Review by Choice Review
The devastation of Indian nations due to the expansion of the Spanish and English colonial empires in North America, followed by the establishment and growth of the US and Mexico, has long been studied. However, some Indian societies adapted to the political changes and, at times, expanded as well. This latter phenomenon has not captured the attention of many scholars. It is the subject of this book, which focuses on the Comanche, arguably the preeminent expansionist Indian empire of the era. The author sheds new light on the Comanche's complex, aggressive methods of economic expansion, which included raiding other Indian nations, Mexico, and the US, and their prolific system of slave trading from the early 18th through the 19th centuries. Hamalainen (Univ. of California, Santa Barbara) also chronicles Comanche population growth techniques, including forced marriage of captives to Comanche, which permitted this particular Indian society to grow while the majority of others witnessed sharp declines. This work is exceptionally well researched, and the author's willingness to tell such an accurate, unvarnished account of this brutal history is commendable. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. T. Maxwell-Long California State University, San Bernardino
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
This comprehensive history of the Comanche people treats them as an independent power rather than as victims of American westward expansion. And though Hamalainen frames his arguments within scholars' debates on proper perspectives toward the Comanche, general readers interested in the history of the Southwest will discover his to be a fascinatingly informative volume in its explanatory and narrative modes. Between the Comanche's initial appearance in Spanish records in 1706 to their final defeat by the U.S. in 1874, Hamalainen traces an ascent in Comanche numbers, wealth, and influence that enabled them to dominate western Texas and New Mexico for decades. Interpreting such Comanche activities as raiding and slaving as distinct instruments of imperialism, Hamalainen credits these practices with endowing the Comanche with their fierce frontier reputation within the extensive Great Plains trading network they operated. A valuable library resource for its subject.--Taylor, Gilbert Copyright 2008 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
The age-old concept of fierce Comanche warriors as a military impediment to the conquest of the Spanish American Southwest has a long and influential history (e.g., Rupert Norval Richardson's The Comanche Barrier to South Plains Settlement). Homoloinen (history, Univ. of California, Santa Barbara; ed., When Disease Makes History: Epidemics and Great Historical Turning Points) succeeds in introducing a new perspective on Southwestern history, mastering Spanish and Mexican historic resources to tell of a horse- and bison-based Comanche empire, Comancher¡a. He shows that the expansion and maintenance of Comanche range and trade networks between 1700 and 1875 occurred at the expense of other Indian nations and Spanish, Mexican, Texan, and American interests. Writing from intertwined ethnohistoric and Eurocentric views, the author credits this pastoral empire with New Spain/Mexico's steep loss of influence on the northern borderlands before the actual Mexican War of 1846-48 and argues that an appreciation of Comanche influence is needed to fully understand the history of the Southwest and Great Plains. Enthusiastically recommended for academic and public libraries.--Nathan E. Bender, Univ. of Idaho, Moscow (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
