Category: Colonial America
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The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook (2024) by Hampton Sides
It’s rare for serious nonfiction about the late eighteenth century to appear on The New York Times’ list of the Ten Best Books of the Year – but that’s exactly what Hampton Sides achieved in 2024 with The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact, and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook. In…
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The Last Days of the Incas (2006) by Kim MacQuarrie
Kim MacQuarrie’s The Last Days of the Incas (2006) is a riveting account of conquest and discovery. The book recounts the almost unimaginable story of how Francisco Pizarro subdued a native empire of some ten million people with just 168 conquistadors and a handful of horses. Equally fascinating is MacQuarrie’s chronicle of the twentieth-century rediscovery…
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Conquistador: Hernán Cortés, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs (2008) by Buddy Levy
“Conquistador: Hernán Cortés, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs” (2008) by Buddy Levy may seem an unlikely work from an English professor at Washington State University, yet it delivers with striking success. Levy brings to life one of the most astonishing and tragic episodes in world history – the Spanish conquest of…
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The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492 (1972) by Arthur Crosby
Arthur Crosby’s unassuming little book “The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492” (1972) is actually one of the most important works of historical scholarship of the twentieth century. It launched a field of study, altered a paradigm, and continues to shape the way we think about global history. It ultimately spawned a Pulitzer…
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1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus (2005) by Charles C. Mann
When Jared Diamond’s Pulitzer Prize-winning history “Guns, Germs and Steel” came out in 1997 it made quite a splash. “1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus” by Charles Mann appeared less than a decade later in 2005. Diamond’s and Mann’s core arguments partly support each other – both stress that Old World diseases decimated…
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The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age (1987) by Simon Schama
“Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution” (1989) was the first book I ever read by Simon Schama. It was sometime around 2008. I was mesmerized; I could hardly put it down. It seemed as though I had just found a new favorite historical writer, someone as graceful and penetrating as Robert Massie. I immediately…
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The World the Plague Made: The Black Death and the Rise of Europe (2022) by James Belich
“The World the Plague Made: The Black Death and the Rise of Europe” (2022), by New Zealand historian James Belich – co-founder of Oxford’s Centre for Global History – is a bold, sweeping, and revisionist exploration of how a medieval catastrophe transformed the fate of an entire continent. In nearly 500 pages, Belich’s argument ranges…
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The Witches: Salem, 1692 (2015) by Stacy Schiff
Stacy Schiff is known for her immersive storytelling and detailed characterizations. In “The Witches: Salem, 1692” (2015) she delves into the psychological and societal factors that contributed to the hysteria that led to the infamous Salem witch trials, such as the rigid Puritanical belief system, gender dynamics, and existing community tensions. Schiff’s portrayal of the…
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Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America (1989) by David Hackett Fischer
David Hackett Fischer’s Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America is a stunning academic achievement. Each of the four migrations Fischer examines receives book-length treatment and authoritative analysis. It’s remarkable to discover just how distinct each of these “great migrations” was—and how each has left a lasting cultural imprint on its respective geographic region long…
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