Die Vernichtung des roten Mannes: Dokumentarbericht by Siegfried von Nostitz (review)

BOOK REVIEW Die Vernichtung des roten Mannes: Dokumentarbericht. By Siegfried von Nostitz. Düsseldorf -Cologne: Eugen Diederichs Verlag, 1970. Pp. 160. For the German readership, this book will bring unexpected revelations because it offers, perhaps for the first time in European literature, the true history of the fate of the North American Indian. For reasons peculiar to German literature and growing out ofthe romantic movement, the North American Indians have figured largely as noble savages whose fate was conditioned by personal and national conflicts. In these conflicts— the German reader was led to believe—honor, faith, and heroism played the major part. This newly published volume, however, will disenchant many a reader with the traditional narrative as it had been presented to generations by authors of Karl May's ilk. Mr. von Nostitz's volume is unreservedly explicit concerning the effect ofthe treachery and deprivation to which the Indian has been exposed, and we read about the abject poverty and disease which has been the fate of America's indigenous population from the time ofthe earliest settlers to the present day. But, in spite ofall the misery and misfortune with which it deals, the book is written in an almost lyrical style. The poetry, actually inherent in the subject matter of the Indian lore, permeates the gruesome statistics ofdefeat and annihilation. In pursuing the colonists in this country, we follow the arrival ofthe white man in the East and his gradual westward migration until the western frontier stopped the conqueror and put an end to the flight ofhis victims. An excellent map from the pen ofthe author graphically pictures the geographical distribution ofthe North American Indian. There are, unfortunately, no further illustrations. Beyond that, the book is written sine ira et studio and with utmost objectivity. For the American reader, it is unfortunate that this extremely informative volume appears in a foreign language, and it is to be hoped that it will soon be published in English translation . IlZA VEtTH Department ofthe History ofHealth Sciences University ofCalifornia, San Francisco 504 Book Review Perspectives in Biology and Medicine · Spring 1971 ...