"This young reader’s edition of Blackhawk’s National Book Award–winning work reframes Europeans’ so-called discovery of the New World as an encounter with the Native people of that land, noting that 'to tell that story is to recognize that death, violence, and dispossession are part of it.' Also part of it are flashes of activism. In the 1960s, the National Congress of American Indians backed self-determination, and the National Indian Youth Council, inspired by the civil rights movement, emphasized cultural pride and sovereignty in a movement known as Red Power. These efforts shaped reforms in the decades that followed." --Publishers Weekly
PRAISE FOR TH 2023 ADULT EDITION:
Winner of the National Book Award for Nonfiction 2023
A Publishers Weekly Top 10 Best Book of 2023
New York Times, 100 Notable Books of 2023
New Yorker, The Best Books of 2023
New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice
Esquire, The 20 Best Books of 2023
Finalist, 2023 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in History
“Blackhawk never lets us forget that his book is not a work of ‘Indigenous history’ but rather one of American history. He eloquently argues that ‘the enduring sovereignty of Native communities’ must be recognized ‘as a defining thread of US politics.’”—Nicole Eustace, New York Review of Books
“A sweeping, important, revisionist work of American history that places Native Americans front and center.”—New York Times Book Review (cover review)
“[A] monumental reappraisal of the United States’ history. . . . Blackhawk . . . foregrounds the endurance of Native Americans’ autonomy and traditions in the face of their near-eradication.”—New Yorker, “The Best Books of 2023”
“In accounts of American history, Indigenous peoples are often treated as largely incidental—either obstacles to be overcome or part of a narrative separate from the arc of nation-building. Blackhawk . . . challenges those minimalizations and exclusions, showing that Native communities have, instead, been inseparable from the American story all along.”—Washington Post Book World, “Books to Read in 2023”
“This ambitious retelling of the American story, by a historian who is also a Native American, places Indigenous populations at the center, a shift in perspective that yields fresh insights and thought-provoking questions.”—New York Times, “100 Notable Books of 2023”
“Gripping and nuanced, The Rediscovery of America is an essential remedy to the historical record.”—Adrienne Westenfeld, Esquire, “The 20 Best Books of 2023”
“Blackhawk demonstrates how inextricably linked Indigenous history is with all aspects of American life and politics in this expansive survey, which teases out the deep connection between the aims and attitudes of the developing nation and its dealings with Native peoples. Reorienting the history of America as foremost that of an Indigenous colony, Blackhawk calls for a fundamental change of perspective.”—Publishers Weekly
“A thoughtful, innovative, and provocative book. . . . The legends about the founding and growth of the United States have been promulgated so often and so widely that Blackhawk’s conception of American history is long overdue. It is, more than any other attempt at re-interpreting our national story, US history turned upside down.”—David Shribman, Boston Globe
“Ned Blackhawk has opened the door to a national conversation. . . . While academics and educators can argue about whether Blackhawk’s new paradigm should replace existing frameworks for understanding American history, he has succeeded in demonstrating that a deeper knowledge of Native American history should supplement (if not supplant) our understanding of our collective national experience. . . . It’s a conversation worth having. And long overdue.”—Sara Bhatia, Washington Monthly
“Striking a masterful balance between the big picture and crystal-clear snapshots of key people and events, this is a vital new understanding of American history.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Illuminating and ambitious, . . . rewarding and essential.”—Patrick Rapa, Philadelphia Inquirer, “Best New Books to Read in May”
“Deeply researched and engagingly written, the book is a monumental achievement.”—Rhoda Feng, Mother Jones
“A wide-ranging study that moves Indigenous peoples from the periphery to the core of continental history.”—Kirkus Reviews
“As Blackhawk puts it, ‘Encounter—rather than discovery—must structure America’s origins story.’ The Rediscovery of America shows the power of encounter in many places—from the Monroe Doctrine to Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty.”—Craig Fehrman, Boston Globe
“Raise your hand if you didn’t learn Indigenous history in school—or if you only learned a racist, white-centric, colonizer version of it. Infuriatingly, the prevalence of harmful myths about Native history is still far, far too common. In this comprehensive history of Native America, Ned Blackhawk adds his voice to the growing chorus of Indigenous scholars and historians who are fighting back against this erasure.”—Laura Sackton, Book Riot
“Blackhawk argues that U.S. history cannot be understood without understanding how Indigenous and settler histories are interwoven.”—Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal
“Ned Blackhawk’s stunning achievement, The Rediscovery of America, is the most ambitious and creative account of Native American history yet published. In a style both invigorating and urgent, Blackhawk delivers a major new synthesis of the field of Native American history and an elegant, masterful narrative of Native independence and sovereignty.”—Judges’ citation, 2024 Mark Lynton History Prize
“The Rediscovery of America is a testimony to the transformation of the field of American Indian history over the past several decades, and Blackhawk has abandoned the ‘interpretive tools’ of generations of American historians.”—Brenda J. Child, University of Minnesota
“Ned Blackhawk’s elegant and sweeping account of American history illuminates five centuries of Native American history. He upends familiar narratives to reveal the enduring centrality and vitality of Native peoples in American political life.”—Barbara Krauthamer, Emory University
“Ned Blackhawk not only restores Native Americans to the core of the continent’s story but also offers a running analysis spanning immense times and climes.”—Andrés Reséndez, author of Conquering the Pacific
“On his search to rediscover America, Blackhawk brilliantly rewrites U.S. history, illustrating that it cannot be told absent American Indians. This is the history text we have been waiting for.”—Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States
“Richly told and deeply informed, The Rediscovery of America demonstrates the centrality of Indigenous Americans to U.S. history. Blackhawk shows that at every turn the enduring relations between natives and newcomers have shaped the course of the American republic.”—Claudio Saunt, author of the National Book Award finalist Unworthy Republic
“Ranging across the continent and across the centuries, Ned Blackhawk skillfully interweaves American history and Native American history, demonstrating conclusively that we cannot properly understand one without the other.”—Colin G. Calloway, Dartmouth College
“Refusing to tell simple stories of subordination or resistance, Ned Blackhawk shows how American politics, law, diplomacy, the economy, and popular culture become incomprehensible without a Native presence.”—Richard White, Stanford University
