Masters of Empire

October 5, 2015
McDonnell (The Politics of War), associate professor of history at the University of Sydney, deploys impeccable research skills to challenge the “middle grounds” historical interpretation of Native American–European encounters. He reveals how the Anishinaabeg, a Great Lakes tribe that has received little attention from outside chroniclers of the 17th and 18th centuries, treated the arriving French and English as minor characters in a long-standing series of tribal rivalries. McDonnell opens with a compelling account of the politics and culture of the region, already riven by indigenous competition and warfare when the French arrived in the 17th century, and introduces Charles Michel Mouet de Langlade and his mixed-race family. In 1752, de Langlade led an attack on a Miami Indian village in the Ohio Valley that set the stage for the Seven Years’ War (1754–1763), which “has long been mistakenly called ‘the French and Indian War’ ” and which pitted Native Americans and French and English settlers against one another for control of the area. With a fascinating reexamination of the political, military, and economic details of the war, as well as a stunning final chapter on the American Revolution and the meaning of (in)dependence, McDonnell admirably expands readers’ understanding of “Indian country on its own terms.” Maps & illus.

October 1, 2015
A history of the Native American tribes that inhabited the Great Lakes region during early American colonization. The great tribes like the Iroquois, Sioux, and Huron are well-known to history, but there are still many lesser-known though equally important tribes that remain unrecognized for their vital influences in the development of the American Colonies. As McDonnell (History/Univ. of Sydney; The Politics of War: Race, Class, and Conflict in Revolutionary Virginia, 2007) makes clear, chief among these groups was the Anishinaabeg nation of the Great Lakes. Comprised of the Odawa, Ojibwa, and Potawatomi, the Anishinaabeg settled principally in Michilimackinac near the Strait of Mackinac, which separates Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. As a strategic chokepoint between the Great Lakes, Michilimackinac's location had both spiritual and political significance to its people. Most notable among the Anishinaabeg's geopolitical influence was their role in the development of the fur trade and supply chain that brought the prized pelts from the remote outposts of the American interior to French colonial settlements along the St. Lawrence River, crucially aiding the imperial efforts of the French crown. As a political force in the region, the Anishinaabeg's influence was critical in forging allegiances during the Seven Years' War, ultimately reshaping the imperial politics in the Americas. McDonnell skillfully captures the history of the group from the 17th century through the early 19th century, restoring the nation's legacy and filling in a vital historical link in the timeline of the Americas]and the maps at the beginning help readers orient geographically. Though the Anishinaabeg were able to maneuver around many of the pitfalls that other Native American tribes suffered, such as alcoholism and the declining fur trade, they still could not stave off the inevitable forced removal from their lands by Euro-Americans. Engrossing and authoritative, McDonnell's rich history is academic in nature but welcoming to lay readers.

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October 15, 2015

The Anishinaabeg economically, militarily, and politically controlled the trade routes on and around the Great Lakes from before European colonization until the early 19th century. Despite their import, says McDonnell (history, Univ. of Sydney; The Politics of War), they did not collectively appear much in the historical record owing to their decentralized political system. Instead, the activities of their subgroups, which included the Ottawa, Potawatomi, Chippewa, and Mississauga, were documented in isolation. Utilizing an impressive array of primary and ethnographic sources, the author documents from their perspective how the Anishinaabeg, from the central region of Michilimackinak in present-day Michigan, exerted their power locally. In order to advance their interests, they helped ignite the French and Indian War. When that conflict didn't end satisfactorily from their point of view, Anishinaabeg leaders led native warriors to assail British forts in what became known as Pontiac's Rebellion. VERDICT McDonnell makes a compelling case that the natives were not victims of European colonization but instead used their military and economic prowess to control and dictate how the world around them evolved. For another superb view of Michilimackinak, see Keith R. Widder's Beyond Pontiac's Shadow.--John R. Burch, Campbellsville Univ. Lib., KY

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2015
McDonnell, an Australian history professor who specializes in American history, here focuses on a lesser-known Great Lakes tribe, the Anishinaabeg, who, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, were settled at Michilimackinac, on the straits between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. McDonnell's thesis is that this tribe, and its Odawa band in particular, played a major role in the fur trade, intertribal politics, and wars between the French and Englisha role overlooked in previous histories of the region. By the 1730s, the Odawa commanded a sprawling domain, accomplished, he says, not only because of their strategic position on the trade routes but also because they were able to keep peace between themselves and neighboring tribes by means of widely spread kinship ties. In addition, they realized the importance of playing the French and English against one another in the Anglo-Indian Warsa strategy that enabled them to hold on to their territory, however briefly, after the Treaty of 1783. Meticulously researched, McDonnell's scholarly yet compelling history will be a valuable addition to American history and Native American collections.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)