In 1758 Peter Williamson, dressed as an Indian, peddled a tale in Scotland about being kidnapped as a young boy, sold into slavery and servitude, captured by Indians, and made a prisoner of war. Separating fact from fiction, Timothy Shannon illuminates the curiosity about America among working-class people on the margins of empire.

Over the past three decades, Ralph T. Coe has traveled extensively throughout the United States and Canada to assemble this collection of Native American art, one of the finest in private hands today. Immersed in the cultures of Native America, he has come to know artists and artisans, traders, dealers, and shop proprietors, selecting the very best they have to offer. The Ralph T. Coe Collection includes representative pieces from most Native American geographic regions and historical periods, beginning with objects dating back to the fourth millennium B.C. Many examples-men's shirts with ermine fringe, weapons, and button blankets-evoke the heroic lifestyle of the past, while small objects, such as tipi and kayak models, dolls, and tiny moccasins, speak to a more intimate significance. Ritual objects imbued with spiritual meaning-masks and katsinas, tablitas and medicine bundles-as well as utilitarian objects, such as pottery and baskets, also have a strong presence. This catalogue tells the stories of nearly two hundred of these objects, combining art history with personal reminiscence, and reveals the role Coe has played in bringing about awareness of the artistic heritage of Native America.-- Metropolitan Museum of Art website.

Savages within the Empire explores how Britons perceived and represented American Indians during a time when the empire and its constituent peoples began to capture the nation's sustained attention for the first time. Troy Bickham considers an array of contexts,including newspapers, imperial policy, museum exhibits, the Enlightenment, missionary records, and the public outcry over the use of American Indians as allies during the American War of Independence. He thusreveals the prevailing pragmatism with which Britons of all ranks approached the empire as well as its impact on British culture.