Russell ShortoCritiques

This is a fascinating book about the creation, growth, development & overtaking by Britain of the colony of New Amsterdam. The information about several main characters in this tale was eye-opening & completely new to this reader. I heartily recommend this book.

I can't say enough about how tremendous this book is! I read A LOT about the American Revolution and this is easily in my top 5. "Revolution Song" reads like a novel, but is straight-up nonfiction.

Author Russell Shorto takes six people: George Washington, Lord George Germain (American Sec. of State for England), Abraham Yates (NY laborer and later politician), Cornplanter (Seneca/Iroquois warrior/chief), Margaret Coghlan (daughter of a British general), and Venture Smith (slave who bought his freedom) and intertwines their stories like none I've read before.

All of the high points of the Revolutionary period and later are hit but in such a natural, effortless way that again, it reads like a novel.

Don't pass this book by!

This is one of those nonfiction books that is somewhat boring at times but contains so much fascinating material that it pays to power through. The Island at the Center of the World by Russell Shorto examines the colony of New Netherlands and takes the perspective that history has skimmed over the Dutch influence on the United States. Shorto gives readers the background on known figures like Minuit and Stuyvesant, but also some forgotten figures like van der Donck through forgotten documents previously untranslated. He weaves in European history and world events to place the founding of New York solidly in history.

This book was fascinating in looking at history from a different perspective. Most interesting is the path of Descartes' skull.

I just finished reading The Island at the Center of the World::The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America by Russell Shorto. The book is an excellent history of an overlooked but apparently crucial period of American history; the Dutch heritage of New York City, Albany and other adjacent lands. Most American history assumes an Anglo-centric perspective. That perspective is far from wrong, since the English dominated even the earliest colonization of what is now the United States, from the Georgia-Florida border through Virginia and to some extent Maryland, and from Maine partway through modern Connecticut. In between lay "the Middle Colonies", or what became New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Maryland is a special case, a Catholic island in the middle of Protestant America but I digress.

The Middle Colonies also featured a strong Swedish presence in what is now Delaware, southern New Jersey and Southeastern Pennsylvania. The tumultuous history of "New Sweden" is discussed extensively in the book.

The book's main geographic focus is what was known as "Nieuw Amsterdam", later New York City and Fort Orange, later Albany. The book's main human focus is Adriaen van der Donck, of whom I was aware mostly for the fact that Yonkers, a city bordering New York City was named after him. In modern terms he would be understood as a "lawyer's lawyer." The profession of law did not exist in a modern sense in those days. He was dogmatic in his insistence on the rule of law. He was sometimes an ally and sometimes a bitter enemy of the far more famous Peter Stuyvesant.

The book's main argument is that while Dutch rule did not survive, New York City's underlying tradition of tolerance did survive and indeed spread throughout the nation, though imperfectly. The author states, on Page 125-6 "(w)e should be clear, however, about the meaning of tolerance, which had nothing to do with 'celebrating diversity' -- a concept that would have been seen as sheer loopiness in the seventteenth century. 'Putting up with' was probably closer to the mark. If this sounds wan, consider that in Germany as of the time an estimated forty percent of the populated died due to the unholy enmeshment of religious intolerance and politics that gave rise to the 'Thirty Years' War' (in the city of Magdeburg only, thirty thousand were killed in a single day." The book does argue that the flood of people coming to the New World, and largely to New York, came as a result of the mindless massacres and the narrow-mindedness that spawned those.

My minor quibbles, and why I give it "four stars"; certain literary flourishes are clearly invented. How does he know, for example, that after giving a presentation of various "Remonstrances" Adriaen van der Donck turned with a "pirouette" as he departed? This historical device is common, and somewhat lamentable. However, it does add to the book's readability. I highly recommend this book.

Really fun look at pre-British New York.

Not so much a travel guide as it is a history guide. Well written it engagingly informs of Amsterdam’s contribution to the growth and establishment of liberal ideas.

