American Colonies: The Settling of North America, Vol. 1

"More than just a formidable work of historical synthesis, AMERICAN COLONIES provokes us to contemplate the ways in which residents of North America have dealt with diversity. For if we marvel at the extraordinary achievements of colonial peoples, whether they were precipitating, resisting or simply enduring fundamental change, we also lament their extraordinary capacity for misunderstanding, misrepresenting and mistreating one another. Cruelty more than cooperation defined colonialism. Held up as a distant mirror, the histories of American colonies suggest that for us, as for them, the most difficult challenge is to summon the will to sustain trust in the face of fear."Alan Taylor is the author of 'American Colonies: The Settling of North America, Vol. 1', published 2002 under ISBN 9780142002100 and ISBN 0142002100.