The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the Nation

Finalist, National Book Awards 2018 for Nonfiction

The Indian World of George Washington: The First President, the First Americans, and the Birth of the Nation, by Colin G. Calloway book cover
ISBN 9780190652166
Oxford University Press
Colin G. Calloway

Colin G. Calloway is the John Kimball Jr. 1943 Professor of History and Native American Studies at Dartmouth College. His previous books include A Scratch of the Pen and The Victory with No Name. More about this author >

Award Years

Award Status

Award Categories

In this sweeping new biography, Calloway uses the prism of Washington’s life to bring focus to the great Native leaders of his time―Shingas, Tanaghrisson, Bloody Fellow, Joseph Brant, Red Jacket, Little Turtle―and the tribes they represented: the Iroquois Confederacy, Lenape, Miami, Creek, Delaware; in the process, he returns them to their rightful place in the story of America’s founding. The Indian World of George Washington spans decades of Native American leaders’ interaction with Washington, from his early days as surveyor of Indian lands, to his military career against both the French and the British, to his presidency, when he dealt with Native Americans as a head of state would with a foreign power, using every means of diplomacy and persuasion to fulfill the new republic’s destiny by appropriating their land. By the end of his life, Washington knew more than anyone else in America about the frontier and its significance to the future of his country.

The Indian World of George Washington offers a fresh portrait of the most revered American and the Native Americans whose story has been only partially told. Calloway’s biography invites us to look again at the story of America’s beginnings and see the country in a whole new light.

media


Colin G. Calloway reads from "The Indian World of George Washington" at 2018 National Book Awards Finalist Reading

Top
X