Red, White and Black: The Peoples of Early North America

by Gary B. Nash

Explores how the most diverse
society in the Atlantic world was shaped through two centuries of
development

Written by highly acclaimed historian Gary B. Nash, this text
presents an interpretive account of the interactions between Native
Americans, African Americans, and Euroamericans during the colonial
and revolutionary eras. It reveals the crucial interconnections
between North America's many peoples, illustrating the ease of
their interactions in the first two centuries of European and
African presence to develop a fuller, deeper understanding of the
nation's underpinnings. 
 
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--

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

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Gary B. Nash was a distinguished American historian known for his scholarship on the American Revolutionary era, slavery, and the experiences of marginalized communities in shaping early U.S. history. A graduate of Princeton University, where he earned both his undergraduate and doctoral degrees, Nash also served in the U.S. Navy before embarking on an academic career. He taught at Princeton and then at UCLA, where he became a full professor and later held key administrative roles focused on educational development.
Nash's work highlighted the roles of working-class individuals, African Americans, Native Americans, and women in the nation's founding, challenging traditional narratives centered solely on elite figures. His inclusive approach often sparked debate, notably with historian Edmund Morgan, who questioned the broader impact of the grassroots movements Nash emphasized.
Beyond academia, Nash was instrumental in shaping history education in the United States. He co-directed the development of the National History Standards and led the National Center for History in the Schools. A past president of the Organization of American Historians, he was also a member of numerous esteemed scholarly societies. Throughout his career, Nash authored or contributed to dozens of influential books, articles, and essays that left a lasting mark on the field.

Reviews

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although I believe this is often required reading in high school American history classes, it wasn't required in mine. I read it, strangely, while living in Austria. Austrians asked me often about the history/plight of native Americans - they were, to stereotype, fascinated by them - and I realized that I had next to zero real knowledge about them. Even weirder than reading this book while in Austria, I attended these little "workshops" about native Americans while there, in peoples' homes, in German. But, I digress. This book SHOULD be required reading. Reading it, I felt for the first time that I was getting the real story of American history, a story that wasn't just about and from the perspective of white people. And, how cool is the title? Tres cool.

[Eric Hopkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

There isn't really a lot to write about Red, White, and Black. It's an accurate but uninspired account of race relations in North America up to the late 18th century. To summarize it in a sentence; it's the kind of book I would reference from, but never read.

[Robin · Rating 3 out of 5]

First published in 1974, this exploration of inter-cultural relations in early America has all the "did you know" retelling of our Bicentennial Age. Nash's comparative history of European, African, and Native experiences -- enslaved and free, loyalist and rebel, Protestant, Catholic, and Quaker -- is an engaging read, chockful of pre-revolutionary quotes and primary sources.

As an academic resource, it is pretty solid, though I noticed that in nearly 40 years of revisions, Nash's cited sources have not been updated. Newer scholarship (1990s and beyond) are listed as "Further Readings" at the chapters' ends, rather than enhancing (or even challenging)earlier sources. Footnotes that were not of the period, tended to be 1950s to 1980s at the latest. I did wonder whether Nash's own scholarship on this subject had changed significantly since his first publication.

As a textbook, it is a little weak. "Critical Thinking Questions" are not at all critical thinking; they are "Check Your Understanding" questions that ask the student to restate the material. There is no other "teaching material" included other than learning objectives and summaries, elements I always find unnecessarily repetitive.

I was confused by Nash's consistent capitalization of "White," while "Black" was only occasionally capitalized, and "red" never. This made phrases like "black, White, and red people..." seem immediately lopsided. When Nash took such care to refer to "enslaved people" rather than "slaves," and to call prominent Native American leaders by both their given names and their European/historical names, it was strange to see this comfort with lower-case red and upper-case White. Perhaps we can charge the editor on this one.

[Book Worm · Rating 2 out of 5]

Red, White, and Black: The Peoples of Early North America

In its current edition, this is political propaganda masquerading as history. Don't know about the early editions.

Contrived, tedious, and I would argue, unsubstantiated, claims about how "climate change" impacted the fortunes of native America in the pre-historic era, are just one example of how Nash has rewritten history to reflect modern trends in political thought. It's annoying and hardly convincing.

