Castaway: The Narrative of Alvar Núñez Cageza de Vaca

Book Description

This enthralling story of survival is the first major narrative of the exploration of North America by Europeans (1528-36). The author of Castaways (Naufragios), Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, was a fortune-seeking nobleman and the treasurer of an expedition to claim for Spain a vast area that includes today's Florida, Louisiana, and Texas. A shipwreck forced him and a handful of men to make the long westward journey on foot to meet up with Hernán Cortés.
In order to survive, Cabeza de Vaca joined native peoples along the way, learning their languages and practices and serving them as a slave and later as a physician. When after eight years he finally reached the West, he was not recognized by his compatriots.
In his writing Cabeza de Vaca displays great interest in the cultures of the native peoples he encountered on his odyssey. As he forged intimate bonds with some of them, sharing their brutal living conditions and curing their sick, he found himself on a voyage of self-discovery that was to make his reunion with his fellow Spaniards less joyful than expected.
Cabeza de Vaca's gripping narrative is a trove of ethnographic information, with descriptions and interpretations of native cultures that make it a powerful precursor to modern anthropology. Frances M. López-Morillas's translation beautifully captures the sixteenth-century original. Based as it is on Enrique Pupo-Walker's definitive critical edition, it promises to become the authoritative English translation.

Customer Reviews:

And the Spaniards also suffer.......2007-04-03

I have learned to dispise the Spanish colonizers for their actions in the New World. I have read enough of their sharpening their swords and practicing on the Native Americans and slaying the men, women and children of native settlements if they didn't convert to Christianity or produce enough gold. So this is a new perspective, that of the Spanish failing and suffering through unimaginable hardship and all along the coast that is now our destination of choice for retirement.

This is a nearly fantastic book, only nearly so because it is true (unless De Vaca embelished his story). If you are intrigued with pre-settlement America and the cultures of Native Americans you will appreciate this read in addition to the survival story. This is a look at Florida and Texas in a different era. This is a story about the ambitions of Spain and the privations men could endure for their religion and their country. Even the style of the writing adds to the true insight into the time and perspective on their outlook on the new world. The chapter titles such as "Of What Befell Lope de Oviedo with Some Indians" and "How We Departed After Eating the Dogs" give you the idea of how the book is structured in addition to how they suffered.

In many historical accounts the Spanish are said to have believed that the New World was the dominion of the devil and all its' people,lands, forests and creatures were works of the devil. It is in accounts like this that you can start to understand their reasoning and belief.

An extraordinary man -- an extraordinary story!.......2006-09-11

Cabeza de Vaca's first hand narrative of his experiences in the New World is one of the most gripping true life adventure stories that you can find.

The story is almost five hundred years old. It begins with his selection as treasurer for a Spanish invasion force of six hundred that was intended to conquer Florida (then thought to be an island), sieze the natives' gold and add their bodies to the Spanish crown while their souls would be dedicated the the Christian God.

Everything went wrong. A hurricane hit. The expeditionary force was separated from their ships and ended up marooned on the Florida Gulf Coast, surrounded by hostile, deadly Indians. Eventually, the survivors slaughtered their horses for food, then melted down their armor to make nails and built boats in the hope of finding their way to Mexico.

Many more men were lost before they made their way to what is now known as Galveston. The survivors experienced starvation, the cowardice of their leader, slavery and even cannibalism. Out of six hundred conquistadores, only four men survived.

Those four men walked across the rest of Texas, wandering almost aimlessly in a search for the Spanish colony of Mexico. By the time they finally arrived in Mexico, after years of privation, they were no longer the same self-sure conquerors who had sailed from Spain. They had developed a following of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Indians who hailed them as "Children of the Sun". Cabeza de Vaca, who had emerged as their leader, fit the description of an Old Testament prophet. His hair had not seen a comb or scissors for several years, while his feet had not seen shoes for almost as long.

Here's an extended quote from Chapter 19:

"A few days after these four Spaniards had departed there came a time of cold and storms so severe that ... five Christians who were encamped on the beach came to such straits that they ate one another until only one was left, who survived because there was no one left to eat him.... The Indians were so indignant about this, and there was so much outrage among them, that undoubtedly if they had seen this when it began to happen they would have killed the men, and all of us would have been in dire peril: in a word, within a very short time only fifteen of the eighty men from both parties who had reached the island were left alive; and after the death of these men, a stomach ailment afflicted the Indians of the land from which half of them died, and they believed it was we who were killing them; and as they were wholly convinced of this, they agreed among themselves to kill those of us who were left."

