| An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873 Contributor(s): Madley, Benjamin (Author) |
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ISBN: 0300230699 ISBN-13: 9780300230697 Publisher: Yale University Press OUR PRICE: $19.80 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: June 2017 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Native American - History | United States - State & Local - West (ak, Ca, Co, Hi, Id, Mt, Nv, Ut, Wy) - History | United States - 19th Century |
| Dewey: 979.404 |
| Series: The Lamar Western History |
| Physical Information: 1.4" H x 6.1" W x 9.1" (1.42 lbs) 520 pages |
| Themes: - Ethnic Orientation - Native American - Chronological Period - 19th Century - Geographic Orientation - California |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The first full account of the government-sanctioned genocide of California Indians under United States rule Winner of the 2016 Los Angeles Times Book Award for History and a New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice "Gruesomely thorough. . . . Others have described some of these campaigns, but never in such strong terms and with so much blame placed directly on the United States government."--Alexander Nazaryan, Newsweek Between 1846 and 1873, California's Indian population plunged from perhaps 150,000 to 30,000. Benjamin Madley is the first historian to uncover the full extent of the slaughter, the involvement of state and federal officials, the taxpayer dollars that supported the violence, indigenous resistance, who did the killing, and why the killings ended. This deeply researched book is a comprehensive and chilling history of an American genocide. Madley describes pre-contact California and precursors to the genocide before explaining how the Gold Rush stirred vigilante violence against California Indians. He narrates the rise of a state-sanctioned killing machine and the broad societal, judicial, and political support for genocide. Many participated: vigilantes, volunteer state militiamen, U.S. Army soldiers, U.S. congressmen, California governors, and others. The state and federal governments spent at least $1,700,000 on campaigns against California Indians. Besides evaluating government officials' culpability, Madley considers why the slaughter constituted genocide and how other possible genocides within and beyond the Americas might be investigated using the methods presented in this groundbreaking book. |