Customer Reviews

The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America

5 star:		(78)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Russell Shorto's The Island at the Center of the World is a chronicle of the early years of Manhattan, when it was known as New Amsterdam and was a relatively short-lived Dutch colony. According to Shorto, this period in New York history has not only been given short shift by historians, but also is crucial to understanding the development and character of New York City and the United States. Shorto believes that most students of United States history have assumed that New York City's history only really got underway when the English took over and instilled some order.

This is due in part to the disdain that the British held for the Dutch, and to the fact that the subsequent histories of the United States were told from their biased perspective. However, Shorto demonstrates that New Amsterdam was a viable society of its own, and that its unique character among the early American colonies had a remarkable impact on the future United States. For Shorto, as the first "multi-ethnic, upwardly mobile society on America's shores ... Manhattan is where America began."

Shorto is not a professional historian, but rather a professional writer, and he is writing for a popular audience. As a result his work flows in a novelistic manner, with vivid descriptions, imaginative poetic license, interesting asides, informal language and even bawdy humor used to liven things up. His acknowledged inspiration is the late Barbara Tuchman, whose meticulously researched books set a standard for bridging the gap between dense scholarship and popular appeal. Indeed, she managed to make a bestseller out of a 800+ page book about the 14th century, among other subjects, and Shorto emulates her with a knack for a compelling narrative drawn from myriad primary sources.

In this case, the primary sources are comprised of diaries, court documents, letters and municipal records found all over the world, principally in New York and the Netherlands, which are only recently being given the scholarly attention that they deserve. Shorto describes a sort of renaissance in colonial studies, spurned by a new interest in the Dutch period, and he is admittedly standing on the shoulders of giants, i.e., the professional historians who have let this popular writer have a look at their on-going research. At the center of this scholarship is a 12,000-page trove of documents relating to New Amsterdam, now residing in the New York State Library in Albany after narrowly escaping several brushes with destruction.

Written in dense 17th century Dutch, they are still in the midst of being translated by Dr. Charles Gehring, a specialist in that narrow field. The story of the documents' survival and Dr. Gehring's research is itself very entertaining, and is told breathlessly by Shorto as if he can't quite believe his good fortune at being privy to the them. That Dr. Gehring's work figures so prominently throughout the book is testament both to his importance to the project, and Shorto's debt to him.

Shorto traces New Amsterdam's character, naturally, to Amsterdam and Dutch society. He points out that Dutch society was the most tolerant in Europe at the time, a place where dissidents and controversial thinkers could come to escape persecution. The book is filled with examples of this enlightened atmosphere, from philosophers like Descartes and Spinoza to the interesting fact that one-half of all books in Europe were published in the Netherlands. Fresh from the highly resented imperial rule of the Spanish, the Dutch were particularly sensitive to liberal notions of free-speech and self-determination. Furthermore, Shorto suggests that because New Amsterdam was a company town, and never intended to be a settlement colony, attitudes toward religious and national differences were put aside to a remarkable degree. Business is business, after all, and distractions were unwelcome in this market society.

New Amsterdam was not entirely a reflection of Dutch society, however. Indeed, Shorto points out that because Amsterdam was a pleasant place even for the poor, only the very lowest order of society could be convinced to populate the far-away outpost of New Amsterdam, and thus the city became populated with a particularly rough-and-tumble crowd. Through court records he brings to life some of these figures, and this time spent with various average residents is one of the more delightful aspects of the book. He recounts a lively atmosphere full of drunkenness, casual violence, and casual sex, all of which help to make the book entertaining to a popular audience. He even mixes in a fair amount of humor, such as when he writes of a record concerning a woman who, as her husband sleeps off a drunken stupor, "'dishonorably manipulated the male member' of a certain Irishman while two other men looked on." Shorto can't help himself, and remarks, "Excessive rigidity (of the moral kind) was not the sin of New Amsterdam's residents."

As interesting as it is to read about these forgotten average people, the backbone of the book rests with two more important figures. One is Pieter Stuyvesant, an early governor of the colony, who is well known to modern New York residents due to the fact that streets, squares and apartment complexes have been named for him. His statue can be seen in Stuyvesant Square, and his tombstone is built into the side of St. Mark's-in-the-Bowery church in the East Village. Running in front of that church is Stuyvesant St., still running today in true East-West (at odds with the surrounding grid) as it did in Stuyvesant's time. The other figure is Adriaen van der Donck, an attorney trained in Europe who, for mysterious reasons, turned his back on a prosperous and comfortable life in Holland and took a position in New Netherland.

