url for book review of possible interest

[pynchonoid]

http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=201721039533558

Russell Bourne. Gods of War, Gods of Peace: How the
Meeting of Native and Colonial Religions Shaped Early
America. New York and London: Harcourt, 2002. xv + 425
pp. Illustrations, maps, bibliography, index. $28.00
(cloth), ISBN 0-15-100501-X. 

Reviewed by Kathleen M. W. Thomas, Department of
History, University of Minnesota.
Published by H-AmIndian (October, 2002) 

" [...] Bourne's book as a whole reads as an attempt
to privilege Native American culture and values from a
Christian point of view. He points out the racism of
early missionaries but also wants to appreciate their
compassion for Native Americans and their attempts to
bridge cultural differences. He acknowledges earlier
historians' paternalism and their stereotyping of
Native Americans as "savage." His salve seems to
consist of valuing the "noble Indian," and in
particular, Christian Native American converts over
the unconverted. This will not be to everyone's
liking. 

Native agency, inter-group co-operation, and
accommodation are themes explored by several "new
world" historians, especially James Merrell, Colin
Calloway and James Axtell. Richard White provides the
darkest, and perhaps most realistic, view of these
efforts in The Middle Ground. Bourne does not consult
White's work but could benefit from this more
complicated analysis of co-operation amid
misunderstanding. Bourne's contribution is that he
focuses on religiously-minded fellows who might have
had a better than average chance--because of their
higher calling--in persuading both their followers and
their enemies to behave and co-habitatate peacefully.
More than anything, that is what this book is about:
possibilities. Bourne emphasizes moments in time when
co-operation and inter-group mingling seemed more
probable than war and racism. Unfortunately, war and
racism inevitably raised their ugly heads, all too
often justified by the same religious systems that had
advocated peace. [...] "


...enjoy!

-Doug







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