Innocence Abroad: The Dutch Imagination and the New World, 15701670

Book Description

Innocence Abroad explores the process of encounter that took place between the Netherlands and the New World in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The "discovery" of America coincided with the foundation of the Dutch Republic, a correspondence of much significance for the Netherlands. From the opening of their Revolt against Hapsburg Spain through the climax of their Golden Age, the Dutch looked to America--in political pamphlets and patriotic histories, epic poetry and allegorical prints, landscape painting and decorative maps--for a means of articulating a new national identity. This book demonstrates how the image of America fashioned by the Dutch, and especially the twin topoi of "innocence" and "tyranny," became integrally associated with evolving political, moral and economic agenda. It investigates the energetic Dutch response to the New World while examining, more generally, the operation of geographic discourse and colonial ideology within the Dutch Golden Age.

The European Discovery of America: Vol 1: The Northern Voyages A.D. 500-1600 (European Discovery of America, the Northern Voyages A. D. 50)

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The Classic Account of the Discovery of North America
Comprehensive Survey of the Discoverers
A must reference book for home library
Back To St. Brendan and the Irish Monks
An area of exploration often neglected

The European Discovery of America: Vol 1: The Northern Voyages A.D. 500-1600 (European Discovery of America, the Northern Voyages A. D. 50)
Samuel Eliot Morison
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Renaissance | World | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0195082710

Book Description

The late Samuel Eliot Morison, a former U.S. Navy admiral, was also one of America's premier historians. Combining a first-hand knowledge of the sea and transatlantic travel with a brilliantly readable narrative style, he produced what has become nothing less than the definitive account of the great age of European exploration. In his riveting and richly illustrated saga, Morison offers a comprehensive account of all the known voyages by Europeans to the New World from 500 A.D. to the seventeenth century. Together, the two volumes of The European Discovery of America tell the compelling stories of the many intrepid explorers who made what was then a journey frought with danger--figures as diverse as Leif Ericsson, Columbus, John Cabot, Jacques Cartier, Martin Frobisher, Magellan, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Sir Francis Drake to name but a few. They also follow the adventures of lesser-known but no less interesting mariners and offer a detailed look at those who set them forth on their travels. In the first volume, The Northern Voyages--winner of the prestigious Bancroft Prize for History--Morison re-creates the lives and perilous times of those who claimed to have seen the shores of North America in the 600 years after the Norsemen first landed. He brings to his account a rare immediacy, making the drama and unpredictability of their voyages as significant in relation to the people of their era as the astronauts' journeys have been for our own times. Morison also offers a fascinating look at the imaginary lands reported by early travelers (such mythical places as Antilia and the Seven Cities, the glorious Kingdoms of Norumbega and Saguenay, and Hy-Brasil the Isle of the Blest) and examines as well the alleged discoverers of these lands. With warmth and wit he distinguishes fact from fiction, and imaginary explorers and their exploits from actual men and events. In the second volume, Morison turns his attention to the navigators who negotiated the waters of the Caribbean and the treacherous coasts of South America, even following them as they ventured ashore to the dark inland of the southern continent. The Southern Voyages begins with the events leading up to Columbus's arrival in San Salvador in 1492 and concludes with the discovery of the southernmost bit of land, Cape Horn, by Dutch explorers in 1616. In between, Morison retraces the routes of all the great mariners, including a step-by-step account of Magellan's voyage that would take him around the world. Morison has enlivened his narrative with a wide range of source material from Italy, Spain, Portugal, and South America, in the process shedding new light on questions that have divided scholars througout history: Did Sir Francis Drake discover San Francisco Bay? Was Amerigo Vespucci a great explorer or a fraud--or a little of both? What role did the French have in the European discovery of Brazil? Each volume brims with contemporary illustrations, maps (many of them specially drawn for this history) and photographs (often taken by Morison himself as he flew at low altitude along the coastal routes of explorers), which together identify virtually every allusion to land and sea made by the great European navigators in their ship logs and their later accounts. With the 500th anniversary of the European arrival in America came much controversy over Columbus's true legacy. With its lively and engaging style, and with its unsurpassed understanding of the age, The European Discovery of America helps put the era of exploration in much-needed perspective. Anyone interested in the history of America, indeed, in the history of Western Civilization, will find these volumes absolutely essential.

