Encounters at the Heart of the World by Elizabeth A. Fenn

Fenn originally planned to write her dissertation on millenarianism in Native American culture, but left her doctoral program at Yale before it was finished, as she was “bored” with academia. She wrote a book for the University of North Carolina Press as part of the The Way We Lived in North Carolina series, contributing part 1, Natives and Newcomers. and Lucienne Driskill chair in Western American History at University of Colorado-Boulder.įenn received a bachelor of arts degree in history (with honors) from Duke University in 1981, then attended Yale University, finishing her masters in 1985. Her book Encounters at the Heart of the World: A History of the Mandan People, won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for History. The damage wrought by imported diseases like smallpox and the havoc caused by the arrival of horses and steamboats were tragic for the Mandans, yet, as Fenn makes clear, their sense of themselves as a people with distinctive traditions endured.Ī riveting account of Mandan history, landscapes, and people, Fenn's narrative is enriched and enlivened not only by science and research but by her own encounters at the heart of the world.Elizabeth A. Recent archaeological discoveries show how they thrived, and then how they collapsed. Her boldly original interpretation of these diverse research findings offers us a new perspective on early American history, a new interpretation of the American past.īy 1500, more than twelve thousand Mandans were established on the northern Plains, and their commercial prowess, agricultural skills, and reputation for hospitality became famous. Fenn retrieves their history by piecing together important new discoveries in archaeology, anthropology, geology, climatology, epidemiology, and nutritional science. We know of them mostly because Lewis and Clark spent the winter of 1804≡805 with them, but why don't we know more? Who were they really? In this extraordinary book, Elizabeth A. A book that radically changes our understanding of North America before and after the arrival of Europeans.Įncounters at the Heart of the World concerns the Mandan Indians, iconic Plains people whose teeming, busy towns on the upper Missouri River were for centuries at the center of the North American universe.

Encounters at the Heart of the World by Elizabeth A. Fenn