American Colonies Vol. 1 : The Settling of North America (the Penguin History of the United States, Volume1)

With this volume, Alan Taylor challenges the traditional story of colonial history by examining the many cultures that helped make America. Transcending the usual Anglocentric version of our colonial past, he recovers the importance of Native American tribes, African slaves, and the rival empires of France, Spain, the Netherlands, and even Russia in the colonization of North America. Moving beyond the Atlantic seaboard to examine the entire continent, American Coloniesreveals a pivotal period in the global interaction of peoples, cultures, plants, animals, and microbes. In a vivid narrative, Taylor draws upon cutting-edge scholarship to create a timely picture of the colonial world characterized by an interplay of freedom and slavery, opportunity and loss. "Compelling, readable, and fresh, American Coloniesis perhaps the most brilliant piece of synthesis in recent American historical writing." (Phillip J. Deloria, associate professor of history and American culture, University of Michigan)

Alan Taylor is professor of history at the University of California at Davis. He is the author of William Cooper's Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic, which won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for History and the Bancroft Prize in American history.

Eric Foner is DeWitt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University. He has been awarded the Bancroft Prize, Parkman Prize, and a Los Angeles Times Book Award, among other honors.