Shades of Hiawatha - by Alan Trachtenberg (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"A book of elegance, depth, breadth, nuance and subtlety." --W. Richard West Jr. (Founding Director of the National Museum of the American Indian), The Washington Post

A century ago, U.S. policy aimed to sever the tribal allegiances of Native Americans, limit their ancient liberties, and coercively prepare them for citizenship. At the same time, millions of new immigrants sought their freedom by means of that same citizenship. Alan Trachtenberg argues that the two developments were, inevitably, juxtaposed: Indians and immigrants together preoccupied the public imagination, and together changed the idea of what it meant to be American.

In Shades of Hiawatha, Trachtenberg eloquently suggests that we must re-create America's tribal creation story in new ways if we are to reaffirm its beckoning promise of universal liberty.

Review Quotes

"A tour de force of imaginative synthesis and an extraordinary illuminating interpretation of American culture--subtly argued and beautifully written." --Jackson Lears, author of Something for Nothing: Luck in America

"In this rich and restless book, Alan Trachtenberg brushes the idea of 'the Indian' across the grain of American culture from 1855 through World War I. He shows the doubling and redoubling of Indian and American, native and immigrant--the shape-shifting of American identity in all its peculiar opulence. The result is enlightening on every page." --Scott Malcomson

About the Author