Thank you to Net Galley and the Publishing Company for this Advanced Readers Copy of The Rediscovery of America by Ned Blackhawk!

an ambitious synthesis affirming the centrality of Indigenous perspectives in U.S. history. any ambitious synthesis cannot cover everything, but this one is packed w/ detailed research, fresh interpretation, AND it’s readable. some early Americanists have suggested that it’s stronger in the contemporary & modern stretches, but I as an early Americanist found the first third, pre-Constitution, to be equally strong. personally, I would’ve liked to see more Alaska & Hawai’i, but of course, nothing can cover everything. impeccable coverage and endlessly useful for a wide range of historical endeavors.

I’m not sure what to say in these nonfiction history books that tells our history! But this should be read by everyone! This had great references and stories that dates back all the way through time of how Native Americans people lived and war with the colonizers as well as trying to stake claim to their lands and tribes! Overall, this is a must read!

Really enjoyed this one. It was better then I originally thought it was gonna be. I felt like it was a fast read

I picked up The Rediscovery of America thinking it would be a popular history read for the summer, but it definitely read more as a dry, dense, academic book. It's certainly an amazing feat of research with tons of evidence to back up claims, but as a casual reader, it was a little hard to stay engaged--this probably would be more enjoyable for someone with a history degree. I wanted to love a book that centers indigenous history, and while it's an important read and an incredible accomplishment, I just cannot recommend it for the casual reader. Would be great in an academic setting.

This is a comprehensive history of the United States centered around the indigenous peoples who lived here before it was “discovered” by explorers and colonizers. It’s a little hard to get through at times, but everyone should read or listen to it cover to cover.

“How can a nation founded on the homelands of dispossessed Indigenous peoples be the world’s most exemplary democracy?”

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher and author for offering this book, via Netgalley, an entire year post publication! As an expansive American history that reframes the narrative by placing native peoples, rather than European settlers, in a central role, the shape and meaning of our history, and indeed our identity, as an American people, begins to change. And indeed it should.

I'm happy to report that one of the Long Essay Questions for the APUSH exam this year dealt with Native suppression by the expansive Europeans: "Evaluate the extent to which settler expansion influenced North America from 1754 to 1800." This is a topic in which Ned Blackhawk excels, in depicting how the Native resistance to settler expansion was one of the leading foundations to the American Revolution. He elaborates as well on how the early Republic is shaped by the need for treaty powers in dealing with the various tribal powers in the interior.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I will be looking to use excerpts of it in my high school history classes next year. Thank you, Netgalley. You, and Dr. Blackhawk, rock!

The history is much more complex than I even imaged, and of course I learned I knew nearly nothing before I started reading. Had to put it down several times because the actions of English, Spanish, and Americans was so atrocious I felt I was covered in blood. Includes Indian territory map before English & others arrived - an astonishing number and variety of tribes across what is now the US. Then has a current map of federal and state recognized Indians peoples. Fascinating book - glad I bought it so I could learn what really went down.

Thank you so much for the eArc .

This book was a very enlightening and incredibly important . I felt like the text as accessible as well .

I know that in this time and place in our culture that we are either opposed or very open to missing pieces of our history, This book helps fill in some of our missing history here in America. From Ned Blackhawk, this wonderful book tells missing pieces that I didn't even have a clue about. This richly told book was eye-opening and wonderful!

This book taught me so much about the history of Native Americans and the way their people and cultures were utterly devastated by the European colonizers. It is very detailed and extremely interesting. However, I found that listening to the audiobook felt overwhelming because it was difficult to process all the information. I found myself referring to the ebook regularly to reread parts. Another thing that made listening difficult was the narration. Repeatedly, especially during the first half, I could easily determine spots where the narration had been edited. It sounded really disjointed, and that became very distracting.
In sum, I highly recommend this book for the information it contains, but I suggest reading it yourself rather than listening.

Thank you NetGalley, Tantor Audio, and Take University Press for allowing me early access to the ARC audiobook and ebook editions of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Rediscovery of America is a telling of US history, focused on including Native Americans in the narrative. The first part of the book, leading up to and including the Revolutionary War, does this in a way that's convincing (if a bit dry and scattered), and I learned a lot. The rest feels disjointed, jumping around in time, place, and theme, without a clear throughline to make things flow together. Big claims often feel unsubstantiated. Wish the entire book was a strong as part one.

