Empires, Subjects, and Pontiac

Abstract

In War under Heaven, Greg Dowd offers a fascinating and persuasive glimpse of the world that informed and emerged from Pontiac's War, the famous Indian struggle against British rule of the trans-Appalachian West in the wake of the French and Indian War. Truth be told, I was not entirely surprised by how well War under Heaven reads or Dowd's mastery of the material. After all, a lot of smart folks do the type of history Dowd does. Like the most able practitioners of the new Indian history-the names Axtell, Merrell, and White come to mind-Dowd has done some heavy lifting, at once producing an in-depth study of Native American culture and a provocative explanation of the fate of Indians within a broader white society. Like these other historians, he accomplishes all this with a nose for a great story, with a wellcrafted narrative, and with brilliant prose. Most significantly, Dowd reminds us that the early American experience makes little sense without bringing Indians into the picture. Any narrative of the British in America or the birth of the American republic sanitized of the presence of Indians ignores a-or perhaps the-crucial element in shaping the contours of empire and the emerging nation. Just as importantly, Dowd demonstrates the simple point that the lives of Native Americans, however rich they may be, make little sense if divorced from a broader context. Isolating the Indian story from interaction with Europeans and Euro-Americans leads ultimately to sterile, unsatisfying, and often romanticized narratives that in no way get to the heart of the realities Indians confronted in their New World.