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142nd out of 775 books
—
1,062 voters
American Colonies: The Settling of North America (The Penguin History of the United States #1)
by
Alan Taylor
With this volume, Alan Taylor challenges the traditional story of colonial history by examining the many cultures that helped make America. Transcending the usual Anglocentric version of our colonial past, he recovers the importance of Native American tribes, African slaves, and the rival empires of France, Spain, the Netherlands, and even Russia in the colonization of Nor...more
Paperback, 544 pages
Published
July 30th 2002
by Penguin Books
(first published 2001)
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Some reviews on this site mention Taylor’s “leftist bias,” allege a soft-pedaling of Native American violence and environmental impact. I don’t really see it. Sure, Taylor has his moments of passionate phrasing, but a work of this scope and synthesis (all colonial experiments in North America, and most in the Caribbean, from Columbus to the California missions) is a poor vehicle for agitation; the reading, and perhaps the writing, of any lofty historical survey insinuates an abstraction, a detac...more
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Alan Taylor's "American Colonies" seems like a benign title in what is (or was supposed to be) Penguin Books first volume of the publisher's History of the United States of America, given the content of this well researched, well documented and well referenced book.
The theme of "American Colonies" is enslavement, expansion, exploitation and extermination.
Taylor ends this volume in 1820, but in the preceding decades imperial rivalries between the British, the French, the Spanish and for a brief p...more
The theme of "American Colonies" is enslavement, expansion, exploitation and extermination.
Taylor ends this volume in 1820, but in the preceding decades imperial rivalries between the British, the French, the Spanish and for a brief p...more
I picked this book up off the discount shelf at a bookstore many years ago when I was going through my compulsive accumulation of books. I chose it not knowing anything about it other than it was a history book and that it served my purpose of getting to know history better one day. The title seemed a little boring, the subject a little bland, but oh how looks and initial impressions can be deceiving. Much to my surprise, this is a wonderful and bountiful history book. It abounds in scope, reada...more
This book is not just about the original 13 colonies. It lays a groundwork of events and and motivations in Europe, Asia, and Africa that spawned exploration and discovery, and the need and/or desire to establish colonies in the new-found lands. It explores the native cultures encountered by the Europeans, and how each culture affected the other.
And then, it just keeps building on that through time and space. As noted in the title, this book is about American Colonies, and should not be confused...more
And then, it just keeps building on that through time and space. As noted in the title, this book is about American Colonies, and should not be confused...more
This would be excellent history except that the narrative is continually interrupted by politically correct qualifications and adjustments. This habit is extremely annoying, particularly when one is reading for edification, not moral ammunition.
Steve Sailer once said: "Besides being useful (in all sorts of hard to predict ways), the truth is really, really interesting, while political correctness is skull-crushingly boring. That's because every truth in the universe is connected somehow to ever...more
Steve Sailer once said: "Besides being useful (in all sorts of hard to predict ways), the truth is really, really interesting, while political correctness is skull-crushingly boring. That's because every truth in the universe is connected somehow to ever...more
Nov 23, 2012
Hongxi Mao
added it
The history of America might seem to be very short comparing to other countries, but its history is very unique. This book talks about when the colonizer first got onto the Americas and started to settle here. There are many difficulties that they face, they have to start their own country and set their own rules. There are thirteen states when they first settled here, and each of the states have some different views and ideas of how to many this new country work and how to put this new country...more
Insightful would be the best term I could use for this title. One of the biggest insights for me was how the Caribbean came to be the precursor to the Carolinas. The author does have a tendency to repeat points in a general sense toward religious and human nature issues notwithstanding the chapter i.e. the colonial power be they Spanish, British, French, Russian, etc. That said, the points seem valid. I would definitely suggest this book to anybody wanting to learn about colonial North American...more
What it says on the cover. Which ends up being an odd read (in a good way) -- this covers every colonial venture in North America, including the ones we tend to forget (Russia!), but excludes anything after a colony has turned into a nation. So you get the Eastern Seaboard up to 1776, but another half century for the west coast .. and you get the conquest of the Aztecs, but nothing on the Incas. Helpful to me to put various things I'd read in isolation in a shared context. The overarching metahi...more
Dense at times, but full of fascinating information and up-to-date scholarship. It's a slow but worthwhile read.
Oh man! What a wonderful book. 13,000 B.C. to 1780 A.D. Part of the story of the settling of N. America involves the histories of Spain, England, France, Portugal, Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Russia, Africa and S. America.
I just didn't want this story to end. Alan Taylor (2001) has produced a monumental piece of work here. The importance of N. America's native tribes goes hand in hand with the colonial struggles of the rival European empires.
"I think I'll call...more
I just didn't want this story to end. Alan Taylor (2001) has produced a monumental piece of work here. The importance of N. America's native tribes goes hand in hand with the colonial struggles of the rival European empires.
