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The American Heritage Book of Indians
A lavishly illustrated overview of native American history explores their histories and culture, the way in which they influenced one another and the whites, and other issues, and includes illustrations.
424 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1961
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129 people want to read
About the author
William Brandon
28 books3 followersWilliam Brandon was an American writer and historian.
During his long career Brandon published a variety of short fiction, essays, and poetry, which appeared in magazines such as Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, The Paris Review, The Saturday Evening Post, and Reader's Digest. However, he is best known for his historical work documenting Native Americans and the American West. Although Brandon's formal education ended after high school, his scholarship was sufficiently respected that he was from 1966–1967 a visiting professor at the University of Massachusetts, and later conducted a seminar series on Native American literature at California State College in Long Beach, California.
Brandon died in Clearlake, California, on 11 April 2002, of cancer.
-Wikipedia
During his long career Brandon published a variety of short fiction, essays, and poetry, which appeared in magazines such as Esquire, The Atlantic Monthly, The Paris Review, The Saturday Evening Post, and Reader's Digest. However, he is best known for his historical work documenting Native Americans and the American West. Although Brandon's formal education ended after high school, his scholarship was sufficiently respected that he was from 1966–1967 a visiting professor at the University of Massachusetts, and later conducted a seminar series on Native American literature at California State College in Long Beach, California.
Brandon died in Clearlake, California, on 11 April 2002, of cancer.
-Wikipedia
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 5, 2023
This was a pretty stunning hybrid between textbook and coffee table book. It took me more than a year to actually get through it, getting only a page or two in at a time while watching my infant daughter in our living room. Eventually she came to enjoy turning the pages and looking at the pictures.
I purchased the book after seeing it referenced favorably in Ishmael -- kind of unusual to see a work of non-fiction cited in fiction. I'm glad I did though.
You might not expect much in terms of accuracy or tone from a book about indigenous people written in the 1960s. And indeed there are some dated versions of history in here. There's also condescension, paternalism and hand-waving about the inevitability of colonization and genocide. But it's much more fair-minded than I was expecting.
The star is still the artwork and photos of artifacts from indigenous people and that's the reason I'll hold on to the book. Given their historic weights and relative contributions to world culture, there is perhaps too much of the North American experience and not enough from Central and South America, but it's written for a North American audience, so I suppose it's forgivable.
It's not SUPER easy to read straight through. There are redundancies between chapters that make it seem like it was assembled from two different works. But a diligent reader is rewarded with a greater understanding of the experience of the Western hemisphere both before and after colonization from European powers.
I purchased the book after seeing it referenced favorably in Ishmael -- kind of unusual to see a work of non-fiction cited in fiction. I'm glad I did though.
You might not expect much in terms of accuracy or tone from a book about indigenous people written in the 1960s. And indeed there are some dated versions of history in here. There's also condescension, paternalism and hand-waving about the inevitability of colonization and genocide. But it's much more fair-minded than I was expecting.
The star is still the artwork and photos of artifacts from indigenous people and that's the reason I'll hold on to the book. Given their historic weights and relative contributions to world culture, there is perhaps too much of the North American experience and not enough from Central and South America, but it's written for a North American audience, so I suppose it's forgivable.
It's not SUPER easy to read straight through. There are redundancies between chapters that make it seem like it was assembled from two different works. But a diligent reader is rewarded with a greater understanding of the experience of the Western hemisphere both before and after colonization from European powers.
October 21, 2020
Very accurate, and quite depressing, of how two continents were taken over by those wonderful Europeans.
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November 20, 2008AI 970.1
April 8, 2016
We had all but the first issue of AH, and I loved the big books -- they were my classroom in the 50s and 60s.
July 30, 2012
A comprehensive, descriptive narrative on America's Indians, including many little-known facts.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews