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s DeGolyer Special Collections Librarys
s William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studiess

Winner of the William P. Clements Prize for the Best Non-Fiction Book on Southwestern America Published in 2008

The Comanche Empire
(Yale University  Press: 2008)

by Pekka Hämäläinen

Awarded Tuesday, November 3, 2009
The DeGolyer Special Collections Library
6404 Hilltop Lane at McFarlin Blvd., on the campus of Southern Methodist University
6:00 pm reception followed by 6:30 award ceremony, lecture and book signing

In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, at the high tide of imperial struggles in North America, an indigenous empire rose to dominate the fiercely contested lands of the American Southwest, the southern Great Plains, and northern Mexico. This powerful empire, built by the Comanche Indians, eclipsed its various European rivals in military prowess, political prestige, economic power, commercial reach, and cultural influence. Yet, until now, the Comanche empire has gone unrecognized in historical accounts.

 

This compelling and original book uncovers the lost story of the Comanches. It is a story that challenges the idea of indigenous peoples as victims of European expansion and offers a new model for the history of colonial expansion, colonial frontiers, and Native-European relations in North America and elsewhere. Pekka Hämäläinen shows in vivid detail how the Comanches built their unique empire and resisted European colonization, and why they fell to defeat in 1875. With extensive knowledge and deep insight, the author brings into clear relief the Comanches’ remarkable impact on the trajectory of history.
Awards & Distinctions

sWinner of the 2009 Bancroft Prize, given by Columbia University
 s Winner of the 2008 Kate Broocks Bates Award, presented by the Texas State Historical Association.
 s Co-winner of the 2009 Merle Curti Award, presented by the Organization of American Historians.
 s Received Honorable Mention for the 2008 PROSE Award in the U.S. History and Biography/Autobiography category, sponsored by the Association of American Publishers.
 s Gold medal winner of the 2008 Book of the Year Award in the category of History, presented by ForeWord magazine
 s Winner of the Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize presented by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Center for Great Plains Studies.
 s Co-Silver medal winner of the 2009 Independent Publisher Book Award in the category of History.
s An alternate selection of History Book Club, Military Book Club, and Book-of-the-Month Club

The $2,500 Clements Book Prize honors fine writing and original research on the American Southwest. The competition is open to any nonfiction book, including biography, on any aspect of Southwestern life, past or present. The William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies is part of SMU's Dedman College and affiliated with the Department of History. It was created to promote research, publishing, teaching and public programming in a variety of fields related to the American Southwest. For more information about the Center or about the upcoming book prize event, please call (214) 768-3684 or see http://smu.edu/swcenter/prize.htm.

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Last updated September 1, 2009.