"I think I'll call...more
Taylor does a wonderful job of covering the breath and depth of the development of the colonial period in North America (British, French, Spanish and even Russian), with a strong emphasis on economic drivers that impacted cultural differences in each colony. (Warning, I'm an anthropologist & historian who also studies international business, so seeing this stuff makes me happy.) He offers a great deal of data regarding push/pull economics and demographics between the mother country and the c...more
A tour de force by Alan Taylor! The heavy tome might seem daunting at first, but Taylor puts us on a boat to the new world and successfully navigates us not only to Puritan New England, but Spanish South America, the Virginia Company, the middle Colonies, the West Indies, and the Pacific. In many ways, Taylor does not limit our scope. His work simultaneously reveals the colonization of the Americas, one of the first, if not the only work, I have come across to keep things in perspective. Taylor...more
Yeah, that’s why it’s been so long since I wrote a book review – because history takes me forever to digest. Don’t get me wrong – it’s very interesting (hence the whole me reading it bit) – I just have to eat it in bite sized pieces. Usually, to the preclusion of any other reading, lest I totally get sidetracked.
As an illustration… this book was about 470 pages and it took me, I dunno, a couple weeks. Then, I started a 400ish page fiction book this morning and finished an hour or so ago. (Good)...more
As an illustration… this book was about 470 pages and it took me, I dunno, a couple weeks. Then, I started a 400ish page fiction book this morning and finished an hour or so ago. (Good)...more
First in a planned Penguin History series of five books that covers American history a la the much more established Oxford Series (after a 10-year delay, the second edition in the series was just released), this edition does a solid job of looking at the settling of North America. Although that's a lot of history to cover in a mid-range sized book (400 pages) and I think Taylor does a better job of looking at the relationships between the many North American tribes and cultures and early colonis...more
As far as introductory texts on the initial Euro-American settlement of North America go, this one's pretty good. It takes a fairly broad view of American history and tells the story from a variety of relatively nuanced perspectives. It's still an introductory text though, so some parts are a little glossed over and don't quite grasp the complexities of American history, writ large.
An excellent single volume history. Why assign a textbook for your US to 1865 class when you've got a wonderfully written teaching tool like this one? Taylor occasionally lapses into value judgments--the Spanish failed because of this, the English succeeded because of this, etc.--but for the most part keeps his narrative clear of teleological explanations and makes good use of much recent scholarship.
Fascinating, well written history of the colonial period. Taylor does a nice job of evenhandedly describing the various colonist vs native, colonist vs mother country, and white vs. black issues. I learned a lot. It even covers Russia's forays into Alaska, which I didn't know anything about. It was on such a macro-level that it breezed past facinating issues all too quickly, but it did its job as a survey really well.My interest level flagged in the descriptions of religious issues, but that is...more
Better than most text books covering this period. Taylor refocuses the narrative to show how European colonization impacted America, while remaining critical of the offenses enacted by the short sighted European colonists. Chapters are short and the writing is clear. Should be required reading for undergraduate history, but should also be useful for graduate students.
I loved reading this for my Colonial North America class! It's incredibly readable, for a history book :) I liked how it paid significant attention to the role of Native Americans in the foundation of our country. I learned so much from this class, and this book bears some of the responsibility!
Oct 08, 2011
Lynette
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
country-girl-in-the-city
Ever wonder how the pieces of North American colonization fit together. American Colonies lays it all for you. It's a different look at the birth of a nation. For my full review visit http://www.underthemaples.com/2010/08...
As a post-colonial reaction to 200 years of anglo-centric history this book essentially mirrors Fox News. A worthy heir to a channel whose tilted viewpoint clearly overshadow any minute bias that may have came before.
This book, while to be lauded for its attempt to widen discussion and understanding of a unique period of American history, fails in its overall goal of presenting a true unbiased history of the time.
"If as Edward Said wrote, the old history books were covertly ideological, the cur...more
This book, while to be lauded for its attempt to widen discussion and understanding of a unique period of American history, fails in its overall goal of presenting a true unbiased history of the time.
"If as Edward Said wrote, the old history books were covertly ideological, the cur...more
Very good general history of the American colonies before independence. The author is especially informative on Native American culture and the effects of European colonization on indigenous people.
Unbiased history with fresh perspectives neither completely favoring or criminalizing the Europeans, the Natives, or the Africans. Thorough, thoughtful, challenging, & beautifully written.
A fantastic overview of colonial American history covering everything from the first peoples to all the European nations that had an impact in the land that would become the United States.
1 like · like · see review
This book was dry the whole way through, it was hard trying to be interested in a book that is not interesting. However, I will say that I learned some things that I did not know before, yet I still was not enthused when I learned about them. I suggest if you do not have to read this text for school, or any other reason, then do not read it.l
how to justify giving a survey five stars? even though the writing is never especially beautiful, it's never clumsy and it's not too repetitive. to me, that's a pretty big achievement. and the breadth and depth of the book is incredibly satisfying. taylor gives a nice contextual background to europe and north american before 1492, and then manages to cover the english, french, spanish, dutch, and even russian empires as well as dozens of native cultures. he shifts really easily between political...more
Very nicely done. I found the chapters a bit too brief, though. But as an overview of 200 years of overlooked American history, excellent.
A favorite reference for early american history, covers events and themes often missed in other histories of the period.
A very fine introduction to colonial North America. While the author's relentless PC is occasionally annoying - yes we understand that women couldn't vote and that there were slaves after the eighth or tenth time - his thorough and wide-ranging approach to how the various colonies were founded and developed gives the reader a complete picture, combining politics, economics, social conditions and how the colonies interacted with the Indians, the mother countries and each other. The book is very w...more
Strong and well documented history of the founding of America. Not a boringly written history text.
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