Customer Reviews:

The Classic Account of the Discovery of North America .......2006-03-24

Morison was a Harvard professor, a Navy Admiral, a sailor, and a good writer and he turned out two hefty volumes about the discovery of the Americas. This volume concerns European travelers to North America before 1600. Volume 2 is about the southern voyages of Christopher Columbus, Magellan, and others.

Morison begins his account with the mythical St. Brendan, proceeds onward to the Vikings, examines the claims of other pre-Columbian "disoverers" of America, and then gets to Cabot, Cartier, and the 16th century explorers. He ends the book with a description of the attempt to found the first British colony in the United States at Roanoke Island, NC. Following each chapters he describes his sources and the work of other historians and discusses some of the more outrageous theories about pre-Columbian discoveries.

The book is enhanced by Morison's own experience as a sailor. He is able to refute some of the fantasies of other historians with his on-the-ground and sea experiences. One of the most interesting chapter in the book describes English ships and the life at sea of sailors in the 16th century. Good illustrations and maps enhance the text.

Morison doesn't have much interest and empathy for the Indians the early explorers encountered, nor the forces in Europe that caused the European explorers to trust their fortunes to hazardous journeys. He's a man who celebrates the romance of the sea -- and casts a baleful eye on those sailors and historians who fail to live up to his high standards of seamanship and scholarly endeavor. That this is the best book ever written on the discovery and early exploration of North America is almost without dispute. It's a shame that it has been allowed to go out of print.

Smallchief

Comprehensive Survey of the Discoverers.......2004-09-10

When not compiling the history of the United States Navy in World War II, Morison had a passion for chronicling the discovery of the New World. His two volume set constitutes the best, if not the only, repository of each and all European discoverer in the Americas, and this volume captures not only Columbus but also Scandinavian (Leif Eriksson), French (Cartier, Verrezano), English (Cabot) and a host of other expeditions. Also superbly illustrated with often stunning photos by the author of the Eastern seaboard, Labrador and the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

A must reference book for home library.......2004-04-11

Premier historian Morison brings in very narrative form discoveries of America. Decribes one by one each voyage to north of Virginia, and even discusses those that never took place. Seasoned mariner himself, details to reader not only specific voyages, but explains social environment of the era. One chapter tells about ships and seamen. This helps understand what and how the discoverers were thinking, and how they proceeded.

Each chapter is followed by discussion of source materials (rare these days). Those who are interested to find out more, will have ready shopping list of additional books, as well as their evaluation by Morison.

(...)

Many pictures.

Back To St. Brendan and the Irish Monks.......2001-10-26

In this volume Morison goes back to the voyages of St. Brendan and the Irish monks as well as those of Norsemen such as Leif Erickson. The first post-Columbian voyages the author describes are those of John Cabot in 1497-1498 and the book ends with a discussion of the experiences of the second Virginia colony in 1587.

Morison is an entertaining writer who offers many original insights.

Some of his thorough research was done as a passenger on a small twin-engined plane flown along the same coasts which were discovered by Cabot, Cartier and Verrazzano.

An area of exploration often neglected.......1998-08-12

In reporting the discovery of the Americas the popular focus of historians has been on the voyages of Columbus and others in the southern latitudes. The early northern explorers, in search of the elusive north west passage to Cathay, sailed in waters far more hostile than their southern compatriots. Morison has a great love for his subject and wealth of knowledge. He clearly details the personalities of the leaders of these early expeditions and the dangers they faced. This is a most enjoyable read filled with wit and knowledge, which has left me searching for other titles by the author.

