A satisfying recounting of some of the earliest American history.
The story of the mysterious disappearance of the colonists who attempted to set up the first permanent British colony in the Americas.
Colonial Williamsburg Foundation vice president Horn (A Land As God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America, 2005, etc.) uses new archival material to piece together the history of more than 100 British colonists who landed on Roanoke Island, off the coast of North Carolina in 1587. The venture, sponsored by Sir Walter Ralegh, encountered trouble from the start. The colonists found the new land entirely inhospitable; they contended with fast-dwindling supplies as well as aggressive Native Americans, who brutally killed one colonist days after their arrival. Just one month after their initial landing, the settlers’ leader, John White, sailed back to England to obtain a relief force and to replenish supplies. When he finally returned in 1590 after many delays, the colony had disappeared, seemingly deserted. What happened to the colonists has been a mystery for centuries, with a number of different ideas advanced by historians over the years. Horn constructs a detailed theory of what he believes happened to many of the colonists—that they lived on elsewhere for years afterward, only to meet a tragic end. The author creates an engaging, you-are-there feel to the narrative, with rich descriptions of European politics, colonists’ daily struggles and the vagaries of relations between Native American tribes. Horn also provides helpful drawings and maps—many by John White—throughout this relatively brief but comprehensive book.
A satisfying recounting of some of the earliest American history.Pub Date: April 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-465-00485-0
Page Count: 230
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2010
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A strongly argued defense of polyester.
Forget the bad music, embarrassing clothes, and sleazy sexuality: Schulman (History/Boston Univ.) is here to set the record straight on the disco decade.
After a preface that features an odd encomium of his own work (“It offers a rich, evocative portrait of the United States in the 1970s”), the author settles in to explore his thesis—i.e., “The Seventies transformed American economic and cultural life as much as, if not more than, the revolutions in manners and morals of the 1920s and the 1960s.” He begins with 1968, a year that witnessed assassinations, political unrest, and a surprising surge of support for George Wallace. He offers a devastating assessment of the Nixon presidency, but credits Nixon with the insight to recognize and exploit the shifts of political power taking place in the US (from the old North and Northeast to the new South and West). Schulman also assesses the demographic and intellectual forces that fractured the old “melting pot” consensus and created the now-pervasive notion that diversity is the highest social good. He also chronicles the emergence of the Christian right (“This parallel universe proved surprisingly vast”) and the rise of the New South. Schulman writes compassionately about Jimmy Carter—but recognizes his utter inability to lead the country. And, while he admits Reagan’s unquestioned contributions to the American resurgence, Schulman recognizes that “The Reagan recovery did little for working people.” Throughout the 1970s, Schulman maintains, there was a “southernization of American life” and a decline in social and political activism. The author devotes considerable attention to the popular culture (especially films, TV shows, and music) of the period, but he largely ignores serious literature and the other arts—and he is given to seeing much in little, as when he attributes great cultural importance to Evel Knievel’s farewell tour and to Billie Jean King’s whupping of the feckless Bobby Riggs.
A strongly argued defense of polyester.Pub Date: May 14, 2001
ISBN: 0-684-82814-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2001
A well-written, well-argued story of the Civil War in the West. McDonough (History/Auburn Univ.; The Limits of Glory, 1991) continues to explore underexamined aspects of the Civil War, this time the western theater, often thought of as a sidelight to the real scrap in the East. In McDonough's view, the western engagements were crucial in sealing the fate of the Confederacy. He sets the stage for his account of the Kentucky battles by outlining the Confederacy's perilous state in the spring of 1862. The fall in February of the Tennessee river forts Henry and Donelson effectively split the South geographically and led to the abandonment a week later of Nashville, the first Southern capital to capitulate. On April 6, federal and Confederate armies clashed at Shiloh Church with horrific loss of life. Claimed as a victory by the Southern commanding general, the battle failed to halt the federal advance and led to the removal of P.G.T. Beauregard, the hero of Fort Sumter and Bull Run, as commander of Confederate forces in the West. He was replaced by the scruffy Braxton Bragg, whose record at Shiloh was itself ambiguous. On April 7, the Union Navy captured Island No. 10 on the Mississippi, which paved the way for the fall 17 days later of New Orleans. The South still had an opportunity to snatch victory at a clash in central Kentucky at a small town called Perryville, where in October 22,000 federals fought 17,000 Confederates. Forced to retreat, Bragg had to give up his dream of retaking Kentucky. The war would drag on for 30 more months, but McDonough shows that Southern defeat was increasingly inevitable. As studies of the Civil War become more narrow in focus, it's refreshing to find a volume that has some sweep to it, using the war in and around Kentucky to encapsulate the entire conflict in the West.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-87049-847-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
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