About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherOxford University Press, Incorporated

ISBN-100195075811

ISBN-139780195075816

eBay Product ID (ePID)72038

Product Key Features

Book TitleAmerican Holocaust : Columbus and the Conquest of the New World

Number of Pages416 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year1992

TopicAdventurers & Explorers, Expeditions & Discoveries, Native American

IllustratorYes

GenreBiography & Autobiography, History

AuthorDavid E. Stannard

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height1.3 in

Item Weight30.3 Oz

Item Length9.5 in

Item Width6.4 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN92-006922

Dewey Edition20

Reviews"In a thoroughly documented narrative, David Stannard demolishes a score of historical myths, and turns American Holocaust into a searing account of what happened in the Americas after the arrival of Columbus. It is a stirring and troubling book "--Dee Brown, author of Bury My Heart at WoundedKnee, "An important work that will have [Stannard] canonized by some andpilloried by others by the end of the Quincentennial Year. It is the product ofmassive reading in the important sources, years of pondering, and fury at whatEurope hath wrought in America....His convincing claim is that what happened wasthe worst demographic disaster in the history of our speices, that Old Worlddiseases and Old World brutality reduced the number of Indians enormously anddrove away many Native American peoples over the brink of extinction. Howconvincing are his evidence and reasoning? Very, I am unhappy to say....Nothingcan be done to improve the past, but we can at least face it. David Stannardinsists that we do."--Alfred Crosby, The Boston Sunday Globe, "David Stannard's work is both scholarly and merciless. Chronicling thedemise of 8 million people (a conservative estimate) is a daunting task, butStannard succeeds."--St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "We need to be reminded, again and again, of what Stannard speaks of as'the treasure of a single life.' Stannard gives us a fine review of recentliterature and a rousing, effective call to define our terms,'racism,''genocide,' and use them to describe what happened and still happens."--EllenNore, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, "David Stannard's work is both scholarly and merciless. Chronicling the demise of 8 million people (a conservative estimate) is a daunting task, but Stannard succeeds."--St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "A fascinating book, enormously impressive in its research and engaging inits style....Puts the Columbus story in philosophical and historicalperspective. Further, it makes connections with our own time which areunsettling and profoundly important."--Howard Zinn, author of A People's Historyof the United States, "A landmark of necessary remembering, American Holocaust acutely dissectsthe demons driving the European invaders and presents the most compelling answeryet to the horrifying question of what it was like to be 'discovered.'"--RichardDrinnon, author of Facing West: The Metaphysics of Indian-Hating andEmpire-Building, "A shattering realization is brought home: the German holocaust was notunique in history. There is a holocaust in our American past. We owe it to itsvictims, and to our own future, to reflect on Stannard's merciless book."--HansKoning, author of Columbus: His Enterprise, "A shattering realization is brought home: the German holocaust was not unique in history. There is a holocaust in our American past. We owe it to its victims, and to our own future, to reflect on Stannard's merciless book."--Hans Koning, author of Columbus: His Enterprise, "Sophisticated in its multi-disciplinary nature, and drawing on the latest demographic geographical and anthropological research....Present[s] a humbling picture of the intricate cultural and linguistic universe to which voracious Europeans laid waste in the name of conquest, conversion anddevelopment....Make[s] a powerful case for our need to rethink every aspect of the too facile picture of a dynamic European civilization thrusting out to turn much of the non-European world into a single great frontier for its Faustian designs."--The Chicago Tribune, "We need to be reminded, again and again, of what Stannard speaks of as 'the treasure of a single life.' Stannard gives us a fine review of recent literature and a rousing, effective call to define our terms,'racism,' 'genocide,' and use them to describe what happened and stillhappens."--Ellen Nore, Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, "The book to read to understand the last five hundred years. Stannard hascourageously documented the initial and continuing genocide of natives of thewestern hemisphere in an irrefutable and convincing manner."--Vine Deloria, Jr.,author of God is Red and Custer Died for Your Sins, "An important work that will have [Stannard] canonized by some and pilloried by others by the end of the Quincentennial Year. It is the product of massive reading in the important sources, years of pondering, and fury at what Europe hath wrought in America....His convincing claim is that whathappened was the worst demographic disaster in the history of our speices, that Old World diseases and Old World brutality reduced the number of Indians enormously and drove away many Native American peoples over the brink of extinction. How convincing are his evidence and reasoning? Very, I amunhappy to say....Nothing can be done to improve the past, but we can at least face it. David Stannard insists that we do."--Alfred Crosby, The Boston Sunday Globe, "The book to read to understand the last five hundred years. Stannard has courageously documented the initial and continuing genocide of natives of the western hemisphere in an irrefutable and convincing manner."--Vine Deloria, Jr., author of God is Red and Custer Died for Your Sins, "In a thoroughly documented narrative, David Stannard demolishes a scoreof historical myths, and turns American Holocaust into a searing account of whathappened in the Americas after the arrival of Columbus. It is a stirring andtroubling book "--Dee Brown, author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, "A fascinating book, enormously impressive in its research and engaging in its style....Puts the Columbus story in philosophical and historical perspective. Further, it makes connections with our own time which are unsettling and profoundly important."--Howard Zinn, author of A People'sHistory of the United States, "A landmark of necessary remembering, American Holocaust acutely dissects the demons driving the European invaders and presents the most compelling answer yet to the horrifying question of what it was like to be 'discovered.'"--Richard Drinnon, author of Facing West: The Metaphysics ofIndian-Hating and Empire-Building, "Offers a much-needed counterbalance to centuries of romantic confabulation about the explorer."--The Los Angeles Times, "Sophisticated in its multi-disciplinary nature, and drawing on the latestdemographic geographical and anthropological research....Present[s] a humblingpicture of the intricate cultural and linguistic universe to which voraciousEuropeans laid waste in the name of conquest, conversion anddevelopment....Make[s] a powerful case for our need to rethink every aspect ofthe too facile picture of a dynamic European civilization thrusting out to turnmuch of the non-European world into a single great frontier for its Faustiandesigns."--The Chicago Tribune, "Offers a much-needed counterbalance to centuries of romanticconfabulation about the explorer."--The Los Angeles Times

