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.