Author’s New Book Argues The Emergence of American Democracy Relied On the Taking of Native Lands

KSFR News Director Tom Trowbridge interviews Author Jeffrey Ostler about his new book, "Surviving Genocide: Native Nations and the United States from the American Revolution and Bleeding Kansa," The first part of a sweeping two-volume history of the devastation brought to bear on Indian nations by US expansion.  Jeffrey Ostler investigates how American democracy relied on Indian dispossession and the federally sanctioned use of force to remove or slaughter Indians in the way of U.S. expansion. He charts the losses that Indians suffered from relentless violence and upheaval and the attendant effects of disease, deprivation, and exposure. Ostler also documents the resilience of Native people, showing how they survived genocide by creating alliances, defending their towns, and rebuilding their communities.