Review of Richard White's The Middle Ground: a book review

This is a critical analysis of Richard Whites book “The Middle Ground: Indians, empires, and republics in the Great Lakes region, 1650-1815.” In The Middle Ground, Richard White contends that between 1650 and 1815, North American Indians and Europeans who encountered each other in the Great Lakes region known as the pays d’en haut created a community based on accommodation. Neither group attempted a violent domination of the other. Instead, they mediated their situation by adopting systems based on a combination of European (originally mainly French) and North American Indian customs. As time passed, more Europeans who were less inclined to accommodate Indians entered the region, and the middle ground dissolved. Cover art: Algonquin Couple, an 18th-century watercolor by an unknown artist. Courtesy of the City of Montreal Records Management & Archives, Montreal, Canada.