The Ambassador's Secret: Holbein and the World of the Renaissance

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Gives a Well-Known Work New Meaning Five Centuries Later
Dissecting a masterpiece
Understand the difference between looking and seeing

The Ambassador's Secret: Holbein and the World of the Renaissance
John North
Manufacturer: Hambledon & London
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Renaissance | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1852853301

Book Description

The Ambassadors' Secret is a radical reinterpretation of one of the world's most famous paintings. Holbein's celebrated portrait of two French diplomats at the court of Henry VIII has usually been linked to the political and religious unrest of the day. John North shows that the painting has a very different, and previously undetected, central theme and many other meanings. Far from being random, the objects in The Ambassadors are deliberately, and very accurately, placed. In revealing exactly what they, and the painting, mean, The Ambassadors' Secret opens a remarkable window on the world of the Renaissance.

Customer Reviews:

Gives a Well-Known Work New Meaning Five Centuries Later.......2007-04-02

Author John North likens the title of the well-known National Gallery painting, "The Ambassadors" to calling a scene of the Christmas nativity, "Joseph and Mary". Indeed Holbein the Younger's 1533 painting of two French ambassadors at the English court of Henry VIII inspires thinking of symbolism immediately due to the array of scientific instruments depicted between the two subjects and the distorted scull placed below them. North exhaustively examines each item in the scene and ties each to themes dominating the politics of the day such as the growing friction between Henry VIII and Rome and the overall fascination of royal courts with science, alchemy, astrology, and astronomy. Several lines through the work are examined for their thematic relevance of the objects they connect and bisect, and other elements such as horoscopes are overlaid on the work for analysis. Included in the analysis is the setting of the exact time of the "sitting" to 4pm on Good Friday. It is clear that North came upon this subject from his past work investigating similar devices employed in the written works of Chaucer, and he presents a convincing argument here as well though his work is heavy of background information that tends to distract from the thesis rather than to support it in many ways. An interesting read, and true "fans" will be interested to know that Good Friday 2008 will mark the 25th 19-year Easter cycle since 1533. Is that some sort of silver jubilee?

Dissecting a masterpiece.......2006-06-29

Previous interpretations of this enigmatic painting, far more than a mere dual portrait of Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve, focussed upon symbols of Catholic, melancholy momento mori. Reminders of death abound: the skull (anamorphic representations were common - note the NPG portrait of Edward VI), the broken lute string, a world turned upside down (alluding to the Reformation), references to a universe divided, and a crucifix to remind man of Jesus' sacrifice, death and redemption.

North offers a radical, thorough interpretation of the religious and secular objects, astronomical devices, geometrical patterns of the floor, and, of course, the floating diagonal skull, relating them all to April 11, 1533, at 4:00 pm, Good Friday. He shies away from the political/religious schism of the day, stating it cannot be proved nor disproved.

Far more sophisticated than Dan Brown's silly, simplistic "Da Vinci Code" (the bane of art historians, legitimate as seeing faces in cloud formations), North proposes the geometrical lines of the piece, once extended and analyzed, are repeatedly at 27 degrees; significant, as 27 is divisible by three, the number of the Holy Trinity. Jesus was supposedly crucified at age 33, precisely 1,500 years before this painting. One could conclude Holbein's work contains subtle references to the Crucifixion and Golgotha, often represented as a mount of skulls (the present day site of the supposed tomb in Jerusalem contains an enormous, naturally formed skull in the rockface). A spiritual reminder to remain moral during troubled times, but perhaps not the previously assumed political statement. It is intriguing to note that Holbein, the German born court painter of Henry VIII, was a friend of astronomer and mathematician Nicolaus Kratzer.

The arguments are brilliantly realized, although not easily followed unless one has extensive knowledge of the period.

Why this painting? Why did Holbein paint this in 1533? Fifteen hundred years after the Crucifixion, the End of Days, the Apocalypse, seemed imminent. Charles V sacked Rome in 1527, Luther's Protestant heresy threatened Catholicism, Renaissance humanism clashed with medieval piety, a pregnant Anne Boleyn (Holbein's patroness) would be crowned Queen of England in less than two months' time - the stability, security of the old order had disappeared in the blink of an eye.

This book, over 400 dense pages long and extensively annotated, is one of the finest examples of art historical research I have ever encountered - innovative, securely grounded in history, religious speculation, art, and mathematics. A perfect reflection, indeed, of the era.

