The Comanche Empire (The Lamar Series in Western History) |  | Author: Pekka Hamalainen (Hamalainen)
Publisher: Yale University Press
Category: Book
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Rating:  18 reviews
Media: Paperback
Pages: 512
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6 x 1.3
ISBN: 0300151179
Dewey Decimal Number: 909
EAN: 9780300151176
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Product Description
Winner of the 2009 Bancroft Prize, given by Columbia University In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, at the high tide of imperial struggles in North America, an indigenous empire rose to dominate the fiercely contested lands of the American Southwest, the southern Great Plains, and northern Mexico. This powerful empire, built by the Comanche Indians, eclipsed its various European rivals in military prowess, political prestige, economic power, commercial reach, and cultural influence. Yet, until now, the Comanche empire has gone unrecognized in historical accounts. This compelling and original book uncovers the lost story of the Comanches. It is a story that challenges the idea of indigenous peoples as victims of European expansion and offers a new model for the history of colonial expansion, colonial frontiers, and Native-European relations in North America and elsewhere. Pekka Hämäläinen shows in vivid detail how the Comanches built their unique empire and resisted European colonization, and why they fell to defeat in 1875. With extensive knowledge and deep insight, the author brings into clear relief the Comanches’ remarkable impact on the trajectory of history.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 18
 Valuable Addition to the Field September 29, 2008
Margaret A. Bickers (Kansas, USA)
16 out of 18 found this review helpful
This well-written and tightly argued work on the Comanche Indians and their relations with the Spanish, French, Americans and with other Native peoples might be called a foreign-policy history of the Comanche empire. The author's long-awaited book details how the Comanche made use of their physical and cultural environment to develop an empire that controlled much of the southern plains, dominated trade within the southern and central Great Plains and Southwest, shaped the development of Spanish and French colonies in the region, and eventually collapsed from internal pressures, environmental difficulties and U.S. military action.
General readers interested in a new way of thinking about the Comanche and the history of the Southwest will enjoy this readable work. Scholars too will find much of use, including copious and meticulous citations and a good index. I highly recommend this work.
Comanche History, 1700-1880 from the Comanche Side December 8, 2008
David M. Dougherty (Arkansas)
15 out of 17 found this review helpful
This is an outstanding scholarly work well deserving of five stars. In some respects I wonder if it could have been written by an American (the author is Finnish) since it sharply contrasts with the politically correct myth of the American Indians, always fighting in defense of their homeland and way of life against the overwhelming encroachments of evil Europeans. Some will use the term "revisionist" to describe this work, but more accurately it should be described simply as Comanche history for two centuries from the Comanche viewpoint. To put the contrast in more familiar terms, until recently almost all books on the World War II Eastern Front between Germany and the Soviet Union have been told from the German side. Now David Glantz and others are writing books that tell the Soviet side. Are they "revisionist?"
The author traces the Comanches from origins among the Shoshones, moving through Colorado and becoming allied with the Utes (other authors describe the Comanches as being forced out into the Great Plains by the Utes), acquiring horses and guns from Mexican traders, then spreading into Northern Texas and surrounding country. There they established a virtual "empire", or more accurately, a sphere of hegemony and influence, that extended into six US states and several states in Northern Mexico by 1840. This can be considered as a region controlled loosely by semi-nomads who would eventually face the problem of maintaining their "empire" through population growth in permanent settlements. (The reader should look for parallels to the Golden Horde on the plains of Southern Russia.) The Comanches did not always exterminate all other people in their sphere of influence, but rather used them for trade, a source of slaves, and goods acquired through war and negotiation.
The Comanche collapse came swiftly through a combination of factors, notably drought, disease, and the decimation of the Bison herds through natural causes and over-hunting. By the time they faced serious opposition from Americans (Texans), they were already in steep decline. But until 1840, Comancheria was ruled by the Comanches, taking what they wanted from people on their borders, whether Anglos, Mexicans, or other Indians.
The Comanches were not a benign people, frequently murdering, raping, and enslaving those who opposed them or simply had nothing else of use for the warriors to take. The author describes their society extremely well (much like the Apaches except for the roles of the horse and bison.) Their warrior society was able to undertake raids over 1,000 miles from the heart of Comancheria into Mexico, and even the Lipan Apaches were forced to migrate to escape annihilation. The author points out that the Comanches were fortunate in their timing in that they were able to build their empire in an area not particularly coveted by the Mexicans or Americans until a hundred years later. But his model of an expansionist Indian nation is in direct opposition to the paternalistic tomes normally emanating from academia, although it also fits to a large degree with the history of other aggressive tribes such as the Aztecs, Pohatans, Iroquois and Sioux (Lakota.)
