The Invasion of America - (Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American Histo) by Francis Jennings (Paperback)

About the Book

Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism, and the Cant of Conquest

Book Synopsis

In this iconoclastic book, Francis Jennings recasts the story of American colonization as a territorial invasion. The traditional history of early America paints the colonies as a transplantation of European culture to a new continent -- a "virgin land" in which Native Americans were assigned the role of foil whose main contribution was to stimulate the energy and ingenuity of European dispossessors. Jennings rejects this ideology and examines the relationships between Europeans and Indians from a far more critical point of view. Shorn of old mythology and rationalizations, Puritan actions are seen in the cold light of material interest and naked expansion.

Review Quotes

"An illuminating account that should stand as the corrective to American historiography that [Jennings] intended."--Reviews in American History

"Jennings' achievement in this volume is considerable. . . . Studies of cultural contact in New England and elsewhere can now proceed in an atmosphere freed from the 'cant of conquest.'" --New England Quarterly

"The historiography of Indian-European relations will never be the same."--American Historical Review

About the Author

Francis Jennings (1918-2000) was director of the D'Arcy McNickle Center for the American Indian at Chicago's Newberry Library. His many other books include Empire of Fortune: Crowns, Colonies, and Tribes in the Seven Years War in America and The Creation of America: Through Revolution to Empire.