Indians, Indians of North America, Indians of South America 

From the first prehistoric peoples who inhabited the Americas at the end of the last Ice Age to the American Indian of the twentieth century, this book encompasses the whole range - historical and cultural - of Indian life in North, Central, and South America.

In full, fascinating detail, Alvin Josephy here presents the history, the archeology, and the ethnology - including origins and languages - of all the major Indian cultures from Alaska to Patagonia. He illuminates the social patterns and concepts, basically different from the white man's, that gave rise to the stereotype Indian of American folklore, and in doing so replaces the stereotype with a true portrait of the Indian as he was and is. He reconstructs the various Indian societies as they functioned before the Europeans discovered "the new world." He examines the impact on (and debt to) the Indian of the Spanish, French, English, and other early explorers and settlers. He describes the European conquest of the Americas, the destruction of the tribes, and the persistence of Indian cultures in the face of military, religious, social, and economic assault. He discusses the ways in which American society in the course of its growth has dealt with the Indian; and analyzes the situation of the Indian - and his prospects for survival - today.

Mr. Josephy is the author of The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest and The Patriot Chiefs: A Chronicle of American Indian Leadership, and is, as well, deeply involved as a citizen in Indian affairs. In The Indian Heritage of America he has written a comprehensive, authoritative, and highly accessible account of the Indian in the Western Hemisphere that will be read for information and enjoyment by the layman and widely referred to by student and scholar.

Taken from the inside flaps.

Alvin M Josephy, Jr. was born in 1915 at Woodmare, New York. He attended Harvard University and has been a foreign correspondent, a script writer in Hollywood, and an Associate Editor of Time Magazine. During World War II he served with the Office of War Information and then with the US Marine Corps as a Combat Correspondent in the Pacific. In 1960 Mr. Josephy joined American Heritage, where he is now Editor of General Books and is responsible for the entire adult American Heritage and Horizon book programs.

Mr. Josephy's deep interest in Indian history and contemporary life has brought him close to the people of numerous tribes. He has served with various organizations in the field of Indian affairs, was a Consultant to Secretary of the Interior Stewart L Udall, and in 1966 was appointed a Commissioner of the Indian Arts and Crafts Board of the Department of the Interior. He edited The American Heritage Book of Indians (1961) and also found time to write The Patriot Chiefs: A Chronicle of American Indian Leadership (1961) and The Nez Perce Indians and the Opening of the Northwest (1965). While his books have found favor with the general reader, it is important to note that they have been highly praised by scholars. His ability in the present book to summarize readably and without vulgarization has already brought praise from specialists in several fields of Indian studies.

Taken from the back cover.