The Earth Shall Weep

A History of Native America

By: James Wilson

Narrated by: Nelson Runger

Length: 21 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

This carefully researched exploration of Native American culture investigates the complex, often misunderstood histories of hundreds of indigenous peoples. Author James Wilson has drawn from ethnographic and archaeological studies, historical texts, and the rich written and oral traditions of Native Americans to complete this important work.

©1998 JamesWilson (P)2002 Recorded Books, LLC

Lots of information about Native Americans

Slow to start but became engaging. The majority was filled with facts and I learned quite a bit about Native American culture. Slowed again near the end and became less interesting.

great book

I recommend this excellent book for everyone. brings out so many important issues affecting millions of peoples today.

Turn the speed up just a bit

I read this book and enjoyed it. I was looking for an overview of Native American history and this fits the bill.

Here's what I liked:
-- the author has a point of view. He doesn't just narrate what happened, he gets into theorizing about motivations etc.
-- I think the pace was good. There is a lot of ground to cover, doesn't get bogged down in the details.

Responding to some of the comments I saw in other reviews:
-- The reader does have a weird way of taking a big gulping breath between sentences. I listened to the book on 1.3 speed and that was all cut out. I am guessing the same would happen if you went with 1.1 speed.
-- I did not find the structure of the book confusing. Basically it goes region by region from first European contact through the late 1800s; then covers Native Americans more as a uniform group from that point to the present. Worked fine for me.

Enlightening

Educational.... very informative. A complete history and journey that will complete anyone's historical knowledge base.

The Most Complete Nook of American Indian History ever Written

Honestly the most Intriguing Book of American Indian History I have ever read, and I have read many, Compelling from beginning to end, with excellent audible, one of my Favorites!

great book. horrible mouth noises.

I love the book.
the narrator has a great voice and does a fantastic job reading.....but all the mouth noise are hard to handle. constant wet mouth noises and lip smacking is highly disturbing.. I couldn't finish the book.

Tremendous

This book is so well researched. I truly feel that the American Indians to this day are the neighbor whose suffering we are ignoring as American citizens. Reading the heartbreaking history of those who were here before us makes me realize why some people are so scared of illegal immigrants, it's because illegal immigrants came here and pushed out the natives. We must do better, we must somehow make things right. I strongly recommend this book to every citizen of the United States. It will change you, it will make you more compassionate and see American from the perspective of those who were here before the white man.

This section from the books sums up much of the problem of what the havoc the white man has brought to this land and its indigenous people.

"The white man adopted two basic approaches ... He systematically excluded blacks from all programmes, policies, social events, and economic schemes ... With the Indian the process was simply reversed ... Indians were ... subjected to the most intense pressure to become white. Laws passed by Congress had but one goal - the Anglo-Saxonization of the Indian... The white man forbade the black to enter his own social and economic system and at the same time force-fed the Indian what he was denying the black. Yet the white man demanded that the black conform to white standards and insisted that the Indian don feathers and beads periodically to perform for him."

Informative Story

This is an excellent account of First Nations People and the treatment they received from past government bodies. This account also describes what modern day First Americans are dealing with from current BIA policies and how well they are moving forward and providing for themselves. They are apart of the history of this country and they are apart of American society.

Well Researched

This was like the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich except about indigenous Americans and of course no real resolution like we had with National Socialism. My family is Native American and the real history of what happened is heartbreaking. I was already pretty well educated about the history from the termination acts onward but that is pretty modern and it's just another thing on a long line of injustice and prejudice. I highly recommend this if you're interested in learning the history of the Native American people.

Important Topic Mediocre Treatment

This is not a narrative that is engaging, jumps around to different time periods and doesn’t always give enough transitional information to understand why the author has moved from one place and time to another. I’m sure it made sense to the author as he wrote it, but he didn’t bring his readers along for the ride. You have to really be interested in the history of Indians to get through to the end of this book. I think 80% of readers will give up at a third of the book. But there is a lot of good information in it. It’s an eye opening read if youre not familiar with American history through the eyes of the Indians. Its an important history and portions of this book should be required reading in schools.

The audible narrative is not very good. The reader makes audible gasps at the start of each sentence. As if he’s trying to catch his breath to speak. A couple of long pauses at times made me wonder if he might have just died in mid paragraph, but no, he was just catching his breath. Really this book needs to be narrated by someone from one of the cultural groups it is about; not from an European descendant.

Almost a good book.