Understand the difference between looking and seeing.......2002-06-15

Art, history, religion, alchemy - these and more are the tantalizing ingredients with which John David North creates a singular work. "The Ambassadors' Secret" is a look at Hans Holbein's painting of Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve, two important 27-year-old Frenchmen who were in London in 1533. Even on the surface of things, this portrait is an unusual work: the two Ambassadors stand at either side of a curious collection of bric-a-brac that seems to be the real focus of the painting. North shows us how these items can be interpreted to determine a number of things, such as the date on which the two men are depicted (April 11th, 1533 - Good Friday). He discusses the nature and significance of the rhomboid shape at the men's feet, a geometrically perfect distortion of a human skull. Was the artist merely showing off by throwing in such a diabolically complex element, or was the skull meant to be a comment on the fleeting nature of life compared to the higher forces (time, the elements, religion) alluded to by the knickknacks on the shelves? Why is one string on the lute broken? Why does the painting suggest so many multiples of 3, even the men's ages, 3 x 3 x 3? Possible answers to these and many other questions are addressed by North, and once you've read this book, you will delight in looking at the painting again and seeing all the things you overlooked whenever you first encountered it.

Whether you approach this book for serious inquiry into an obviously intentional riddle, or just for entertaining scholarly conjecture about the intent of one of history's great painters, you are sure to enjoy it.

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Correcting an earlier error

Columbus, Magellan, and others

An invaluable work. Highly Recommended.

The European Discovery of America: Vol 2: The Southern Voyages A.D. 1492-1616 (European Discovery of America, the Southern Voyages 1492-161)
Samuel Eliot Morison
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
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Renaissance | World | History | Subjects | Books
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Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus

The Age of Reconnaissance: Discovery, Exploration, and Settlement, 1450-1650

The Great Explorers: The European Discovery of America

The European Discovery of America, The Northern Voyages A.D. 500-1600

Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe (P.S.)

ASIN: 0195082729

Book Description

Customer Reviews:

Correcting an earlier error.......2005-07-20

In regard to Mr Kasprzak's review above -- If interested in Viking explorations or any other matter described in that review, one should buy the Northern Voyages work, not the Southern Voyages edition under which Mr Kasprazak's review appears. His signals were crossed.

Columbus, Magellan, and others .......2005-04-11

There's not much doubt that Samuel Eliot Morison's two volume history of the European discovery of America is the best around. The first of the volumes, "The Northern Voyages," is probably of more interest to North Americans, delving as it does into the Vikings and speculative pre-Columbian discoveries of America.

"The Southern Voyages" begins with Columbus, covering his four voyages in about 200 pages, proceeds onward to Magellan and his circumnavigation of the globe, "the most remarkable voyage in recorded history," and finishes with the English voyages of Sir Francis Drake and Thomas Cavendish. Along the way, Morison also discusses the voyages of many "minor" explorers including the enigmatic Amerigo Vespucci, a man of modest accomplishments who saw his name applied to two continents. Sebastian Cabot rates a chapter as does the Dutch discovery of Cape Horn and the French and Portuguese in Brazil.

Morison was a sailor himself, a student of the sea, a naval historian, a biographer of Columbus, and a fine storyteller. He brings a wealth of insight to the voyages and even undertook expeditions of his own to visit the places where the voyagers called. His admiration for Columbus' seamanship is unbounded. "Never was a title more justly bestowed than...Admiral of the Ocean Sea." This admiration is a bit old-fashioned today, as latter-day historians talk more about Columbus's faults on land than his skill at sea. Morison follows each chapter in his book with notes and a bibliography in which he discusses, often with some humor, the controversies, old maps, and speculations so beloved by armchair theorists and explorers. Numerous photographs and outstanding maps dot the text.

To my mind any reading about the European discoverers of America should begin with Morison's two volumes -- and it can end there in most cases unless the reader's thirst for knowledge is unquenchable. This is an outstanding book and nothing comparable has been written to my knowledge since its publication 30 years ago.

