AN AMERICAN GENOCIDE: THE UNITED STATES AND THE CALIFORNIA INDIAN CATASTROPHE, 1846-1873

AN AMERICAN GENOCIDE: THE UNITED STATES AND THE CALIFORNIA INDIAN CATASTROPHE, 1846-1873

Benjamin Madley presents,

AN AMERICAN GENOCIDE: THE UNITED STATES AND THE CALIFORNIA INDIAN CATASTROPHE, 1846-1873

The first full account of the government-sanctioned genocide of California Indians under United States rule.

Between 1846 and 1873, California's Indian population plunged from perhaps 150,000 to 30,000. Benjamin Madley is the first historian to uncover the full extent of the slaughter, the involvement of state and federal officials, the taxpayer dollars that supported the violence, indigenous resistance, who did the killing, and why the killings ended. Madley's deeply researched new book, An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873 (Yale University Press, 2016), is a comprehensive and chilling history of an American genocide. Madley describes pre-contact California and precursors to the genocide before explaining how the Gold Rush stirred vigilante violence against California Indians. He narrates the rise of a state-sanctioned killing machine and the broad societal, judicial, and political support for genocide.

January 18, 1-3 pm

UTSC Campus:

IC318 (Instructional Centre Boardroom)

1095 Military Trail

 

January 18, 5-7 pm

St. George Campus:

Department of History, Room 2098

Natalie Zemon Davis Conference Room

Sidney Smith Hall, 100 St. George Street

 

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