Surviving Genocide

Volume one of a two-part history traces how the expansion of the United States depended on taking land from Native peoples. Jeffrey Ostler examines how federal authority backed the use of force to push Indigenous nations out of the way or to kill them. He follows the human toll of this period, including constant bloodshed and displacement, along with the disease, hunger, and exposure that accompanied it.

The volume focuses on the eastern United States, covering the years from the 1750s to the outbreak of the Civil War. Ostler shows how treaties were used to give the land seizures a veneer of Native agreement, when in many cases consent had not been given. Throughout, he also documents how Native communities endured, forming alliances, defending their towns, and rebuilding what had been broken.