Smallchief

An invaluable work. Highly Recommended........2002-07-12

Morrison's monumental chronicle of the European expeditions to America still holds its place as the best work in the field after three decades. Although quite lengthy (two volumes weigh in at more than 800 pages each), the books are quite readable and the writing manages to be both scholarly and entertaining.

This history doesn't deal with the explorations in a vacuum. Every voyage to America was prompted and influenced by a variety of social, economic, political, and technological factors in its country of origin, and Morrison gives a thorough view of the background of the explorers and their home country before treating the expeditions themselves. This book will not only tell you what the explorers discovered, but what they were looking for and why.

For all of those interested in the Viking expeditions to North America, this book tells the definitive story. The exact site of the first Viking settlement has been identified, and the archaeological evidence is discussed here. There is also a thorough debunking of several spurious "Viking stones" in places like Minnesota and New Hampshire.

Other explorations of North America are covered in fascinating detail, including the seasonal but very active sixteenth-century fishing outposts in Newfoundland, and the many attempts to discover the elusive Northwest Passage.

As a naval historian, Morrison devoted a fair number of pages in this book to technical descriptions of ships and sailing. The uninterested reader can safely skim over these parts without detracting from the historical saga, but this landlubber found it interesting to trace the technological development of the vessels that crossed the Atlantic.

Book Description

Moderating Masculinity in Early Modern Culture proposes a definition of gender based on a ternary model in which moderation and masculinity are inextricably linked. Like the Aristotelian virtue of moderation, which requires the presence of excess and lack in order to exist, what Reeser terms "moderate masculinity" requires two non-moderate others--one incarnating excess and one embodying lack--for its definition. This type of alterity takes a number of different forms--including women/effeminacy, the new world native, the nobility, the hermaphrodite, and the sodomite. The book begins with a reading of this brand of masculinity in Aristotle and then proceeds to textual analyses of canonical and non-canonical writers of the Renaissance, such as Rabelais, Montaigne, Erasmus, LÄry, and Artus. These writers are placed in dialogue with key cultural sites where this unstable model operates--especially pedagogy, marriage, male-male friendship, travel narratives, politics, etymology, and rhetoric. With its interdisciplinary implications, Moderating Masculinity should be of interest to students and scholars in gender studies, Renaissance/early modern studies, and French studies.

Renaissance Venice and the North: Crosscurrents in the Time of Durer, Bellini, and Titian

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Renaissance Crosscurrents

Renaissance Venice and the North: Crosscurrents in the Time of Durer, Bellini, and Titian
Bernard Aikema , and Beverly Louise Brown
Manufacturer: Rizzoli
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Renaissance | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Painting | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Customer Reviews:

Renaissance Crosscurrents.......2000-05-27

When I was a kid, getting art books from the public library, there were dozens of books about the Italian Renaissance and only one about the Renaissance in the north. Van Eyck, Van der Weyden, Memling, all of them were crammed together in one book and called by the derogatory-sounding name of "Flemish Primitives".

Happily, new books in recent years have begun to give the northern painters their due. Books by Dirk de Vos, Otto Pacht, and a recent catalog from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York ("Van Eyck to Bruegel"), among others, have given us the chance to see splendid reproductions of some of the most enchanting, jewel-like paintings in the world. Recent books on Gerard David and Petrus Christus, also from the Metropolitan, have even turned the spotlight on these less well-known painters who can easily come to win a place in your list of favorites.

Still, though, there was a strong sense that North was North and South was South and never the twain would meet. That idea has been eroding under recent scholarship, however, as researchers have begun to make clear the influences and crosscurrents that occurred between Italy and the north countries of Europe. More than some of us might have guessed, there was a lot of exchange going on. Painters from Durer to Bruegel travelled to Italy to learn what they could of the traditions there, and painters as thoroughly Italian as Raphael and Botticelli took ideas from what they knew of the north.

