Historian Heather Cox Richardson reexamines the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre not as an isolated frontier tragedy but as the culmination of political decisions made thousands of miles away in Washington. Her analysis reveals how Republican politicians manufactured fear of Native American uprisings to drum up votes during a competitive election season. Richardson traces how sensationalized newspaper coverage of the Ghost Dance religious movement created a climate of panic that led to the deployment of the Seventh Cavalry and ultimately to the deaths of several hundred Lakota men, women, and children. Drawing on military records, newspaper archives, and congressional debates, she reconstructs the political calculations behind the tragedy. The book demonstrates how politicians exploited racial fears for electoral advantage, a pattern with disturbing contemporary resonance. Richardson, a professor of American history, situates the massacre within the broader context of Gilded Age politics, westward expansion, and the systematic destruction of Indigenous sovereignty. Her research reveals the specific individuals - from newspaper editors to military commanders to senators - whose decisions led to catastrophe. This work challenges the notion that Wounded Knee was simply a tragic misunderstanding, instead exposing the cynical political machinery that made mass violence appear necessary to protect American settlers who faced no actual threat.