How's that for action? It's true that the narrative style itself is archaic and stilted at times. But this translation emphasizes simple modern English and cuts through a lot of the difficulty of reading a story that's half a millenium old.

I've read the story of Cabeza de Vaca two or three times over the years. In it, I see an almost mirror image many of the other explorers like De Soto or Cortez: a man who learned to view the New World in a different way, and who became a different man by the experience. His story has action, sure: hurricanes, starvation, slavery, faith healing, a stupid, greedy leader, and a cast of thousands. But at the heart of this journey is the journey of one man's heart.

Absolutely basic to anyone living in Texas and the Southwest.......1999-07-11

To read so much live detail about the way of life of the original inhabitants of parts of Texas and the Southwest is to have one's very conceptions about these places changed. It's an amazing, short read and the editor helps with notes in critical places. I think this is basic reading for anyone even part-way interested in the history of Texas and neighboring states. Cabeza de Vaca's account covers hair-raising events which occurred in the 1530s right here on Galveston Island, so it gives a longer sense of post-Columbian history than one usually gets as a lay reader of Texas and Southwest history. I too don't know why more folks aren't talking about this book. I'm buying copies to give away.

Tale by de Vaca himself of his trials in America.......1998-12-12

Hard to follow at times, you get confused as to how many people are actually following him! It is sometimes slow reading. Yet, the informantion in the book is good.

The Writings of Henry David Thoreau : Early Essays and Miscellanies

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A day by day look at Thoreau

The Writings of Henry David Thoreau : Early Essays and Miscellanies
Henry David Thoreau
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0691062862

Book Description

This collection of fifty-three early pieces by Thoreau represents the full range of his youthful imagination. Collected, arranged, and carefully edited for the first time here, the writings date from 1828 to 1852 and cover a broad range of subjects: learning, morals, literature, history, politics, and love. Included is a major essay on Sir Walter Raleigh that was not published during the author's lifetime and a fragmentary college piece here published for the first time. Titles of essays published in the volume are given below.

Early Essays

The Seasons
Anxieties and Delights of a Discoverer
Men Whose Pursuit Is Money
Of Keeping a Private Journal
"We Are Apt to Become What Others . . . Think Us to Be"
Forms, Ceremonies, and Restraints of Polite Society
A Man of Business, a Man of Pleasure, a Man of the World
Musings
Kinds of Energetic Character
Privileges and Pleasures of a Literary Man
Severe and Mild Punishments
Popular Feeling
Style May . . . Offend against Simplicity
The Book of the Seasons
Sir Henry Vane
Literary Digressions
Foreign Influence on American Literature
Life and Works of Sir W. Scott
The Love of Stories
Cultivation of the Imagination
The Greek Classic Poets
The Meaning of "Fate"
Whether the Government Ought to Educate
Travellers & Inhabitants
History . . . of the Roman Republic
A Writer's Nationality and Individual Genius
L'Allegro & Il Penseroso
All Men Are Mad
The Speeches of Moloch & the Rest
People of Different Sections
Gaining or Exercising Public Influence
Titles of Books
Sublimity
The General Obligation to Tell the Truth
"Being Content with Common Reasons"
The Duty, Inconvenience and Dangers of Conformity
Moral Excellence
Barbarities of Civilized States
T. Pomponius Atticus
Class Book Autobiography
"The Commercial Spirit of Modern Times"

Miscellanies

DIED . . . Miss Anna Jones
Aulus Persius Flaccus
The Laws of Menu
Sayings of Confucius
Dark Ages
Chinese Four Books
Homer. Ossian. Chaucer.
Hermes Trismegistus . . . From the Gulistan of Saadi
Sir Walter Raleigh
Thomas Carlyle and His Works
Love
Chastity & Sensuality

Customer Reviews:

A day by day look at Thoreau.......1997-07-19

"Oct. 22nd, 1837. 'What are you doing now?' he asked, 'Do you keep a journal?'-- So I make my first entry today." Thus begins Thoreau's Journal, made up of more then two million words and covering about twenty-five years of his life. No other work of Thoreau's better exhibits his discipline as a writer and his devotion to the natural world. In the Journal can be found the fragmented foundations of masterpieces such as Walden, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, The Maine Woods, and Cape Cod. But what is perhaps more interesting to a reader of Thoreau's Journal are his thoughts and insights on topics such as friendship, love, religion, nature, bravery, heroism, war, slavery, the art of writing, and, most important to Thoreau, the art of living. Anyone with any interest in Thoreau will find his Journal to be an invaluable aid in understanding and following the life of one of America's most profound prose writers

