Ron’s Reviews > An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States > Status Update

Andrew Jackson, Daniel Boone, and how we reframe conquest and colonialism as bringing liberty to the people.

Now we’re getting into the meat of it, like Bacon’s Rebellion which gets held up as an example of our anti-authoritarian streak. The authority they opposed was a Governor who didn’t let them seize Native land.

I do appreciate the observation that most of the time the people who helped with these seizures also got stiffed; as is often the case it’s really the rich fighting among themselves.

I like the author’s points about the Spanish Inquisitions and nation-building, how those were more about consolidating power than religion per se (note how trade guilds were treated during such events). Those are definitely behaviors that got carries across the sea. But they come awfully close to saying that prior to 1500 peasants relied on nobody and gold was only valuable for its utility.

Ch. 1 - Mainly laying groundwork to refute the standard “empty continent” narrative used to justify seizing Africa and the Americas. It also refutes the image of Native people as essentially cavemen who hunted and gathered whatever nature provided. They too manipulated their environment, creating game reserves to cultivate populations of the animals they needed.