The Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism, and the Cant of Conquest (Norton Library) [Paperback]

Francis Jennings (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0393008304 | ISBN-13: 978-0393008302 | Publication Date: October 1976 | Edition: 2nd Printing

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.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

In this iconoclastic book, Jennings recasts the story of American colonization as a territorial invasion. Shorn of old mythology and rationalizations, Puritan actions are seen in the cold light of material interest and naked expansion.
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 369 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 2nd Printing edition (October 1976)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393008304
• ISBN-13: 978-0393008302
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 4.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,204,033 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very thought provoking, April 7, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism, and the Cant of Conquest (Norton Library) (Paperback)

Francis Jennings' first book, The Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism and the Cant of Conquest was path breaking when released in 1975, a book of "angry, forceful prose [that] still touches readers a quarter century after its publication," according to his 2001 obituary in the newsletter of the American Organization of Historians. In fact, Jennings himself was known for his "irrepressible" devotion to debunking the myths of Native American history of the colonial period, particularly the works of Francis Parkman. As his eulogizer Frederick Hoxie notes, Jennings early on insisted that "America began not with "discovery" but invasion," a belief which set "himself apart from those who viewed the fate of the continent's indigenous people as somehow inevitable or natural." The polemical The Invasion of America was the first in what Jennings called his "Covenant Chain Trilogy," with The Ambiguous Iroquois Empire (1984) and Empire of Fortune (1988) finishing the set. As Hoxie states, The Invasion of America (and most of Jennings' other writings) was a "frontal attack on the generations of scholars who, he argued, had internalized the racist language of the seventeenth century and overlooked the violence and brutality of European settlement." As another reviewer writes, "this is a strong, angry book," the prose of which is characterized by "the author's controlled outrage at what happened and at the misconceptions, distortions, and even lies he sees in the treatment of the period by other historians."

24 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Impassioned Revisionism, May 20, 2000

By 

Greg Cantwell - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism, and the Cant of Conquest (Norton Library) (Paperback)

A brilliantly-written, well-researched and incredibly impassioned telling of the European conquest of North Eastern America. My only complaint would be that after around 300 pages, the author's anti-european/pro-indian sentiments become a little wearing.

It seems to be a standard orthodoxy these days that 'colonialism' was a bad thing, and that, possibly, European settlers didn't acquire the continent without a spot of realpolitic, but in the mid-70's, when this book was written, it probably opened a few eyebrows. The accounts of just how quickly the pilgrim fathers took to aggressive expansionism against local tribes certainly made *my* stiff upper lip twitch a little.

26 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Puritans as imperialists, November 29, 2001

By 

Miroslav Stary (Czech Republic) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism, and the Cant of Conquest (Norton Library) (Paperback)

Francis Jennings' Invasion of America is still usefull reading, but... In the half of 70s' it was almost revolutionary work, and many (not only) historians looked at this as at nearly sacred text. But I think, that Jennings „adversary's" - i. e. Vaughan's - New England Frontier is more balanced view of Puritan - Indian relations in the 17th century.
Jennings book is divided into two different parts. First is thematical (and I think better), and second chronological. Author tries to apply the research done in the first part to the 17th century New England (second part). Jennings offers many interesting ideas, often highly provocative. He shows, for example, how the contention between single New England colonies (especially between Massachusetts and Connecticutt) influenced their Indian policy.
Book has two weak points, of which the second is essential. 1) Jennings' approach, especially in the second part, is not ethnohistorical, although he (in the first chapter) praises this historical subdiscipline. He focuses almost exclusivelly on Puritan policy toward Indians, and largely omits Indian actions. 2) He looks at Puritans from the perspective of 70s' of the 20th century through the eyes of a radical (left-wing ?) intelectual. So he finds nearly all Puritan actions toward Indians as bad. Their only goal was to conquer Indians and their land. They were real imperialists. He absolutely excludes the possibility, that Puritan actions could have been motivated by sincere conviction, for example, that they are just trying to help Indians (missions) or to protect themself (Pequot war; actions toward Narragansett and Eastern Niantic tribes in the 40s'and 50s'). I think, that this too much revisionst and sceptical approach is wrong. Historian should look at actions of his „heroes" through the perspective of time they were living.
In spite of above said, I think this is still an important book (not only) on New England history in the 17th century.