Altogether Lovely (Great Awakening Writings (1725-1760))

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Altogether Lovely (Great Awakening Writings (1725-1760))
Jonathan Edwards , and R. C. Sproul
Manufacturer: Soli Deo Gloria Ministries
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Writing Indians: Literacy, Christianity, and Native Community in Early America (Native Americans of the Northeast)

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"Righting" Indians

Writing Indians: Literacy, Christianity, and Native Community in Early America (Native Americans of the Northeast)
Hilary E. Wyss
Manufacturer: University of Massachusetts Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Native American | Earth-Based Religions | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 155849264X

Book Description

A study of cultural encounter, this book takes a fresh look at the much ignored and often misunderstood experience of Christian Indians in early America. Focusing on New England missionary settlements from the mid-seventeenth to the early nineteenth centuries, Hilary E. Wyss examines the ways in which Native American converts to Christianity developed their own distinct identity within the context of a colonial culture.

With an approach that weaves together literature, religious studies, and ethno-history, Wyss grounds her work in the analysis of a rarely read body of "autobiographical" writings by Christian Indians, including letters, journal entries, and religious confessions. She then juxtaposes these documents to the writings of better known Native Americans like Samson Occom as well as to the published works of Anglo-Americans, such as Mary Rowlandson's famous captivity narrative and Eleazor Wheelock's accounts of his charity schools.

In their search for ostensibly "authentic" Native voices, scholars have tended to overlook the writings of Christian Indians. Yet, Wyss argues, these texts reveal the emergence of a dynamic Native American identity through Christianity. More specifically, they show how the active appropriation of New England Protestantism contributed to the formation of a particular Indian identity that resisted colonialism by using its language against itself.

Customer Reviews:

"Righting" Indians.......2001-10-28

George Orwell was credited with first saying that "history is written by the winners." This statement has certainly held true when trying to gain an understanding of what life was like for Native Americans during the first 200 years of their cultural clash with the newly arrived and always arriving Europeans. As one whose previous knowledge of Indians was limited to biographies of men like Tecumseh, the Prophet, and Sitting Bull (books written using, at best, the regimental histories of the "winners" as the primary source of material), Writing Indians truly opened my eyes to what many Native Americans really experienced during the early years of cohabitation when they were introduced to Christianity.

The author was extremely creative in bringing the individual stories out one-by-one using the scattered writings left by the Native Americans and allowing the reader to combine the many distant voices into one chorus which, when coupled with the more familiar writings of the "winners", spoke for several generations. In my past studies of Native Americans, I seldom could picture the people outside the boundaries of either the battlefield or the front yard of some Territorial Governor (signing a meaningless treaty). This book is wonderful in that it patches together the writings of a surprising number of individuals who were in the process of developing a unique identity grounded in two cultures. It reveals the intelligence of the Natives as they sought to keep what they viewed as the better elements of their culture by appealing to thier visitors in the familair words and ideas contained in Christian thought. Wyss could only succeed in this by drawing on a great deal of reseach.

Book Description

A self-described migrant provocateur with a "hyper-Mexican mustache and loungy sideburns," Guillermo Gomez-Pena performs as he lives and travels -- from America through Europe, Asia, and North Africa -- making his border crossings and crosscultural misencounters into art. He reflects in Spanish, English, and Spanglish, seeking out Mexican and Chicano communities, retracing the roots of his heritage, and revisiting the many overlapping cultures to which he belongs: diasporic Latin Americans, people on the margins of society, the hybrids, the renegades.
In Dangerous Border Crossers, he interweaves poems, performance chronicles, essays, radio scripts, and reflections on culture, politics, and identity, from his life on the road. His landmark pieces -- such as his interlude as an "endangered species" inside a Plexiglas box and his disarming confessions -- set the tone: by turns shocking, facetious, erotic, political, and urgent.
Passionate, myth-breaking, emotionally resonant, and electrifying, Dangerous Border Crossers connects a remarkable range of subjects, revealing what goes into the making of performance art, and establishing Gomez-Pena as one of this century's most persuasive voices for a borderless future.