These exchanges have now been very thoroughly spelled out in a new book from Rizzoli that accompanied a recent exhibition in Venice. It is a huge thick block of a book, with 210 color plates and hundreds -- possibly thousands -- of black and white reproductions of drawings, prints, etc., -- anything that sheds light on how artistic ideas travelled up and down over the Alps. The print is small, and comes four columns to a page in some spots, with copious footnotes. In other words, it seems as if the editors of this book have taken on the ambitious task of filling in a fascinating blank in the history of art by pouring everything they know into one gigantic book. If either the Italian or the Northern Renaissance, or how the two rubbed together, is of interest to you, this book will fascinate you with details, comparisons, and unexpected connections.

It's sad to say that sometimes the reproductions are not what they could be. Many are much darker than the original paintings. This is the first time I have seen a reproduction of Giovanni Bellini's Pieta since it was cleaned, and it is looking very good indeed, but the photo of the Van der Weyden Lamentation on the preceding page is badly out of focus. If you are looking for gorgeous lusciousness in an art book, this would not be the one for you. For sheer quantity and historical interest, though, this is a prize.

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Thorough, Generous, Beautifully Illustrated

Western Civilizations: Sources, Images, and Interpretations, From the Renaissance to the Present

Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Langua
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Americas | History | Subjects | Books | Canada | Caribbean & West Indies | Central America | General | Greenland | Mexico | Native American | South America | United States
Early Civilization | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books
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Historiography | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books
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Modern European History

Cracking the AP European History Exam, 2006-2007 Edition (College Test Prep)

ASIN: 0072335742

Book Description

This collection of primary, secondary, and visual sources for the Western Civilization survey course provides a broad introduction to the materials historians use, the interpretations historians make, and 6,000 years of Western civilization your students need.

With its vast compendium of primary, visual, and secondary sources; its broad selection of documents, photographs, maps, and charts; and its full array of introductions, commentaries, guides, and questions, this is truly the source for your course. The selections and accompanying notes--drawn from a broad and balanced spectrum of perspectives and approaches--provide valuable insight into how historians work and place all the material in a context that helps students understand the full historical significance.

Customer Reviews:

Thorough, Generous, Beautifully Illustrated.......2004-02-11

This book is unique in its balance of primary sources and their interpretations. All the figures you'd expect are present: Macchiavelli, Luther, Locke, Paine, Engles, Freud, etc. And with secondary sources coming from Fromm, Ulam, et. al, the data is clearly and comprehensively analyzed. What readers will appreciate are the generous illustrations throughout the text which give you some idea how the philosophies/theories/values of the times are reflected in visual media. What some readers won't appreaciate is the single-spaced type that changes font and styles so often that one might get motion sickness. It's a minor point that has nothing to do with the value of the texts presented, but it does interfere with the pleasure of reading. Still, this is a great history book to teach from or just as a casual read/refresher for the history fan.

American Holocaust: Columbus and the Conquest of the New World

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In answer to conservative pseudointellectuals...
This is one of the most important books that you will ever read in your entire life
Simplisitc and sensationalistic
Crimes of Aggression and Occupation Revealed
THE SINGLE FINEST AND MOST ESSENTIAL BOOK OF THE AGE

American Holocaust: Columbus and the Conquest of the New World
David E. Stannard
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Americas | History | Subjects | Books

Spain | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Renaissance | World | History | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0195075811

Book Description

For four hundred years--from the first Spanish assaults against the Arawak people of Hispaniola in the 1490s to the U.S. Army's massacre of Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee in the 1890s--the indigenous inhabitants of North and South America endured an unending firestorm of violence. During that time the native population of the Western Hemisphere declined by as many as 100 million people. Indeed, as historian David E. Stannard argues in this stunning new book, the European and white American destruction of the native peoples of the Americas was the most massive act of genocide in the history of the world. Stannard begins with a portrait of the enormous richness and diversity of life in the Americas prior to Columbus's fateful voyage in 1492. He then follows the path of genocide from the Indies to Mexico and Central and South America, then north to Florida, Virginia, and New England, and finally out across the Great Plains and Southwest to California and the North Pacific Coast. Stannard reveals that wherever Europeans or white Americans went, the native people were caught between imported plagues and barbarous atrocities, typically resulting in the annihilation of 95 percent of their populations. What kind of people, he asks, do such horrendous things to others? His highly provocative answer: Christians. Digging deeply into ancient European and Christian attitudes toward sex, race, and war, he finds the cultural ground well prepared by the end of the Middle Ages for the centuries-long genocide campaign that Europeans and their descendants launched--and in places continue to wage--against the New World's original inhabitants. Advancing a thesis that is sure to create much controversy, Stannard contends that the perpetrators of the American Holocaust drew on the same ideological wellspring as did the later architects of the Nazi Holocaust. It is an ideology that remains dangerously alive today, he adds, and one that in recent years has surfaced in American justifications for large-scale military intervention in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. At once sweeping in scope and meticulously detailed, American Holocaust is a work of impassioned scholarship that is certain to ignite intense historical and moral debate.

