A Land As God Made It
Jamestown and the Birth of America
Contributors
By James Horn
Formats and Prices
- On Sale
- Sep 26, 2006
- Page Count
- 352 pages
- Publisher
- Basic Books
- ISBN-13
- 9780465030958
Price
$19.99Price
$25.99 CADFormat
Format:
- Trade Paperback $19.99 $25.99 CAD
- ebook $12.99 $16.99 CAD
Buy from Other Retailers:
Although it was the first permanent English settlement in North America, Jamestown is too often overlooked in the writing of American history. Founded thirteen years before the Mayflower sailed, Jamestown’s courageous settlers have been overshadowed ever since by the pilgrims of Plymouth. But as historian James Horn demonstrates in this vivid and meticulously researched account, Jamestown—not Plymouth—was the true crucible of American history. Jamestown introduced slavery into English-speaking North America; it became the first of England’s colonies to adopt a representative government; and it was the site of the first white-Indian clashes over territorial expansion. A Land As God Made It offers the definitive account of the colony that gave rise to America.
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“A thorough and painstaking history of the Jamestown settlement....Horn writes with clarity and precision, and in John Smith, he has a larger-than-life central figure...[Horn] has done a careful job of synthesizing his material.”New York Times Book Review
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“A superb history...an exemplary account....All in all, an absolutely terrific book.”Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post
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“A rip-snortin’ adventure, petty- and power-politics, blood-and-guts, rivalries, and more....This work has the special merit of revealing a historical treasure—like a lost Gilbert Stewart found in the dusty attic of history, a subject whose importance becomes as obvious as our neglect of it seems silly and wrong.”Washington Times
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“[Horn] is eminently well qualified and writes with assurance about the actual events and the many myths that surround the first years of the Colonial experience....A Land as God Made It should take a rightful place in the very short list of books that are must reading for anybody who wants to understand how it all began.”Richmond Times-Dispatch
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“Horn's writing is accessible and often dramatic. He adds new twists and depths to familiar stories, such as the fate of the Lost Colony or the relationship between John Smith and Pocahontas.”Virginia Gazette
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“This is a must read for true Virginians (and those who would aspire to that lofty station) and should be force-fed to the descendants of the codfish aristocracy who forget that we got here first.”Roanoke Times
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“[Horn] presents the story of early Virginia almost as though it were the plot of a colorful novel....Horn’s astute history is a story of courage and cowardice, wisdom and stupidity, cross-cultural friendship and racist brutality, religious greatness and religious hypocrisy, and all the qualities that make America what it is today.”Virginian-Pilot
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“[A Land As God Made It features] lots of dirt on the struggles of the Jamestown settlers to milk the New World for gold that wasn’t there, plus some interesting what-ifs about the Spanish attack that almost was.”Daily Press
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“A splendid and skillful reconsideration of Jamestown’s role in American history.”Oklahoman
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“Horn demonstrates that the Jamestown experience, for good and ill, played a formative role in defining America.”Library Journal
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“Offers a history that will put Plymouth in its place.”Publishers Weekly
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“A meticulous history....possessing Jamestown’s inherent drama.”Booklist
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