Professor Blackhawk focuses on interactions between the indigenous people of North America and European settlers, over the last five centuries. He redresses the balance of past history books which have tended to focus on Europeans. He argues against North America being ‘discovered’, given that many different groups of people lived there before Europeans came. He covers a lot of ground in one volume. Worth reading if you’re studying North American history or if you’re interested in broadening your understanding of its history. Thanks to the publishers and Net Galley for a review copy.

History taught in school leaves out the role of the Native Americans - the part they played
as the country grew and the treatment they received from the government. Despite all that has
happened, they fight to maintain their languages, culture and traditions.
Great addition to any library.

Many, many thanks to NetGalley for this ARC of this incredible work. I absolutely loved this one. This should be on every high school or college required reading list. The author writes so well. Read this if you want to really learn American history. And buy 5 copies. for your family and friends to read. Share this widely. Highly recommended!

The Rediscovery of America, written by Ned Blackhawk, was the best non-fiction book I read in 2023. It works against the American cultural norm of writing Indigenous peoples out of the narrative. Blackhawk challenges many of the long-standing misconceptions and incorrect histories that have dominated the narrative and argues that Indigenous peoples were never at the periphery of American history, but are essential to understanding the United States today. In the author's words: "If history provides the common soil for a nation’s growth and a window into its future, it is time to reimagine U.S. history outside the tropes of discovery that have bred exclusion and misunderstanding. Finding answers to the the challenges of our time - racial strife, climate crisis, and domestic and global inequalities, among others - will require new concepts, approaches, and commitments. It is time to put down the interpretive tools of the previous century and take up new ones" (pp. 1-2). The Rediscovery of America does this through its examination of what are often labeled as the key moments in the American timeline, such as colonization, the American Revolution, and the Civil War and weaves those those well-known events with the Indigenous histories that are left out. By doing this, Blackhawk demonstrates crucial changes to the American understanding of the past happen when more pieces of the story are told. For example the book shows that the first shots of the American Revolution are tied to Indian affairs in the country's interior and that during the 20th century, reservation activists were instrumental in transforming American policies and laws. It was an amazing read that I would recommend to history students, museum professionals, teachers, and general history enthusiasts.

This book is a must read for anyone wanting a fuller understanding of U.S. history. The story we learned in school as kids centered on one group of people (the white ones) and left out the folks who were already on this land before Europeans arrived. This book goes a long way in helping to reshape our understanding of how these groups of people interacted over the years since those initial encounters.

Thank you to Yale University Press and NetGalley for the digital ARC. I already bought my own hard copy!

This is a great eye-opener to the things that are left out in general education. While I was aware of a few of topics mentioned, it included more context and information. The organization I think could have been a bit better, but it was overall easy to follow. If you are interested in indigenous history in the US, I think this is a good addition.

Ned Blackhawk, a professor at Yale and a renowned scholar of Indigenous history has rightfully placed Native Americans in the center of American history. The entire history of Native Americans is widely excluded from large segments of history, making momentary, episodic appearances rather that following the trajectory of history. Blackhawk's book allows the reader to examine the encounters with Indigenous people with Europeans rather than the tale of discovery and removal. Several truths of America's founding run into stark conflict with the rhetoric of American democracy. This is an important book to anyone studying American History. I highly recommend.

Author Ned Blackhawk gives us a well-researched history of an era in American history that most of us know nothing about. The America of the 1600s and 1700s was occupied by indigenous peoples that had rich cultures, spoke numerous languages, and were at least as intelligent as the French, Dutch, Spanish, and English that tried to colonize the "new world." Sometimes at peace and sometimes at war, the new world was a shifting mix of alliances that didn't hold. Everyone was out for themselves, their own interests, and survival. Yet mixing of the races was inevitable as captives were enslaved and children were stolen, These early centuries were more complex than anyone has ever written about, and if one were to attempt to write an integrated history of early America that included every aspect of life, it would take volumes. This book should be in every library in America and translated into the languages of every country mentioned in this amazing addition to history.