Zelanator reviewed American Colonies by Alan Taylor
Review of 'American Colonies' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
Took a while to finish this one. For the most part I was reading it chapter by chapter as I prepared lessons for a history class. On the whole, Taylor does an excellent job explaining the European colonization of the Americas without the narrative being driven by the creation of the United States. Throughout the work, Taylor places an emphasis on the varied relationships between multiple European powers and a seemingly infinite number of Native American tribes. From this one gets a very good sense of how the Spanish, French, and British empires operated in the New World — both their similarities and their differences. However, the last couple chapters of the book felt rushed. The last chapter, especially, with an emphasis on the Pacific Ocean felt slapped together to simply bring the Russians into the story. I would have preferred a more robust explanation of the revolutionary period in …
Took a while to finish this one. For the most part I was reading it chapter by chapter as I prepared lessons for a history class. On the whole, Taylor does an excellent job explaining the European colonization of the Americas without the narrative being driven by the creation of the United States. Throughout the work, Taylor places an emphasis on the varied relationships between multiple European powers and a seemingly infinite number of Native American tribes. From this one gets a very good sense of how the Spanish, French, and British empires operated in the New World — both their similarities and their differences. However, the last couple chapters of the book felt rushed. The last chapter, especially, with an emphasis on the Pacific Ocean felt slapped together to simply bring the Russians into the story. I would have preferred a more robust explanation of the revolutionary period in those final chapters, an inclusion of the Enlightenment, or a focus on the Atlantic World writ large.
This is a work of synthesis which brings together numerous scholarly works. As such, Taylor merely provides what appears to be the most consensus narrative of American colonies between 1492 and 1800.
