| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 94.1

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 94.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

A Conquering Spirit: Fort Mims and the Redstick War of 1813–1814. By Gregory A. Waselkov. (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2006. x, 414 pp. $39.95, ISBN 978-0-8173-1491-0.)
Gregory A. Waselkov equates the battle at Fort Mims with other momentous events of American history such as September 11, Pearl Harbor, and the Alamo, and he uses a combination of history, genealogy, anthropology, and archeology to prove his point. His goals are to analyze the battle and its contributing racial tensions, to discuss the shift in U.S. policy from assimilation to colonialism, and to examine details of Creek infrastructure and culture. He fulfills some of his intentions better than others.	1
To set the stage, Waselkov explains existing political, social, economic, and cultural changes to reveal the complex forces affecting all residents. Americans wanted Creeks to assimilate or leave, and Creeks tried to adapt but instead fell into abject poverty. During that bleak time, prophets such as Tecumseh called for a return to past traditions and a rejection of white ones. The Creeks who supported that shift became known as "Redsticks" after their red-painted, wooden war clubs. Not all Creeks approved of those radical principles, however, and by June 1813, they engaged in civil war.	. . .

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