Natives and Newcomers

In the past thirty years, historians have come to realize that the shape and temper of early America were determined as much by its Indian natives as by its European colonizers. No one has done more to discover and tell this new story than James Axtell, one of our premiere ethnohistorians. In Natives and Newcomers, a selection of his best essays, Axtell describes in accessible and often witty prose the major encounters between Indians and Europeans - first contacts, communications, epidemics, trade and gift-giving, social and sexual mingling, work, conversions, military clashes - and probes their short- and long-term consequences for both cultures. Every essay is based on original research in a wide variety of primary sources, including maps, museum artifacts, archaeological sites, pictures (many of which are reproduced), traders' account books, and oral traditions. The end result is a book which shows how encounters between Indians and Europeans ultimately shaped a distinctly American identity.

Table of Contents:
Illustrations list Preface Prologue Part I. Contacts Introduction 1: Imagining the Other: First Encounters 2: Babel of Tongues: Communciating with the Indians Part II. Consumption Introduction 3: At the Water's Edge: Trading in the Sixteenth Century 4: The First Consumer Revolution: The Seventeenth Century 5: Making Do: Trade in the Eighteenth-Century Southeast Part III. Conversions Introduction 6: The Invasion Within: The Contest of Cultures 7: Dr. Wheelock's Little Red School 8: The White Indians Part IV. Clashes Introduction 9: The Spanish Incursion 10: The Rise and Fall of the Powhatan Empire 11: The Moral Dilemmas of Scalping Part V. Consequences Introduction 12: The Columbian Mosaic 13: Native Reactions to the Invasion of America 14: The Indian impact on English Colonial Culture Notes Index

Review :
"With admirable clarity, good humor, and methodological rigor, Axtell has succeeded in telling the story of those often hopeful, yet ill-fated, early encounters between vastly different groups of people."--The Journal of Interdisciplinary History "Gracefully written and persuasively argued, this collection of essays is Axtell at his best. The essays explore the various social, political, and economic consequences of interactions between Natives and Europeans in early North America with Axtell's usual insight, his keen eye for nuance, and a coherence that belies their origins as separate works. Natives and Newcomers is a wonderful model of the practice of ethnohistory and a superb introduction to the topic of inter-cultural exchange and to the cultural origins of North America. This book is ideal for classroom use in a variety of disciplines."-José António Brandão, Western Michigan University "Vividly written, smartly argued, and wide-ranging, Axtell's interconnected essays explore both the conflicts and conjunctures that characterized early Indian-European relations in North America. I can't imagine a more engaging way to enter this lost world than through the crystalline prose of this master essayist, who turns his ethnohistorian's gaze on newcomers and natives alike."-David J. Weber, Southern Methodist University "A pioneer in ethnohistory, James Axtell brings wit, clarity, and erudition to the study of Early American encounters. What gives this collection of essays special power is Axtell's insistence that the history of cultural encounter is a profoundly human story, a continuing struggle under often horrendous circumstances to establish mutual understandings. In a fiercely contested field of scholarship, Axtell provides his readers with many original insights that should promote rich discussion."-T. H. Breen, Northwestern University