For Shorto, van der Donck is the true "hero of the story" who has been unjustifiably forgotten by American history; Shorto makes clear that he aims to rectify this lack of recognition.
Both characters are vividly drawn. Stuyvesant is a no-nonsense, autocratic governor hardened by the loss of a leg to a Spanish round in the Caribbean. The pages detailing 17th century amputation techniques, and Stuyvesant's wound festering for nine years in a tropical climate, are quite harrowing, and one is left with no doubt as to why his personality may have developed as it did.

Shorto's narrative structure sets van der Donck in opposition to Stuyvesant; van der Donck is a believer in liberal notions of tolerance, human rights, free speech and representative government who found himself at odds with Stuyvesant's world of absolute rule. Their struggle comprises the central conflict of the book, and Shorto credits van der Donck's (sort of) victory as setting the stage for modern America's recognition of liberal values.

In pursuit of this premise, despite a little bit of hyperbole that pops up in his zeal to "close the deal", Shorto has written a very engaging book with a convincing argument. The modern reader has been deliberately and skillfully engaged by utilizing anachronistic notions like "geopolitical landscape" and even "bar scene." It works: the reader is taken back and asked to imagine New Amsterdam via Shorto's vibrant descriptive ability, and in the process comes to appreciate the binds that tie a long-past society to our own.

The Island at the Center of the World is a worthy if flawed read. Two aspects in particular may annoy a reader--Shorto's use of imagined scenes and his stretching to make a point of the influence of Dutch New Amsterdam.
I have to admit, the imagined scenes grated a bit on me throughout the book. They come far too frequently and lasted too long for my own liking. Too many passages began with "we might imagine", or "perhaps he . . .", or "it isn't hard to picture . . ." A few selected scenes like these could have been effective but used as frequently as they were they seemed to mar the book rather than improve it. This is more stylistic than substantive and while some readers may find it as grating as I did, others may enjoy the vivid intimacy of them.
The other major flaw is Shorto's penchant to reach a bit to make his point that New Amsterdam had far-reaching influence on the America we have today. Any writer, of course, is going to push his/her thesis; the question is how far they strain the reader's credulity in doing so. The story of the Dutch colony at New Amsterdam is interesting enough in its own right, and its influence important enough in its own right that Shorto needn't have pushed and strained so much, as if to make sure the reader felt "justified" in reading the book. When he starts to talk about Cole Slaw (more than once) as an example of the Dutch influence, you know he's walked a bit over the edge. In that case, and a few others, he diminishes the colony's importance rather than highlights it.
Those two flaws aside, and one can easily set them aside while reading, Island is an informative, entertaining read. The story of the New Amsterdam colony is told in some detail (at times, perhaps, as is often the case with single-topic histories, too much detail), filling in what is probably a large gap in most people's knowledge of former New York (especially those who don't live here). Shorto focuses of course on Peter Stuyvesant, probably the one name most people can remember, but he broadens out his character greatly. He focuses even more on Adriaen van der Donck, a young lawyer, previously unknown or little-known, whose presence was a major influence (though again Shorto at times seems to strain this point) on the colony. The dispute between these two and what they represent make up much of the book's description of the colony.
A welcome decision on Shorto's part was to place his discussion of the colony in a larger context, both in terms of what was happening elsewhere in America with the better known English colonies and as well the lesser-known European history. He does a good job of clearly and concisely explaining issues of succession, of civil war, of multiple wars between empires, etc. There is just enough that the reader understands the context but not so much that the reader is bogged down or loses sight ever of the books' main focus.
All in all, the facts are interesting, the people more so, and if Shorto pushes a bit too far in trying prove a Dutch influence on present-day America or is a bit too imaginative, those flaws are easily spotted, almost as easily ignored, and mar the book only slightly. Recommended.

