Product Description

AMERICAN COLONIES starts with the earliest years of human colonization of the American continent and environs with the Siberian migrations across the Bering Strait 15,000 years ago. It ends in around 1800 when the rough outline of the contemporary North America could be perceived. Dropping the usual Anglocentric description of North America's fate, Taylor brilliantly conveys the far more vivid and startling story of the competing interests--Spanish, French, English, Native, Russian--that over the centuries shaped and reshaped both the continent and its 'suburbs' in the Caribbean and the Pacific. It is one of the greatest of all human stories.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #95552 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

About the Author
Alan Taylor is Professor of History at the University of California, Davis. His last book was WILLIAM COOPER'S TOWN which won both the Pulitzer Prize for History and the Bancroft Prize in American History.

Customer Reviews

A brilliant treatment of the subject
This book is a fantastic treatment of the colonisation of the U.S. It is at once scholarly and yet extremely entertaining. It is full of great maps and is set out in a very reader-friendly manner. The chapters are longical-making the book easy to follow - and are aided by the short sections which help maintain and reader-friendly structure.

The story itself is a fantastic, all-encompassing, study of the first steps of the Europeans to the massive influx of colonists in later years. By treating each area separately we see the differing charactertistics of the environment and the people who inhabited it.

Taylor treats deeply the effect of colonisation on the Indian population and also on the African slaves, without reverting to extreme European-bashing.

I can't say enough good things about this book - if you're at all interested in this fascinating time of history you will find 'American Colonies' a educational, entertaining and ultimately rewarding read.

A Perfect Introduction
I've never studied the American Colonies before and came to this book not knowing which side of America California was on. Since American history is so rarely taught in British schools I was sadly lacking in any geographical and historical background. This book was the perfect remedy. Since reading it I've become intrigued by colonial america (so much so I've changed my degree to study it!).

The book illuminated each aspect of colonialisation seperately, dedicating sections to the earliest conquests of the Spanish and to the Native Americans who lived on the land before the advent of colonialism. Then each colony is dealt with succinctly, split into 5 main chapters concerning the British colonies: The West Indies, the Carolinas, the Chesapeake, the Middle Colonies and New England. Each gives an individual and comparative narrative of the settlement of each colony along with an analysis of its circumstances.

Its perfect for a student studying the colonies as part of a large lecture course thats sparse on detail. Its both informative and easy to read. A special mention has to be made of the maps, so often missing from historical texts, that show each colony with its major settlements, regions and native tribes. Buy it when it comes out in paperback :o)

MASTERFUL
This is history at it's very best.
As a degree student of U.S History I have found this invaluable. The book is clearly written, concise, detailed and coherent. The whole narrative reads perfectly, touching on and encompassing all of the factors that constitute the early history of the USA. You will never be bogged down in names, statistics or rambling waffle like many history books.
If you want to start learning the history of the USA, start here and move on to the Oxford History of the United States series. You will know all there is to know about how and why America became the most powerful and wealthy nation on Earth. Everything is so crisply explained, it's wondeful. His breezy and clear prose puts other historians to shame. I am hoping he will write several more books on later US History. A fantastic introduction to America.