Customer Reviews:

Unmasking "us and them".......2002-03-19

Performance artist Guillermo Gomez -Pena is an incredible talent who in this, his fifth book, has put together his thoughts and recollections on his art through the nineties. I was intrigued with him after seeing some of his performances on video and wanted to know more about this modern day shamanistic being. The book does not dissapoint , reads fast and is full of the emotions evoked from his performances. His writing style is puntuated with sharp insights into the human psyche. There is poetry, interviews and some experiences that will make you laugh. GGP often wrties in Spanglish, creating colorful language, deep rooted in the barrios from points north and south of the border, easily shifting gears and writng as though he were Harvard educated. GGP shares his views on everything from Zapatismo to skinheads, Roc en Espanol to La Virgen de Guadalupe, cyber communities to barios and everything in between from an insightful Chicano perspective. Although it is not necessary to read the book chapter by chapter, if one does you'll find yourself flying through the experiences and recollections of GGP and partner Roberto Sifuentes and other collaborators. The characters that GGP creates for his art are memorable and often take offs on pop icon culture. In this book you'll meet such notable creations as "Border Brujo," "El Naftaaztec," "El Mexterminator," "Cyber-Vato" and "El Mad Mex"(from the film "Natural Born Matones"), traverse the globe from Helsinki to Vladivostok, Montana to Buenos Aires, Chiapas to Ciudad Juarez, Wales to Tijuana or from Fort Collings to back "home" in San Francisco or Mexico City. Experience the selections from audience confessions as they confront the beings created by GGP, the reactions and fears are amazing truths that only performance art can create. See GGP and partner Roberto Sifuentes amost die from hanging on crosses as they portray themselves as the good and bad thief from the crucification. They stayed on the cross until they were finally brought down when someone realized they could die from their performance. Vicariously experience the shock that they both create and recieve from their performances. GGP lives an existence that is bicultural and international in scope , a Mexican who is a Chicano in the US, he understands the nowhere land he stands firmly on, neither Mexican nor American through some people eyes, he confronts peoples fears making them examine their own prejudices. This is a brilliiat book that captures the essence of GGP and his performance troupe La Pocha Nosta. The book is printed on quality paper, full of magnifent black and white photographs and some very nice precolumbian illustrations. The photographs visually delight as they show the characters created , complete with props that result in stunning dramatic appeal. This book is a cultural tour de force that transcends borders, extending the readers imagination to challenge common perceptions and reevaluate the world of the Chicano as we know it. Highly recommended for those interested in one of the best performance artists of our times.

Performance Artist Peers into the American Psyche..........2001-02-26

Guillermo Gomez-Pena has put together a book that should rock you in your socks if you've got any interest in how performance art can, and is being used shamanically (although "he" doesn't use this term) to manifest the hidden powers of the human unconsciousness, play with them, and perhaps bring balance.

In this collection of essays, interviews, and scripts, Gomez-Pena describes the preparation, processes, goals and results of his work, and muses on the whole shebang. While so much of the art world seems to be content with cerebral stagnation in the hallowed halls of the "academy" - Guillermo is out there on the pavement, living his art for the betterment of everyone. He's not just making himself look good in this work, he's honest enough to talk about his own fears and insecurities, and discuss the idea of artistic responsibility.

He does this all in a way that is down to earth while clearly displaying the depth of his intelligent approach to his work and the issues involved. He's funny and theoretically as sharp as a razor.

Book Description

Unabridged CDs - 5 CDs, 5 hours

Bestselling novelist Sue Monk Kidd shares her collection of early inspirational writings as she traces her growth through the joys, difficulties, and rewards of being a daughter, wife, mother, nurse, and spiritual seeker. This collection of nonfiction writings will provide insight about this popular writer, delighting fans of her internationally bestselling novels The Secret Life of Bees and The Mermaid Chair.

Customer Reviews:

"Blessings he read and reread." .......2007-06-06

In a word, this book is inspirational. The tone is evident even in the book's packaging: its beach-sunrise jacket photo and its airy page design. If you need an emotional lift --- or know someone who does --- FIRSTLIGHT will provide it.

Over her writing career of nearly 30 years, Sue Monk Kidd has endeared herself to two audiences. First, to readers of Guideposts magazine and devotionals, for which she wrote very concrete, first-person, anecdotal narratives. A sample: "Late one winter night it snows in South Carolina. When the sun comes up, a dazzling white quilt lays across our small backyard.

" 'Oh-h-h, Mommy.' In the bedroom both children cling to the windowsill speechless. It is their first snow..."