It is hard to picture Manhattan as the Dutch first saw it. It is hard to picture the Dutch here at all, as a matter of fact. Colonial history has always had such a strong Anglo bias that the Dutch (and New York, itself) never make much impact in the histories of America in the seventeenth century, focusing as it does so often on the Puritans and Pilgrims of New England. The Island at the Center of the World by Russell Shorto is a successful attempt to correct that for a pop history reading public. He makes a strong case for the importance of the early Dutch settlers as a harbinger of the future of New York (and hence America) as a multicultural nation that values individual liberties and respect religious freedoms, not values shared by the Puritans farther up north. His case is frequently overstated and not always backed up with the stongest evidence (cole slaw is mentioned a number of times as a prime example of Dutch influence) but the story he tells of this early colony is a fascinating one that deserves telling. By the end of the book, it is no longer quite so difficult to picture Manhattan as the Dutch first saw it and fought for it, with the natives, with the English, but, mostly, with each other. A wonderful slice of New York history.

This could have been a 5 star book about a rarely mentioned topic. The author put together a concise work into the history of the growth from New Amsterdam to New York. He chronicles the era of the first Dutch settlers & draws from a wealth of unique first hand infoormation. The main point of the book is how important New Amsterdam was in the growth of the USA. But, although I personally agree with his thesis, he did a mediocre job of proving it. The person of Adraien van der Donck, a lawyer is woven into the story as a very influential person. But, the data given is scanty & the connections are questionable.

The other theme, a refreshing one is the deep racial & ethnic tolerance the Dutch appear to have had. A third theme is the role of government which under the Dutch was not a monarchy unlike most European ones at that time.It is a vivid & entertaining story that leaves the reader a bit frustrated. You keep asking yourself, when is the author going to connect the dots? Lastly, the grammatical errors were far too numerous for a semi-scholarly book as this. I recommend it as a good read, but overall it only gets 3 stars.

Shorto deserves high marks for a very readable writing style and getting the book to market quickly (even though translation of the Dutch records, on which the book is primarily based, is ongoing). He introduces historical figures (van der Donck) and events (Fort Orange settlement in Albany) I'd never heard of in a way that kept me looking forward to reading each night. The book has also inspired me to dig deeper into Dutch and European history during the 1500-1600s.

The negatives: First, Shorto's Ambrose-mimicking style of attempting to put the reader into the sights, sounds, and smells of the day. While Stephen Ambrose does it in a subtle way to give context, Shorto resorts to this style so frequently (and often to fill in key history gaps) that I wondered how much of what I was reading was rank speculation of the author. Second, the book contains too many "teaching moments"---yes, the Dutch are legendary for their tolerance of religions, people, and ideas, but does every chapter in this history book need to give a lecture on the importance of civil liberties? These negatives, however, are a small distraction in what is otherwise a very interesting book.

I have lived in Manhattan for more than 30 years. But until I read this book, I assumed that the character of New York-commercial, contentious, tolerant, and multi-ethnic-was the product of European mass migrations starting, I suppose, with the Irish in the mid-nineteenth century. But, Shorto argues persuasively that this personality took hold much earlier. In fact, he shows how New York's character descends directly from the tolerant and litigious culture of the Dutch, a mighty commercial power in early 1600's, who founded a trading post and village on Manhattan in 1623. I, for one, am convinced.

I also enjoyed this book for its resurrection of Peter Stuyvesant, who, to most New Yorkers, is simply the Dutch governor with a peg leg who retired to what is now the Lower East Side. Thankfully, Shorto fills out this picture and shows Stuyvesant as an autocrat who opposed democratic reforms. These bubbled up from the colony's earliest settlers, who believed such reforms might prevent the misrule that, in one case, lead to a bloody war with indigenous Americans. A good read and highly recommended.

Ever since I became a resident of Manhattan, I have become more and more interested in the City's history. I've also always been interested in what a place is like before modern civilization comes in and creates what we see every day. With this look at Manhattan in the time of the Dutch, Mr. Shorto give us a rural glimpse at this most urban of islands.

Every schoolchild knows that Manhattan was originally settled by the Dutch and that New York City was originally New Amsterdam. In fact, that the entire region between the English settlements in Virginia & Massachusetts was New Holland. And yet, we are also so brought up on the idea of the thirteen original "English" colonies that it is easy to forget the powerful influence the Dutch had on the formation of these American colonies. By digging into the newly translated records of the Dutch colony, Mr. Shorto is able to open our eyes to more than just a few place names (Harleem becomes Harlem, the "Jonker" becomes Yonkers, etc.) and the bad memory of Peter Stuyvesant. He shows the lasting cultural influence that the Dutch inroads into the Hudson Valley had on the American nation.