This work is an easy read and stuffed full of facts not normally found in books on the Comanches, or for that matter, on any Indian tribe. All to often, the Indians are simply the enemy and described from the viewpoint of the settler or Army officer, or if the work is coming from academia, it's a discourse on victimhood and how the Indians were mistreated, cheated, and faced with genocide. This book shows them to be real human beings, warts and all, aggressive and defensive, merciful and cruel. There is much to learn here, and if the reader re-assesses his opinions and attitudes towards American Indians as a result, it is all to the good.
If the reader is interested in American history, buy and read this book. Its importance goes far beyond the Comanches.
A less-than-brief review by Frank McLynn in the Literary Review (it escapes me why the LR would ask a Brit to review a book by a Finn on America -- although he did write Villa & Zapate and Wagons West) (Google "Frank McLynn on the Commanche Empire) will give you a pretty good idea of the book's detail content, but be forewarned that some of McLynn's comments are wrong. The Comanches did not war against the Fox Indians and McLynn apparently does not understand the author's math in regards to the bison herd. 6.5 bison per person per year yields 260,000 animals taken if the Comanche and allied population is 40,000, not 20,000. His remarks about the required academic jargon for peer acceptance are correct however -- the author should have avoided the garbage so loved in the ivory towers in a book slated for wide dissemination. For me, the appearance of academic jargon at various times was this book's only flaw.
First Rate Endeavor September 1, 2008
J. dormady (California)
10 out of 13 found this review helpful
Bold, agressive, new scholarship that is the sort of real work historians ought to be engaged in. These are not the savages of the early 20th century or the tragic people of the 60s to the 80s - the Comanches of this work are as vivid, human, and powerful as any of the good imperial studies carried out on European, East Asian, or Central Asian civilizations. To call Hammalainen "revisionist" as a slur might be tempting for opponents of his point of view, but for those who understand the quality of this work compared to past discussions of the Comanche, "revisionist" is the greatest compiment it could get. A great effort from a young scholar: I can't wait to see what he produces next.
4 or 5 stars? OK, 5 April 10, 2009
Dick Marti (Georgia, USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I could not find a good reason to give this book fewer than 5 stars. While it might not be perfect, I am not a historian and might miss some imperfections in it. This is a very comprehensive and well-written history of the Comanche Nation, from its beginnings around 1700 to the end of its life on the plains as a free-ranging tribe of raiders and buffalo hunters. The popular concept of cowboys vs Indians was a very late episode in Comanche history. Most of their history for which we have records are their dealing with the Spaniards and Mexicans. Their dealings with Texans and Americans came near the end. The importance of the horse is stressed by the author. In places it is stressed almost too much, as when we learn, and learn again, that horses on the southern plains survived Winter much better than those of the more northerly tribes. Thus the sheltered river valleys were crucial for food and protection of the huge horse herds that the Comanches maintained. I lost track of how many times that sycamore bark was mentioned as a vital horse fodder in Winter. No mention was made of what Cheyenne and Lakota horses ate in Winter. The famous Comanche chief Quanah Parker is mentioned in passing a couple of times, but we never learn why he was famous. The author never tells, unless that detail is buried in the voluminous notes that accompany the text. I was not aware of the importance of Comanche raids into Mexico as being an important factor for the failure of Mexico to resist the US in the Mexican War of 1846-48. The raids nearly drained northern Mexico of serviceable horses and mules, leaving nags for Mexican military use. By 1874, the Comanche horse culture on the souther plans was over, the bison nearly gone, and Comanche forced onto a reservation. Overall, this was a very interesting book and filled a lots of gaps in my understanding of the Old West.
Lords of the Plains March 1, 2010
J. Apodaca (south, Texas USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A heck of a great job with tons of information on a fantastic people. I never could of imagined native people playing such a pivotal role in the development of the west and our nation itself. The author is immensenly detailed in his writing his facts are backed up by research and he explores ground uncovered by other writers.
I was particularly intrigued by Comanche trading networks and why it was that they had to trade. Additionally as a people they were extremely accommodating and tolerant of other cultures, traditions and peoples. However, there's no doubt that like any great nation they sought hegemony.
Finally the author does a great service in describing the role the horse played in the development of the native plains cultures and the Comanches pivotal role in dispersing horses further north of the southern plains. Though large the book is very readable, chronologically easy to follow and has some excellent maps and histories of other native peoples as they related to Comanches and Comancheria itself. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the west, native americans and the western history of the U.S.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 18
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