Specify Books Toward The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America
| Original Title: | The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America |
| ISBN: | 1400078679 (ISBN13: 9781400078677) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Setting: | New York State(United States) |
| Literary Awards: | Audie Award for Nonfiction, Unabridged (2005), New York City Book Award for Book of the Year (2004) |
Russell Shorto
Paperback | Pages: 384 pages Rating: 4.14 | 7786 Users | 867 Reviews
Representaion In Pursuance Of Books The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America
When the British wrested New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664, the truth about its thriving, polyglot society began to disappear into myths about an island purchased for 24 dollars and a cartoonish peg-legged governor. But the story of the Dutch colony of New Netherland was merely lost, not destroyed: 12,000 pages of its records–recently declared a national treasure–are now being translated. Drawing on this remarkable archive, Russell Shorto has created a gripping narrative–a story of global sweep centered on a wilderness called Manhattan–that transforms our understanding of early America. The Dutch colony pre-dated the “original” thirteen colonies, yet it seems strikingly familiar. Its capital was cosmopolitan and multi-ethnic, and its citizens valued free trade, individual rights, and religious freedom. Their champion was a progressive, young lawyer named Adriaen van der Donck, who emerges in these pages as a forgotten American patriot and whose political vision brought him into conflict with Peter Stuyvesant, the autocratic director of the Dutch colony. The struggle between these two strong-willed men laid the foundation for New York City and helped shape American culture. The Island at the Center of the World uncovers a lost world and offers a surprising new perspective on our own.
Point Epithetical Books The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America
| Title | : | The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America |
| Author | : | Russell Shorto |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 384 pages |
| Published | : | April 12th 2005 by Vintage (first published January 1st 2004) |
| Categories | : | History. Nonfiction. New York. North American Hi.... American History. Historical |
Rating Epithetical Books The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America
Ratings: 4.14 From 7786 Users | 867 ReviewsEvaluation Epithetical Books The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America
Shorto has given us a description of the Dutch history of Manhattan, Yonkers (Younkers), and the Bronx (de Brounx--?sp.) from lost/forgotten archives in Dutch. I read this book while I was doing a 3 year research project with the poorest schools in the Bronx and after my longtime collaboration with researchers at Leiden University in the Netherlands. I also like having a feeling of the land under modern-day NYC. As I had learned more thanks to my Dutch friends of the Golden Age in the lowcountryInteresting and well written. Not a page turner as such, but glad I read it. Cool to connect with the modern day experience of living in NYC.
I really wanted to enjoy this book. I thought I would enjoy learning about the history of Dutch Manhattan. But I just didn't. I really slogged through this book. I had trouble keeping the players & events straight. But I did enjoy the main theme of the book that the Dutch did have an effect on the shaping of the culture of America, though they are largely ignored in colonial history in favor of the British.
This is a thoughtful and very readable look at the years that Manhattan (and much of its surrounding area) was a Dutch colony. Russell Shorto takes the position that the New Netherland colony has been undeservedly forgotten, and that instead of being a "failed colony" it actually had cultural and political influence on what would become the United States of America. He argues this point fairly well, and I suppose I buy his argument. But what I liked about the book is how it fired my imagination.
History is written by the victors. I guess that's why the only thingI learned in school was that New York was settled by the Dutch andoriginally called New Amsterdam and that Peter Stuyvesant had a woodenleg. I was so interested in Adriaen Van der Donck and think he should be asnoteworthy an early American as William Brewster, John Smith orJohn Winthrop. I wonder had he achieved his goal of changingthe government of New Amsterdam from the tyrannical rule of theEast India Company to the
I picked up The Island at the Center of the World because it directly targets two of my own personal obsessions: New York history and Dutch language. Author Russell Shorto builds it upon thirty years of translation work by a man called Charles Gehring, a specialist in 17th century Dutch who resurrected the complete records of New Amsterdam, the Dutch settlement that is now New York City and environs. Shorto's thesis is that the Dutch colony was more successful and more influential than
The story of how Santa Claus came to America is long on extraneous facts and short on compelling narrative. A lot of people really like this book, and I very much enjoyed Shorto's style of writing, but his protagonist, Adriaen Van der Donck, is as dull as paste for at least two reasons:1. As Shorto points out, most of the information we have on this man has been lost to history. So, Shorto has to "imagine" what Van der Donck was probably doing on many important days. Far too many passages begin
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