• The Middle Ground

  • Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815
  • By: Richard White
  • Narrated by: Bob Souer
  • Length: 18 hrs and 54 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (13 ratings)

Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.
The Middle Ground  By  cover art

The Middle Ground

By: Richard White
Narrated by: Bob Souer
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $25.79

Buy for $25.79

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

An acclaimed book and widely acknowledged classic, The Middle Ground steps outside the simple stories of Indian-white relations—stories of conquest and assimilation and stories of cultural persistence. It is, instead, about a search for accommodation and common meaning. It tells how Europeans and Indians met, regarding each other as alien, as other, as virtually nonhuman, and how between 1650 and 1815 they constructed a common mutually comprehensible world in the region around the Great Lakes that the French called pays d'en haut. Here the older worlds of the Algonquians and of various Europeans overlapped, and their mixture created new systems of meaning and of exchange. Finally, the book tells of the breakdown of accommodation and common meanings and the re-creation of the Indians as alien and exotic. First published in 1991, the twentieth anniversary edition includes a new preface by the author examining the impact and legacy of this study.

©1991, 2011 Cambridge University Press (P)2022 Tantor
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about The Middle Ground

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    10
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    6
  • 4 Stars
    2
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    5
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

A great book, not for beginners

This is a good book, but it is an academic monograph. Casual readers might be annoyed that it’s not so much a straightforward history book as it is an analysis of cultural interactions over a specific period.

By the end I felt that some of the points were belabored, but still it is an eye opening book about the complexities of European-Native American relations in the 17th-early 19th centuries. Naturally, far more complicated than we are taught in grade school.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Pleasantly surprised.

Most assuredly not your ‘Indian Starter Book’, but for those fairly well heeled ‘in the know’ concerning the tribes, I’m confident that you may just find a gem. It’s tough to come across untold stories / perspectives, therefore I was pleased.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!