Tecumseh: A Life by John Sugden Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $12.69 You Save: $10.31 (45%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $2.49 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of Tecumseh: A Life
Book Review: A solid biography
Summary: 4 Stars
Overall I thought this was a very good biography. It is of course difficult to document the life events of a person who lived in a society that had no written records one can research. One must rely on personal observations often recorded long after the events occured; and the historian must attempt to reconcile often conflicting accounts. This is particularly true when dealing with a subject such as Tecumseh who has been much mythologized.
It is important for the reader to feel like he can trust the evaluation of sources in these circumstances. Here I feel that Sugden really succeeds in earning his readers trust. He lays out the sources of information and draws his conclusions.
In this book you will get the story of Tecumseh with all his victories and defeats pointed out. Today Tecumseh is probably best known for his efforts to unite all the tribes of the old Northwest to fight for Indian lands. His efforts were not entirely successful and of course his confedration of Indian tribes and the British was ultimately defeated. What is interesting is that he never even convinced all the bands of his own tribe, the Shawnees, to join with him. Many other tribes also declined to join he and his brother the Prophet in their struggles agsinst the United States. In fact there was always tension between other tribal leaders who favored accomodation with the U.S. and Tecumseh and his allies. Of course in the end neither faction was successful in resisting American expansionism.
This book also was very good at describing the role of the Prophet in first bringing Tecumseh to prominence. Without him Tecumseh may never have accomplished as much as he did.
All in all a very good book and well worth reading. Definitely recommended.
Book Review: Entertaining in the least
Summary: 3 Stars
I am a fan of Tecumseh's, and this book was a good read. However, it fails in comparison with the works of Alan Eckert. Eckert's book, titled "A Sorrow In Our Heart", is a much better read and goes into more detail of Tecumseh's life and the life of his people. If you were going to read a book on Tecumseh I would only recommend Eckert's version. It is much more engrossing and by far much harder to put down. It is also three times the length of John Sugden's version.Book Review: Excellent Biography
Summary: 5 Stars
The combination of excellent research and crisp narrative make this a wonderful biography. He weaves in appropriate larger issues without getting diverted from the theme of his story. One of the largest problems was discovering the truth about this legendary Indian chief, and he delivers an even-handed assessment of Tecumseh the person.Book Review: Excellent History But Not For Light Reading
Summary: 4 Stars
The Shawnee war chief Tecumseh was a man of true, unbridled genius. He was hailed by nineteenth-century Americans as the epitome of the "noble savage" and later became the namesake of many thousands of boys born in the early decades of that century (including Union General William Tecumseh Sherman). Whereas in death Tecumseh was hailed with pride as a worthy adversary, in life his name struck nightmarish fear into whites from Cincinnati to Buffalo, and caused nearly the whole of the US Army to be sent west in opposition to his highly successful war against what he saw as the American invasion of his native soil
This book does a spectacular job of filtering through the legend and finding the real biography of a figure whose life reads like a story of fiction. Tecumseh was a visionary (some say literally) who looked ahead and saw what the consequences of US expansion would be for the aboriginal populations of the North American continent. The preservation of his people and its culture being this wise leader's greatest priority, this amazing man laid aside his grief over the murders of two family members by expansionist whites, and at first sought to make treaties with the American government. Tecumseh kept his word and maintained peace on the frontier border, but after Washington broke its word again and again and used episodes of one-sided peace to slaughter whole Shawnee villages in Ohio, Tecumseh saw there was no alternative but to begin a war that he knew would have but one possible outcome: either the expansion of the United States into the west would be halted, or his and other native cultures would be destroyed within a generation.
Tecumseh used his charisma and eloquence to persuade ardent enemies among Indian nations to lay aside their grievances and unify in an effort to stop the white man who was yearly seizing territory in the Ohio Valley homeland of so many tribes. Tecumseh crisscrossed North America, from Florida to Canada, whipping up fierce hatred of the whites and raising an army to strike at their mutual enemy. Under Tecumseh's fearless leadership, the Indian forces--warriors from a score of diverse peoples--won victory after victory over the American settlers, militia and armies. For a time US settlement into the Shawnee homeland was halted and Tecumseh's dream almost seemed within reach...and then this tactical genius made a horrible error in allying with the English in the War of 1812. Tecumseh, a man of deep personal honor, aided this European superpower in its goals of preventing the US takeover of Canada, but the English in their stead betrayed their Indian allies, whom they regarded as mere primitives, and ultimately set them up for a battle that would result in their doom.
An American President once said that were it not for the presence of the United States, a man as gifted in all the arts of leadership as Tecumseh was would have established an empire that enclosed all of eastern America and surpassed that of the Aztecs in greatness. Certainly Tecumseh was a rare individual who came close to becoming for his people what George Washington was for his. This book untangles fact and fiction and gives us the story of one of the great men of the North American continent. It is a hefty, fulfilling read.
Book Review: Give me a break
Summary: 1 Stars
I have read other reviews. Apparently, these people do not know Ohio history. This book goes against everything I have ever read about Tecumseh and his family, surrounding people. What really set me off was that in the book the author wrote about Simon Kenton and said he was not paying attention or lacking skills when Kenton and clan went to steal horses back from Tecumseh, I have read many things about that story and this book does not come close. This book says "probably" more than any book I have read. I am very sorry I purchased this book.
More Tecumseh: A Life reviews:
1 2
1 2