Description:
Ultimately, what Owens analyzes in Killing over Land is nothing less than the commodification of human life in return for a sense of order--as defined and accepted, however differently, by both Native and white authorities as the contest for land and resources intensified in the European colonization of North America.
Brief description:
Robert M. Owens is Professor of History at Wichita State University. He specializes in colonial U.S. history and the Early Republic. He is the author of Mr. Jefferson's Hammer: William Henry Harrison and the Origins of American Indian Policy, his articles have appeared in the Journal of the Early Republic and the Journal of Illinois History.
Review Quotes: "Owens's work is not a light or easy read. In fact, the work is emotionally heavy and at times draining, but it is incredibly necessary to understand how murder and violence became a form of cultural currency in early American history. However, his skillful prose flows elegantly, and his storytelling humanizes an otherwise brutal topic...[This work] fills a gap in our understanding of sanctioned and unsanctioned violence as a tool of settler colonialism."--American Historical Review