Shadows at Dawn
An Apache Massacre and the Violence of History
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4.6 • 5 Ratings
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
A masterful reconstruction of one of the worst Indian massacres in American history
In April 1871, a group of Americans, Mexicans, and Tohono O?odham Indians surrounded an Apache village at dawn and murdered nearly 150 men, women, and children in their sleep. In the past century the attack, which came to be known as the Camp Grant Massacre, has largely faded from memory. Now, drawing on oral histories, contemporary newspaper reports, and the participants? own accounts, prize-winning author Karl Jacoby brings this perplexing incident and tumultuous era to life to paint a sweeping panorama of the American Southwest?a world far more complex, diverse, and morally ambiguous than the traditional portrayals of the Old West.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
On April 30, 1871, a posse of Americans, Mexicans and Tohono O'odham Indians descended upon an Apache camp in Arizona and massacred some 150 of its sleeping inhabitants, mostly women and children. Jacoby (Crimes Against Nature), an associate professor of history at Brown University, re-examines what happened in the notorious Camp Grant Massacre and its aftermath in an original way. An unusual wealth of documents about this raid allow him to narrate from four different angles, each centering on a community involved in the massacre, thereby offering a view of the histories, fears and motivations of each group. Some readers might prefer a more conventional and chronological narrative, but Jacoby's structure succeeds in leading readers "toward a deeper revisioning of the American past." Jacoby wants readers to consider the West not just as the seat of America's Manifest Destiny, but as an "extension of the Mexican north and... the homeland of a complex array of Indian communities." For buffs more accustomed to traditional tales of Custer and Wounded Knee, this telling might prove an unexpected delight. Illus.
Customer Reviews
A Prescription for How to Write History
First, I would love to see this book turned into a movie. Of course, it would not be commercially successful--well maybe it would be, based on the bloody scenes. Such a movie would have documentary aspects to it, but I see it as much more rich than that. Perhaps Ken Burns could make something of this story.
There have been other books written about the Camp Grant Massacre, but none has incorporated the sociological, political, and humanistic perspective that Karl Jacoby has. His vehicle for telling different viewpoints of the story is to tell it from four distinct perspectives of major groups involved in the massacre. Brilliant!
As a history teacher, I tell my students that most history is written from the viewpoint of the victors--by the last man standing. Earlier books on the Camp Grant Massacre have employed this age-old privilege. Jacoby sets out to convince us that the "truth" of these events can be learned from one perspective, and then once he has us believing that story, he presents another perspective, and then another and then another. In the end, we realize that there are no truths and that there are multiple truths. Humanity is complex. The world is complex. There aren't always good guys and bad guys.
In the middle, of course, there is the sad tragedy of so many people who lost their lives. From those losses, we learn about how society thought during that time (four different societies). It was not that long ago that savagery existed on our soil. Some might argue that we still experience such savagery with mass murder and terrorists. Perhaps that would be an interesting story to tell from multiple perspectives.