This history of the American Revolution is in fact the parallel biographies of six individuals whose lives came in contact with the war and the underlying ideologies of American independence. I really like this approach to writing history because while it is unwieldy to attempt a comprehensive history of the American Revolution, by focusing on six individuals you get a better sense of how the war affected different kinds of people. And as Short tells their entire life stories we get a lot of detail beyond just the 8 years of the war of their lives before and after the conflict. Finally, we also get to see how these six historical figures dealt with the ideals and challenges of freedom. I should add, and Shorto makes this explicitly clear, that these six individuals are not representatives of greater populations but simply their own American Revolution stories.

The six subjects of Revolution Song are:

• George Washington - The most obvious figure of the story of the American Revolution, and yet Shorto is able to get beneath the "great general and first President" story to get an understanding of a many struggling to find his place in society and the opportunities that military leadership bring.


• Venture Smith - Born in modern-day Ghana as Broteer Furro, Venture Smith was kidnapped as a child and sold into slavery, eventually living in servitude in Rhode Island, New York, and Connecticut. Venture purchased his freedom and that of his wife and children and became a successful farmer in Connecticut. One of his son's would serve in Washington's army during the war. His A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa: But Resident above Sixty Years in the United States of America was one of the first published slave narratives.


• George Germain - The only figure in the book who never set foot in the Americas is George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville. Having been court martialed during the Seven Years War, he was disgraced in aristocratic circles. Nevertheless he was a favorite of King George III and was able to claw his way into politics and get appointed Secretary of State for the American Department. His aggressive approach to attempting to suppress the rebellion and lack of familiarity of the reality of the situation in the colonies is blamed for the British failure in the war.


• Cornplanter - The chief warrior for the Seneca people who fought in both the French & Indian War and the Revolution allied with the British forces. He and his people suffered greatly when General Washington instructed Major General John Sullivan to carry out a scorched earth campaign destroying Iroquois Six Nation villages throughout New York. After the war, Cornplanter protested against the Treaty of Paris ceding Iroquois land to the United States that had never been under control of Britain, and met with President Washington in person in 1790.


• Abraham Yates - A revolutionary lawyer and politician from Albany, Yates took a more radical position on individual liberty and mistrust of government. He became a rival to Alexander Hamilton and a staunch opponent of Federalism and the Constitution.


• Margaret Moncrieffe - The only woman in this book, Margaret Moncrieffe was a child when the Revolution started living in New York as the daughter of a British officer. Her father arranged her marriage to the cruel British Lieutenant John Coghlan although she was in love with Aaron Burr. After moving to Britain, she separated from her husband and found a measure of independence as the mistress of several prominent men in Britain and Europe.

I think the stories of Venture Smith, Cornplanter, and Margaret Moncrieff are the most interesting since they are the type of people that don't appear in histories that focus on military and political leaders. Nevertheless, the whole book reads very well and is an interesting addition to Revolutionary War historical studies.½

Thoroughly enjoyed this story about the author's Italian American roots, extended family, and the consequences of all of it. I have Italian American roots in Pennsylvania as well (Scranton) but my predecessors aren't nearly as colorful (or maybe they were). I picked up lots of bits about the economy and social structures of the era, as well as quite a few tips and tricks to researching my own family (which is an on-going adventure). Thanks to Russell Shorto for seeing this project to completion.

This book has lots of history I didn't know and is brilliantly written, a combination that makes for a great read. Sholto's book, which appeared in 2005, was based on masses of material from the period of Dutch rule that had only recently been translated, adding a great deal to what was know about the era. The book shows that the Dutch, who only ruled Manhattan from 1624 to 1664, established a thriving commercial center and an emerging society. It challenges the "Establish Version" of American history, which focusses so intently on the Pilgrims and other English Puritan groups in New England. Sholto makes history truly dramatic, bringing historical figures to vibrant life, and showing through them how the pressures and ideas of the time were expressed. His writing is brilliant, a joy to read. A terrific read.

