I live in a county named for Andrew Jackson. Just when I think I've learned about his lowest, most despicable acts I come across a book like A Brutal Reckoning. This book dives deeply into the chain of events that led to a Jackson presidency and the Trail of Tears. Tightly written, given the subject, and well-paced.

Peter Cozzens, historian and retired 35-year Foreign Service Officer, has just released A Brutal Reckoning: Andrew Jackson, the Creek Indians, and the Epic War for the American South. Author of many previous books on the Civil War and American West, Cozzens completes his trilogy on the Indian Wars with this latest book. Having begun in the Midwest with Tecumseh and the Prophet: The Shawnee Brothers Who Defied a Nation and next moving to the West with The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West, Cozzens concludes with the Deep South and events he believes led to the Civil War.

Divided into four parts, A Brutal Reckoning chronicles the heart-rending history of the Muscogee Creeks from the mid-16th century killing of their ancestors by Hernando de Soto and the Spanish conquistadors through the 1830s Trail of Tears--the forced removal of Southeastern tribes to Indian Territory in today’s Oklahoma. A meticulous researcher and imminently readable writer, Cozzens sets the stage in the first two parts for Andrew Jackson’s later rise from general in the Tennessee militia to general in the U.S. Army and eventually to President, a rise made possible by rapid population growth and white settlers’ desire to take over Indian land in the Deep South.

By the end of the book, readers can well understand why former President John Quincy Adams, subsequently a member of the House of Representatives, refused the chairmanship of the Committee on Indian Affairs offered to him in 1841. Feeling nothing could compensate for Jackson’s “fraudulent treaties and brutal force” and for the rest of the nation that allowed these, Adams expressed his belief that “God will one day bring them to judgment –but at His own time and by His own means.”

As an Oklahoman for more than four decades and repeat visitor to the Creek Council Oak, by which the Muskogee Creeks held their tribal council meetings and now considered the starting place of the City of Tulsa, I’m familiar with this end of the Trail of Tears and was interested in learning more about events leading up to the Creeks’ arrival in Indian Territory. Cozzens has filled in what I didn’t know and held my attention while doing so. Anyone interested in American military or Native American history should enjoy and learn from his work.

Thanks to NetGalley and Knopf for an advance reader copy of this interesting and educational history of the Creeks, the fourth largest tribe in the U.S.

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If we were to ever get an accurate account of what happened and why Native Americans have such a low population peter cousins would be the man to paint that picture but in a brutal reckoning he’s only taking on the trail of tears Andrew Jackson’s slaying of a nation of indigenous people and it’s true beginning. Almost like a three part play we get De Soto’s landing in Florida and the short but real re-examining of Andrew Jackson as a person and a military man and then the slaying that would make history. This isn’t a short book but reads like fiction and even the parts that are meant to educate or interesting and have you turning the pages. I will admit everything up to the prologue can be quite daunting but I mainly skipped all that and went right to the story but either way I found this book so interesting this is a definite 5 star read. This is an author who writes the facts and lets you make up your own mind as opposed to telling you what to think or giving you his own opinion. When it comes to non-fiction books Mr. cousins tell you everything from what they were wearing to the different tallies of those who died those who were injured and those who live to tell the tail. He doesn’t hold any punches and just give the facts and although this was the biggest massacre in the Indian wars he tells a story is it it just happened yesterday. Kudos to Mr. cousins for another great book and another great way to tell the story other people who didn’t always get the stories told fairly. I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher but I am leaving this review voluntarily please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Very interesting and well written. History is always fascinating and this one kept my interest even through the bloody battles.

Andrew Jackson is one of those historical figures who is harder and harder to like the more you learn about him. I certainly didn't have a high opinion before reading Peter Cozzens' A Brutal Reckoning and it only got worse from there.

Cozzens chronicles the Creek War in the early 1800s. I knew very little about the Creek War as it is generally overshadowed by the War of 1812. I learned a lot and Cozzens knows how to keep the narrative moving and interesting. This book especially soars when recounting specific battles. Cozzens eye for detail is exceptional and he never makes the mistake of becoming too focused on any one thing. He even admits that certain chapters will contain a dizzying amount of names but ultimately I felt Cozzens could have skipped the warning. His mastery of the subjects makes it easy to follow along.

This is an excellent book on an episode in American history which is often overlooked.

(This book was provided as an advance copy by Netgalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor.)