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Summary
Summary
In this unique history of 1776, Claudio Saunt looks beyond the familiar story of the thirteen colonies to explore the many other revolutions roiling the turbulent American continent. In that fateful year, the Spanish landed in San Francisco, the Russians pushed into Alaska to hunt valuable sea otters, and the Sioux discovered the Black Hills. Hailed by critics for challenging our conventional view of the birth of America, West of the Revolution "[coaxes] our vision away from the Atlantic seaboard" and "exposes a continent seething with peoples and purposes beyond Minutemen and Redcoats" (Wall Street Journal).
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
This work adds to a growing library of untraditional histories that incorporate everyone who's had anything to do with the formation of the United States. Saunt, a University of Georgia history professor and noted expert on American Indians, asks a simple question: what was going on around 1776 in the territories that became the U.S.? That is, what's the story on this continent when you leave out the Revolutionary War, which he scarcely mentions? It turns out that much was going on, and many different peoples-primarily the French, Spanish, Russians, and Native tribes-were involved in the lands west of the Appalachians, contesting for land, power, empire, and riches. The declaration of the colonists' independence, of huge future significance, was scarcely noticed there. Missionaries, explorers, land-hungry speculators, and scalawags, many of whom most readers will never have heard of, continued their rivalries for faith, country, and self-interest, thus making a stew of ambitions on the North American continent. Saunt's lively prose highlights the extent of this mess, but unfortunately, it's hard to know what to conclude from his pastiche, or how it affects our knowledge of the Revolutionary period. Regardless, no one who reads it will think of 1776 the same way again. Maps & illus. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
A multilayered American history of "formative eventsoccurring not just along the Eastern Seaboard but across all of North America."The year 1776 had enormous repercussions in the West, opening up the land to the exploring Spaniards and rapacious Russians and decimating the Native Americans as well as significant native fauna like otters and beavers. Saunt (American History/Univ. of Georgia; Black, White, and Indian: Race and the Unmaking of an American Family, 2005, etc.) explores what the rest of the continent was up to at the same time that George Washington was forming his Continental Army and Patrick Henry was disclaiming on liberty or deathnamely, a rush for land and furs and the pushing out of the Indians in the way. Some of the alarming events included the purchase by speculator Richard Henderson of a whopping 22 million acres of land in what is now Kentucky and Tennessee from the Cherokee leaders for a pittance in a naked grab after British collapse; Capt. Ivan Solovyev and his band of Siberian trappers wreaking havoc on the native Aleuts; and the Spaniards, fearing Russian incursions in California, inciting the displeasure of the native Kumeyaays in the process, while conquistador Juan Bautista de Anza and his exploring party were making first contact with the Costanoan-speaking Indians in the San Francisco Bay. The division of the continent in two along the Mississippi River at the conclusion of the Seven Years' War (1763) allowed some tribes to take advantage of increased trade, while most others straddling the divide were crushed. Saunt ably juggles myriad eventsthe Hudson Bay Company causing the near extinction of many species of animal, the Lakotas' discovery of the fertile Black Hillsthroughout his compelling narrative.A welcome amplification of the American story. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
The year 1776 was momentous and, as Saunt's innovative survey shows, not only for American colonists rebelling against the British Empire. Beyond the Appalachian Mountains, events were in motion that would influence what peoples and powers would control North America. Geographically staged in nine regions of the continent, Saunt's narratives broadly concern themselves with native peoples' reactions to territorial expansions by European powers. On the Pacific coast, Russia advanced south from the Aleutian Islands, and Spain probed north from Mexico, with deleterious consequences for indigenous groups. Inland, the Lakota Sioux were migrating toward the Black Hills of modern South Dakota; the Osage of Missouri coped with the Spanish and British presence along the Mississippi River; and in the Southeast, the Creeks strove to obtain Spanish support against Americans expanding from Georgia. Saunt ably integrates local geographical and climatic conditions into the anxieties and actions of imperial officials on the scene while exhibiting insight into the predicaments faced by the pertinent Indian tribes. Taking uncommon perspectives, Saunt's accounts will fascinate readers interested in the colonial history of North America.--Taylor, Gilbert Copyright 2014 Booklist
Choice Review
Saunt (Univ. of Georgia) successfully addresses the problem posed by trying to bring large-scale North American history set in an Atlantic or global context into the classroom. As his book's title suggests, he wants readers to recognize the complexity of fragile economic and diplomatic alliances far west of Britain's 13 rebellious colonies during the 18th century. In the book's first half, the author focuses on the Pacific coast, delineating Russian expansion across the Bering Strait and down the coastline. Spanish responses to this incursion show the contest of empires and the role of Indigenous peoples in this West. In the second half, competitions for the Mississippi River Valley and the Black Hills region further demonstrate how Indians and empires regrouped as they faced new opportunities and challenges. The only distractions are Saunt's constant references to contemporaneous actions by Anglo-Americans fighting for independence; the title and introduction provide this context. Subsequent references merely detract from the author's point that many North Americans in 1776 had more immediate concerns. Even so, this is an excellent book for collections on the Atlantic world, the American Revolution, or global histories of the early modern period. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. --Linda L. Sturtz, Beloit College
Table of Contents
| Introduction | p. 11 |
| Prologue: Western Speculation: Henderson's Transylvania Colony | p. 17 |
| Part I The Russians are Coming | |
| Introduction | p. 31 |
| 1 Soft Gold: Aleuts and Russians in Alaska | p. 34 |
| 2 A War for Independence: The San Diego Uprising | p. 54 |
| 3 First Contact: Colonizing San Francisco | p. 72 |
| 4 Across the Colorado Plateau | p. 91 |
| Part II The Continental Divide | |
| Introduction | p. 119 |
| 5 A Forest Transformed: The Hudson's Bay Company and Cumberland House | p. 124 |
| 6 The Discovery: The Blacks Hills and the Lakota Nation | p. 148 |
| 7 An Invasion of Malefactors: Osage Country | p. 169 |
| 8 Surrounded: The Deep South Interior | p. 188 |
| Epilogue | p. 209 |
| Abbreviations for Works Cited | p. 2 73 |
| Notes | p. 215 |
| Acknowledgments | p. 261 |
| Index | p. 263 |