Beyond 1492 : encounters in colonial North America

Book

Beyond 1492 : encounters in colonial North America / James Axtell.

Summary:

James Axtell explores the key role of imagination both in our perception of strangers and in the writing of history. Coinciding with the 500th anniversary of Columbus's "discovery" of America, this collection covers a wide range of topics dealing with American history. Three essays view the invasion of North America from the perspective of the Indians, whose land it was. The very first meetings, he finds, were nearly always peaceful. Other essays describe native encounters with colonial traders--creating "the first consumer revolution"--And Jesuit missionaries in Canada and Mexico. Despite the tragedy of many of the encounters, Axtell also finds that there was much humor in Indian-European negotiations over peace, sex, and war. In the final section he conducts searching analyses of how college textbooks treat the initial century of American history, how America's human face changed from all brown in 1492 to predominantly white and black by 1792, and how we handled moral questions during the Quincentenary. He concludes with an extensive review of the Quincentenary scholarship--books, films, TV, and museum exhibits--and suggestions for how we can assimilate what we have learned.

Record details

ISBN: 0195068386
ISBN: 9780195068382
ISBN: 0195080335 (pbk.)
ISBN: 9780195080339 (pbk.)
Physical Description: xx, 376 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.
Publisher: New York : Oxford University Press, 1992.

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:: Includes bibliographical references (p. 317-364) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:: History as imagination -- Imagining the other: first encounters in North America -- The exploration of Norumbega: native perspectives -- Native reactions to the invasion of America -- The first consumer revolution -- Agents of change: Jesuits in the post-Columbian world -- Humor in ethnohistory -- Europeans, Indians, and the Age of Discovery in American history textbooks -- The Columbian mosaic in colonial America -- Moral reflections on the Columbian legacy -- Beyond 1992.