A Brutal Reckoning: The Creek Indians and the Epic War for the American South

(Hardback, Main)

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Description

'Cozzens is a master storyteller.' The Times

Beginning with the invasion by Spanish Conquistadors in the sixteenth century, A Brutal Reckoning tells the story of the encroachment on Native American territory in the deep south by the US republic 150 years later, which culminated in the devastating Creek War and the rise of Andrew Jackson.

It was a conflict that led to the Trail of Tears, costing the entire Creek people as well as the neighbouring Chickasaw, Choctaw and Cherokee nations their homelands - and left the way open for the conquest of the West. Wonderfully told and brilliantly detailed, this is a sweeping history of a crucial period in the destruction of America's native tribes.

Reviews

A penetrating and fast-paced account...The story of the Creek War is a sorry one, but Cozzens recounts it both with fairness and with a richness of color and detail... Cozzens writes with sensitivity about the political and cultural vise in which the Creeks were crushed. * Wall Street Journal *
As has come to be expected from Cozzens's work, A Brutal Reckoning masterfully blends important cultural and biographical details with expressive and engaging military history. * Washington Post *
Cozzens' storytelling works well... An engaging, highly readable narrative. * New York Journal of Books *
Cozzens vividly describes the Creek Indians' advanced society and clashes with other tribes, giving a grand sense of their civilization... Equally well brought to life, Cozzens' dramatic, often gory descriptions of armed conflicts among the Creeks and white settlers put flesh to myth-encased events. * Booklist (starred review) *
A seasoned historical storyteller, Cozzens portrays both Jackson and his Creek adversaries without minimizing their flaws, though he is clearly appalled by Jackson's later treatment of the Indians during the Trail of Tears... An authoritative account of a disturbing chapter in the relations between the U.S. military and Indigenous peoples. * Kirkus Reviews (starred review) *

Author Bio

Peter Cozzens is the author of over eighteen books on the Civil War and the American West. He recently retired after thirty years as a Foreign Service Officer with the U. S. Department of State. His previous book, The Earth Is Weeping, was awarded the Gilder Lehrman Prize for Military History and the Caroline Bancroft History Prize. The Warrior and the Prophet was the winner of the Western Writers of America Spur Award for Best Biography.