Why read The Cost of Free Land?

Book cover of The Cost of Free Land: Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance

Book description

Growing up, Rebecca Clarren only knew the major plot points of her immigrant family's origins. Her great-great-grandparents, the Sinykins, and their six children fled antisemitism in Russia and arrived in the United States at the turn of the 20th century, ultimately settling on a 160-acre homestead in South Dakota. Over…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked The Cost of Free Land as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Galina Vromen

Author

It dealt with an aspect of the settlement of the American West and the land grab from the Indians in a complete and thoughtful way and leads the author to question the narrative of her great grandparents' move to the West

From Galina's 3 favorite reads in 2024.

Lydia Moland

Author

I loved the searing honesty and historical drama of this book. Clarren bravely examines her family’s settler past, telling the story of how her great-great-grandparents fled antisemitism in Russia and settled in South Dakota. Then she tells the story of the Lakota indigenous people they displaced. I was so inspired by the moral integrity she shows as she interviews descendants of both sides of this conflict.

She asks hard questions about what happened in settler colonialism, why we know so little about it, and what we should do about it now. She includes resources to examine our own histories. A…

From Lydia's list on The best books about women who asked why.