New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America (The American Moment) - Hardcover

Calloway, Professor Colin G.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0801854482 ISBN 13: 9780801854484

Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997

Synopsis

"Calloway employs lucid prose and captivating examples to remind us that neither Indians nor Colonists were a monolithic group... The result is a more nuanced appreciation for the complexity of cultural relationships in Colonial America... He surveys this complex story with imagination and insight and provides an essential starting point for all those interested in the interaction of Europeans and Indians in early American life." -- David R. Shi, Christian Science Monitor

Although many Americans consider the establishment of the colonies as the birth of this country, in fact Early America already existed long before the arrival of the Europeans. From coast to coast, Native Americans had created enduring cultures, and the subsequent European invasion remade much of the existing land and culture. In New Worlds for All, Colin Calloway explores the unique and vibrant new cultures that Indians and Europeans forged together in early America. The journey toward this hybrid society kept Europeans' and Indians' lives tightly entwined: living, working, worshiping, traveling, and trading together--as well as fearing, avoiding, despising, and killing one another. In the West, settlers lived in Indian towns, eating Indian food. In Mohawk Valley, New York, Europeans tattooed their faces; Indians drank tea. And, a unique American identity emerged.

"I cannot think of another work that sets out to accomplish what Colin Calloway has achieved. New Worlds for All stands poised to become the most successful synthesis of North American ethnohistory from contact to the early national period." -- Gregory E. Dowd, University of Notre Dame

"Colin Calloway's grand synthesis of the experience of Indians and other Americans before 1800 is exceptional in its breadth of vision. Taking as his canvas the entire North American continent--examining everything from war and disease to trade and sex, from clothes and houses to foods and cures--he nonetheless never loses sight of the individual, human story, the vivid encounter or striking incident that brings the past to life." -- James H. Merrell, Vassar College

About this title

Review

American history has often been influenced by ethnic conflicts, but what we sometimes forget is how central the meetings between various ethnic groups were to the formation of what would become the United States. In New Worlds for All Colin Calloway offers a readable, fascinating account of how the English, French, Dutch, Spanish, and Native Americans came together in a wilderness and went through tumultuous conflicts that eventually created a hybrid society. This conglomerate, which was different from any other on earth, eventually led to the creation of the United States.

About the Author

Colin G. Calloway is professor of history and Native American studies at Dartmouth College. His previous books include The American Revolution in Indian Country: Crisis and Diversity in Native American Communities, nominated for a 1995 Pulitzer Prize; The Western Abenakis of Vermont, 1600-1800: War, Migration, and the Survival of an Indian People; and Crown and Calumet: British-Indian Relations, 1783-1815.

Edition details

• Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0801854482
• ISBN 13: 9780801854484
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 256