On the Spot: Kathleen DuVal
‘What’s the most exciting field in history today? Native American history – the Native nations have only begun to tell their histories.’
Why are you a historian of early America?
I’m fascinated by the era when the peoples of the Americas, Europe, and Africa encountered one another and tried to make sense of a dramatically changed world.
What’s the most important lesson history has taught you?
Humility. People in the past have tried to shape the future, but their actions always had unintended consequences.
Which history book has had the greatest influence on you?
Daniel K. Richter’s Facing East from Indian Country.
What book in your field should everyone read?
Ned Blackhawk’s The Rediscovery of America.
Which moment would you most like to go back to?
The tour that the Quapaws gave French explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette in 1673.
Which historian has had the greatest influence on you?
My dissertation director, Alan Taylor.
Which person in history would you most like to have met?
Pocahontas.
How many languages do you have?
English, Spanish, French, and a little Cherokee.
What’s the most exciting field in history today?
Native American history – the Native nations have only begun to tell their histories.
What historical topic have you changed your mind on?
Just about everything. As I tell my students, we start with hypotheses, but we hope they get proved wrong.
What is the most common misconception about your field?
That Native American history is simply one of victimisation, and that Native nations aren’t around today.
Who is the most underrated person in history…
Mercy Otis Warren, one of the most important writers of the American Revolution.
… and the most overrated?
Andrew Jackson.
Is there an important historical text you have not read?
I have never gotten around to reading Herodotus.
What’s your favourite archive?
The Historic New Orleans Collection.
What’s the best museum?
The National Museum of the American Indian.
What technology has changed the world the most?
The sailing ship.
Recommend us a historical novel...
Susan Power’s The Grass Dancer.
... and a historical drama?
Killers of the Flower Moon.
You can solve one historical mystery. What is it?
What happened to the ‘lost colonists’ of Roanoke?
Kathleen DuVal is the author of Native Nations: A Millennium in North America (Profile), winner of the Pulitzer Prize for History and the Cundill History Prize.
