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ISBN: PB: 9780226678580

ISBN: HB: 9780226428963

University of Chicago Press

October 2019

320 pp.

22.8x15.2 cm

14 maps, 35 halftones

PB:
£17,00
QTY:
HB:
£22,50
QTY:

Categories:

Rising Up from Indian Country

The Battle of Fort Dearborn and the Birth of Chicago

In August 1812, under threat from the Potawatomi, Captain Nathan Heald began the evacuation of ninety-four people from the isolated outpost of Fort Dearborn to Fort Wayne, hundreds of miles away. The group included several dozen soldiers, as well as nine women and eighteen children. After traveling only a mile and a half, they were attacked by five hundred Potawatomi warriors. In under an hour, fifty-two members of Heald's party were killed, and the rest were taken prisoner; the Potawatomi then burned Fort Dearborn before returning to their villages.

These events are now seen as a foundational moment in Chicago's storied past. With "Rising up from Indian Country", noted historian Ann Durkin Keating richly recounts the Battle of Fort Dearborn while situating it within the context of several wider histories that span the nearly four decades between the 1795 Treaty of Greenville, in which Native Americans gave up a square mile at the mouth of the Chicago River, and the 1833 Treaty of Chicago, in which the American government and the Potawatomi exchanged five million acres of land west of the Mississippi River for a tract of the same size in northeast Illinois and southeast Wisconsin.

In the first book devoted entirely to this crucial period, Keating tells a story not only of military conquest but of the lives of people on all sides of the conflict. She highlights such figures as Jean Baptiste Point de Sable and John Kinzie and demonstrates that early Chicago was a place of cross-cultural reliance among the French, the Americans, and the Native Americans. Published to commemorate the bicentennial of the Battle of Fort Dearborn, this gripping account of the birth of Chicago will become required reading for anyone seeking to understand the city and its complex origins.

About the Author

Ann Durkin Keating is Dr. C. Frederick Toenniges Professor of History at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. She is co-editor of "The Encyclopedia of Chicago", the editor of "Chicago Neighborhoods and Suburbs: A Historical Guide", and the author of "Rising Up from Indian Country: The Battle of Fort Dearborn and the Birth of Chicago", all published by the University of Chicago Press.

Reviews

"[O]pens up a fascinating vista of lost American history... It's a great story, and Ms. Keating's neutral, unemphatic prose makes it register all the more clearly" – Lee Sandlin, Wall Street Journal

"[An] informative, ambitious account... On bookshelves in time to honor the bicentennial of the Fort Dearborn battle, Keating's well-researched book rights some misconceptions about the old conflicts, the strategies of the whites and Indians to keep their land, and how early Chicago came to exist" – Publishers Weekly

"How did Chicago stop being Indian Country and become American? Ann Durkin Keating has recast that struggle into a story far more complex than the conventional 'manifest destiny' tale. Well researched and written, this book is an eye-opening account of Chicago's earliest, most contested days" – Walter Nugent, author of "Habits of Empire: A History of American Expansion"

"Ann Keating has taken on the least explored area of Chicago history – its raucous beginnings – and brought it magnificently to life. The book is a landmark work, deeply researched and vividly written" – Donald L. Miller, author of "City of the Century: The Epic of Chicago and the Mak"

"Ann Keating has given us a new three-dimensional picture of Chicago's founding. 'Rising Up from Indian Country' paints a compelling picture of Chicago's Indian Country origins and skillfully describes the tragedy at Fort Dearborn from the perspective of all who participated. This is a dramatic story that invites readers both to absorb new facts about the past and to reflect upon their meaning" – Frederick E. Hoxie, author of "The People: A History of Native America"