White Savage: William Johnson and the Invention of America

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Fintan O' Toole' s "White Savage" is a brilliant piece of historical writing. With extraordinary vividness and elegance, O' Toole explains how William Johnson' s Irish origins in a world enveloped by layers of cultural and political subterfuge helped to shape his complex, liminal, ever-shifting role as Britain' s principal Indian agent and negotiator in the American colonies. Johnson comes to life as never before-- as an Irish gentleman and a Mohawk war chief, as a diplomat and a land speculator, as an enlightened thinker and a slaveowner, a loving family man and a dedicated polygamist, and, ultimately, as the posthumous (and unlikely) symbol of national glory in the early republic. O' Toole has produced a magnificent book on this powerful, perplexing, and troubling man, whose life encompassed the triumphs and tragedies of the eighteenth century. And he has illuminated that critical time-- on the eve of the Revolution, and during the age of reason, war, and genocide-- that is now once again becoming central to our understanding of American and Atlantic history." -- Kevin Kenny, Boston College "Fintan O'Toole's "White Savage: William Johnson and the Invention of America" is a beautifully written, extremely enjoyable book about early American and transatlantic history. Most important, it is a brilliant, sensitive analysis of the murky frontiers between societies and cultures-- Irish and English, Catholic and Protestant, British and Native American, capitalist and "under-developed"-- and of one man's largely successful attempt to negotiate them in creative, sympathetic ways. William Johnson was an architect of empire, no doubt, but unlike today's imperialists his sway was based on understanding, trust, and reciprocation, not on deceit, theft, and brute force. Thus, O'Toole's book provides not only a fascinating picture of a lost past but also a glimpse into what might be a less vicious future." -- Kerby Miller, University of Missouri