The best and worst country in the world : perspectives on the early Virginia landscape / Stephen Adams.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Adams, Stephen, 1948-

Series:

Under the sign of nature

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Indians of North America.

History.

Human geography.

Human ecology.

Land settlement.

Landscapes.

Environmental conditions.

Historical geography.

Virginia--Historical geography.

Virginia.

Virginia--History--Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775.

Virginia--Environmental conditions.

Landscapes--Virginia--History.

Land settlement--Virginia--History.

Human ecology--Virginia--History.

Human geography--Virginia--History.

Indians of North America--Virginia--History.

Physical Description:

xii, 305 pages : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm.

Other Title:

Best & worst country in the world

Place of Publication:

Charlottesville : University Press of Virginia, 2001.

Summary:

From its earliest days, the Virginia landscape has eliciteddramatically contradictory descriptions. The sixteenth-century poet Michael Draytonexalted the land as "earth's onely paradise," while John Smith, in his reports toEngland, summarized the area around Jamestown as "a miserie, a ruine, a death, ahell." -- Drawing upon both familiar history and lesser-known materialfrom deep geological time through the end of the seventeenth century, Stephen Adamsfocuses on both the physical changes to the land over time and the changes in theway people viewed Virginia. The Best and Worst Country in the World reaches wellbeyond previous accounts of early American views of the land with the inclusion offascinating and important pre-1700 sources, Native American perceptions, andprehuman geography and geology. A blend of history, literature, geology, geography, and natural history, enriched by illustrations ranging from adinosaur footprint to John Smith's famous "Map of Virginia," Adams's work offers anecocritical exploration of the varied preconceptions that have shaped and coloredthe human relationship with "the best and worst country in the world"--the earlyVirginia landscape.

Contents:

1 Prehuman Virginia: A Brief Geological History 13

2 Virginia Indians and the Land 27

3 The Spanish in Virginia 58

4 The Roanoke Colonies 72

5 Jamestown, 1606 to 1624: The Metaphors 110

6 Jamestown: Slaughterhouse and Death Trap 156

7 Perspectives from the Royal Colony, 1625 to 1700 177

8 Tobacco, Look of the Land, Explorations West 211.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 277-291) and index.

ISBN:

081392037X

0813920388

OCLC:

45661613