Russel Shorto’s Smalltime, is a captivating and engaging family story of Russell Shorto’s relatives’ and friends’ deep involvement, even if involuntary at times, with the mob. The story stretches from the immigration of great-grandfather, who leaves Italy and his life and family to find a new one in Johnstown Pennsylvania, and progresses through the next generations and how they survived and strives with the help of the mob in small town America, but not without disappointments and hardships. What makes the book so engrossing is the author’s research and reliance especially on his father, who a forms writing partnership with the author to explore family memories, and interviews not only with his family and friends, but with others who knew the author’s ancestors and their associates who were helped by the family though time and if they had any association with the mob. Amazingly the author admits to missing pieces of the story. A highly recommended memoir that is rich in detail but offers humor and is written in a pace that keeps the reader involved and discovering and appreciating the strength of the family. An interesting side note while looking biographical information on the author, I found an interesting interview in BookPage (https://tinyurl.com/frczrd8), in which Russell Shorto discusses eight true factors that led to the growth of the mob in America.

SMALLTIME by Russell Shorto
Lots of individual vignettes are interesting in this memoir. Many individuals and their stories make for a challenging read trying to keep them all straight. Shorto has written a detailed narrative genealogy of his father’s family in an attempt to discover who murdered Pippy and to discover the “real” person who was his grandfather.
I found it difficult to maintain interest in the book as Shorto leapt from person to person and time frame to time frame. A listing of the numerous characters with their relationship to Shorto would have been helpful. I did learn a great deal about small time criminals and how the numbers racket and other “mob” games worked.
I do not think my book groups would be interested in discussing this book, but some folks would find it fascinating as an individual read.
3 of 5 stars

I loved this book. It's great when an author can weave a narrative through something physical to show something larger. This goes through philosophy in Europe, as expected, but also several individual's lives, the French Revolution, and the Scientific Revolution. I enjoyed this a lot, and hope to find more books by the author, or books like this.

Young readers find themselves in the cockpit of the Space Shuttle Discovery as it prepares to blast off. They explore the facets of the mission, from launch to touch down, learn about teamwork as the astronauts and specialists on the crew work with each other, and with Mission Control.

There’s a bit of science tossed in with the photographs and illustrations as the reader follows the steps to fly the shuttle mission. A “glossarized index” is also included in this book that is part of the Masters of Motion series.

Highly recommended.

Excellent, fascinating history of the New World Dutch colony, New Netherland, with emphasis on Manhattan and the rest of New Amsterdam. The book covered from exploration of the area by Henry Hudson, an Englishman working for the Dutch, to the final bloodless surrender to the British. We learn more about Peter Minuit than his buying Manhattan from the Indians for $24, which we have probably learned in grade school. The Europeans and the Indians had different concepts of such transactions. He was also important in the history of New Sweden [later Delaware]. Peter Stuyvesant emerges as more than the stereotype of a peg legged tyrant. We also learn of a man forgotten by history and who should be much better known, Adriaen Van der Donck, the lawyer and visionary, who even travelled to the Hague to seek redress for the common people. After the British took over, they kept some of the Dutch institutions. The most important was something they didn't have in their own legal system and saw the advantage of: the office of schout, which we still have today in the person of the district attorney. Lastly, the book delineates the traces of Dutch influence even today, although the English downplayed the importance of the colony. New Netherland encompassed all or some of five states: New York [from the Atlantic Coast to /Fort Orange/Albany], New Jersey, Connecticut [today's Tri-State area], and parts of Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Highly recommended.

Pilgrim-Puritan New England was inward looking, tribal, and embraced something very like Sharia law. The early Virginians were little more than slave dependent parasites. It was in Dutch Manhattan that America began. But because that narrative did not favor British mythology, and because the records of the Dutch colony disappeared for 300 years, the great contributions to the founding of America by the Dutch were, and for the most part are still, ignored.
This is an important book based on those long lost records.