In memoirs published from 1988 to 1997, her spiritual journey reflected a more contemplative outlook and eventually a feminist theology that endeared a different readership. Then her fiction (THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES and THE MERMAID CHAIR) turned her and her unorthodox characters into conversational centerpieces all around town, coast to coast.

Now here's the trick. Can this new collection of "early writings" bridge her two audiences? I say yes, assuming a reader is not scouring for theological tenets but for feel-good inspiration that encourages faith in a slightly vague Divine.

Many of the untitled selections within the book's 13 chapters are from Guideposts publications, anecdotes about childhood, motherhood, marriage and Sue's early nursing career. But it seems that most of the chapter topics (with titles such as "Awareness," "Solitude," "Simplicity of Spirit" and "Gracious Space") are grounded in essays that are more reflective than anecdotal. A sample from the first chapter, titled "The Crucible of Story": "The inner story creates identity, transforming our vision of who we are. Creating story is an act of self-knowing...Knowing who I am hinges on remembering who I have been in the past and embracing the hope of who I may be in the future."

It's a different kind of writing --- less personal, less concrete. But the complementary styles work well together, the anecdotes illustrating the reflective points.

In the introduction, Sue explains how she warmed up to the idea of compiling these writings that are foundational to her spiritual and literary journey. At first she was hesitant: "I wanted to be read and known for who I am now." But eventually: "Opening myself to the creation of this book, so aptly titled FIRSTLIGHT, became an unexpected act of reclamation...a bridge...a gift of reunion."

My favorite piece in the book is a short "Availability" anecdote, recounting a visit to a homeless shelter and Sue's conversation with James, a resident who eagerly shows her his "book" --- a scrapbook featuring worthless incidentals (a restaurant napkin, a calendar, a few autographs) that "represented James's list of blessings. Blessings he read and reread."

Just as you, or I, might read and reread Sue Monk Kidd's FIRSTLIGHT.

--- Reviewed by Evelyn Bence

A pick both for religious collections and for the general-interest public lending library........2007-03-05

Stories and essays filling FIRSTLIGHT with inspiration come from the author's early writings for Guideposts and other publications and are centered around spiritual insights and 'firsts', following her early years as a spiritual thinker. Anyone with an interest in the life and thought of Sue Monk Kidd in particular will find FIRSTLIGHT filled with both autobiographical insights and spiritual inspiration, making it a pick both for religious collections and for the general-interest public lending library.

A Gifted Communicator.......2007-02-04

"If you cannot improve the silence, do not speak," (p. 168) similarly, if you have nothing of value to say as an author, don't write just to be doing something. Sue Monk Kidd has a collection of worthwhile reflective thoughts in this book that help you to live the self-examined life as a fellow traveler. For example, "God sometimes speaks in whispers so we will more closer to hear," she quotes a preacher in a story on page 166.

For those of us who, at times, tend to analyze inappropriately she pulls a quote from Beethoven which makes the point that you arrive at the meaning of a work of art by experiencing it, not trying to figure it out.

In spite of all the good in the book, there are a few troubling spots. On page 74 she's wrong! What she writes is NOT Scriptural. It isn't what the Bible teaches. She makes the statement, "The emergence of one's Authentic I awakens a fresh awareness of us all and we are one in God together." In contrast to this, the Bible teaches you must be born again to even SEE the kingdom of heaven and anyone who attempts to reach God through anyway other than Jesus is in error.

Another troubling part of the book is an incident she tells about where she was approached by a man after her presentation. It seems she was trying to be all inclusive and the man was standing up for traditional Bible-taught Christianity. God's Truth will stand long after the fads of new age all inclusiveness have passed. She's on the wrong side of this issue.

Contemplative, Sometimes Soft.......2007-01-17

Sue Monk Kidd provided one of my favorite novels in recent years, with "The Secret Life of Bees." She wrote with grace, spiritual symbolism, and an embracing of life's offerings, good and bad. Here, in "Firstlight," she shows those same abilities with the written word.

Collected from early inspirational writings, particularly those published in Guideposts magazine, these chapters reflect a lifelong journey of discovery. Kidd has been a nurse, a mother, a wife, and a writer, and these experiences have not only shaped her, they've brought about moments of clarity and widsom through seemingly mundane things. Kidd has a crisp, yet smooth, style that allows the lessons of life to jump from the pages. She finds examples of God's love and mercy in homeless people, butterflies, storms, and lightning bugs.

