Since the early colonial period, historians have been fascinated with North America’s borderlands – places where people interacted across multiple, independent political and legal systems. Today the scholarship on these regions is more robust and innovative than ever before.
North American Borderlands introduces students to exemplary recent scholarship on this vital topic, showcasing work that delves into the complexities of borderland relationships. Essays range from the seventeenth through the late twentieth century, touch on nearly every region of the continent, and represent a variety of historical approaches and preoccupations. Anchored by a substantial introduction that walks students through the terminology and historiography, the collection presents the major debates and questions most prominent in the field today.
Table of Contents:
Introduction I. Authority 1. Marriage and Homicide on the Middle Ground Richard White 2. The Colonial Pact Cynthia Radding 3. Conversations in the Woods James Merrell II. Conflict 4. The Yamasee War Reconsidered William L. Ramsey 5. The Wider World of the Handsome Man Brian DeLay III. Animals, Plants, and Disease 6. King Philip’s Herds Virginia DeJohn Anderson 7. Dual Revolutions in the California Missions Steven W. Hackel IV. Gender 8. The Anglo-Algonquian Gender Frontier Kathleen M. Brown 9. Virgins and Cannibals Alan Greer X. Ideas 10. Debating Identity, Sovereignty, and Civilization Kathleen DuVal 11. "The Broad Platform of Extermination" Karl Jacoby XI. Crossings 12. Fishing the Line Lissa Wadewitz 13. Enforcing the Borders Erika Lee 14. Borderlands of Modernity and Abandonment Geraldo L. Cadava
About the Author :
Brian DeLay is Associate Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley, and the author of War of a Thousand Deserts: Indian Raids and the U.S.-Mexican War.
Review :
"North American Borderlands provides a marvelous overview of the dynamic, multivocal, contested spaces that defined much of the continent's thistorical experience. There is no better introduction to the subject."
--Daniel K. Richter, McNeil Center for Early American Studies, University of Pennsylvania
"Focusing on the complex relationships that developed between peoples in "zones of plural sovereignty", this illuminating anthology brings together some of the most influential scholarship of the last two decades to showcase the "shared stories" that have shaped North America’s many borderlands – and molded North American history – from the seventeenth century to the present."
--Stephen Aron, author of The Missouri Frontier from Borderland to Border State
