On December 29, 1890, five hundred American troops massed around hundreds of unarmed Lakota Sioux men, women, and children near Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota. Outnumbered and demoralized, the Sioux posed no threat to the soldiers and put up no resistance. But in a chaotic scene, the Americans opened fire with howitzers, killing nearly three hundred Sioux in what would become known as the Wounded Knee Massacre. In this definitive account, acclaimed historian Heather Cox Richardson shows that the origins of this quintessential American tragedy lay not in the West but in Washington, where would-be lawmakers, locked in a desperate midterm-election battle, sought to drum up votes through an age-old political tool: fear.1890年12月29日，五百名美军在南达科他州受伤的膝溪附近集结了数百名手无寸铁的拉科塔苏族男子、妇女和儿童。苏族人寡不敌众，士气低落，对士兵没有威胁，也没有抵抗。但是在一个混乱的场景中，美国人用榴弹炮开火，杀死了近300名苏族人，这将成为众所周知的膝盖受伤大屠杀。著名历史学家希瑟·考克斯·理查森（Heather Cox Richardson）在这篇权威性的文章中指出，这场典型的美国悲剧的根源不在西方，而在华盛顿，在那里，准议员们陷入了一场绝望的中期选举战，试图通过一种古老的政治工具：恐惧来争取选票。