The Girl in the Middle
A Recovered History of the American West
Published on 15. April 2025
Book
Hardback
368 pages
978-0-691-23841-8 (ISBN)
Description
Shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize
A haunting image of an unnamed Native child and a recovered story of the American West
In 1868, celebrated Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner traveled to Fort Laramie to document the federal government's treaty negotiations with the Lakota and other tribes of the northern plains. Gardner, known for his iconic portrait of Abraham Lincoln and his visceral pictures of the Confederate dead at Antietam, posed six federal peace commissioners with a young Native girl wrapped in a blanket. The hand-labeled prints carefully name each of the men, but the girl is never identified. As The Girl in the Middle goes in search of her, it draws readers into the entangled lives of the photographer and his subjects.
Martha A. Sandweiss paints a riveting portrait of the turbulent age of Reconstruction and westward expansion. She follows Gardner from his birthplace in Scotland to the American frontier, as his dreams of a utopian future across the Atlantic fall to pieces. She recounts the lives of William S. Harney, a slave-owning Union general who earned the Lakota name "Woman Killer," and Samuel F. Tappan, an abolitionist who led the investigation into the Sand Creek massacre. And she identifies Sophie Mousseau, the girl in Gardner's photograph, whose life swerved in unexpected directions as American settlers pushed into Indian Country and the federal government confined Native peoples to reservations.
Spinning a spellbinding historical tale from a single enigmatic image, The Girl in the Middle reveals how the American nation grappled with what kind of country it would be as it expanded westward in the aftermath of the Civil War.
A haunting image of an unnamed Native child and a recovered story of the American West
In 1868, celebrated Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner traveled to Fort Laramie to document the federal government's treaty negotiations with the Lakota and other tribes of the northern plains. Gardner, known for his iconic portrait of Abraham Lincoln and his visceral pictures of the Confederate dead at Antietam, posed six federal peace commissioners with a young Native girl wrapped in a blanket. The hand-labeled prints carefully name each of the men, but the girl is never identified. As The Girl in the Middle goes in search of her, it draws readers into the entangled lives of the photographer and his subjects.
Martha A. Sandweiss paints a riveting portrait of the turbulent age of Reconstruction and westward expansion. She follows Gardner from his birthplace in Scotland to the American frontier, as his dreams of a utopian future across the Atlantic fall to pieces. She recounts the lives of William S. Harney, a slave-owning Union general who earned the Lakota name "Woman Killer," and Samuel F. Tappan, an abolitionist who led the investigation into the Sand Creek massacre. And she identifies Sophie Mousseau, the girl in Gardner's photograph, whose life swerved in unexpected directions as American settlers pushed into Indian Country and the federal government confined Native peoples to reservations.
Spinning a spellbinding historical tale from a single enigmatic image, The Girl in the Middle reveals how the American nation grappled with what kind of country it would be as it expanded westward in the aftermath of the Civil War.
Reviews / Votes
"Shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize, McGill University" "[Sandweiss's] deeply researched book takes its title from an arresting black-and-white photograph of the peace commissioners gathered at Fort Laramie in 1868. . . . Sandweiss is an elegant writer who knows how to craft a satisfying story."---Melanie Kirkpatrick, Wall Street Journal "Part detective story, part traditional history book, The Girl in the Middle brings to life an often overlooked part of US history. . . . A richly textured view of America both during and in the decades directly after its brutal civil war. . . . A window into the lives of ordinary people at a time and in a place when everyone was on the move and constantly reinventing themselves. It is also a testament to the broader suffering that occurred as the American government repeatedly broke its promises to the continent's original inhabitants."---Brooke Masters, Financial Times "Sandweiss's forensic investigation of a single photograph widens the aperture to depict an astonishingly intertwined frontier society where everyone-soldier, trader, photographer, man, woman, Native, mixed-race, or white-was connected to most everyone else. The result is a fascinating snapshot of this "oddly intimate" world, a bubbling cauldron of people constantly on the move, in contact or in conflict, their lives beset by unremitting public and familial violence."---Alix Christie, American Scholar "Compelling. . . . A truly revealing image of American empire." * Literary Hub * "Sandweiss. . . shows her extraordinary ability as a historian-detective."---David Steinberg, Albuquerque Journal "Riveting. . . . Sandweiss effectively details a previously unknown life and insists that the rest of us could do better."---Anne Hyde, Western Historical Quarterly "Insightful and beautifully written. . . . propulsive and compelling. . . . [The Girl in the Middle] speaks to the importance of the historical work of recovery, especially in our current moment."---Megan Kate Nelson, Emerging Civil War "A perceptive historical inquiry, The Girl in the Middle illuminates the post-Civil War era's dark negotiations surrounding Native American land."---Karen Rigby, ForewordMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New Jersey
United States
Product notice
Trade binding
Illustrations
3 b/w illus.
Dimensions
Height: 245 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 31 mm
Weight
694 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-691-23841-8 (9780691238418)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
02/2025
1st Edition
Princeton University Press
€31.49
Available for download
Person
Martha A. Sandweiss is professor emerita of history at Princeton University, where she is founding director of the Princeton & Slavery Project. She is the award-winning author of many books, including Passing Strange: A Gilded Age Tale of Love and Deception across the Color Line and Print the Legend: Photography and the American West.