I have posted my review on my blog The Itinerant Librarian. Click (or copy and paste to your browser) the link:


Link: http://itinerantlibrarian.blogspot.com/2013/10/booknote-amsterdam.html

I listened to this book on Audible, and I enjoyed so much I will probably read the hardback version. The history of Amsterdam covers both the political and cultural contributions of the Dutch society to medicine, trade, philosophy, and the arts. Of particular interest to me as Jew, was the history of the Jewish culture in Amsterdam. This history included Spinoza's impact as well as the Nazi invasion in which so Jews were sent off to concentration camps. Of course, Anne Frank being one of the most famous. Great book!

At first the rapidly changing cast of characters is bewildering. However, gradually the important characters become clear and remain through the book.

The author frequently emphasizes that there are few clear cut heroes or villains, and that New Netherlands was very multicultural, with never resolved conflicts between the people and their ruler.

A surprise for a non-fiction was that there is an exciting climax in the penultimate chapter of the book. Not that we don't know how it will end. We do know. But the rapid fire political and military machinations would make an amazing study for someone willing to try to understand all the duplicity involved - especially in that chapter.

did not finish. not interesting (to me)

What an excellent history of such a wonderful city, which managed to be both a capitalist superstar at one time as well as a beacon of tolerance. Oh, if we could only emulate that combination of virtues.

I enjoyed this a great deal—Shorto follows a number of people around the Revolution, including an Iroquois war/peace leader; a New York politician who was ultimately an antifederalist (and whose worries about presidential power sound pretty prescient, although Shorto himself selected those quotes in the past year or so, so no surprise there); a young British woman whose attempts at freedom didn’t end up well for her; an enslaved and then free man trying to carve out a life in the North; a British lord; and George Washington. Each of these people interacted with at least one of the others (mostly George Washington), with the exception of the African-turned-American who went by Venture Smith; the closest Shorto gets is that Smith could have gone to see Washington at one particular point where Washington was nearby and publicly feted, but there is no evidence one way or the other (and he didn’t seem like the type to go watch politicians). He successfully gets across the many ways in which the Revolution did, and didn’t, change things for various people.

More like a survey of historical Dutch than a story of city history. Dry, long, boring, uninteresting. All are the exact opposite of Amsterdam.

A marvelous book about the founding and growth of Dutch New York. History is told by the winners so we see New York as an English story. But this book pulls us back and situates New York as a far-flung tentacle of the Dutch Golden Age and tells us how that influence has continued not only in place names but in the tolerance and diversity that makes New York unique.

Revolution Song: A Story of American Freedom
by Russell Shorto

Review 7/29/19

Interesting perspective on the American Revolution is provided in this exposition, interweaving stories from the lives of six persons whose own tales exemplify some of the difficulties associated with the Revolution’s challenges.
- George Washington, trying to be a successful Virginia planter with all the social cache to which such folk thought they were entitled, instead becomes the Commander who accomplishes Cornwallis’ and the British’s defeat. He sees the fatal flaw in slavery but does little to extricate himself from it.
- Ghanaian youth Broteer Furro, captured and shipped from the Gold Coast of Africa, finds himself in slavery in New England. Renamed Venture Smith, he eventually extricates himself, his wife, and his children through both hard work and a sharp exercise of capitalist financial knowhow.
- Seneca leader Cornplanter, whose father was white, experiences the disaster that European inroads bring the Iroquois in what would become western New York and Pennsylvania. After observing, and participating in, massacres on both sides, he shares in negotiations (including with Washington himself) that place his families in settlements that appear to be “safe” ... for a while.
- Abraham Yates, Jr., of Albany, NY, becomes one of the staunchest early supporters of the rights of the common man (the self-made merchant class), trying to avoid a return to the supremacy of the elites.
- Margaret Montcrieffe Coghlan is a motherless teenager, her father a military officer, when New York City changes hands from the revolutionaries to the British. Her father marries her off, and she and her abusive new husband sail to England. But Margaret rebels, walks away, and eventually must acknowledge that the freedom espoused by the Americans is not yet truly available for women.
- George Germain (later Sackville), becomes Britain’s American Secretary, trying to use extreme firmness to bring the Americans to heel. He attempts to run the war from a distance, but he and his generals together manage to fail.