eBook Native America: A History ePub

Grotilar

Oberg's Native America: A History is a good view on the history of this people, but that is all it is. I read this book for an online class at the same University Oberg teaches and have to say enjoyed the book and its commitment to accuracy. Oberg's book is at the same time very readable and immensely frustrating. He takes immense effort to explain the origins of Native people, and their myths, religions, and interactions with Europeans. Obviously there was no United States of Indians, or really a central structure between all tribes/Indian Nations, so Oberg's history studies seven or eight Indian Nations, from the Iroquois League and Algonquians to the Seminoles and Cherokees. Despite a very readable history up to the late 19th century, Oberg does an awful job at really addressing Native-American affairs in the 20th century. We get a relatively short glimpse of Native-American legal successes during WWII and their efforts in the Civil Rights era. Yet, this last third of this history is simply rushed, abbreviated to a fault, and at its worst truly sophomoric.

However, the biggest shortcoming of this book is the relative absence of maps. Considering the tribes Oberg considers and the movement or displacement of these Native people and the wars they engage in, one would expect the book to be rich with maps tracing these events. In the 400pages of the book, I recall only seeing a dozen or so maps, and that for a history textbook is absolutely insufficient. This book is a good text if combined with a class that offers more information and is able to cover the 20th century history more appropriately. However, for a self-guided education, I would not recommend this text. However, if one is adamant to read Oberg's book I would combine it with "Like a Hurricane: The Indian Movement from Alcatraz to Wounded Knee" by Paul Chaat Smith and Robert Allen Warrior which is a wonderful book on the Native-American movement in the 1960's.

Frdi

Very informative history of Native American treatment by the U. S. movement and white people to steal their land and cultural.

Nea

Surely somebody else has done a better job of writing about Native American history. Apparently no one edited this book. Still, author Oberg must be held responsible for so many confusing sentences and ideas not even a college freshman could get away with writing. Pronouns don't agree with antecedents, consecutive sentences make no sense, and references are made to people, places and events that have not been introduced. Impossible to follow! The index is haphazard and woefully incomplete, as well. If you are unlucky enough to have this book assigned for a class, frankly, you will be better off going to Wikipedia on the sly to learn about the subject matter. That's how bad this text is.