Synopses & Reviews
Four centuries ago, and thirteen years before the
Mayflower, a group of men—led by a one-armed ex-pirate, an epileptic aristocrat, a reprobate cleric, and a government spy—arrived in Virginia aboard a fleet of three ships and set about trying to create a settlement on a tiny island in the James River. Despite their shortcomings, and against the odds, they built Jamestown, a ramshackle outpost that laid the foundations of the British Empire and the United States of America.
Drawing on new discoveries, neglected sources, and manuscript collections scattered across the world, Savage Kingdom challenges the textbook image of Jamestown—revealing instead a reckless, daring enterprise led by outcasts of the Old World who found themselves interlopers in a new one.
Synopsis
Four hundred years ago, a small group of Englishmen landed on the shores of Chesapeake Bay, planning to colonize the land they called "Virginia." Within months, their tiny settlement faced extinction. Yet despite in-fighting, political sabotage, Indian hostility, threats from the Spanish and some of the worst weather conditions in recorded history, the colony prevailed and laid the foundation of an English-speaking America.
In A Savage Kingdom, award-winning author Benjamin Woolley revisits the Jamestown colony. While general belief holds that the establishment of the colony was driven by greed and nearly ruined by incompetence, Woolley argues that the project was part of a "heroic design," an idealistic mission to create a New World free of the forces that were destroying the old one. It was also an influential mission, with connections reaching from Paris to the Orinoco Delta, and from Angola to the Blue Ridge Mountains. This dramatic and unforgettable tale will forever change readers' perceptions of the first successful English settlement in what would become the United States.
Benjamin Woolley is an award-winning writer and broadcaster. He won the Arts Journalist of the Year Award in Britain and an Emmy for his commentary for the Discovery Channel's "Three Minutes to Impact."
"A swashbuckling saga of political maneuvering, storms at sea, hostile indigenes, violence and starvation ... his book is sprightly and vivid." -- Los Angeles Times
Synopsis
"Brilliantly framed . . . fascinating . . . a well-told story of discovery, conquest, business, and politics." -- Kirkus Reviews
Four centuries ago, and 14 years before the Mayflower, a group of men--led by a one-armed ex-pirate, an epileptic aristocrat, a reprobate cleric and a government spy--left London aboard a fleet of three ships. Despite their shortcomings, and against the odds, they built Jamestown, a ramshackle outpost that laid the foundations of the British Empire and the United States of America.
Drawing on new discoveries, neglected sources, and manuscript collections scattered across the world, Savage Kingdom challenges the textbook image of Jamestown as a mere money-making venture. It reveals a reckless, daring enterprise led by outcasts of the Old World who found themselves interlopers in a new one. An intimate story in an epic setting, it shows how the land of Pocahontas came to be drawn into a new global order.
About the Author
Benjamin Woolley is an award-winning writer and broadcaster. He is the author of the best-selling The Queen's Conjuror: The Life and Magic of Dr. John Dee and Heal Thyself: Nicholas Culpeper and the Civil War for the Heart of Medicine in Seventeenth-Century England. His first book, Virtual Worlds, was short-listed for the Rhône-Poulenc Prize and has been translated into eight languages. His second work, The Bride of Science, examined the life of Ada Lovelace, Lord Byron's daughter. He has written and presented documentaries for the BBC on subjects ranging from the fight for liberty during the English Civil War to the end of the Space Age. He has won the Arts Journalist of the Year Award and an Emmy for his commentary for Discovery's Three Minutes to Impact. He lives in London.