Since the moment of first contact between Europeans and indigenous Americans in the late fifteenth century, images of the latter have been exploited, distorted, and rendered useful by the former. In The Savage and Modern Self, Robbie Richardson explores this process of representing the “Indian” in the context of eighteenth-century British literature and culture. Richardson argues that the “Indian” of the eighteenth century was multivalent and helped articulate and shape fluctuating and evolving ideas of colonialism, consumerism, British identity, and the very concept of the “modern” self.

In chapters 1 and 2 Richardson explores the ways in which North American “Indians” became both stand-ins for aspects of British identity that were challenged and alternative selves that critiqued and helped shape new conceptions of Britishness. Richardson illustrates how “Indians” were characterized in British literature as simple, lacking in deceit, without art, and thus capable of speaking only without artifice and deception. As symbols of unchecked liberty, free from the binds of unjust laws, the “Indian,” as Richardson argues, acted as the eyes through which British culture and identity could be objectively viewed and critiqued. The “Indian,” then, was a useful representational vehicle for British anxieties and ambivalences. Although Richardson does explore earlier modes of representation of indigenous Americans in English and British thought, he nonetheless overstates the distinctiveness of the eighteenth century as a period in which the figure of the native North American became solidified, detached from generalized notions of exoticism, and put to use as a tool to critique British society. As the excellent work of Andrew Hadfield, Karen Kupperman, Joyce Chaplin, and Joan-Pau Rubiés (among others) has shown, English representations of specifically North Americans in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were also employed to reflect on contemporary problems, whether that be the right to colonize or the debate surrounding the limitations and indeed potentially corrupting nature of civilization.

In chapters 3 through 6 Richardson demonstrates the utility and importance of analyzing eighteenth-century representations of indigenous North Americans more specifically. In chapter 3 Richardson argues for a more complex and nuanced interpretation of mid-century captivity narratives, suggesting that these works were not simple pieces of anti-Indian propaganda, but in fact reflected and contributed to a wider sense of colonial anxiety. Chapter 4 examines the connections between representations of North Americans and the emergence of consumerism in Britain. In this context, Richardson shows how “Indians” became a central part of the debate surrounding the corrupting and redemptive power of European influence. On the one hand, the introduction of Christianity was perceived as redemptive for the indigenous population, while on the other the trade in alcohol provided a counter-narrative of corruption to that of the progression to enlightened civility.

Chapters 5 and 6 move the analysis toward the end of the eighteenth century and toward the issue of cultural hybridity. In chapter 5 Richardson argues that during the American Revolutionary War, British literary texts began appropriating Indian subjectivity and perceived traits of “Indianness” as correctives to effeminate consumerism, immoderate sentiment, and the problems associated with imperial governance. Although negative representations of indigenous Americans remained prominent, in British imaginative literature, the “Indian” became a source of reunification for the British self. By internalizing aspects of the “Indian,” the self became modern, cosmopolitan, masculine, and individualistic. Likewise, in chapter 6, Richardson examines how the material culture associated with North Americans displays a parallel hybridity and ambiguity, with key objects such as tomahawks and scalping knives originally being produced in the metal workshops of Britain before circulating in the New World. Just as key characteristics of the “Indian” were assimilated into the British sense of self, so, too, were these objects. Although “Indian” weapons increasingly signified indigenous violence, and thus their Britishness had to be disavowed, these objects eventually became symbolic of British masculine prowess.

The minor quibbles I have with Richardson's work more generally are less about his analysis and argument and more about my own curiosity and interest in some of the fascinating issues he raises. In particular, I would have liked to discover more about the hybridity of material objects from North America and how and why this hybridity was obscured by collectors (perhaps we will see more work on this in the future). There are two other issues that I would have been curious to hear Richardson's thoughts and analysis on. Firstly, why did the image of the North American “Indians,” in particular, prove so productive and malleable for British writers, compared to, say, other groups such as the Ottomans? Secondly, to what extent are eighteenth-century representations gendered? Richardson makes a clear case for interpreting British representations of “Indians” as symbolizers of masculinity, but what about British representations of indigenous women? Do these representations, if they exist, perform different cultural work?

Despite these minor criticisms, Richardson's work demonstrates just how varied and rich eighteenth-century representations of North American “Indians” were. While the “Indian” as a representational figure had, since first contact, always been multivalent and employed to critique European culture or justify certain political or religious persuasions, Richardson nonetheless rightly highlights the complexities, fluctuations, and increasing malleability of these representations in the eighteenth century. Richardson's analysis moves beyond the majority report, to illustrate that British representations of North Americans were neither one dimensional nor consistent, but in fact could be adjusted to support a range of differing views on the meaning of colonialism and the pitfalls of civilization and consumerism, issues that became increasingly important to the British sense of self in the eighteenth century. Perhaps Richardson's most important conclusion, however, is his reminder that whether romanticized or demonized, representations of indigenous peoples were undoubtedly instrumentalized; their beliefs, cultures, and thoughts were ventriloquized to serve European notions of self-identification. This was a process that began at the beginning of European overseas expansion, and it continues to be a troubling aspect of how indigenous peoples and their cultures are treated by the Westernized world today.