Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America

A sweeping counternarrative challenging America’s most closely held beliefs and assumptions about itself. Acclaimed scholar of history Pekka Hämäläinen here confronts our long-accepted origin stories, myths, and distortions of how the United States came to be, and at what cost. Diving into the history of the continent’s indigenous sovereign nations, Hämäläinen builds a narrative of early “America” as a place dominated by powerful tribes, sophisticated diplomacy, and diverse leadership structures—far from the helpless victims of colonial violence so frequently portrayed in media and education based on settler perspectives.