summary: The Chosen and the Damned by David J. Silverman

The book argues that Native–White relations were central to how “race” and American national identity were constructed, and that Native resistance and survival shaped U.S. history as much as White supremacy did. It reframes the U.S. racial story beyond a Black–White binary by putting Native experiences and ideas at the center.bloomsbury+3​
Core ideas

Race as historical invention

Europeans and Native peoples did not initially see themselves as “White” and “Indian”; these categories formed through centuries of violent encounter, policy, and ideology.politics-prose+1​

White Americans came to see themselves as a chosen people destined to rule the continent, casting Native nations as “doomed” obstacles whose disappearance was framed as natural or divinely ordained.columbian.gwu+1​

Native Americans and U.S. racial thought

Native–White conflict and coexistence profoundly shaped American ideas about civilization, savagery, property, and political belonging.kramers+1​

The book insists that Native histories are not a side story but central to how American racial ideology and law developed, including concepts later applied to other groups.thestorygraph+1​

Four centuries of struggle

Silverman follows Native–U.S. relations from early colonial wars and dispossession through removal, reservations, boarding schools, and 20th‑century activism.columbian.gwu+1​

He treats moments like Indian removal, Manifest Destiny, and the reservation era as key episodes in defining who counted as fully human and fully American.tombolobooks+1​

Native identity, agency, and division

Native actors are portrayed as politically strategic and divided, not passive victims: they negotiated, resisted, and sometimes cooperated with U.S. power.thenationalbookreview+1​

The book shows how ideas of “Indianness” could foster solidarity and resistance but also internal conflicts over who qualified as “Indian” in racial and legal terms.politics-prose+1​

Challenging national myths

Silverman targets comforting myths (e.g., benign frontier expansion, fading Indians) and argues that U.S. nationalism long celebrated Native destruction.thenationalbookreview+1​

He urges rethinking school curricula and public memory so that genocide, dispossession, and Native survivance are acknowledged rather than erased.bloomsbury+1​

Contemporary relevance

Expanding the racial frame

The book intervenes in a literature that often treats race in America primarily as a Black–White story, arguing that such a frame obscures foundational Native–White dynamics.goodreads+1​

It speaks to current debates about settler colonialism, Indigenous sovereignty, and how racial categories are produced and policed over time.thestorygraph+1​

Public memory and politics

Silverman connects historical narratives to present fights over monuments, holidays (such as Thanksgiving), curriculum, and land acknowledgments.columbian.gwu+1​

The work implicitly informs contemporary policy questions by clarifying how law and policy grew out of racialized assumptions about Native inferiority and White entitlement.catalog.berkeleypubliclibrary+1​

Native resilience and modern tribal life

By following Native communities into the modern era and movements like Red Power, the book underscores ongoing tribal sovereignty and cultural renewal.thestorygraph+1​

It frames Native survival not as an afterthought but as a central thread in the story of U.S. democracy, rights, and pluralism.tombolobooks+1​

Strengths

Analytical and narrative scope

The long chronological sweep (colonial era to recent decades) makes the argument about race-building feel cumulative and persuasive.columbian.gwu+1​

Silverman’s prior expertise on Native New England and Thanksgiving lends authority, and he integrates political, legal, and cultural history with clarity.thenationalbookreview+1​

Centering Native voices and agency

The book foregrounds Native perspectives, decisions, and debates, resisting portrayals of Indigenous peoples as only victims or symbols.thenationalbookreview+1​

Readers and reviewers describe it as “wide‑ranging” and “game‑changing” in how it restores Native people to the core of the national racial narrative.bloomsbury+1​

Intervention in popular myth

Its explicit challenge to myths of benign settlement and disappearing Indians makes it useful for teaching and for broader public conversations.bloomsbury+1​

The framing around “chosen” and “damned” gives the book a sharp conceptual hook that ties theology, ideology, and policy together.politics-prose+1​

Weaknesses / limitations

Density and scope

The broad coverage across four centuries may mean some episodes and regions feel compressed compared to specialized monographs.thestorygraph+1​

General readers could experience the sustained focus on violence, dispossession, and legal detail as heavy and demanding.

Framing and emphasis

The “race‑making” framework, while powerful, may leave less room for other lenses (gender, environment, local variation) unless the reader brings them in.columbian.gwu+1​

Some Native or non‑Native readers may disagree with particular interpretations of intra‑Native conflict or with how much explanatory weight is given to White ideological self‑understanding.thenationalbookreview+1​