A fine contribution to the literature of Colonial America, where peace was far harder to achieve than war.
A complex tale of a now-forgotten crime that shaped Native-White relations in the British Colonies of North America.
In Pennsylvania in the winter of 1722, John and Edmund Cartlidge, fur traders, visited a Seneca hunter named Sawantaeny. The brothers plied him with booze, writes NYU history professor Eustace, “hoping to lubricate their negotiations with enough alcohol that Sawantaeny would be too content to desire anything more valuable than second-rate rum for his efforts, if not too compromised to demand a fair deal.” When rum didn’t do the trick and Sawantaeny produced a musket, Edmund, a hulking man, grabbed it and hit Sawantaeny hard enough to shatter his skull. That the proposed trade was unfair was not lost on the nearby Natives who heard the story, including representatives from nations up and down the coast and far inland and powerful members of the Iroquois Nation. A mendacious Colonial governor tried to keep a lid on the murder while the governor of next-door Maryland was quick to order an aide “to contrive to let the Indians know that the Murderers are under the Pennsylvania Government and that we are no ways Concern’d in it.” From these basic elements—and with a vivid cast of characters that expands to include a shrewd go-between named “Captain Civility,” who spoke all the languages of the Susquehanna River Valley and embodied the Indigenous tradition “of assigning a person to take up membership in multiple communities, serving as the living embodiment of civil society”—the author fashions an engrossing historical excavation. The case traveled far, informing treaty agreements that were held in force for decades even as John Cartlidge proved a go-between on his own merits. The story has countless moving parts and one central mystery that demand subtle exposition, and Eustace navigates it all with skill and economy.
A fine contribution to the literature of Colonial America, where peace was far harder to achieve than war.Pub Date: April 27, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-63149-587-8
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Liveright/Norton
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2021
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.
Words that made a nation.
Isaacson is known for expansive biographies of great thinkers (and Elon Musk), but here he pens a succinct, stimulating commentary on the Founding Fathers’ ode to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” His close reading of the Declaration of Independence’s second sentence, published to mark the 250th anniversary of the document’s adoption, doesn’t downplay its “moral contradiction.” Thomas Jefferson enslaved hundreds of people yet called slavery “a cruel war against human nature” in his first draft of the Declaration. All but 15 of the document’s 56 signers owned enslaved people. While the sentence in question asserted “all men are created equal” and possess “unalienable rights,” the Founders “consciously and intentionally” excluded women, Native Americans, and enslaved people. And yet the sentence is powerful, Isaacson writes, because it names a young nation’s “aspirations.” He mounts a solid defense of what ought to be shared goals, among them economic fairness, “moral compassion,” and a willingness to compromise. “Democracy depends on this,” he writes. Isaacson is excellent when explaining how Enlightenment intellectuals abroad influenced the founders. Benjamin Franklin, one of the Declaration’s “five-person drafting committee,” stayed in David Hume’s home for a month in the early 1770s, “discussing ideas of natural rights” with the Scottish philosopher. Also strong is Isaacson’s discussion of the “edits and tweaks” made to Jefferson’s draft. As recommended by Franklin and others, the changes were substantial, leaving Jefferson “distraught.” Franklin, who emerges as the book’s hero, helped establish municipal services, founded a library, and encouraged religious diversity—the kind of civic-mindedness that we could use more of today, Isaacson reminds us.
A short, smart analysis of perhaps the most famous passage in American history reveals its potency and unfulfilled promise.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9781982181314
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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