The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America |
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The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America
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by Russell Shorto
Sales Rank: 14535
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$8.13
At Amazon
on 6-2-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Hard Cover with 384 pages
Published by: DoubledayEdition: 1st Edition March 16, 2004
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0385503490
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0385503495
Book Dimensions:
9.5 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
Weighs: 1.6 pounds
From Publishers Weekly
Drawing on 17th-century Dutch records of New Netherland and its capital, Manhattan, translated by scholar Charles Gehring only in recent decades, Shorto (Gospel Truth) brings to exuberant life the human drama behind the skimpy legend starting with the colony's founding in 1623. Most Americans know little about Dutch Manhattan beyond its first director, Peter Minuit, who made the infamous $24 deal with the Indians, and Peter Stuyvesant, the stern governor who lost the island to the English in 1664. These two seminal figures receive their due here, along with a huge cast of equally fascinating characters. But Shorto has a more ambitious agenda: to argue for the huge debt Americans owe to the culture of Dutch Manhattan, the first place in the New World where men and women of different races and creeds lived in relative harmony. The petitions of the colony's citizens for greater autonomy, penned by Dutch-trained lawyer Adriaen van der Donck, represented "one of the earliest expressions of modern political impulses: an insistence by the members of the community that they play a role in their own government." While not discounting the British role in the shaping of American society, the author argues persuasively for the Dutch origins of some of our most cherished beliefs and their roots in "the tolerance debates in Holland" and "the intellectual world of Descartes, Grotius, and Spinoza." Shorto's gracefully written historical account is a must-read for anyone interested in this nation's origins.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
As the song goes, "Even Old New York was once New Amsterdam." Unfortunately, for many Americans, that is the limit of their knowledge about the Dutch colony that was seized by the English in 1664. Shorto, author of two previous books and articles published in the New Yorker and the New York Times Magazine, presents an outstanding and revealing chronicle of the Dutch presence on Manhattan Island. Much of his research is based on recently translated Dutch primary sources that have languished in archives in Albany. Written in elegant prose, this enthralling story provides original perspectives on several historical figures, including Henry Hudson, Peter Minuit, and Peter Stuyvesant. Shorto also highlights the contributions of Andriaen van der Donck, an energetic, charismatic man who played an integral part in creating a dynamic, diverse, and tolerant society that appears refreshing when compared to the neighboring Puritan-dominated colony in Massachusetts. This is an important work. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Reader Reviews
It is hard to picture Manhattan as the Dutch first saw it. It is hard to picture the Dutch here at all, as a matter of fact. Colonial history has always had such a strong Anglo bias that the Dutch (and New York, itself) never make much impact in the histories of America in the seventeenth century, focusing as it does so often on the Puritans and Pilgrims of New England. The Island at the Center of the World by Russell Shorto is a successful attempt to correct that for a pop history reading public. He makes a strong case for the importance of the early Dutch settlers as a harbinger of the future of New York (and hence America) as a multicultural nation that values individual liberties and respect religious freedoms, not values shared by the Puritans farther up north. His case is frequently overstated and not always backed up with the stongest evidence (cole slaw is mentioned a number of times as a prime example of Dutch influence) but the story he tells of this early colony is a fascinating one that deserves telling. By the end of the book, it is no longer quite so difficult to picture Manhattan as the Dutch first saw it and fought for it, with the natives, with the English, but, mostly, with each other. A wonderful slice of New York history.
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The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America
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Price: $8.13
Updated on 6-2-2008.
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