Never Come to Peace Again: Pontiac's Uprising and the Fate of the British Empire in North America (review)

America has had not one, but many, forgotten wars. Pontiac's Uprising, while perhaps not quite as obscure as, say, King Philip's War, nonetheless is generally known only to the specialist and the occasional historically minded resident of western Pennsylvania; for the rest, it is to be found on the same dusty shelf in America's collective closet of lacunae as the Philippine Insurrection or the Nicaraguan Intervention. Often treated as an appendage to the French and Indian War, this obscure but not unimportant Indian war receives a reexamination in David Dixon's Never Come to Peace Again, a work whose aim is to offer a revised narrative of that conflict, and argue for the importance of its consequences in the history of America. Dixon admirably fulfills the first of his intentions, and partially succeeds at the second.

The narrative is offered in the first seven chapters of the book. The introduction begins prior to the Seven Years' War, as English settlers begin to trickle into the Ohio Country, and the subsequent six chapters take the tale through the French and Indian War and then on to the effective end of Pontiac's Uprising in the winter of 1764–65. The story, as recounted by Dixon, offers no real surprises or conspicuous revisions, but he does an admirable job of updating the history of Pontiac's Uprising in light of the most recent research, and in recounting the events from multiple perspectives: those of the French, British, colonists, and Indians. Dixon does a particularly commendable job of using the recent work on Native American history to flesh out the tale from their point of view.

In his last chapter, Dixon takes the story of his protagonists through the American Revolution, and quickly recounts the history of the Ohio country through the Indian defeat at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, after which it was opened to settlement by citizens of the new American Republic. The fact that the Ohio Country was not really open for settlement until the 1790s argues that Pontiac's Uprising can lay claim to being the most successful Indian war in American history, in that it delayed European settlement of the Ohio Country by nearly two generations. Dixon closes his work by arguing that Pontiac's War had a much greater impact on the history of the United States than has generally been perceived. He believes that the perceived failure of both the British and the colonial authorities to protect the frontier acted to politically radicalize the backcountry, and helped move its inhabitants in an anti-British and revolutionary direction much sooner than was the case in urban areas and on the seaboard. This idea is an intriguing one, albeit with some potential problems; unfortunately, Dixon's, like most conclusions, can only suggest ideas and connections without being able to demonstrate them—his frontier radicalization thesis deserves a book of its own, one which he will perhaps one day be able to supply.

Never Come to Peace Again fills a need in early American historiography by offering an up-to-date, coherent narrative of Pontiac's Uprising. Its bibliography suggests that it is the result of some primary source research, but it basically represents an impressive synthesis of the secondary literature. In addition it qualifies as a good read, and in places, as a gripping one. It is one of the rare books that should find a place on the shelf of both the specialist and the general reader, as well as that of the research library, and its list price of $34.95 should make it accessible to all of its potential audiences.