Dewey Decimal970.01/5

SynopsisFor four hundred years--from the first Spanish assaults against the Arawak people of Hispaniola in the 1490s to the U.S. Army's massacre of Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee in the 1890s--the indigenous inhabitants of North and South America endured an unending firestorm of violence. During that time the native population of the Western Hemisphere declined by as many as 100 million people. Indeed, as historian David E. Stannard argues in this stunning new book, the European and white American destruction of the native peoples of the Americas was the most massive act of genocide in the history of the world. Stannard begins with a portrait of the enormous richness and diversity of life in the Americas prior to Columbus's fateful voyage in 1492. He then follows the path of genocide from the Indies to Mexico and Central and South America, then north to Florida, Virginia, and New England, and finally out across the Great Plains and Southwest to California and the North Pacific Coast. Stannard reveals that wherever Europeans or white Americans went, the native people were caught between imported plagues and barbarous atrocities, typically resulting in the annihilation of 95 percent of their populations. What kind of people, he asks, do such horrendous things to others? His highly provocative answer: Christians. Digging deeply into ancient European and Christian attitudes toward sex, race, and war, he finds the cultural ground well prepared by the end of the Middle Ages for the centuries-long genocide campaign that Europeans and their descendants launched--and in places continue to wage--against the New World's original inhabitants. Advancing a thesis that is sure to create much controversy, Stannard contends that the perpetrators of the American Holocaust drew on the same ideological wellspring as did the later architects of the Nazi Holocaust. It is an ideology that remains dangerously alive today, he adds, and one that in recent years has surfaced in American justifications for large-scale military intervention in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. At once sweeping in scope and meticulously detailed, American Holocaust is a work of impassioned scholarship that is certain to ignite intense historical and moral debate., For four hundred years--from the first Spanish assaults against the Arawak people of Hispaniola in the 1490s to the U.S. Army's massacre of Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee in the 1890s--the indigenous inhabitants of North and South America endured an unending firestorm of violence. During thattime the native population of the Western Hemisphere declined by as many as 100 million people. Indeed, as historian David E. Stannard argues in this stunning new book, the European and white American destruction of the native peoples of the Americas was the most massive act of genocide in thehistory of the world. Stannard begins with a portrait of the enormous richness and diversity of life in the Americas prior to Columbus's fateful voyage in 1492. He then follows the path of genocide from the Indies to Mexico and Central and South America, then north to Florida, Virginia, and New England, and finallyout across the Great Plains and Southwest to California and the North Pacific Coast. Stannard reveals that wherever Europeans or white Americans went, the native people were caught between imported plagues and barbarous atrocities, typically resulting in the annihilation of 95 percent of theirpopulations. What kind of people, he asks, do such horrendous things to others? His highly provocative answer: Christians. Digging deeply into ancient European and Christian attitudes toward sex, race, and war, he finds the cultural ground well prepared by the end of the Middle Ages for thecenturies-long genocide campaign that Europeans and their descendants launched--and in places continue to wage--against the New World's original inhabitants. Advancing a thesis that is sure to create much controversy, Stannard contends that the perpetrators of the American Holocaust drew on the sameideological wellspring as did the later architects of the Nazi Holocaust. It is an ideology that remains dangerously alive today, he adds, and one that in recent years has surfaced in American justifications for large-scale military intervention in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. At once sweeping in scope and meticulously detailed, American Holocaust is a work of impassioned scholarship that is certain to ignite intense historical and moral debate.

LC Classification NumberE112.S82 1992

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American Holocaust : Columbus and the Conquest of the New World by David E. Stannard (1992, Hardcover)

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