The European and the Indian : essays in the ethnohistory of colonial North America

Summary: Drawing on a wide variety of sources, Axtell explores the cultural adjustments that occurred when white Europeans met and attempted to "civilize" the native Americans. He explodes a number of popular myths and illustrates how having the Indians as adversaries helped mold an American identity, leading to the American Revolution.

Record details

ISBN: 0195029046
ISBN: 0195029038 :
ISBN: 9780195029031
ISBN: 0195029046 (pbk.) :
ISBN: 9780195029048 (pbk.)
Physical Description: print
xii, 402 pages : illustrations, map ; 22 cm.
Publisher: Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1981.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

The ethnohistorical approach -- 1. Ethnohistory: an historian's viewpoint -- 2. The unkindest cut, or who invented scalping?: a case study -- From Indian to European -- 3. The invasion within: the contest of cultures in colonial North America -- 4. Dr. Wheelock's little red school -- 5. Last rights: the acculturation of native funerals in colonial North America -- From European to Indian -- 6. The scholastic philosophy of the wilderness -- 7. The white Indians of colonial America -- 8. Scalping: the ethnohistory of a moral question -- American encounter -- 9. The English colonial impact on Indian culture -- 10. The Indian impact on English colonial culture.