It is impossible to relate all of the eye-opening information that Mr. Shorto reveals in this book. Needless to say, there is a lot here. I was particularly interested in the story of "the Jonker" Adriaen van der Donck, the young Dutch lawyer whose liberal interpretation of Dutch law helped bring many of the freedoms we now hold dear to the American psyche. And I loved being able to image this island as a land of villages (both Indian & European) with farms and vast tracks of unspoilt land. Mr. Shorto is really able to bring this world to life.

In brief, if you have any interest at all in the history of Manhattan, you would be foolish to miss this book. Even someone interested in American history in general will want to read this book, I think. As Mr. Shorto makes pains to point out, this island was the center of a multicultural community from day one that stretched its melting pot ideals deep into the heart of America. It is a fascinating story.

For those who are from the New York City area or have an interest in it, the story of the pioneering Dutch settlement there is truly fascinating. I'm not sure Russell Shorto is the person to tell it, but, nevertheless, the book is out there. He states that no one else before him has told it quite like him because of a new, large cache of previously untranslated Old Dutch language documents from that era that have only recently been translated and became available to him and other researchers.

In short, he writes like a tabloid newspaper writer who must now write a serious piece. It is very annoying that he constantly uses artistic license to recreate possible conversations and occurrences. Furthermore, it is clear that his perspective on the early history of New York (New Netherlands) and the rest of the world lacks depth. The book reads, but I was always wondering what I might have been missing.

To be fair, however, the book does tell a story effectively, and it does have an impressive bibliography. And when he just sticks to the facts the book gets even more interesting and believable. It is also great to discover the Dutch origins of many aspects of the City, such as Yonkers, Bronx, Broadway, the Bowery, Wall Street, etc., etc. It is also great to get an idea of who Stuyvesant was, but learning about the other founders, Van der Donck and Kieft, was just as fascinating.

Learning about how the British selfishly and forcibly stole the settlement from the Dutch futher opened my eyes. Furthermore, Shorto also opened my eyes to Sweden's pioneering colonial involvement in what is now the state of Delaware.

I just wonder how others would have written this story. It seems like most of the story came from sources other than this newly discovered cache of Dutch documents.

As an aside, after reading this book, you will be titilated by reading Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkel and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and other stories he wrote that take place in Old Dutch settlement here. In the early 1800's, when Irving wrote, he was extremely popular.

I'll get the quibbles out of the way first: there is lazy and self-indulgent writing which should have been ruthlessly blue pencilled. At one point the author describes someone as having a ``soothing, caramelly baritone'' (yech) and describes a seventeenth-century Dutch businessman as ``right-wing'' - a meaningless term in that context. Maybe he's trying to be funny, but it comes across as slovenly.

HOWEVER...despite this it's a fascinating read, bringing to life the unlikely founding fathers of a Dutch trading post and the ragtag assemblage of people who were its first settlers. It was completely unlike the Puritan theocracy to the north and the dumping ground for wastrel younger sons to the south - New Netherlanders were there to trade with the Indians, make as much money as they could, and enjoy life with the proceeds. Imagine wolves and waterfalls in northern Manhattan; imagine tobacco farms in Greenwich Village, imagine when religious tolerance in a colony (anathema almost everywhere else) was encouraged because, after all, it was good for business. Thanks to Mr. Shorto, we can do so with ease.

I give it four stars - it would have been five but for the annoying literary tics mentioned in the first paragraph. Otherwise, highly recommended.

Shorto's book on the Dutch founding of New Amsterdam adds an important dimension to our understanding of early American history. A fascinating detailed story including power struggles, interplay between New Amsterdam and the home country, Director-General Peter Stuyvesant versus Adriaen van der Donck, and the mostly peaceful interactions with the Indians. His thorough treatment of the omnipresent interactions between the tribes and the settlers is anything but simplistic.

While interesting, Shorto's desire to place the Dutch at the center of American origins is overdone. Shorto is a journalist not an historian and it shows when he tries to directly connect New Amsterdam's diversity with today's ethnic and cultural pluralism. Fortunately, Shorto's book is good enough to easily overcome the distraction of that thesis.

Shorto also provides a lesson in the 'history of history' when he describes a circular process whereby this chapter has been overlooked because the raw materials had never been accurately translated until the 1970's and the materials were never sought because of the Anglocentric view of American history. These materials now allow the telling of a much fuller history of Dutch America.

All in all, a very worthy addition to your collection of American history and an enjoyable read. Highly recommended.