Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I read the introduction of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, and wouldn’t have gone any further if this wasn’t assigned reading for a Comunity College Native American Studies class (I already had a history degree, but the class was a prereq for a grad program). Chapter one was pleasant enough, but it seemed nothing much more than a large collection of “see? Native Americans weren’t primitive, really!” After that, this book is a mish-mash of cherry-picked facts chosen to support a predetermined ideological agenda. There is also the issue of Dunbar-Ortiz’s use of highly biased terms and phrasing. Finally, there are some rather large stretches made in trying to connect one part of European history or culture to another, and a bit of touching on now-debunked historical imaginings which were born out of 1970s feminist theory (and not out of any evidence) as if they were established fact. Indeed, some of this contradicts the historical record, and contextually dependent common sense. Sadly, where Dunbar-Ortiz feels she cannot simply trim and choose her facts to paint the picture she’d like, she resorts to artifice. This is not history conducted in any respectable and intellectually honest way. This book is a collection of cherry-picked facts and events taken out of their context, thrown together in a disjointed fashion, crafted to support an ideologically driven rant. Reading the terms and descriptions here chosen, one cannot escape how far from neutral they are. The exact same behaviors are described VERY differently depending on whom Dunbar-Ortiz is describing carrying them out. Many important parts are left out of the historical stories she recites, generally for the very simple reason that they would make a mockery of her conclusions. This book is, in my opinion, a work of transparent propaganda. If you want to know about Native American History, read a real historian like Ned Blackhawk.