In contrast to most accounts of Puritan-Indian relations; New England Frontier argues that the first two generations of Puritan settlers were neither generally hostile toward their Indian neighbors nor indifferent to their territorial rights. Rather; American Puritans-especially their political and religious leaders-sought peaceful and equitable relations as the first step in molding the Indians into neo-Englishmen. When accumulated Indian resentments culminated in the war of 1675; however; the relatively benign intercultural contact of the preceding fifty-five-year period rapidly declined. With a new introduction updating developments in Puritan-Indian studies in the last fifteen years; this third edition affords the reader a clear; balanced overview of a complex and sensitive area of American history.
#460925 in Books 2016-06-21 2016-06-21Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 8.47 x .83 x 5.97l; .81 #File Name: 080521223X304 pages
Review
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful. Wonderful storyBy Doctor.GenerosityThe first part of the book is a wonderful scholarship - adventure story from the 1890's about the exciting discovery of a massive cache of a quarter million Hebrew documents spanning centuries; piled up in a storeroom in an ancient; long occupied synagogue in the old Jewish quarter of Cairo. The authors have researched the details how members of the British academic community; particularly Solomon Schechter; became aware of the cache and eventually recovered it; complete with inter-library competition; secrecy and personal ambition. It's part history buff; part Raiders of the Lost Ark. I found it interesting that the academics of the time were as competitive over texts from late antiquity as scientists today will be over some high profile discovery. Readers today might criticize that the recovery took place within an arrogant set of colonialist assumptions typical of the age; when English explorers assumed it was their right to appropriate major classical artworks and drag them from Greece and Rome back to London without asking anyone's permission. But in defense of Schechter it is likely that these documents; if not 'stolen' from Egypt; would subsequently have been lost in the upheavals of the following century. There are fascinating details such as the style of travel in late 1890's England - I did not know it was relatively easy to travel from London to Cairo in those days; train to Marseille and then a boat across the Mediterranean.The narrative bogs down in the second half of the book when the authors; who are poets and literary historians; concentrate on their own special interest in medieval Hebrew poetry to the exclusion of much else in the collection. Nor do they make any attempt to bring out this subject for the general reader; presenting few actual examples of said poetry.The best part of the book is the glimpse into the remaining content of the material; not only the biblically significant sources but the secular documents relating to the everyday life of the Jewish community of Egypt in the middle ages - personal letters; divorce legal documents. A page turner; well written by two authors with fluent Hebrew background. A door into a vast but little known era of Jewish life.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. A long lost trove of Jewish Culture discovered as part of a mystery story and in honor of a line of modern scholars.By PhredIn reading the book the Sisters of Sinai; The Sisters of Sinai: How Two Lady Adventurers Discovered the Hidden Gospels (Vintage); I was fascinated by a short chapter that outlined the way the sisters passed information to Prof; Solomon Schechter about a possible trove of Judaica in a hidden room in Cairo. The sisters were Agnes Lewis and Margaret Gibson; Scottish twins and largely self-taught scholars of many languages and discovers and translators of what remains after 130 one of the oldest copies of the new testament. Prof Schechter was a Romanian born; Cambridge Tulmud Scholar and the hidden room whose contents the Professor would reveal to modern scholars was the ancient Geniza of the Ben Ezra synagogue in Fustat; the old city of Cario.Sacred Trash is the book that completes this story; linking the various scholars of the Geniza of Cairo to their many finds. The reader is given a taste of the many significant finds scattered among the more than 100;000 rotting; stuck together and over written documents; fragments; seemly random remains recovered from this 1000 year-old heap.That the Heap existed at all was something nearing a fluke. In Jewish believe there had been a reluctance place into the trash any document that may contain reference to G-D. Almost anything written by a religious leader; Rabbi; Jewish merchant or Jewish mother might contain such a reference. Many communities would interpret this practice to include ceremonial burial of collections- called Geniza- and at least one community took to dropping their Geniza into the local river. At the Ben Ezra Synagogue the practice was to place them in disordered stacks in a hard to access room above the Women's Section.Co Authors Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole have performed an admirable job in writing a generally readable discussion that balances between biographies of leading scholars involved the in on going analysis of this material; and helping to reader to appreciate the historic; cultural and religious value of this Cambridge and related Geniza collections. They have deliberately avoided some of the more purely religious and superstitious findings while mentioning that some of these may have greater value than some topic given more coverage. Some of what is discussed helps the reader to appreciate areas of Jewish Poetry and personalities that had been completely lost except for what has been recovered for modern analysis.One can only marvel at the fact that Geniza documents were from the beginning published to worlds' academic audience and through them to anyone interested in such material. Contrast this with the long time segregation of Dead Sea Scroll studies. There is an almost ironic parallel in the fact that Geniza documents were collected from a population of Jews living in open and daily contact with the world; while the Dead Sea Scrolls are the documents of a Jewish population that had deliberately withdrawn for the world.The authors of Sacred Trash succeeded in writing a mostly readable; entertaining and scholarly history of a complex topic. A reader will gain respect for dedicated and tireless modern scholars as well as the complexities of an ancient religion; surviving in an exiled people. Unfortunately ; tehe authors seem sto envision their readers as people who by scholarly interest of Jewish heritage have a fair Hebrew and Jewish training. For Example we are told that the poetry of the previously lost Yannai made use of "collections of Midrash that were edited in the late fifth century C. E. ...." What a midrash is not entirely clear. The point being that some Hebrew is explained while other terms are assumed to be understood by the reader. This assumption becomes more common towards the end of the book. It also struck me that several mentions of women as writers of poetry; business leaders and related roles are not given sufficient attention while it is suggested; if only humorously that Geniza fragments would support a iza study focused on Jewish Mothers and their sons.Hoffman and Cole have not; nor was it their intention to publish a definitive history of Geniza scholarship. In fact the field is not close to ripe for its elegy. Instead Sacred Trash is a completer book the of Sisters of Sinai teaser; and a generally easy read for those with a curiosity for this kind of unlikely story.3 of 3 people found the following review helpful. Out of the DepthsBy R. FarrI started with Rabbi Glickman's Sacred Treasure. That led to Ghosh's novel about a slave in the India Trade mentioned in a fragment from the Ben Ezra genizah; In an Ancient Land. Soskice's The Sisters of Sinai went back to the genizah discovery as well as delightful side trips with the two ladies. Now comes Hoffman and Cole's Sacred Trash. All these were purchased through .Sacred Trash starts at the genizah; the dedicated persons through more than a century who bring the treasures to light; and follows the multitude of ripples that reach out from this into many directions;from Scripture to every day life;from Maimonides to that unnnamed slave; and they continue over time with each new discovery.Their final sentence sums up the challenge here; "And there are; it would seem; as many ways to write a history of the Geniza as there are scholars or readers who have stepped; or might step; through the looking glass of its scattered leaves."
