First published 2015
Steve Inskeep reconstructs the collision between President Andrew Jackson and Cherokee leader John Ross in the decades following the Revolutionary War. Jackson emerged as a war hero and populist champion of the expanding South. His presidency launched the massive forced removal of Native Americans that became the Trail of Tears. Ross represented the Cherokee Nation as a mixed-race politician and diplomat who fought Jackson using American legal systems and democratic principles. The Cherokee had adopted settler practices like farming, newspaper publishing, and formal education. Ross built a coalition including Senator Henry Clay, Chief Justice John Marshall, and Davy Crockett. His supporters used media campaigns, civil disobedience, and the first organized political action by American women. Inskeep reveals how Jackson enriched himself through military conquest of native territories, then orchestrated the seizure of tens of millions of acres across the Deep South as president. This struggle between two former military allies created a constitutional crisis that foreshadowed the Civil War and established patterns for modern American politics.
Genres: biography, history, 20th-century, native-americans, 19th-century, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, historical-figures
Setting: Deep South, Cherokee Nation
Period: Revolutionary War, 19th Century
448 pages · Hardcover · Penguin Press
Content warnings: colonialism, racism