MUST SEE, MUST READ
A NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF DAVID CROCKETT OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE (1834, by Davy Crockett): First published in 1834 and republished in 1987 by the University of Nebraska Press with a detailed introduction by editor Paul Andrew Hutton, Crockett’s engaging memoir devotes considerable space to the Creek War and remains a classic of frontier literature.
David Crockett: The Man and the Legend (1956, by James Atkins Shackford): Sixty-three years after it was written, this remains the best biography of Crockett. While weak on Texas and the Alamo, it is particularly strong on the Creek War and Tennessee politics. Other standout biographies include William C. Davis’ Three Roads to the Alamo (1998) and Michael Wallis’ David Crockett: The Lion of the West (2011).
Andrew Jackson and His Indian Wars (2001, by Robert V. Remini): Remini is justly recognized as one of the great modern-day Jackson scholars, and his brief history of the Creek War is a fine introduction to the subject. The author’s favorable interpretation of Jackson has come under fire from historians distraught over the issue of Indian Removal. Another engaging book on the topic is John Buchanan’s Jackson’s Way: Andrew Jackson and the People of the Western Waters (2001).
Andrew Jackson: The Border Captain (1933, by Marquis James): This magnificent biography won James a second Pulitzer Prize (he had won previously for his equally triumphant Sam Houston biography The Raven) and remains a wonderful read. The author gives considerable space to the Creek War and subsequent treaty negotiations.
McIntosh and Weatherford, Creek Indian Leaders (1988, by Benjamin W. Griffith Jr.): This important dual biography of William McIntosh and William Weatherford—the Creek leaders on opposing sides of the Creek War, their civil war—illuminates the complexity of that conflict. As indispensable toward an understanding of Creek history is Angie Debo’s The Road to Disappearance: A History of the Creek Indians (1941).
(1942, by Dee Brown): This early novel by the author of devotes considerable space to the Creek War. It is available in a new edition from the University of New Mexico Press (1999) with an introduction by Paul Andrew Hutton. Another fascinating novel about this (1962), featuring William Weatherford (Red Eagle) as the protagonist.
