lasted understanding religious convincing history destruction

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HISTORY
"A much-needed counterbalance to centuries of romantic confabulation."
, Los Angeles Times Book Review
In a work of impassioned scholarship, David E. Stannard describes in horrific
detail the mass destruction of entire New World societies that followed in the
wake of European contact with the Western Hemisphere-destruction that lasted
for more than four centuries, and that continues in many places even today.
In a sweeping introductory overview of the native cultures of the Americas as
they existed prior to 1492, Stannard provides a vibrant context for understanding
the human dimension of what was lost in that tragic firestorm of violence
and introduced disease. He concludes with a searching examination of the religious
and cultural roots of Euro-American racism and genocidal behavior.
"Vivid and relentless, combining a formidable array of primary sources with
meticulous analysis-a devastating reassessment of the Conquest as nothing
less than a holy war."
Kirkus Reviews
"The product of massive reading in the important sources .... Stannard's convincing
claim is that what happened was the worst demographic disaster in the history
of our species."
The Boston Sunday Globe
"A devastating portrait of the death, disease, misery, and apocalyptic destruction
experienced by American Indians during the centuries after 1492."
The Washington Post Book World
"Drawing on the latest demographic, geographical, and anthropological
research ... [and] driven by a gruesome account of the ascetic Christian roots of
genocidal racism, Stannard's is a terrifying, spirit-withering story."
The Chicago Sunday Tribune
David E. Stannard is Professor of American Studies at the University of
Hawaii. His previous books include Death in America, Shrinking History, The
Puritan Way of Death, and Before the Horror.
Cover design by Marek Antoniak
ISBN 978-0-19-508557-0
52 4 9 9>
9xford Paperbacks
Oxford University Press
9 780195 0 85570
u.s. $24.99