Natives and Newcomers: The Cultural Origins of North America

Description

Since the 1970s, historians have come to realize that the shape and temper of early America were determined as much by its Indian natives as by its European colonizers. A key player in discovering and telling this new story is ethnohistorian James Axtell. In this volume, a selection of his best essays, he describes in accessible and often witty prose the major encounters between Indians and Europeans – first contacts, communications, epidemics, trade and gift-giving, social and sexual mingling, work, conversions, military clashes – and probes their short- and long-term consequences for both cultures. Every essay is based on original research in a wide variety of primary sources, including maps, museum artifacts, archaeological sites, pictures (many of which are reproduced), traders’ account books and oral traditions. The end result is a text which shows how encounters between Indians and Europeans ultimately shaped a distinctly American identity.