Interpreting a Continent - by Kathleen Duval & John Duval (Paperback)

About the Book

This reader provides important documents for colonial American history, including new English translations of non-English documents. It reflects current scholarship and teaching that includes all of North America and non-Europeans in the story of colonial America, which is no ...

Book Synopsis

This reader provides students with key documents from colonial American history, including new English translations of non-English documents. The documents in this collection take the reader beyond the traditional story of the English colonies. Readers explore the Spanish, French, Dutch, Russian, German, and even Icelandic colonial efforts throughout North America, including California, New Mexico, Texas, the Great Plains, Louisiana, Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New England. Throughout, the collection provides not only the perspectives of Europeans but also of Native Americans and Africans. By looking beyond traditional sources, students see the power and diversity of Native Americans and learn that European domination of the continent was not inevitable. They see different forms of slavery and ways that slaves dealt with their captivity. By considering multiple perspectives, students learn that colonial history was largely the attempts of various peoples to understand strangers and adapt them to their own will.

Review Quotes

"Interpreting a Continent unleashes a delightful cacophony of voices from colonial North Americans. From rock paintings to Norse sagas, from New France to Spanish Florida, from familiar men like Benjamin Franklin to obscure women like Mary Christina Martin, these source materials-many of them in translations far superior to those previously available-convey the rich textures of a world in which English-speakers were not yet the dominant group and in which no one yet imagined a nation called the United States. No other collection conveys a better appreciation of the complicated mix of peoples and cultures that jostled for power in the colonial world." --Daniel K. Richter, McNeil Center for Early American Studies, University of Pennsylvania

"With insight and grace, the DuVals have collected, translated, and interpreted a dazzling array of documents to illuminate the multicultural origins of North America's colonies, ranging from the St. Lawrence to the Rio Grande, and from the Pacific to the Atlantic. They offer a superb collection of French and Spanish voices from women and men to reveal tales of resistance and conversion, slavery, and freedom." --Alan Taylor, University of California, Davis

Interpreting a Continent unleashes a delightful cacophony of voices from colonial North Americans. From rock paintings to Norse sagas, from New France to Spanish Florida, from familiar men like Benjamin Franklin to obscure women like Mary Christina Martin, these source materials-many of them in translations far superior to those previously available-convey the rich textures of a world in which English-speakers were not yet the dominant group and in which no one yet imagined a nation called the United States. No other collection conveys a better appreciation of the complicated mix of peoples and cultures that jostled for power in the colonial world.

With insight and grace, the DuVals have collected, translated, and interpreted a dazzling array of documents to illuminate the multicultural origins of North America's colonies, ranging from the St. Lawrence to the Rio Grande, and from the Pacific to the Atlantic. They offer a superb collection of French and Spanish voices from women and men to reveal tales of resistance and conversion, slavery, and freedom.

About the Author

Kathleen DuVal is assistant professor of history at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and author of The Native Ground: Indians and Colonists in the Heart of the Continent. John DuVal is professor English and literary translation at the University of Arkansas and translator of many award-winning books.