Roanoke - 2nd Edition by Karen Ordahl Kupperman (Paperback)

About the Book

The story of Roanoke is a tale marked by courage, miscalculation, exhilaration, intrigue, and enduring mystery. Now in its second edition, Roanoke: The Abandoned Colony tells the tragic and heroic story of the lost colony during the years between Columbus's voyages and the lan...

Book Synopsis

In telling the tragic and heroic story of Roanoke, the "lost colony," award-winning historian Karen Ordahl Kupperman recovers the earliest days of English exploration and settlement in America--the often forgotten years before Jamestown and the landing of the Mayflower.

Roanoke explores Britain's attempt to establish a firm claim to North America in the hope that colonies would make England wealthy and powerful. Kupperman brings to life the men and women who struggled to carve out a settlement in an inhospitable environment on the Carolina coast and the complex Native American cultures they encountered. She reveals the mixture of goals and challenges that led to the colony's eventual abandonment, and discusses the theories about what might have become of the first English settlers in the New World as they adapted to life as Indians.

With a new preface and afterword written by the author, Roanoke: The Abandoned Colony brings the fascinating story of America's earliest settlement up-to-date, bringing together new work from scholars in a variety of fields. The story of Roanoke remains endlessly fascinating. It is a tale marked by courage, miscalculation, exhilaration, intrigue, and mystery.

Review Quotes

"Roanoke is the best book on the subject . . . skillfully reconstructing the events and invoking the personalities of England's first American outpost. And more than any previous work on the subject, it reveals how the Indians played crucial roles in the rise and fall of Raleigh's Lost Colony." --Alden T. Vaughan, Columbia University

"The definitive account of the 'lost colonists' of Roanoke. Karen Ordahl Kupperman tells a dramatic story of courage, greed, and misadventure. . . . Anyone curious about the enduring mysteries of Roanoke will enjoy Kupperman's book." --T. H. Breen, Northwestern University

"Evokes a powerful sense of this dramatic, yet tragic, chapter in the English colonial experience in North America." --Choice Reviews

"A sensitive, stimulating, and exceptionally well-written book." --Journal of American History

"A skillful and readable account of a fascinating chapter in American history." --Journal of Southern History

"A work of drama and intrigue." --Los Angeles Times

A sensitive, stimulating, and exceptionally well-written book.

A skillful and readable account of a fascinating chapter in American history.

A work of drama and intrigue.

Evokes a powerful sense of this dramatic, yet tragic, chapter in the English colonial experience in North America.

Roanoke is the best book on the subject . . . skillfully reconstructing the events and invoking the personalities of England's first American outpost. And more than any previous work on the subject, it reveals how the Indians played crucial roles in the rise and fall of Raleigh's Lost Colony.

The definitive account of the 'lost colonists' of Roanoke. Karen Ordahl Kupperman tells a dramatic story of courage, greed, and misadventure. . . . Anyone curious about the enduring mysteries of Roanoke will enjoy Kupperman's book.

About the Author

Karen Ordahl Kupperman is Silver Professor of History at New York University. She is the award-winning author of Indians and English: Facing Off in Early America and Providence Island, 1630-1641: The Other Puritan Colony.