violent evils done, form within the minds of the victims and must be noted and worked on, otherwise we have the Red Lake shooting, the Palestinian genocide, internalized racism (Native, Black, etc,), etc.
(Based on ARC from NetGalley)
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
(Note: I received an advanced reader copy of this book courtesy of NetGalley)
Through a combination of history and personal memoir, Treuer posits that since its inception, the US has been infected by frontier violence - starting with native and indigenous bodies, moving on to resources and land, and with the closure of the frontier, has since moved on to infect people internally.
The author absolutely does not mince words in the slightest here, nor does he hold back. From start to finish he’s as forward as can be, and in the process he makes his perspective surprisingly easy to agree along with. After all, while violence in its many forms and humanity have mixed like PB&J since the beginning of time, there does at times feel like there’s something darkly unique about the US.
However, this book isn’t just a castigation. In fact, there’s a surprising vein of hope for the better injected in here. Admittedly it almost feels like it clashes with the overview of everything that’s wrong and all the ways the country’s past and present have been marred, but Treuer doesn’t try to reconcile the two - in fact, his stance is more that it is indeed very much a paradox, and there’s something oddly freeing about the idea that it doesn't exactly make sense in many ways.
To say the least, this is one of the most intense reads that I’ve experienced so far this year. Definitely not a light literary romp to say the least. Treuer provides a great day to chew upon, much of it dark and bitter. But there’s also a generous serving of optimism as well, something that’s felt in short supply these last few years.
Through a combination of history and personal memoir, Treuer posits that since its inception, the US has been infected by frontier violence - starting with native and indigenous bodies, moving on to resources and land, and with the closure of the frontier, has since moved on to infect people internally.
The author absolutely does not mince words in the slightest here, nor does he hold back. From start to finish he’s as forward as can be, and in the process he makes his perspective surprisingly easy to agree along with. After all, while violence in its many forms and humanity have mixed like PB&J since the beginning of time, there does at times feel like there’s something darkly unique about the US.
However, this book isn’t just a castigation. In fact, there’s a surprising vein of hope for the better injected in here. Admittedly it almost feels like it clashes with the overview of everything that’s wrong and all the ways the country’s past and present have been marred, but Treuer doesn’t try to reconcile the two - in fact, his stance is more that it is indeed very much a paradox, and there’s something oddly freeing about the idea that it doesn't exactly make sense in many ways.
To say the least, this is one of the most intense reads that I’ve experienced so far this year. Definitely not a light literary romp to say the least. Treuer provides a great day to chew upon, much of it dark and bitter. But there’s also a generous serving of optimism as well, something that’s felt in short supply these last few years.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This book covered so much that it is a bit difficult to summarize. Ultimately, I would say it is an important and powerful read.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews