Review by Choice Review
In this compelling analysis White has integrated Native American history into "mainstream" US history. Unlike his earlier environmental history of three Native Americans tribes (Roots of Dependency, CH, Nov'83), this work examines the political, diplomatic, social, and cultural forces that created the Great Lakes world that White labels "the middle ground." The author's term conveys much more than a geographic location. He contends that neither whites nor Indians controlled the "middle ground." This situation required constant compromise and adaptation by both sides, whether one spoke of the fur trade, social relations, or military confrontation. White argues that Indians often used Western cultural perspective to convince Colonial leaders to follow an Indian agenda. The repeated examples of Native American adaptability and Euroamerican recalcitrance destroy the hoary myth of a dynamic Western civilization's conquest of a static Indian world. Wonderfully researched in both English and French archival materials, the book also integrates much anthropological and archaeological analysis to assess sensitively both Euroamerican and Native American behavior. College and university libraries.-R. L. Haan, Hartwick College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
