171: Peter Cozzens "Tecumseh and the Prophet: The Shawnee Brothers Who Defied a Nation"

Sayre and Preston are joined today by author Peter Cozzens to talk about his most recent book, "Tecumseh and the Prophet: The Shawnee Brothers Who Defied a Nation".

Peter Cozzens is the international-award winning author or editor of seventeen books on the American Civil War and the American West. Cozzens retired after a thirty-year career as a Foreign Service Officer, U. S. Department of State. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, he served as a captain in the U. S. Army. Cozzens's most recent book, Tecumseh and the Prophet, published by Alfred A. Knopf in October 2020, was awarded the Western Writers of America Spur Award and was a finalist for the George Washington Prize. It has also been published in the United Kingdom, Spain, and Italy.

His book The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West was published by Alfred A. Knopf in October 2016. It received the 2017 Gilder Lehrman Prize for the best work in Military History published in the English language, the Caroline Bancroft Prize in Western History, and--in translation--the 2018 HisLibris Award (Spain) for the best non-fiction work of history. The Earth is Weeping was chosen by Smithsonian Magazine as one of the top ten history books of 2016. It also made several other best books of the year lists, including Amazon, the San Francisco Chronicle, the London Times, and Newsday. The Earth is Weeping was also published in Italian, Spanish, United Kingdom, and Dutch editions.

All of Cozzens' books have been selections of the Book of the Month Club, History Book Club, and/or the Military Book Club. Cozzens’ This Terrible Sound: The Battle of Chickamauga and The Shipwreck of Their Hopes: The Battles for Chattanooga were both Main Selections of the History Book Club and were chosen by Civil War Magazine as two of the 100 greatest works ever written on the conflict.

In 2002 Cozzens received the American Foreign Service Association’s highest award, given annually to one Foreign Service Officer for exemplary moral courage, integrity, and creative dissent. He has also received an Alumni Achievement Award from his alma mater Knox College, from which he graduated summa cum laude.

Peter Cozzens: https://www.petercozzens.net