The Black Hawk War of 1832

Campaigns and Commanders Series, Book 10

By: Patrick J. Jung

Narrated by: Peter Hassinger

Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

In 1832, facing white expansion, the Sauk warrior Black Hawk attempted to forge a pan-Indian alliance to preserve the homelands of the confederated Sauk and Fox tribes on the eastern bank of the Mississippi. Here, Patrick J. Jung re-examines the causes, course, and consequences of the ensuing war with the United States, a conflict that decimated Black Hawk's band. Correcting mistakes that plagued previous histories, and drawing on recent ethno-historical interpretations, Jung shows that the outcome can be understood only by discussing the complexity of intertribal rivalry, military ineptitude, and racial dynamics.

©2007 University of Oklahoma Press (P)2016 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"An excellent overview of the conflict, based on a judicious interpretation of rich source material." ( Journal of American History)

A Piece of Native American History

Where does The Black Hawk War of 1832 rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Three of the greatest tragedies/crimes in human history:
1) The Holocaust
2) The African Slave Trade
3) The Dispossession of Native American Land by European Colonists

This audiobook chronicles the ill-fated history of a brief war between Native-Americans and the United States in the early 1830s. The Black Hawk War erupted soon after Black Hawk, a Sauk leader, led a group of Sauks, Meskwakis (i.e. Fox) and Kickapoos, known as the "British Band", across the Mississippi River, into the US state of Illinois, in April 1832.

The primary objective of Blackhawk's group was to re-acquire Indian land east of the Mississippi, which had been questionably ceded to the United States in 1804. Ultimately, Blackhawk and his men were unsuccessful, and all were either captured and imprisoned, or killed.

This narrative is consistent with numerous other historical accounts of the U.S. government's theft of North American aboriginal land and its near destruction of an entire ethnic group.

The research behind this historical account is impressive; this is a great audiobook!

Any additional comments?

I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator in exchange for an unbiased review.

The warrior Black Hawk

This is a comprehensive work on the Sauk warrior Black Hawk. Jung starts out right from the beginning explaining how much that has been written is speculatory and how he has went through numerous sources to try to piece together the ultimate truth. The Sauk tribe was on the eastern shores of the Mississippi and not only were they having trouble with the white man encroaching on their land, they also had troubles with the Fox tribe. Throughout this book you get a picture of what life was like in 1832 and how westward expansion was pushing out the Natives. Once Black Hawk was captured he was shown the expanse of the White man from their big cities to their highways.. The clothes he was given when arrested he kept for the rest of his life.

One quote from the book that really stuck with me, "that prior to the treaty we have never before sold land and did not know the value of it. We've given away a great country for a little thing. We do not say we were cheated but we have made a bad bargain. But the bargain stands because We never take back what we have given." ( made me think differently about when we use the term Indian giver.

If your from or live in Forgotonia this is a must

I enjoyed this book. Born and raised in Illinois it helps explain a lot about life in Illinois and the surrounding states.

Worth Reading

Although Patrick Jung makes the same mistake all historians make when detailing the politics and intertribal relationships that led to the tribes of North America being displaced, this book is comprehensive and doesn't jump around in time and place like so many others. The mistake he and other historians make is not putting enough of the responsibility on the shoulders of the tribal nations and buying into the duplicity and tactics of the U.S. The expansion of Americans was inevitable and nothing the tribes did was going to stop it. However, to simply blame the U.S. politicians for their negotiation strategies and plying the tribes with alcohol is not forcing the tribes to acknowledge their own responsibility. The Black Hawks could have negotiated better, stayed sober and put aside intertribal history and politics to negotiate a better treaty with the U.S. They also sent inexperienced warriors or chose not to attend important meetings. There is much blame to go around for how the North American tribes were treated and the ultimate displacement of the nations. But to not acknowledge their own part in history is irresponsible.

I enjoyed learning more about the history and politics of the Black Hawks and particularly liked Jung's writing style and Hassinger's narration of the material.

I received this audiobook for free through Audiobook Boom! and am leaving honest feedback about the quality of the material.

Great History

Very interesting book. It has a few “of that tree year” statements, and it can get frustrating trying to remember what year—particularly if you’re listening while driving trying to remember what year he’s talking about.
The narrator is excellent. Again, as a driver, it would have been nice if he paused between paragraphs so there’s a place to stop when you get to your destination, instead of having to always skip back to catch up on the sentence.

Great history book for any history buff!

This is a terrific audio book!

I have listened to hundreds of history books on audible.com since joining about 13 years ago. This is one of the best; it is truly excellent. That said, I think any history book must be reviewed differently than others as history books are (usually) never as good when read to you as when you read them yourself. Well...in my opinion.

This book is itself quite well done. In my opinion it has all of the key aspects of a great history book: 1) excellent preface information. In this case it began back around the time of the War of 1812 and worked its way up to the Black Hawk War. 2) Complete coverage of the topic. In this case, of course, the topic is the Black Hawk War. The author covers this thoroughly with both empirical examples as well as primary information. That said, this is not new materials uncovered from the depths of some archive somewhere but information used in a refreshing and interesting manner. So don't expect to uncover anything new. Finally 3) all good history books end not just with the end of the subject but continues on to demonstrate the importance of why it was good that the reader slogged through the entire book and why we should be glad we read it. The author does okay with that--not great, but covers it. So in short, this is an awesome book.

The narrative is very good indeed. It is a bit slow for me--I had to listen to it at 1.5x speed--but I tend to like people to say what they say and shut up. And thanks to the miracle of modern technology, I can listen to it at my speed and others can listen to it at theirs. The narrator read in a very talkative style--almost as if he is telling a story rather than reading one. I haven't decided whether I like that or not, but thought I would at least point it out.

If you are interested at all in American History, the History of the American West, the Indian Wars, or simply want to know how an excellent historian practices his or her craft...this book is for you.


This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBoom dot com.

Well researched and interesting history

This book provides a very detailed and interesting account of the Black Hawk War between the Sauk people and the United States. Details of both sides are given, presenting both the good and the bad they both did. The story is a very interesting one, if not a little heartbreaking. This, along with many other conflicts with Native Americans, is far from a high point in the nations history.

Through collecting a large variety of previous historical reviews and information of the war, including Black Hawk's own account, and song/verse written about the war, Patrick Jung attempted to present a balanced and complete history. Jung states where accounts differ and doesn't go beyond what can be known, acknowledging where there are gaps in our information.

Very interesting and very informative.

Narration by peter Hassinger is well done. Easy to follow and engaging. I had the chance to discuss with him how he went about working out pronunciation of many of the names in the book, and this is the response I got (hopefully he doesn't mind me sharing this):

"I talked with the language department of the tribe on their reservation in Oklahoma and that's how I got that. I had a tough time finding correct pronunciations for Indian names since they didn't exist as written words but only sounds until white people tried to write them down. I also talked with Ojibway in Wisconsin and Winnebago in Michigan. Even then I couldn't get pronunciations for every name and had to do what made the most sense based on what i had learned."

I always find it interesting to know the level of effort that goes into narration work, especially when strange names are included. This extra bit of info on his research processes was great to know and adds extra authenticity to his work.

This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of audiobookboom dot com.