I'm reading this because of a course requirement, as I suppose most do. I wouldn't recommend this as optional reading.

[Carrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book. Really! I actually gave my copy away to someone to read for leisure! A fascinating, easy to read book.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is very dry and somewhat boring. I had to read it for my history class.

[Gregg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite its very 1970s title, this book paved the road we are still traveling today in regard to our (i.e. white peoples) perception of Native Americans. Several ideas that are starting to take hold in 2021 may very well have come from this book. For example, the idea that that Columbus discovered nothing in 1492, he just made an epic navigational error and then exploited and brutalized a large number of brown peoples, thereby establishing a tradition of exploiting and brutalizing brown peoples. And the idea that that the millions of humans who lived on this continent in 1491 had complex and beautiful civilizations, which were in some ways superior to those of the Europeans. If not for A People's History of the United States: 1492-Present this book might have been missed. And its first chapter certainly owes a huge debt of gratitude to Gary B. Nash, as do we all.

[Andee Nero · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that, since it uses a racial lens, this work would make a great survey text for an undergrad course. However, it needs to be more inclusive of women to really create a representative picture of early America. Also, Nash is a master at writing awkwardly-constructed sentences.

[Vera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gary Nash's finest.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

And I thought we learned American history in high school... shed a lot of light as to what it means to be an American, slightly more disturbing than what I previously thought.

[Julio The Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gary Nash was my Professor of American History at UCLA. Authoring this book on how the fusion of Native Americans, Africans and European settlers formed the early United States earned him the respect of his peers, love of his students, and wrath of right-wing wackos. RED, WHITE, AND BLACK was the first shot in the culture war over "who made America?", which leads inexorably to "to whom does America belong?". America B.N. (Before Nash) was a land discovered and populated by European adventurers who found a few Indians here and there in the wilderness with no economy, politics, or culture. Nash sets the reader on a wildly different path. Early Americans, the native population, had succeeded in taming the land, drawing from its resources, and building complex political and religious structures from the village to the nation-state. The "Six Civilized Tribes" as the Anglos called them, were already civilized and Europeans drew, forcibly and voluntarily, on their politics and economics. Colonialism was extermination, but also so much more; an imposition and extraction from a native way of life that had to accommodate to the conqueror and vice versa. Africans sequestered and enslaved in America did not play the passive victim either. Their language skills, family and kinship ties, and economic knowledge, planting rice in South Carolina, ship building in New England, made the colonial economy work. This arrangement was not peaceful coexistence among three peoples. Early America was the site of constant struggles and negotiations among Red, Black and White. The Europeans did not conjure a new order into being; they had to adapt to the other two groups or wither on the vine. Nash in this startling magnum opus began the task of telling the common history of America, an America that is ours, never theirs.

[Richard Subber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Red, White, and Black offers many partial answers to the question: in the 16th and 17th centuries, what did the First Americans think about the hairy, smelly people from Europe who invaded their country?
Nash offers a scholarly, fully informed, insightful account of the lifestyles and world views of the estimated 60-70 million indigenous people who had a variety of highly developed civilizations.
Some European promoters and some uninformed explorers and colonists that the “New World” was a “virgin wilderness,” but the first colonists were happy to steal the Native Americans’ food and delighted to be able to use their cultivated lands.
The misnamed Indians valiantly tried to maintain their way of life, but European diseases and European guns and steel tipped the balance for the much outnumbered invaders.
Read more of my book reviews and poems here:
www.richardsubber.com

[Aisha Manus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Informative. Sometimes if felt like it repeated itself but I also was reading lots of supplemental information too so it’s possible I’m confused. Pretty straight to the point and not too biased though it might be and I do t see it because I lean the way the relate history. Recommend to anyone wanting to know about the people of the America pre 1776.

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent research throughout and enlightening to read a more accurate representation of America’s history than what is taught in most schools. Very informative read & will continue to use as a reference book for school

[DORIS · Rating 4 out of 5]

YES I WOULD BUY THIS BOOK.

[Michele Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

College textbook.