Why read A Brutal Reckoning?

Book cover of A Brutal Reckoning: Andrew Jackson, the Creek Indians, and the Epic War for the American South

Book description

'Cozzens is a master storyteller' The Times

From the devastating invasion by Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century to the relentless pressure from white settlers 150 years later, A Brutal Reckoning tells the story of encroachment on the vast Native American territory in the Deep South, which gave rise to…

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Why read it?

1 author picked A Brutal Reckoning as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Fergus M. Bordewich

Author

This book was full of surprises for me.

Cozzens took me on a wild ride through the chaotic violence of one of the country’s most significant but least well-known Indian wars, which led to the destruction of a once-powerful native confederacy and the expulsion of the Creeks from their lands in Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. Cozzens is a fair-minded historian who does not play favorites.

It’s impossible to read this book without coming to a fuller understanding of the raw violence that characterized the southern frontier or for the insurmountable challenges for native people who sought to find an accommodation…

From Fergus' 3 favorite reads in 2023.