As of the date of writing this review, Alan Taylor has won two Pulitzer Prizes. I was fairly shocked to learn that this book was not a Pulitzer Prize winner. With Alan Taylor as the author and Eric Foner as the editor, this book packs a devastating one-two punch. It is used in many institutions as a textbook or main secondary source of the era before the American Revolution. It is relatively easy to read. Any freshman college student should have no difficulty with American Colonies. Neither should anyone else who reads it.
This is supposed to be the first volume of a five volume series entitled The Penguin History of the United States. Unfortunately, it appears that only one other volume in the series was completed. This entry stands alone easily and for many is the definitive one volume work on the American colonies from their establishment to the Revolution. However, do not be fooled into thinking it is the quintessential work on the era. Taylor’s book was made for a wide audience and did not dive as deep into the era as a much larger work would have. What Taylor did do was explore the colonization of North America from a much wider perspective than just the traditional Anglo-American centric view which has dominated American historical thought until recently. In doing this Taylor explored new directions of historiography into various subfields of history. The result is a book that shows just how complex history actually is.
American Colonies seeks to answer the why questions of history. Taylor weaves the multiple themes historians explore in each era together to form a narrative that conveys what occurred in the past and why these events happened. I was particularly interested to see how he would treat the development of chattel slavery in the colonies. He condensed much of Edmund Morgan’s great exploration of the subject into seven pages which while not an in depth expose of slavery itself, managed to explain to the reader how slavery got its start in the colonies. The excerpt is quite useful for instructing students in American history survey courses where time is short and depth is needed.
This is just one example of the utilities involved in the making of this book. It is full of sections like this one on slavery which can be used in the classroom when an instructor is making a point. It is also very useful for instructors to have as support for their textbooks. In some cases, the book is the textbook. Taylor’s credentials as a master historian are beyond dispute. The result is an outstanding book written by a master historian, edited by another master historian, and presented to a wide audience for their learning pleasure. Books like this are rare and should be savored. I for one enjoyed reading this book and recommend it for others interested in American history, especially in the colonial era.
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About the author
Very biased
I found this book to be a very biased and unsophisticated account of colonial history. The book begins with a totally unnecessary jab at modern day conservatives and continues on with a series of predictable villifications of the "colonizers" yet seems to give a free moral pass to Native American atrocities. I do not consider this book to be of academic quality. There are much better books to be found on this subject. I do regret my purchase.
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Top reviews from other countries
- ravi aravamuthanReviewed in India on July 23, 2021
The genesis of USA and the Americas by extension
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