Customer Reviews

The Jamestown Project

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Karen Ordahl Kupperman revisits territory she knows well with this latest history of Jamestown. What distinguishes Kupperman's history from the slew of other books which have come before is the very self conscious effort to put the founding of Jamestown within an Atlantic history context.

For people who are looking for a detailed history of Jamestown itself this is not the book. Instead you should perhaps try one of Dr Kupperman's other books. She only gets to the actual founding of the colony in the last two chapters of the book. Instead she discusses the world which brought about the colonization. That is the true purpose of this book and why it is called the Jamestown PROJECT. By placing the story of the colony within the larger background of financial expansion, political maneuvering, and geopolitics, Kupperman makes us very conscious of the contingency of Jamestown. This was not an inevitable event, the precursor to American history. Rather, it was the END of a long series of events and trends which contributed to the settlement there and the way it developed.

Along the way Kupperman takes us on a sweeping journey of the Early Modern world. Her topics range from the waxing and waning of Islamic powers, to the routes of Spanish expansion, to the creation of Caribbean colonies, the continental wars of 16th century Europe, and the life of Native Americans both in America and Europe. All of this is, while at times disjointed, a welcome background to the colonization of Jamestown and reframes the familiar story in illuminating ways. The background explains why the colony was founded the way it was: why did the colonists refuse to grow food? Why did they interact with the Natives the way they did? Kupperman's book is a useful one for anyone interested in the early history of America or the Atlantic world.

Kupperman does an excellent job of establishing the cultural, religious, and political atmosphere at the time of the colony's origins. I found it fascinating to immersive myself in the whys of the colony: why was it started, why were people interested in investing in it, etc. I also felt there were a lot of interesting parallels to the story of the colony and to that today--of how government and corporations often place financial interests far above humanitarian interests. The book also gave me a much more accurate idea of what it must have meant to be a colonist and helped dispel the myth that in fleeing England these people found a land of freedom and opportunity. It also gave me a very deep appreciation for the first settlers as without them, I surely would never be here. This excellent work does a wonderful job of providing an intelligent, in-depth examination of our origins as a country and it does so in an engaging manner so that it reads more like a novel and nothing like a dry textbook.

This is a terrific book for anyone interested in the colonization of North America. If school history left you with the impression that nothing relevant had happened in the world until the two ill-fated attempts to colonize Roanoke Island, let Professor Kupperman straighten out your mind. She goes through in great but readable detail the world situation prior to 1607: the European powers and their interactions, the extensive contact with the Muslim world, explorations, and the English attempts to colonize wild and wooly places such as Ireland. In fact, the book is more about this complicated context than about Jamestown. Jamestown doesn't get settled until the reader is already two-thirds through the book's text.

Two minor things caught my eye. The author seems to have swallowed John Smith's concocted story about being on death's row when Pocahontas rushed in and saved him. That fairy tale didn't appear in the first edition of his Generall Historie. Subsequently, a real such happening transpired in Florida to a Spaniard, the report of which became widely known in Europe. Smith had a better eye for a good story than for the truth.

The other trivial complaint is the assertion early on that the Plymouth Colony owed its success to the trials and errors of Jamestown, but the point is never developed in the book. Indeed, the author seems to think that the Pilgrim colony is revered because people believe it wrongly to be the earliest successful colonization attempt. But that's not why Plymouth is gets more press than Jamestown. For one thing, the Pilgrims left detailed genealogical records so these are the earliest settlers anyone can prove to be descended from. And because of the Mayflower Compact and the conduct of the colony, the seeds of what America later became were sewn and partly reared. Yes, the Jamestown story is a fascinating one, but for entirely different reasons.

The illustrations in the book are engaging, and I had seen previously only a relatively few of them. Be charmed by the sly expression of the Moroccan ambassador presented to Queen Elizabeth (p. 40), or the pipe-smoking man from a 1595 book (p. 279). This book is good history and good fun.

I was excited to receive this book as Jamestown is a topic I was interested to learn more about. However, I was disappointed to find, in spite of the book's title, actual information on the trials and triumphs of the Jamestown colony would not appear until about 90 pages in. The first whole part of the book focuses on other nations and colonization endeavors, religious wars, the Ottoman Empire, and the world in general during the era prior to the Jamestown establishment. Although interesting, this is not what I was hoping to read. Although a bit of back story is needed to understand the time period surrounding what brought those individuals to Jamestown, I was disappointed at the sheer amount of what I would consider back story, and too little on Jamestown - what I was hoping would be the main focus.

This is a great book but the author does not even start to address Jamestown until almost the middle of the book. Still, it is a very educational read.

I was planning a trip to Jamestown and decided that before I went I wanted to read about the towns beginning. The book was great - lots of information- made my trip that much more interesting.

Once I started it I couldn't put it down! Very factual and riveting. The author did an exceptional job of relating what these poor people actually lived to start our great nation.

Ordering books through Amazon is my favorite shopping method. One of my ancestors came to America at Jamestown so it's very interesting to me.