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  • The Comanche Empire
  • Ty Cashion
The Comanche Empire. By Pekka Hämäläinen. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-300-12654-9. Maps. Illustrations. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. vii, 500. $35.00.

The history of North America as a contested land has always turned on the axiom that it was a prize in the clash of empires fought among European powers. As Hämäläinen encapsulated the overarching assumption, power flowed "in only one direction, from the imperial edges toward the indigenous interior." While acknowledging that recent studies have at least recast the role that Indians played in shaping the continent, he contends that the end game has nevertheless remained static. By proposing a counternarrative "in which governing historical forces emanate from the continent's center, Comanchería, and spread toward its margins," the author has presented a provocative thesis that suddenly brings into question every assumption that has forever kept the standard narrative fixed in place (p. 353).

Hämäläinen projects his interpretation through a scrupulously documented narrative that proposes some compelling and original arguments. That the Comanches worked more in concert as a unified nation than a confederation of bands as portrayed in conventional histories has already been established by the work of ethnohistorians, as he points out. Where Hämäläinen most admirably builds on such studies is by conveying how the Comanches used their concerted power. The ultimate panorama as viewed through the Comanches' own broad lens brings clarity and reason into focus from a picture that until now has appeared indistinct and chaotic. An environment where the prospects for peace or destruction seemed arbitrary and impulsive on the receiving end actually transpired from calculated, nuanced, and orderly political and economic policy when viewed from Comanchería.

In places, however, Hämäläinen presents arguments that appear overly ambitious. For example, to contend that U.S. General Zachary Taylor during the Mexican American War had the Comanches to thank for parboiling northern Mexico before his quick roasting begs an explanation for the picnic General Winfield Scott enjoyed. There were no Comanches to demoralize the population between Veracruz and Mexico City, nor was there an indigenous population browned off at the regime in Mexico City like that which joined forces with Cortés.

We can only hope that a lively intellectual exchange will stir up some popular awareness as historians grapple with the wreckage of the old narrative and move it forward. Debating "how often" and "by how much" the author's overestimations can be attributed to originality, or simply too much enthusiasm for his topic, should begin with an examination of the book's title. After all, what the Comanches affected could not accurately be called an empire in the conventional sense of the word. Engaging in logocentrism by necessity demands evidence that would bring searching reason to the discussion. In Hämäläinen's estimation, using the word "empire" is a conscious attempt to expand a context limited to the tired models of frontiers and borderlands into which regional historians seem to be locked. If anyone wants to pick a fight over the "E" word, count me in. [End Page 646]

Among all the old assumptions Hämäläinen brings into question, those that most appealed to this reviewer concerned the odd relationship between Mexicans and Texians. Traditional Texas history, for example, never seriously concerned itself with the broad context, conditions, and political dynamics that account for the lapse of Mexican xenophobia in 1821. Logic suggests it was a time when the turmoil of revolution at home and the mischief of filibusteros abroad should have provoked hysteria. The stock explanation for the welcome mat—"because Stephen F. Austin's colonists would be different"—has always sufficed. The same phrase does not sound quite as convincing when expressed in a different tongue—"porque los colonos de Austin serian diferentes." Here, Hämäläinen provides the explanation, and most convincingly. Comanche Empire is an impressive, well-written, and important study that should significantly influence future metanarratives, whether they include all or parts of Texas, the West, the Borderlands, or even general histories...

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