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Chargement... Love and Hate in Jamestown: John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New Nation (2003)par David A. Price
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Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. Very readable, detailed, nuanced account of the Jamestown settlement and relations between the Powhatan and the English colonists. There was much more drama and needless suffering based on stubbornness and politics than I knew about. This book draws on primary sources and makes the story come alive. ( ) This is an engrossing account of the Jamestown story told mainly from the English point of view and with John Smith as the main focus of the book. Price pretty much accepts Smith's version of events, but he backs his opinion with research, so you can't say he made his decision lightly. I've seen book reviews saying that historians today generally accept that the Pocahontas rescue never happened, but actually, no they don't; they're pretty divided (as I am). I rather like the argument Price makes for Smith's truthfulness on the rescue, which is, among other things, that it would not have made him look heroic, so he gained little personally by revealing it. As for whether it was an adoption ritual that Smith failed to understand, Price makes the point that Smith stayed in Jamestown for several more years and had much contact with the natives. If he failed to understand it at the time, he would probably have figured it out in the years following. And whatever you care to say about Smith, he wasn't stupid. A part of this book I really liked was the fascinating description of events surrounding the shipwreck in Bermuda (inspiration for Shakespeare's 'The Tempest'), a story in which Smith is not a participant. That said, if you want a Jamestown account with a more Native American Indian viewpoint, I recommend Rountree's 'Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown.' It's not as easy a read, and a little slow in parts, as it spends a lot of time on Indian culture, Rountree's specialty. But it gives needed balance to the Jamestown story. Rountree, for one, is much more skeptical of John Smith. BTW, I really disagree with another reviewer on this page who says "the book ... seems to position the [Pocahontas/Smith] relationship as an unrequited love story." We must have read different books, as I didn't see that at all. Price even states that the only hint of a romance in Smith's writings was a mysterious reference to the Abigail Isles, which Smith is thought to have named, but for which there is no known reference. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
History.
Nonfiction.
HTML:A gripping narrative of one of the great survival stories of American history: the opening of the first permanent English settlement in the New World. Drawing on period letters and chronicles, and on the papers of the Virginia Companyâ??which financed the settlement of Jamestownâ??David Price tells a tale of cowardice and courage, stupidity and brilliance, tragedy and costly triumph. He takes us into the day-to-day existence of the English men and women whose charge was to find gold and a route to the Orient, and who found, instead, hardship and wretched misery. Death, in fact, became the settlersâ?? most faithful companion, and their infighting was ceaseless. Price offers a rare balanced view of the relationship between the settlers and the natives. He unravels the crucial role of Pocahontas, a young woman whose reality has been obscured by centuries of legend and misinformation (and, more recently, animation). He paints indelible portraits of Chief Powhatan, the aged monarch who came close to ending the colonyâ??s existence, and Captain John Smith, the former mercenary and slave, whose disdain for class distinctions infuriated many around himâ??even as his resourcefulness made him essential to the colonyâ??s success. Love and Hate in Jamestown is a superb work of popular history, reminding us of the horrors and heroism that marked the dawn Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)975.5History and Geography North America Southeastern U.S. VirginiaClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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