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Four centuries ago, a group of men--led by a one-armed ex-pirate, an epileptic aristocrat, a reprobate cleric and a government spy--left London aboard a fleet of three ships to start a new life in America. They arrived in Virginia in the spring of 1607 and set about trying to create a settlement on a tiny island in the James River. Despite their shortcomings, and against the odds, they built Jamestown, a ramshackle outpost that laid the foundations of the British Empire and the United States of America. Drawing on new discoveries, neglected sources and manuscript collections scattered across the world, this book reveals a reckless, daring enterprise led by outcasts of the Old World who found themselves interlopers in a new one. It charts their journey into a beautiful landscape and a sophisticated culture that they found both ravishing and alien, which they yearned to possess but threatened to destroy--From publisher description.… (more)
User reviews
The story of the Jamestown colony is a fascinating one to me, all the more so because it is the beginning of modern America. This book goes into quite a lot of detail, which I like, but is an exciting and interesting read. For me it was something of a page turner, not dry at all. Reading it in 2007, the book is very topical as it is the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown this year (precisely when I was reading it in fact!).
I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the early history of America, or just to anyone who likes reading solid, interesting history books.
The book is very broad in its scope. It covers the goings on in England, John Smith’s explorations into Native American territories, the Jamestown settlement, the settlements in New England, the Spanish, Spanish America, and the monarchy’s involvement and interest in the Jamestown settlement. Sometimes I felt it was too inclusive. It wasn’t narrowed down and was more like a semester lecture and general overview of the world at the time instead of being sharply focused on the settlement.
I did enjoy the Native American interactions with the settlers though. John Smith’s adventures, trading, crowing of Powhatan, fighting, etc. provided interesting insights into how and where it all failed; it’s more than just a general misunderstanding brought about by a language barrier. Englishman with no ability to survive in the wilderness and with very meager survival skills were expecting the Native American tribes to feed them and became dumbfounded when it didn’t happen. They were so arrogant in assuming the land was theirs for the taking and truly believed someone would care for them.
Savage Kingdom was a frustrating book for me because you see all the faults and in many ways the problems inherent in the system. I wanted to really enjoy this book but I didn’t and I think it was due to the fact that I read another book on the subject last year and I felt I had already read some of this. It doesn’t make it bad, just not for me. It was well researched but I couldn’t get into it.
The writing itself is a little plodding, with leaps of topic inherent in not telling the story in one narrative arc and different povs.