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"'A strange and gripping tragedy' is how Brian Moore has described the seventeenth-century confrontation of Europeans and Amerindians in his compelling novel, Black Robe. In Bitter Feast, sociologist and historian Denys Delage takes a fresh look at the struggle underlying the meeting of two civilizations on the North American continent. Both civilizations had strongly developed economic, religious, and cultural traditions. Each had something to give and something to learn, and yet one was to emerge as a powerful new force, while the other was to be shaken to its foundations." "'The race to accumulate capital drove European ships to the shores of northeastern North America,' writes Delage, 'bringing into contact two civilizations - one on the brink of the Industrial Revolution, the other still in the Stone Age.' When the first Europeans arrived, the continent's population was as great as that of Europe. Until this time, Amerindians had rarely lacked food, and had traded widely on foot and by water for the commodities they desired. Caught in the web of an unequal trading relationship where furs were exchanged for fish hooks and faith, Amerindian civilization in northeastern North America faced a challenge that set the pattern for future generations." "Finally available in English, this award-winning book presents a provocative world-system analysis of European colonization in North America as well as a sobering account of |
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