Michael McDonnell’s new book Masters of Empire: Great Lakes Indians and the Making of America (Macmillan) reveals the pivotal role played by the native peoples of the Great Lakes in the history of North America. Highlighting the long-standing rivalries and relationships among the great Indian nations of North America, it shows how Europeans often played only a minor role in this history, and reminds us that it was native peoples who possessed intricate and far-reaching networks of commerce and kinship, of which the French and British knew little.