Customer Reviews:

In answer to conservative pseudointellectuals..........2007-09-24

All of the big words and "references" in the world won't change history for you, unfortunately. I notice that among the people who did not like this book, they all pretty much said the same thing: That Stannard didn't paint an accurate picture of the natives of the western hemisphere. That he didn't acknowledge cannabalism (he did), that he didn't acknowledge human sacrifice (he did - to the tune of 20,000 per year in the Inca capital), and that he didn't acknowledge inter-tribal warfare and cruelty (he most certainly did). One of the reasons I liked this book so much was its extensive reference section (with explanations as to most of the references, so if you have any questions about something...LOOK IT UP). It'd do you all some good, rather than blindly naysaying whatever doesn't fit your racist little mold. Does it really MATTER whether or not native peoples practiced unsavory rituals? They're all dead.

In any case, the book was superb and whatever your views are regarding the native peoples mentioned in the book, one point remains irrefutable: They were exterminated. It was deliberate. It was planned, sanctioned, supported, and financed by every exploratory realm in Europe and by the American government throughout it's short and brutal history. You all know it.

This is one of the most important books that you will ever read in your entire life.......2007-04-29

It is amazing that we live in a country that was built upon holocaust but we yet we are in complete denial. And not just the U.S., the entire Americas. This book discloses the atrocities committed by the Spaniards and and other Europeans. It also dispels the myth that prior to the arrival of Columbus, America was nothing more than open prairie lands. And it reveals that the so-called new world was heavily populated before the mosting devasting and the largest genocide committed in history. It does more than reveal the diseases that the Spaniards and other Europeans brought to the new world. It uncovers the enslavement and intentional massacres of countless natives of the new world. A sad thing about this book is that those who need to read this book most (the ones in denial), will probably never read this book and continue to perpetuate the lie that no holocaust or genocide was ever committed in the Americas by the Spaniards and other Europeans. If you only read one book over the next decade, this should be it.

Simplisitc and sensationalistic.......2007-03-26

Almost every time someone uses the word 'holocaust' when they are not referring to the actual Holocaust between 1939 and 1945, they use it in an incorrect and sensationalistic manner, comparing the incomparible. This is no exception. It is true that millions of people died following the arrival of Europeans in the New World in 1492. However 90% of them died from Disease. This was an extraordinary number, but there is a difference between planning to murder so many and having them die for biological reasons(not being immune to disease). Indeed many of even the most cynical Spaniards were dismayed that the Indians were dying, either because they could no longer be used as slaves or because they could no longer be enslaved. It is rediculous to pretend that this was a 'holocaust' unless the black Plague that swept Europe in the 13th-14th centuries was also a holocuast.

In addition this book accuses the Europeans of 'racism' which is a patent lie. Race did not propell Europeans across the seas in 1492 and the years afterword. It is true that Europeans looked different than the indigenous people of the New World, but it is not true that this was what motivated colonization, ensalvement, war or exploitation.

Just as the rise of most empires, such as the Chinese or Ottoman, are not accused of being tied up in racism, it is comical to pretend that men like Columbus had any concept of the 19th century ideas of race. The notions are neither found in thier writings or documents and that is why none are quoted in this book. In fact many Spaniards defended the Indians, such as Bartholemew De Las Casas, but all those people are conveniently ignored here. Not a suprise.

