Before the Revolution: America’s Ancient Pasts

Description

America began| we are often told| with the Founding Fathers| the men who waged a revolution and created a unique place called the United States.
We may acknowledge the early Jamestown and Puritan colonists and mourn the dispossession of Native Americans| but we rarely grapple with the complexity of the nation s pre-revolutionary past.
In this pathbreaking revision| Daniel Richter shows that the United States has a much deeper his than is apparent that far from beginning with a clean slate| it is a nation with multiple pasts that stretch back as far as the Middle Ages| pasts whose legacies continue to shape the present..
Exploring a vast range of original sources| “Before the Revolution” spans more than seven centuries and ranges across North America| Europe| and Africa.
Richter recovers the lives of a stunning array of peoples Indians| Spaniards| French| Dutch| Africans| English as they struggled with one another and with their own people for control of land and resources.
Their struggles occurred in a global context and built upon the remains of what came before.
Gradually and unpredictably| distinctive patterns of North American culture took shape on a continent where no one yet imagined there would be nations called the United States| Canada| or Mexico..
By seeing these trajectories on their own dynamic terms| rather than merely as a prelude to independence| Richter s epic vision reveals the deepest origins of American his.”