“Most Americans of the twenty-first century have only limited knowledge of the circumstances surrounding the War of 1812. Sometimes called “the Second War for Independence,” the war is often given short shrift by academic historians enamored with the Revolutionary period, the intellectual grace of Thomas Jefferson, or the changes that swept through American society during the 1820’s. Some of this lack of interest undoubtedly is due to the conflict’s seemingly indecisive outcome: after three years of warfare, the Treaty of Ghent essentially reestablished the country’s boarders at their prewar locations. American designs on annexing Canada, however, were dealt a setback from which they never recovered.” Notwithstanding, R. David Edmunds does not embellish his process on …show more content…
This trial of Tecumseh’s Shawnee culture presents itself for what will emerge, forthcoming, as the primary idea of the book. The Shawnee heritage was one of turmoil and evasive relations, not only with the colonizers from Britain, but also with the Eastern Iroquois and several other tribes from the south, west, and north; upon whose territory the Shawnees influenced, as they were forced westward. Nonetheless, Edmunds does not make it known, nor implied, that these details are from Tecumseh’s heritage. Actually, Tecumseh’s name does not even get mentioned until the onset of the second chapter.
As Edmunds asserts in his endnotes, it is lacking concrete and truthful information in regards to Tecumseh’s childhood, along with his early family life. However, without indicating his purpose to nullify conjecture, Edmunds practices coherent control in rendering the activities he reports. The way the Tecumseh family’s personalities and relationships are presented in the beginning chapters are typically unbiased, but then again, they are colorless, as