''An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873'' is a 2017 non-fiction book about the

California genocide The California genocide was the killing of thousands of indigenous peoples of California by United States government agents and private citizens in the 19th century. It began following the American Conquest of California from Mexico, and the ...

by history professor Benjamin Madley.

Background and publication

''An American Genocide'' was the first book to fully document the U.S. government-sanctioned California Genocide. The book was published by

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous. , Yale Universi ...

and is used by

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

. The 692 page book was published on 27 June 2017. It was written by Benjamin Madley, a professor of history at the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California S ...

Synopsis

The chronologically arranged book documents the United States-government's role in the 19th-century

. The book details killing of Native Americans by the Americans who violently colonised California. It gives the pre-1846 history in which Spanish colonisers used Native Americans as a source of low-cost labour, and how Native Americans suffered from both disease and land theft. When the Americans arrived, they started a program of genocidal extermination, killing 80% of the Native American population, who lacked access to firearms. The book reports on the slavery that Americans subjected Native American women and the abuse of children:

“
ome Ome may refer to: Places * Ome (Bora Bora), a public island in the lagoon of Bora Bora * Ome, Lombardy, Italy, a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Brescia * Ōme, Tokyo, a city in the Prefecture of Tokyo * Ome (crater), a crater on Mars Tran ...
white men came. They killed my grandfather and my mother and my father. . . . Then they killed my baby sister and cut her heart out and threw it in the brush where I ran and hid.”

The book's author names the actions as genocidal Angus, Charlie (2022). '' Cobalt: Cradle of the Demon Metals, Birth of a Mining Superpower.'' Canada: House of Anansi Press, pp. 38–43 and devotes 200 pages of the book to documenting almost every killing that took place during the time period that the book covers.Review: ''An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846–1873''
by Benjamin Madley, by Stacey L. Smith, ''

Pacific Historical Review The ''Pacific Historical Review'' is the official publication of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association. It is a quarterly academic journal published by University of California Press. It was established in 1932 under foun ...

'' (2018) 87 (1): 210–212, p210

Critical reception

The book won the

Los Angeles Times Book Award Since 1980, the ''Los Angeles Times'' has awarded a set of annual book prizes. The Prizes currently have nine categories: biography, current interest, fiction, first fiction (the Art Seidenbaum Award added in 1991), history, mystery/thriller ...

for History in 2016 and was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. In 2018,

described the book as "monumental." The

Journal of the Early Republic The ''Journal of the Early Republic'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal which focuses on the early culture and history of the United States from 1776–1861. The journal is published by the University of Pennsylvania Press The Uni ...

described it as "impressive" and praised the author for the quality of his research.

References

{{Portal bar, Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Books, Crime, California, History 2017 non-fiction books Yale University Press books Non-fiction books about genocide Books about indigenous peoples History books Books about California