Empires and Indigenous Peoples - by Michael Maas & Fay A Yarbrough (Hardcover)

About the Book

Sweeping in its scope and rigorous in its scholarship, Empires and Indigenous Peoples expands our understanding of their historical interrelations and raises general questions about the nature of the various imperial encounters.

Book Synopsis

The Romans who established their rule on three continents and the Europeans who first established new homes in North America interacted with communities of Indigenous peoples with their own histories and cultures. Sweeping in its scope and rigorous in its scholarship, Empires and Indigenous Peoples expands our understanding of their historical parallels and raises general questions about the nature of the various imperial encounters.

In this book, leading scholars of ancient Roman and early anglophone North America examine the mutual perceptions of the Indigenous and the imperial actors. They investigate the rhetoric of civilization and barbarism and its expression in military policies. Indigenous resistance, survival, and adaptation form a major theme. The essays demonstrate that power relations were endlessly adjusted, identities were framed and reframed, and new mutual knowledge was produced by all participants. Over time, cultures were transformed across the board on political, social, religious, linguistic, ideological, and economic levels. The developments were complex, with numerous groups enmeshed in webs of aggression, opposition, cooperation, and integration. Readers will see how Indigenous and imperial identities evolved in Roman and American lands.

Finally, the authors consider how American views of Roman activity influenced the development of American imperial expansion and accompanying Indigenous critiques. They show how Roman, imperial North American, and Indigenous experiences have contributed to American notions of race, religion, and citizenship, and given shape to problems of social inclusion and exclusion today.

Review Quotes

"Comparative studies of empires and the experience of Indigenous peoples in them are prominent topics in contemporary world history. This volume contains the papers delivered at the "Naming the Natives" conference held at Rice University from April 28 to May 1, 2022, and is a valuable addition to this scholarship. The volume's articles are marked by uniformly excellent scholarship, but several stand out: Brent Shaw's no-holds-barred analysis of the Roman conquest of Gaul, Alex Mullen's innovative comparative study of multilingualism in Rome and America, and David Silverman's incisive study of the ambiguous status of Christian Indians."--CHOICE Reviews


"In this truly fascinating volume, some of the best scholars in their fields study the entangled histories of ancient Roman and early American imperial powers' encounters with local communities and people. By demonstrating how 'the study of Rome helps us to understand the American experience' and vice versa, the exploratory and experimental essays in Empires and Indigenous Peoples provide new foundations and standards for connecting the experiences and expertise of different fields and historical contexts."--Helmut Reimitz, author of History, Frankish Identity, and the Framing of Western Ethnicity, 550-850


"Specialists in American history, Roman history, and Indigenous studies will find the essays in this collection revelatory. The comparative work that these authors undertake, on a transhistorical topic of immense contemporary importance, is challenging and inspiring in equal measure."--Joshua Piker, author of The Four Deaths of Acorn Whistler: Telling Stories in Colonial America