Book · 2019
Surviving Genocide: Native Nations and the United States from the American Revolution to Bleeding Kansas
by Jeffrey Ostler
Jeffrey Ostler traces how Native nations held together from the American Revolution through Bleeding Kansas while U.S. policy ground toward erasure.
What does Reddit think of Surviving Genocide: Native Nations and the United States from the American Revolution to Bleeding Kansas?
Twelve mentions across two subreddits over seven years, with 11 of those coming from r/AskHistorians. That lopsided distribution tells you exactly where this book lives: in the hands of historians and their readers, not the general history crowd. The r/history comment (↑321) positions it in a specialist reading list pitched at intermediate learners, while r/AskHistorians threads at ↑457 and ↑1854 drop it alongside Benjamin Madley's *An American Genocide* and Alexander Laban Hinton's *Colonial Genocide in Indigenous North America* as part of a standard scholarly toolkit. Nobody compares it to a popular crossover hit. The genocide-as-terminology thread (↑89) gestures at the academic consensus Ostler writes into, which gives the book a credentialed home. Ten unique commenters, small sample, but the pattern is consistent: specialists recommend it to people who've already read the basics.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · Native nation survival and adaptation under colonial pressure
- · U.S. federal Indian policy as a mechanism of ethnic elimination
- · The genocide framework applied to American history
- · Indigenous resistance from the Revolution through the antebellum period
- · Scholarly historiography of the American continent before and after contact
Common praise
- + r/AskHistorians recommends it alongside Madley and Hinton as the go-to triad for the genocide framework in North American history.
- + The book slots naturally into intermediate and advanced reading lists, showing up in threads where commenters already cite primary sources.
- + Specialists treat it as a credible scholarly voice on U.S. Indian Policy without hedging about the genocide terminology.
Common criticism
- − Twelve total mentions across seven years is a thin Reddit footprint, suggesting it hasn't crossed into the general history conversation.
- − No commenter engages with the argument in depth — it gets listed, not analyzed, which may mean Reddit readers assign rather than finish it.
Who it's for
You've finished *1491* and maybe Claudio Saunt's *Unworthy Republic* and you're ready for something with a harder scholarly spine. This is the next step, not the starting point. If you're trying to understand why academic historians treat the genocide framing as settled rather than contested, Ostler's argument is the primary exhibit r/AskHistorians reaches for. Casual history readers wanting narrative momentum should know the r/history list that mentions this book (↑321) flags it in the intermediate tier, not the novice one.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
Which Reddit comments matter for Surviving Genocide: Native Nations and the United States from the American Revolution to Bleeding Kansas?
Top-upvoted quotes across the subreddits where this book is mentioned. Click through to read the full thread.
“That's great that you want to learn more about U.S. history! I focus on indigenous history, as well as the indigenous slave trade, and in the list below highlight some of my favorite books, with a little nod to Texas/Western U.S. history. I'm going to recommend some of my favorites below, in a roug…
“If someone is more aware of primary evidence, they should chime in. The idea that US policies towards Indigenous Americans was at least present in the popular consciousness of European 19th century colonial governments is one of the central claims of Claudio Saunt’s excellent book *Unworthy Republic…
“For further reading, I'd also add: *An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873* by Benjamin Madley *Colonial Genocide in Indigenous North America* edited by Alexander Laban Hinton, Andrew Woolford, and Jeff Benvenuto *Surviving Genocide: Native Nation…
“For broader overviews that are not purely military focused but are nonetheless really fantastic for covering a lot of this history, I'd recommend some of these books. *Surviving Genocide: Native Nations from the American Revolution to Bleeding Kansas* by Jeffrey Ostler *Violence Over The Land: In…
“There were empires extending from Mexico to Chile. If Mexico is North America then obviously there was territorial conquest. North America at the very least was integrated with the rest of the Americas through various trade networks (see ‘Indigenous Peoples History of the US). Greenland is North Ame…
Convinced? Pick up Surviving Genocide: Native Nations and the United States from the American Revolution to Bleeding Kansas
Readers also mention
Books that share discussion threads with Surviving Genocide: Native Nations and the United States from the American Revolution to Bleeding Kansas — counted from the comments, not curated.
Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America
Daniel K. Richter
Daniel K. Richter's colonial history flips the map, reading European settlement from indigenous vantage points that colonial archives almost never preserved.
One Vast Winter Count: The Native American West Before Lewis and Clark
Colin G. Calloway
A history of the Great Plains told through the winter counts — pictographic calendars tribes used to track time — spanning 20,000 years of indigenous life before and after contact.
The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America
Andrés Reséndez
Andres Resendez reconstructs five centuries of Indian enslavement in the Americas — a system that ran parallel to African chattel slavery and outlasted it.
Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest
Matthew Restall
Matthew Restall takes seven stories every American thinks they know about the Spanish Conquest and explains, one chapter at a time, why each one is wrong.
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
Charles C. Mann
Charles Mann reconstructs the Americas before Columbus — bigger populations, denser cities, and more deliberate landscapes than most history classes ever admitted.
Surviving Genocide: Native Nations and the United States from the American Revolution to Bleeding Kansas — frequently asked
What does Reddit actually say about Surviving Genocide?+
The data is sparse but consistent. All 12 mentions come from r/AskHistorians (11) and r/history (1). Nobody debates or critiques it — it appears in curated reading lists, typically alongside Madley's *An American Genocide* and Hinton's *Colonial Genocide in Indigenous North America*. The ↑25 and ↑22 AskHistorians comments name it explicitly. At this volume, Reddit is vouching for it, not examining it.
Is Surviving Genocide aimed at general readers or academic ones?+
Academic, based on where Reddit places it. The r/AskHistorians threads that mention it are pitched at readers who've already cleared the introductory tier. The ↑321 r/history list positions it at an intermediate level, which in that community means you're past Mann's *1491* and ready for denser primary-source-grounded arguments. Nothing in the data suggests it's a crossover title.
How does Surviving Genocide fit alongside other genocide-framework histories?+
Reddit bundles it with Madley and Hinton as a standard scholarly triad. The AskHistorians thread on whether calling U.S. Indian Policy genocide is academically contested (↑89) treats the framing as settled, and Ostler's work sits in that settled consensus. It's not the entry point to the debate — it's the book you read once you accept the terms.
Should I read Surviving Genocide before or after Claudio Saunt's Unworthy Republic?+
Depends on which time period pulls you. Ostler runs from the Revolution through Bleeding Kansas; Saunt focuses on Andrew Jackson's removal era. An AskHistorians comment (↑101) recommends Saunt separately for the removal policy specifically. They're complementary, not redundant. Either can come first, but neither is a novice-level read.