After the Treaty of Paris ended the Seven Years’ War in 1763; British America stretched from Hudson Bay to the Florida Keys; from the Atlantic coast to the Mississippi River; and across new islands in the West Indies. To better rule these vast dominions; Britain set out to map its new territories with unprecedented rigor and precision. Max Edelson’s The New Map of Empire pictures the contested geography of the British Atlantic world and offers new explanations of the causes and consequences of Britain’s imperial ambitions in the generation before the American Revolution.Under orders from King George III to reform the colonies; the Board of Trade dispatched surveyors to map far-flung frontiers; chart coastlines in the Gulf of St. Lawrence; sound Florida’s rivers; parcel tropical islands into plantation tracts; and mark boundaries with indigenous nations across the continental interior. Scaled to military standards of resolution; the maps they produced sought to capture the essential attributes of colonial spaces―their natural capacities for agriculture; navigation; and commerce―and give British officials the knowledge they needed to take command over colonization from across the Atlantic.Britain’s vision of imperial control threatened to displace colonists as meaningful agents of empire and diminished what they viewed as their greatest historical accomplishment: settling the New World. As London’s mapmakers published these images of order in breathtaking American atlases; Continental and British forces were already engaged in a violent contest over who would control the real spaces they represented.Accompanying Edelson’s innovative spatial history of British America are online visualizations of more than 250 original maps; plans; and charts.
#238616 in Books Silverman David J 2016-10-10Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.30 x 1.20 x 6.40l; .0 #File Name: 0674737474400 pagesThundersticks Firearms and the Violent Transformation of Native America
Review
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful. Fascinating and important: the role guns played in American and Native American historyBy Alice FriedemannThis is a must read book that I found hard to put down.It should be read because it tells about the role guns played in the decimation of Native Americans. After reading this book; I thought that perhaps as many died in gun battles between tribes as died from small pox and other diseases (though we’ll never know for sure).Native Americans were brave; strong; clever; and strategic in how they used guns to transform their culture. Perhaps if they’d had a greater population they could have fended off colonization; though disease and the immigration of millions and enormous birth-rate of colonists almost certainly doomed them.It’s an enormous tragedy that Indians used guns to kill and capture slaves from other tribes to swell their own numbers lost to battle and disease and to gain wives; as well as selling other natives to Europeans for the slave trade in exchange for guns. The one time Native American leaders had the vision to try to unite tribes against European colonization failed (i.e. Pontiac’s War in 1763.)The complete history of the role guns played tragedy and hundreds of thousands of deaths in gun battles between native Americans has never been told of before as far as I know; though The Earth Is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West covers the U.S. Army wars against Native American tribes after the Civil War.I’ve read several other books lately on the true history of America; not the simplified patriotic pablum we learned in school; so I also recommend:White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in AmericaThe Barbarous Years: The Peopling of British North America--The Conflict of Civilizations; 1600-1675One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian AmericaDark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical RightThe Making of Donald Trump If more Americans had read this before the election; Trump never would have been electedMy full review of this book is at energyskeptic0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. An Insightful and revealing read...couldn't put it down!By Adrian PegI got this book from a library but I had to get it for my library. Mr. Silverman has enlightened me to a big hole I had in Native American/American history. So much so that I am now reading some of the research books he used in this insightful historical account. Thank you Mr. Silverman!0 of 0 people found the following review helpful. How European guns affected relationships between Native American groups--By Philly Shopper 4531Pathbreaking account of the impact of guns on Native American life. Very creative use of sources; and a riveting and surprising story. Well written and engaging.
