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Unworthy Republic discusses the expulsion of native tribes, mostly the Indians in Southeastern US to west of the Mississippi. Claudio examines the fierce debate in Congress on the “Indian Problem” and how the removal of Indians from their native lands was essential for slavery, as planter-politicians need new fertile lands to grow cotton.

July reads, read.

Learning from history.

Many reviews say this book is dry, possibly due to the detailing of the bureaucracy that was behind the forceful removal of whole communities from the land they called home. I was appreciative of that Saunt laid out the cultural and political climate and how closely tied the atrocities of slavery and the genocidal approach to native communities were, albeit different. The section about cholera was moving. I‘m glad I read it. I am good with dry.

I‘m taking advantage of a rare weekend day off to start listening to this account of my nation‘s past.

Saunt explores in detail the forced removal of Native Americans from their land across many tribes and many despicable acts. This has great information, but I found it rather dry, causing my focus to wander.

This is a must read, but it is a tough tough book to read. It took me a few weeks to get through it because the stories are infuriating & heartbreaking in equal share. About the forced removal of indigenous populations to west of the Mississippi. Andrew Jackson was a real asshole, but in this book we meet all the mean little people & bureaucrats who carried out his policies & did it badly with no empathy or humanity. ⬇

80,000 indigenous people forcibly removed from their homes and made to travel to new land west of the Mississippi, dying from exhaustion, starvation and exposure to freezing weather on the way. The ones left behind hunted and killed or herded like animals. All to turn their black prairie bottom land into cotton plantations and slave labor camps. Told in such detail that the bureaucratic mess, the diseases, the greed feels present tense not past.

A lot of nonfiction and a little Star Wars in this week‘s #bookhaul. I‘ve heard great things about the tagged book so maybe it first? Of course I‘ve also heard great things about The Victorian City...and who wouldn‘t want to read about ways of looking at the novel?!? But then, KENOBI!!! Oh, who am I kidding. We all know they are going right into my ever expanding TBR stacks. But I do look forward to reading them...eventually...