Seth J. Frantzman

Crimes of Aggression and Occupation Revealed.......2007-03-18

David Stannard reveals the awful truth of Aggression and Occupation, misnamed "Discovery" and "Settlement," in the Americas. Readers who, in the names of education and religion, have been exposed to five centuries of revisionist history should be horrified at the truth. If they aren't, it will be a testament to the effectiveness of the church, school and university propaganda to which they have been exposed. The horrors of other holocausts are not excused by recognition that the holcaust in the Americas, perpetrated by European Christians against ancient civilizations were the most horrible in the history of mankind. They continue to this day.

THE SINGLE FINEST AND MOST ESSENTIAL BOOK OF THE AGE .......2006-06-06

A masterpiece of scholarship and analysis.

This book is nothing less than the single most important work that you will ever read.

Our entire culture is built on Holocaust Denial while those most responsible for this abnesia drape themselves in the flag of holocaust memorialism but have little honesty in their true agenda. An agenda that allows in North America alone for there to be at least 50 Holocaust memorials, museums and monuments...
only problem is they are ALL about the Holocaust that happened in Europe and NOT about the colossal extermination that took place where they live. It is not only denial on the part of the nations of the Americas and Europe but those responsible for this Holocaust Denial in relation to Indian America insist on an image of being the world's caretakers of holocaust memory. What a bloody audacity.

Why do we let the Spanish off the hook so lightly? Why is there no demand for Spain to make its Mea Culpa? Why is there no AMERICAS HOLOCAUST memorial in Madrid, Washington, London and Ottawa ?

This brilliant book re-addresses the imbalance.

POST SCRIPT....

There is a reviewer further down who uses the monica of
"history buff" who rejects the value and integrity of this work. In fact he utterly insults Mr Stannard and his thesis.

So I thought I would check out his other reviews...oh boy!

One of the remarks he makes in a book claiming that Saddam was behind 9/11 goes "But it is very difficult to argue with the facts that were available to the agencies which pointed to a direct link between Saddam and Al Qaeda." This example of his world view is the mild end of it. So people consider the character of the self-described "history buff" who rejects Stannard's brilliant thesis on the Holocaust in the Americas.

The reviewer "history buff" has a world view that comes straight out of the 1950's HUAC committee (he associates all Left wing thought with the Soviet Union not knowing that the Bolshevik regime prohibited the platform of the revolution and that its first victims were in fact the most sincere and dedicated Left revolutionaries. Clearly he has never read the finest autobiography in the history of English language autobiography; Emma Goldman's LIVING MY LIFE volume 1 and volume 2. The latter volume includes a first hand account of the destruction NOT construction of socialism by Lenin and his cohorts ).
.

A Catalogue of Netherlandish and North European Roundels in Britain (Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi)

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A Catalogue of Netherlandish and North European Roundels in Britain (Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi)
William Cole
Manufacturer: British Academy
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

This is the first catalogue of Britain's rich collection of 16th/17th-century painted glass roundels from Holland and Belgium. Generously illustrated, it forms an important source for those researching drawings and engravings as well as students of stained glass. Some 2500 roundels and small panels, depicting both sacred and secular scenes, are housed in British churches, secular buildings and private collections. Many are beautifully detailed, giving an insight into contemporary life. Each catalogue entry gives a full description of the roundel, including the origin of its design and details of where else the same design is found. About 1400 of the entries are illustrated, and the text is complemented by a number of helpful indexes.

Colonial Writing and the New World, 15831671: Allegories of Desire

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Colonial Writing and the New World, 15831671: Allegories of Desire
Thomas J. Scanlan
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Book Description

Colonial Writing in the New World 1583-1671 offers an account of the simultaneous emergence of colonialism and nationalism during the early modern period. It looks at the role that English interactions with native populations played in attempts to articulate a coherent English identity. Unlike most other studies of the subject, it suggests that colonialism is best understood as a phenomenon that had profound significance for people on both sides of the Atlantic.

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