Gregory Evans Dowd is a professor of history and American Culture and Director of Native American Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and author of A Spirited Resistance: The North American Struggle for Unity, 1745-1815, also available from Johns Hopkins.
"[War under Heaven] provides a very deep look not only at the man,
but the war, Native American politics and strategy, and British
indian policy." -- NYMAS Review
"A stylish writer with a talent for compression, Dowd engages and
advances scholarly debates while making the lines of those debates
clear to the general reader. His book is the best account of its
subject." -- Benjamin Schwarz, Atlantic Monthly
"Among historians of early America, the consensus in recent years
has been to underplay Pontiac's role as a visionary patriot chief
but at the same time to elevate the conflict that bears his name
from a 'rebellion' to an all-out war that stopped British imperial
expansion in its tracks, at least temporarily. Gregory Evans Dowd
provides a thoughtful, expertly researched articulation of that
consensus in his new book, which is certain to supplant Howard
Peckham's Pontiac and the Indian Uprising as the definitive
scholarly account of the conflict... This fine book raises
important questions about how we should situate Pontiac's War (or
Rebellion, if you like) in the larger story of Britain's
eighteenth-century imperial expansion and U.S. empire building to
this day." -- Timothy J. Shannon, Common-Place
"An eventful and comprehensive account of the reasons for and
implications of Pontiac's War... Dowd weaves a richly textured and
complicated tapestry of the North American frontier in the period
between the end of the Seven Years' War and the American
Revolution." -- Christian Ayne Crouch, Pennsylvania Magazine of
History and Biography
"An insightful account of military operations in what would later
be termed 'the Old Northwest territories'... The author provides an
analytic treatment, discussing the implications, consequences, and
problems created by the Anglo-American victory, and is not afraid
to point out and wrestle with difficult problems in historiography
and interpretation." -- New York Military Affairs Symposium
Newsletter
"Based on exhaustive research, this is the most thorough and
judicious study of the Indian uprising, encompassing all its
ramifications." -- Choice
"Dowd continues his excellent scholarship of earlier years in
reconstructing the movements and motives of Native peoples." --
Evan Haefeli, American Historical Review
"Dowd does an excellent job of placing the war in the context of
Indians' spirituality... a beautifully written and well-researched
book." -- Robert M. Owens, Michigan Historical Review
"Dowd draws on his considerable expertise of eighteenth-century
Native American resistance movements to construct a detailed
retelling of the rebellion... Dowd gives us a fine history." --
Michael McDonnell, Times Literary Supplement
"Dowd offers a brilliant reinterpretation of the causes and
consequences of Pontiac's War... [His] study transcends old debates
about the character of Pontiac himself to reveal the cultural,
social, and political context within which the war occurred. Along
the way, he crafts a bold argument about the place of Indian
peoples within the first British Empire." -- Indiana Magazine of
History
"Dowd strips away the mythology that has long clouded the
reputation of this accomplished Ottawa leader. At the same time,
Dowd brilliantly demonstrates that the conflict between the British
and the various unified Indian nations was not over land or trade
but rather British respect of Indian sovereignty... An elegantly
written ethnohistorical study." -- Library Journal
"Dowd's arguments are convincing, his prose is accessible and
vibrant, the research is prodigious, and War under Heaven will
occupy an important place in the historiography of the pays d'en
haut... An important and gripping work of history." -- James Taylor
Carson, Journal of Military History
"Dowd's complex analytical position results in one of the most
complete syntheses of documents related to Pontiac and his war." --
James M. McClurken, Western Historical Quarterly
"Especially welcome... Dowd has constructed a powerful new
narrative that has the interpretive force to dislodge the reign of
Richard White's now classic and much emulated Middle Ground...
sensitive and ultimately persuasive treatment of the religious
background and significance of Pontiac's movement... Dowd's War
Under Heaven is ultimately a deeper story... and one that goes
farther than any recent work in reshaping the narrative not only of
colonial-Indian relations, but also of the dynamics of empire in
pre-Revolutionary America and the position of Indian peoples in the
new nation." -- Rachel Wheeler, Connecticut History
"In his superb new book, Dowd has restored Pontiac as a preeminent
figure in the uprisings while recasting his leadership qualities in
Ottawa terms... A thoughtful, balanced, judicious response to a
generation of rich scholarship in Native American history and
imperial-Indian relations... This is a masterful work of
scholarship that deserves a wide readership... Artfully crafted and
gracefully written, this book will long endure, both as the best
account we have of Pontiac's War and as an important contribution
to the lively debate about the place of Native Americans in the
British empire." -- Eric Hinderaker, William and Mary Quarterly
"Like the best ethnohistorians, Dowd attempts to explain native
motives and actions in native terms... the extent of Dowd's
research and his thoughtful interpretations of key points in this
colonial conflict should ensure that War Under Heaven becomes the
definitive study of Pontiac's War." -- Anne Keary, Itinerario
"Masterful and nuanced... Dowd is especially original in his
analysis of the war's legacy. Its prime lesson, its ambiguity, was
part of a larger crisis of empire... [Pontiac's War] rippled far
into the American future. This tightly written and engaging history
brings it alive and lifts it convincingly to its proper place as a
turning point in the continental story." -- Elliott West,
Washington Times
"Most readers will likely accept as convincing (perhaps even
definitive) Dowd's explanation of the war's origins. His
description of the conflict's military and diplomatic history will
likewise earn well-deserved praise for its eloquence and concision.
For a single work to synthesize such a broad and complex movement
with such clarity is a rare and most impressive accomplishment." --
Brett Rushforth, Indiana Magazine of History
"Provocatively written and masterfully researched, Dowd's important
new monograph... challenges much of the recent scholarship on the
conflict, offering a bold new interpretation that links this Indian
war with broader themes in Atlantic and Native American History...
Merits the attention of all students of early American history." --
Jon Parmenter, Journal of American History
"Shifting from councils at frontier outposts to deliberations at
Whitehall, Dowd elucidates the contradictions in British policy
toward Indian sovereignty that helped ignite the conflict... His
explication of both sides' strategies and tactics in the ferocious
struggle is both sober and gripping. And, in perhaps his most
original contribution, he skillfully uses the perforce meager
evidence to analyze the religious dimensions of the Indians'
resistance. A stylish writer with a talent for compression, Dowd
engages and advances while making the lines of those debates clear
to the general reader. His book is the best account of its
subject." -- Benjamin Schwarz, Atlantic Monthly
"The best modern re-telling of the Indian-British conflict known as
Pontiac's War... Dowd makes another significant addition to early
American history." -- W. Gregory O'Brien, Journal of the West
"The story Dowd tells is a complicated one, and that he is able to
present it in only 275 pages of text is an amazing feat. He not
only presents sophisticated analyses of the Indian cultures of the
Great Lakes region, of British Imperial culture as manifested on
the North American frontier, and provides several succinct
biographies and background information about leaders on both sides,
-- not to mention the best hisoriography of Pontiac's life to date
-- he does so in away that is useful and accessible to both a
scholarly and a general readership." -- Michael Sherfy, Journal of
Colonialism and Colonial History
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