For those of us who enjoy the raw, in-your-face honesty of an Anne Lamott, "Firstlight" can seem a bit saccharine at times. There is very little time given to the struggles and questions of life, althought Kidd does admit to having them. Being a true Southerner, she chooses to focus on the good, packaging the thorny questions in soft cushiony thoughts. All in all, this is a great contemplative book. Not so deep as to be unfathomable, but rich enough to be mulled over for days.

Search for spiritual truth.......2006-12-27

Sue Monk Kidd is a very contemplative person who writes from the heart with beautiful and touching prose. This book contains some of her early writings which she has gently edited. At first she was reluctant to republish her earlier work, feeling that she has evolved to a new place in the ensuing years. However, she later decided that these works were part of her spiritual journey and she enjoyed retracing her literary and contemplative roots. Her stories begin with everyday occurrences from her life as a wife, mother, and nurse, but swell to a crescendo as she analyzes them in light of her spiritual beliefs and her willingness to open herself to "aha" moments of revelation and truth. She divides her book into timeless topics such as The Sacred Ordinary, Availabilty, and Compassion. She manages to prick the reader's conscience and yet instill hope for better days to come. Her work is always a refreshing breeze in a too-busy world.

Traveling Women: Narrative Visions of Early America

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Traveling Women: Narrative Visions of Early America
Susan Clair Imbarrato
Manufacturer: Ohio University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

18th Century | World | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 082141674X

Book Description

Women’s travel narratives recording journeys north and south along the eastern seaboard and west onto the Ohio frontier enhance our historical understanding of early America. Drawing extensively from primary sources, Traveling Women documents women’s role in westward settlement and emphasizes travel as a culture-building event. Susan Clair Imbarrato closely examines women’s accounts of their journeys from 1700 to 1830, including Sarah Kemble Knight’s well-known journal of her trip from Boston to New York in 1704 and many lesser-known accounts, such as Sarah Beavis’s 1779 journal of her travel to Ohio via Kentucky and Susan Edwards Johnson’s account or her 1801–2 journey from Connecticut to North Carolina. In the women’s keen observations and entertaining wit, readers will find bravado mixed with hesitation, as women set forth on business, to relocate, and for pleasure. These travelers wrote compellingly of crossing rivers and mountains, facing hunger, encountering native Americans, sleeping in taverns, and confronting slavery, expressing themselves in voices that differed in sensibility from male explorers and travelers. These accounts, as Imbarrato shows, challenge assumptions that such travel was predominately a male enterprise. In addition, Traveling Women provides a more balanced portrait of westward settlement by affirming women’s importance in the settling of early America.

Early American Writing (Penguin Classics)

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Excellent Compilation
Well.... it's pushing it.
Well.... it's pushing it.

Early American Writing (Penguin Classics)
Various
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0140390871

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Compilation.......2005-09-24

This text is an excellent compilation of early American works. Included are various Native American mythologies as well as a variety of other emerging literary voices from the New World. The book also pays special attention to the rising influence and power of Puritans and other religious leaders, as well as several key figures which helped mold the shape of the United States government.

Well.... it's pushing it........2002-11-05

This book I have given a mixed review. It was originally purchased as a textbook for a literature class in college, but I dropped the class early. I know, I know, dropping out of a class is not good, but I have my excuses. The book started off as a difficult read. It's a collection/anthology of various writings by different authors throughout history all writing about the New World (the Americas). The writings, for the most part, are presented in chronological order. The older, more difficult to comprehend writings are toward the beginning and the reading becomes more comprehensible as the reader goes through the book. I didn't get to finish the book, because time restraints in my schedule. Some of the writings were interesting (such as the later stories) while others were rather boring (the stories or letters written in uncomprehensible or Old English style language). Hence, my mixed review. I would say it's a great book, nor would I say it's bad. My intention is to release the book and hope there is someone out there who will get more enjoyment out of the book than I did. Good reading everyone!

Well.... it's pushing it........2002-11-05

Early American Abolitionists: A Collection of Anti-Slavery Writings, 1760-1820

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Early American Abolitionists: A Collection of Anti-Slavery Writings, 1760-1820

Manufacturer: Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 1932821066

Early Harvest: Student Writing from the Rural Readers Project (Student Writing from the Rural Readers Project, Vol. 3)

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Early Harvest: Student Writing from the Rural Readers Project (Student Writing from the Rural Readers Project, Vol. 3)

Manufacturer: Story Line Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1885266928

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