Peace and friendship: : an alternative history of the American West / Stephen Aron

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Aron, Stephen, author.

Series:

Oxford Academic

Oxford scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American Indians--alternative history.

American Indians.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (319 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY Oxford University Press, 2022

Summary:

Detouring from the violent and conflict-ridden mainstream of Western American history, this book spotlights an adjacent face of American frontiers in which peace, if not always also friendship, prevailed-for a time. Not to be confused with "alternate history," a genre whose "what if" imaginings move into the realm of fiction and fantasy, this "alternative history" sticks to what happened. It traverses American frontiers from the Appalachians to the Pacific and from the birth of the United States through its first century as a republic, with each chapter focused on a particular locale where peoples previously at odds with one another came together. But instead of encounters that turned grounds dark and bloody, Peace and Friendship explores how common ground was sometimes found and then lost. Featuring famous figures like Daniel Boone, William Clark, and Wyatt Earp, its chapters explain how people overcame their differences and contained violence and why these arrangements did not endure. Its contents also examine the ways in which the alternative histories of these sites have been forgotten or turned into "wishtories" and what lessons we might glean from the legacy of broken concord.

Contents:

Contents: Acknowledgments - What's in a Name and Why I Use the Terms I Do - Introduction - 1. Chillicothe: Forget What Happened - 2. Apple Creek: Rising - 3. Fort Clatsop: A Pacific Coast - 4. Apple Creek: Falling - 5. Chimney Rock: Uncircle the Wagons - 6. Dodge City: Don't Shoot First - Conclusion - Notes - Bibliography - Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Print version: Aron, Stephen Peace and Friendship

ISBN:

0-19-762281-X

0-19-762279-8

0-19-762280-1

OCLC:

1321808445