The Comanche Empire

From the author of Lakota America, an award-winning history of the rise and decline of the vast and imposing Comanche empire

"Cutting-edge revisionist western history."--Larry McMurtry, New York Review of Books

"A landmark study that will make readers see the history of southwestern America in an entirely new way."--David J. Weber, author of Bárbaros

In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, a Native American empire rose to dominate the fiercely contested lands of the American Southwest, the southern Great Plains, and northern Mexico. This powerful empire, built by the Comanche Indians, eclipsed its various European rivals in military prowess, political prestige, economic power, commercial reach, and cultural influence. Yet until now the Comanche empire has gone unrecognized in American history.

This compelling and original book uncovers the lost story of the Comanches. It is a story that challenges the idea of Indigenous peoples as victims of European expansion and offers a new model for the history of colonial expansion, colonial frontiers, and Native-European relations in North America and elsewhere. Pekka Hämäläinen shows in vivid detail how the Comanches built their unique empire and resisted European colonization, and why they fell to defeat in 1875. With extensive knowledge and deep insight, the author brings into clear relief the Comanches' remarkable impact on the trajectory of history.

Author: Pekka Hamalainen
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 05/01/2009
Pages: 512
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.4lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.10w x 1.40d
ISBN: 9780300151176


Award: Cundill Prize - Recognition of Excellence


Review Citation(s):
New York Times Book Review 07/05/2009 pg. 16

About the Author
Pekka Hämäläinen is the Rhodes Professor of American History and Fellow of St. Catherine's College at Oxford University. He is the author of Lakota America: A New History of Indigenous Power and Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America.