Peace Came in the Form of a Woman - by Juliana Barr (Paperback)

About the Book

Peace Came in the Form of a Woman: Indians and Spaniards in the Texas Borderlands

Book Synopsis

Revising the standard narrative of European-Indian relations in America, Juliana Barr reconstructs a world in which Indians were the dominant power and Europeans were the ones forced to accommodate, resist, and persevere. She demonstrates that between the 1690s and 1780s, Indian peoples including Caddos, Apaches, Payayas, Karankawas, Wichitas, and Comanches formed relationships with Spaniards in Texas that refuted European claims of imperial control.

Barr argues that Indians not only retained control over their territories but also imposed control over Spaniards. Instead of being defined in racial terms, as was often the case with European constructions of power, diplomatic relations between the Indians and Spaniards in the region were dictated by Indian expressions of power, grounded in gendered terms of kinship. By examining six realms of encounter--first contact, settlement and intermarriage, mission life, warfare, diplomacy, and captivity--Barr shows that native categories of gender provided the political structure of Indian-Spanish relations by defining people's identity, status, and obligations vis-a-vis others. Because native systems of kin-based social and political order predominated, argues Barr, Indian concepts of gender cut across European perceptions of racial difference.

Review Quotes

[Barr's] conclusions are compelling . . . . Everyone who studies the Spanish borderlands, Native Americans, or women needs to read this book."--CHOICE

A field-changing work. . . . The first to show how really essential gender is to contact studies."--William and Mary Quarterly

A fine book in every respect, clearly written, persuasive, solidly documented, and useful for both student and scholar alike. . . . Encourages scholars to look anew at areas where Indians met Europeans."--Hispanic American Historical Review

A highly valuable contribution to the indigenous historiography of the southwestern borderlands in the early period of European contact."--Journal of Southern History

A superbly crafted contribution to the growing literature that places Native Americans at the center of the struggle for control of eighteenth-century North America. . . . This finely conceptualized and beautifully executed book easily ranks on the short list of essential reading for scholars of Native American history."--Journal of Interdisciplinary History

Deserves to be reckoned with by future scholarship on colonial Texas. . . . Provides . . . fundamental contributions to the historiography on colonial Texas."--Catholic Southwest

Engaging and beautifully written. . . . Provides vivid accounts of Indian power and the gendered ways it was expressed."--Western Historical Quarterly

Historiographically significant and beautifully written, Peace Came in the Form of a Woman will enjoy a wide readership among those interested in early American, Native American, and Borderlands history."--Journal of American Ethnic History

Rich, complex, and detailed. . . . A well-crafted and thoughtful work that does much to alter the landscape of American history."--Signs

Transforming enemies into allies took decades, and Barr offers a way to begin revising and rethinking the literature on these . . . encounters."--Journal of American History