A Brutal Reckoning

Andrew Jackson, the Creek Indians, and the Epic War for the American South

De: Peter Cozzens

Narrado por: Mark Bramhall

Duración: 16 h y 45 m

Resumen del Editor

The story of the pivotal struggle between the Creek Indians and an insatiable, young United States for control over the Deep South—from the acclaimed historian and prize-winning author of The Earth is Weeping

The Creek War is one of the most tragic episodes in American history, leading to the greatest loss of Native American life on what is now U.S. soil. What began as a vicious internal conflict among the Creek Indians metastasized like a cancer. The ensuing Creek War of 1813-1814 shattered Native American control of the Deep South and led to the infamous Trail of Tears, in which the government forcibly removed the southeastern Indians from their homeland. The war also gave Andrew Jackson his first combat leadership role, and his newfound popularity after defeating the Creeks would set him on the path to the White House.

In A Brutal Reckoning, Peter Cozzens vividly captures the young Jackson, describing a brilliant but harsh military commander with unbridled ambition, a taste for cruelty, and a fraught sense of honor and duty. Jackson would not have won the war without the help of Native American allies, yet he denied their role and even insisted on their displacement, together with all the Indians of the American South in the Trail of Tears.

A conflict involving not only white Americans and Native Americans, but also the British and the Spanish, the Creek War opened the Deep South to the Cotton Kingdom, setting the stage for the American Civil War yet to come. No other single Indian conflict had such significant impact on the fate of America—and A Brutal Reckoning is the definitive book on this forgotten chapter in our history.

Cover images: (landscape) Alabama Department of Archives and History; Creek Indian sash (detail) ca.1830/ Artokoloro/Alamy. Cover design by Jenny Carrow.

©2023 Peter Cozzens (P)2023 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

"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." —Fergus M. Bordewich, The Wall Street Journal

"The Creek War...is still a largely forgotten episode in American history for the reading public....Cozzens sets out to correct that by admirably situating the conflict within early American history....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." —Daniel N. Gullotta, The Washington Post

"Cozzens’ storytelling works well. The author reclaims a lost but important chapter in American history with an engaging, highly readable narrative that doesn’t make the details overbearing. The personal quality of this writing is reminiscent of Pierre Benton’s works on Canada in the War of 1812." —New York Journal of Books