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[Eisworth]

I have severe moral qualms about this book.

Ed's recent reviews of works by Stephen Ambrose inspired me to take a look at historical writings about the area where I now live (SE Ohio).

Allan Eckert has written dozens of books dealing with history of the old "Northwest Territory" and the Ohio Valley. The local bookstores all have his books in stock, and apparently at some point in the recent past he (along with Nobel laureate Toni Morrison) was voted Ohio's favorite writer.

I took the plunge, and bought a copy of "The Frontiersmen"; volume 1 of what is called the "Winning of America" series --- it was prominently displayed in the history section of the College Bookstore. I went to the Little Professor Bookstore next door, and happened to notice that the same books were displayed in the Fiction section. That should have warned me...


Anyway, the book started with a prologue explaining that everything in the book actually happened, and that the author used primary sources to figure out what people ought to have said, and then he wrote everything like a novel.

Ok, fine. I can handle that, I think. I started reading, and yes, it was very much like a badly written novel (all sorts of purple prose, obvious attempts at heightening tension and dramatic irony), but I took a deep breath and kept on.

Then I start noticing some inconsistencies with the history I did remember.
Finally, I hit something too egregious for me to justify reading much more --- the story of the Shawnee chief Blue Jacket.

Blue Jacket (like Tecumseh) gave the new settlers/invaders no end of trouble. About 100 years after his death, a legend started that he was actually a white man (Marmaduke Van Swearingen) who was captured and adopted into the Shawnee tribe and who rose to become their greatest war leader. The name "Blue Jacket" was supposed to come from the fact that he was wearing a Blue Jacket when he was captured.

Historians have debunked this myth to my satisfaction (Van Swearingen was a real person captured by the Indians, but he was around 30 years too young to be Blue Jacket, and lots of other evidence -- including DNA studies in the last few years -- as well) but Eckert dramatizes this story as the truth. The original legend had racial overtones (Oh...THAT'S why he was such a good chief --- he was really white!), but Eckert seems to believe it is true based on research he did back in the 1950s.

There is no mention of the fact that the statement that Blue Jacket = Van Swearingen MIGHT be controversial; the story is just woven into the narrative as if it were the absolute truth. Eckert's popularity has thus guaranteed that there are legions of people who also believe this to be the truth --- there is even a festival in Xenia, Ohio where the life of Van Swearingen-as-Blue-Jacket is dramatized in a play each year.

I looked up the reviews of some of his books on Amazon.com (belatedly, to my chagrin).

Sample editorial review:

From Library Journal
Eckert (A Sorrow in Our Heart, LJ 2/15/92) stands on an uncommon ground between academic and popular writers. His use of the "hidden dialog" as a means of writing history had been termed "documentary fiction." Here, he takes on the long and varied history of the Ohio River valley, engendered by indigenous Americans and settlers from European powers?French, Dutch, English, and Spanish. Eckert introduces a considerable number of Indians into the Ohio environment, utilizing a variety of fascinating primary resources to tell the history of the region and its people from 1768 to 1795. The final product, readable and rich in history, nevertheless will create problems for the historian and concern for the general reader. Those looking for a thorough history of the valley will be disappointed, and book selectors need to be aware of the type of history this book represents.?Boyd Childress, Auburn Univ. Lib., Ala.

Sample Reader Reviews

By Terry Crock (Massillon, Ohio USA
...There are those who criticize Allan Eckert for his "historical narrative" method of writing, but I am convinced that this is because they are jealous of his success. Allan Eckert has done those who enjoy history a tremendous favor with his books by showing us just how exciting and interesting history is.


Other readers take him to task in their reviews, but I found the posts of his fans to be a bit troubling.
_________________
Todd Eisworth
Associate Professor of Mathematics
Ohio University

[Eisworth]

I think this review of Eckert's book "Tecumseh" captures what I was trying to say in the last post. (Italics are my addition for emphasis)


From Kirkus Reviews
A spirited but misdirected stab at a definitive biography of the great Shawnee warrior, from prolific historian and novelist Eckert, whose six-volume nonfiction The Winning of America series (Twilight of Empire, Gateway to Empire, etc.) paved the way for this epic. Employing what he terms ``narrative biography'' as a touchstone (and as an apparent euphemism for poetic license), Eckert embarks on a quest for the real Tecumseh, seeking a life buried beneath countless legends and tales. The result is a mammoth account of a remarkable American from the spectacular moment of his birth--concurrent with the appearance of a brilliant shooting star- -to his sudden death in the Battle of Thames in 1813, an event described in more than 40 different ways by ``eyewitnesses.'' Along with the portrait of a man of keen insight and ability--a natural leader who eschewed the role of chief but who sought tirelessly to unite all tribes in a pan-Indian movement--emerges a rich tapestry of Native American society in the Ohio region during Tecumseh's time. The Indian leader and his family, especially his brother, the prophet Tenskwatawa, figured dramatically in the growing violence along the frontier as white settlers swarmed across the Appalachians onto Indian lands. By emphasizing the greatness of Tecumseh, however, Eckert minimizes the significance of tribal unification as a wider phenomenon and the role of spiritual leaders in firing that movement, to the extent that, for instance, Tenskwatawa is depicted as a sniveling conniver achieving renown largely through his brother's generosity. A biography that succeeds better as fiction. Astoundingly detailed but ambitious to a fault, in its interpretative zeal it strays from, or at least embellishes, the historical record to the point of being suspect.
_________________
Todd Eisworth
Associate Professor of Mathematics
Ohio University