A new look at Jamestown. I heard Dr. Horn;s televised presentation on PBS and he signaled that this book shows that Jamestown colonists almost failed, and had they failed, the English would have given up the Chesapeake Bay area, only to be followed by some other European power. Even New England might not have lasted in English hands. Thus our country might not be English-speaking today. My own library has the book (summarized below from the library catalog) and I have put in a request for it. A land as God made it : Jamestown and the birth of America / James Horn. A land as God made it : Horn, James P. P. Call Number: 975.5425 HOR Publication Information: New York : Basic Books, c2005. Physical Description: p. cm. ISBN: 0465030947 (hc : alk. paper) $26.00 Summary What if Jamestown-the first permanent English settlement in North America-had collapsed? Would efforts to establish an English colony have been abandoned? Would other European powers such as the Spanish, Dutch, or French have moved into the mid-Atlantic region instead? Without Virginia, would the Pilgrims have ever gone to Plymouth? Would the English have ever established themselves as the major colonial power on the mainland of North America? Would modern American society have been entirely different? Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc. Publisher's Weekly Review Horn, who heads the library at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, offers a history that will put Plymouth in its place. Not only was Jamestown settled before Plymouth, in 1607, but, says Horn, it was the seedbed of many themes, both glorious (representative government) and tragic (imperialism), that run through American history. In this detailed narrative of Jamestown's first 18 years, Horn focuses primarily on the relationship between the English settlers and the Native Americans. (He gives disappointingly scant attention to the first Africans' arrival in 1619.) Jamestown was the first English colony in North America to succeed; that success was "disastrous" for the Indians. The town leader John Smith figures prominently in Horn's tale. Smith's own written recollection of his captivity by Indians is the source for the well-known story that a young Pocahontas saved his life; Horn dismisses Smith's account as implausibly exaggerated. In Horn's view, a pivotal point in Indian-Anglo relations was the Powhatan uprising of 1622. Any hope that the English might partner with the Indians against Spain and treat them with kindness or justice was killed thereafter, the settlers were determined to exclude the Indians from their new commonwealth. 12 b&w illus., 6 maps. Copyright ? Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright Reed Business Information Reed Elsevier Inc. Library Journal Review Horn (director, John D. Rockefeller Lib., Colonial Williamsburg Foundation; Adapting to a New World) writes an account of the Jamestown Colony, founded in 1607 the first permanent English settlement in North America, predating the Mayflower's arrival at Plymouth by 13 years. Horn's story encompasses such legendary figures as Capt. John Smith and Pocahontas although Horn discounts the importance of the latter. He defines in detail the significance of Jamestown: many of the themes that run through American history were first invoked there. For example, on March 22, 1622, hundreds of Powhatan warriors burned the settlement, taking the lives of 347 colonists. This calamitous event, which came close to destroying Jamestown, forever altered the relationship between the English and the Indians in the New World: no longer was it possible to achieve peace between the two peoples. Additionally, Jamestown was where slavery was first introduced into England's American Colonies; it also was primary in employing a representative government. Thus, Horn demonstrates that the Jamestown experience, for good and ill, played a formative role in defining America. Recommended for all public libraries. Karen Sutherland, Bartlett P.L., IL Copyright ? Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright Reed Business Information Reed Elsevier Inc. Author Biography James Horn is O'Neill Director of the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library at The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and lecturer at the College of William & Mary Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc. Table of Contents AcknowledgmentsXI Prologue: Before Jamestown1 1 Two Worlds11 2 The "Pearl and the Gold"39 3 Smith's Epic73 4 Innocence Lost99 5 Virginea Britannia131 6 War and Retribution157 7 Redeeming Pocahontas193 8 For "The Good of the Plantation"225 9 "Fatall Possession"249 Epilogue: After the Fall279 Illustration Credits291 Notes293 Index323 ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Click for free info on online degrees and make up to $150K/ year. http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/Ioyw6i3nlXF9Zij0UxPLRvnx9QThDgaU8mS1u0QqWsXA0Bqh8Tcxmw/