New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America (American Moment)

Calloway employs lucid prose and captivating examples to remind us that neither Indians nor Colonists were a monolithic group... The result is a more nuanced appreciation for the complexity of cultural relationships in Colonial America... He surveys this complex story with imagination and insight and provides an essential starting point for all those interested in the interaction of Europeans and Indians in early American life. — David R. Shi, Christian Science Monitor

Although many Americans consider the establishment of the colonies as the birth of this country, in fact Early America already existed long before the arrival of the Europeans. From coast to coast, Native Americans had created enduring cultures, and the subsequent European invasion remade much of the existing land and culture. In New Worlds for All, Colin Calloway explores the unique and vibrant new cultures that Indians and Europeans forged together in early America. The journey toward this hybrid society kept Europeans' and Indians' lives tightly entwined: living, working, worshiping, traveling, and trading together — as well as fearing, avoiding, despising, and killing one another. In the West, settlers lived in Indian towns, eating Indian food. In Mohawk Valley, New York, Europeans tattooed their faces; Indians drank tea. And, a unique American identity emerged.

I cannot think of another work that sets out to accomplish what Colin Calloway has achieved. New Worlds for All stands poised to become the most successful synthesis of North American ethnohistory from contact to the early national period. — Gregory E. Dowd, University of Notre Dame

Colin Calloway's grand synthesis of the experience of Indians and other Americans before 1800 is exceptional in its breadth of vision. Taking as his canvas the entire North American continent — examining everything from war and disease to trade and sex, from clothes and houses to foods and cures — he nonetheless never loses sight of the individual, human story, the vivid encounter or striking incident that brings the past to life. — James H. Merrell, Vassar College

In New Worlds for All, Calloway explores the unique and vibrant new cultures that Indians and Europeans forged together in early America. The process, Calloway writes, lasted longer than the United States has existed as a nation. During that time, most of America was still "Indian country", and even in areas of European settlement, Indians and Europeans remained a part of each other's daily lives: living, working, worshiping, traveling, and trading together - as well as fearing, avoiding, despising, and killing one another. Ranging across the continent and over 300 years, New Worlds for All describes encounters between Spanish conquistadors and Zuni warriors, Huron shamans and French Jesuit missionaries, English merchants and Montagnais traders. Calloway's discussion of conflict and cooperation includes the use of natural resources and shared knowledge about trail networks, herbal medicines, metal tools, and weapons. He depicts the European emulation of Indian military tactics, the varied responses of Indian societies to Christianity, attempts made on all sides to learn the languages and customs of the other, and the intermingling of peoples at the fringes of competing cultures - through captivity and adoption, attempts to escape one's own society and embrace another, or intermarriage. The New World, Calloway concludes, brought new identities for all, as Indian and European cultures combined to create a uniquely American identity.

Although many Americans consider the establishment of the colonies as the birth of this country, in fact Early America already existed long before the arrival of the Europeans. From coast to coast, Native Americans had created enduring cultures, and the subsequent European invasion remade much of the existing land and culture. In New Worlds for All, Colin Calloway explores the unique and vibrant new cultures that Indians and Europeans forged together in early America. The journey toward this hybrid society kept Europeans' and Indians' lives tightly entwined: living, working, worshiping, traveling, and trading together--as well as fearing, avoiding, despising, and killing one another. In the West, settlers lived in Indian towns, eating Indian food. In Mohawk Valley, New York, Europeans tattooed their faces; Indians drank tea. And, a unique American identity emerged.

This text considers how from coast to coast, Native Americans created enduring cultures in America and how the subsequent European invasion remade much of the existing land and culture. It explores the new cultures that Indians and Europeans forged together in early America and considers how the journey toward this hybrid society kept Europeans and Indians closely entwined. The author analyzes how the different cultures were living, working, worshipping, travelling and trading together - as well as fearing, avoiding, despising and killing one another.