Before the Revolution : America's ancient pasts Daniel K. Richter

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Richter, Daniel K.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--Civilization.

United States.

United States--Civilization--Indian influences.

United States--Civilization--European influences.

United States--Civilization--African influences.

America--History--To 1810.

America.

United States--History--Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775.

Physical Description:

viii, 502 pages, [44] pages of plates : illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. : Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011.

Summary:

This work is an investigation of North American history in the seven centuries before the founding of the United States, looking at how the sequential cultural layers defined by people the author calls the progenitors, conquistadores, traders, planters, imperialists, and Atlanteans contributed to the society, culture, and politics of the U.S. as it emerged after the Revolutionary War. It includes sections on Albany, New York; Boston, Massachusetts; Charleston, South Carolina; corn; fur trade; Florida; Jamestown, Virginia; Maryland; Massachusetts Bay Colony; New York City; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Rhode Island; St. Augustine, Florida; and Virginia.

Contents:

Layered pasts

Progenitors. Legacies of power from medieval North America

Legacies of conquest from medieval Europe

Conquistadores. Crusades of the Christ-bearers to the Americas

Crusades of the Protestants to new worlds

Traders. Native Americans and the power of trade

Epidemics, war, and the remapping of a continent

Planters. Searching for order in new and old England

Planting patriarchy in New England and Virginia

Dutch, French, Spanish, and English counterpoints

Imperialists. Monarchical power reborn

Planters besieged

Revolution, war, and a new transatlantic order

Atlanteans. Producing and consuming in an Atlantic empire

People in motion, enslaved and free

Contending for a continent

Gloomy and dark days

Present pasts.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780674055803 (alk. paper)

0674055802 (alk. paper)

OCLC:

666616380