University of California Press, 2023

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Interview with New Books Network

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Reviews​

"In attempting to explain the prevalence of the Indian/fighting references in American history and demonstrating that they are more than simple metaphors, Aune succeeds admirably. His prose is engaging, and his scholarship is impressive, resting on a command of the latest (and timeless) secondary works, as well as innovative use of a range of primary and literary sources."

- John Hall, American Historical Review

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"Stefan Aune argues that in American military culture there is still a ‘shadow doctrine’ of racialized, colonial thinking and attitudes. These have developed and renewed with each successive war on America’s ‘internal’ and global peripheries. The artificial divide between domestic and global war-making collapses under the weight of evidence supplied in this remarkable book. Aune has performed a real service, providing the first systematic history of exactly how this process works and what it means."

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- Inderjeet Parmar, International Affairs

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"More urgently, Indian Wars Everywhere complements criticism of counterinsurgency’s renaissance since 9/11. Yet Aune advances not a dry, technical genealogy of official doctrine—in hopes of discovering “lessons learned,” in the parlance of modern-day martial pedagogues— but a critique of ideology, or the often-distorted perceptions of Native Americans, and their warfare, through which the United States has waged its many wars."

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- Justin F. Jackson, The Journal of Military History

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"Why does the American military name helicopters and missiles after American Indians, designate every war zone 'Indian Country,' and repeatedly take Geronimo’s name in vain? In this stunning book, Stefan Aune explores the relations of violence and desire that have shaped counterinsurgency strategy. Making colonial histories speak directly to the contemporary War on Terror, Indian Wars Everywhere is a powerful work of cultural history, brilliantly written and utterly convincing."

- Phil Deloria, author of Indians in Unexpected Places 
 
"Aune’s analysis is highly sophisticated and well supported through extensive research. The topic is vitally important as Americans are increasingly aware of the need to reckon with the deep roots of injustice and violence, particularly against communities of color, including Indigenous peoples and nations, as well as America’s seemingly unending wars around the world."

- Jeffrey Ostler, author of Surviving Genocide: Native Nations and the United States from the American Revolution to Bleeding Kansas 
 
"This is a stunning work of interdisciplinary cultural history. Rendered in wonderfully lucid and compelling prose, and through a sophisticated analysis of 'Indian/fighting' as a shadow doctrine, Indian Wars Everywhere makes a significant and much-needed contribution to our understandings of the tangled and heretofore under-theorized intersections among the violence of US settler colonialism, imperialism, and militarism, on the one hand, and among culture, discourse, and military perceptions and practices, on the other."

- Jodi Kim, author of Settler Garrison: Debt Imperialism, Militarism, and Transpacific Imaginaries

​"The United States' brutal invasions of Indigenous homelands—a.k.a. the Indian Wars—remain an unacknowledged yet foundational aspect of American history. In his important and necessary book, Aune traces the long shadows that these conflicts continue to cast over American life as well as over US military adventures in the Philippines, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and elsewhere."

- Karl Jacoby, author of Shadows at Dawn: A Borderlands Massacre and the Violence of History 
 
"This book is an excellent study of the making of counterinsurgency warfare in the nation’s early and continued efforts to fight 'Indians.' Part military history, part cultural history, more than any other book, Indian Wars Everywhere links 'Indian' and 'fighting' as an American way of life."

- Alex Lubin, author of Never-Ending War on Terror

"Indian Wars Everywhere combines incisive cultural analysis with close critical attention to military doctrine and tactics to offer a compelling account of how the legacies of the Indian Wars continue to resonate in US military culture. Stefan Aune has given us a brilliant account of the stories Americans have told themselves about war and how those stories have shaped the violent prosecution of military campaigns from the Philippines to Vietnam to Afghanistan."

- David Fitzgerald, author of Learning to Forget: US Army Counterinsurgency Doctrine and Practice from Vietnam to Iraq

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Rutgers University Press, 2018, edited by David Kieran and Edwin Martini

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Reviews

"Kieran and Martini have done a truly magnificent job. The table of contents of At War is enough to make one want to immediately buy and use the book. I cannot praise highly enough the concept and the fulfilled ambition of the editors."

- Marilyn B. Young, author of The Vietnam Wars, 1945-1990

 

“The founders anticipated that American democracy would escape the militarism of most other societies, but this compelling book shows otherwise. Ranging from law and combat to race and film, and many more topics, the authors describe how the U.S. military influences all parts of our daily lives. This book does not condemn military influences in American society; it demands that we understand them better when we make policy and renew our troubled democracy. This is a book all concerned citizens should read.”

- Jeremi Suri, author of The Impossible Presidency: The Rise and Fall of America’s Highest Office

Pacific Historical Review vol. 90, issue 4 (2021)

American Quarterly vol. 73, no. 1 (2019)