Synopses & Reviews
Through dramatic comparisons of Native American and early colonial politics, history, and religion, historian Russell Bourne offers a complete and insightful look at how these two disparate groups influenced each other and how this interchange helped forge the basis for the culture we live in today.
Despite living in a war-torn world, both sides made heroic efforts to reach out to each other. The religious and cultural concepts of the Native Americans helped to transform the colonists, turning many into pantheists, communal villagers, and woodland warriors. Similarly, many of the Native Americans became evangelical Christians, farmers, traders, and even commanders of nationalistic armies. Benjamin Franklin, marveling at the cooperation and mutual respect evident among the Six Nations of the Iroquois, suggested that colonial leaders should follow their lead. Yet, in the end, differences and treacheries drove the two peoples apart.
Based on extensive historical research and consultation with numerous Native American and academic sources, Gods of War, Gods of Peace offers a revelatory new view of how Native American and colonial religions shaped America and its ideals.
Review
"In Gods of War, Gods of Peace: How the Meeting of Native and Colonial Religions Shaped Early America, this former editor of American Heritage magazine offers a dense but accessible overview of the era's spiritual and cultural exchange. And, it turns out, that exchange was deep-seated, nuanced and kinetic." Katharine Whittemore, Salon.com (read the entire Salon review)
Review
"[A] persuasive voice evidencing prodigious knowledge of early American history....In general, the narrative is spun with a pleasingly light touch....Though sometimes obscured by war whoops and thick flights of arrows, a fascinating examination of what happens to religions when worlds collide." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"The book's strength is in Bourne's descriptions of the religious encounters from both perspectives....[O]ffers a highly readable and valuable depiction of the possibilities and tragic failures of early American history..." Library Journal
Review
"[A] dense but accessible overview of the era's spiritual and cultural exchange. And, it turns out, that exchange was deep-seated, nuanced and kinetic....Bourne doesn't fully succeed at sticking, um, religiously to the religious theme you'll find tangents upon tangents but his chronicle is transfixing, blasted with ironies and heartache, and colored with towering figures both known and (undeservedly) obscure....Bourne's strong suit is character development people really come alive but his weakness is a confusing grasp of chronology. Still, all that character development offers up fascinating pairings....The depth of Bourne's research and his ear for the right detail make his account of [John] Eliot's early sojourn both a delight to read and insightful history." Katharine Whittemore, Salon.com
Synopsis
Through dramatic comparisons of Native American and early colonial politics, history, and religion, historian Russell Bourne offers a complete and insightful look at how these two disparate groups influenced each other and how this interchange helped forge the basis for the culture we live in today.
Despite living in a war-torn world, both sides made heroic efforts to reach out to each other. The religious and cultural concepts of the Native Americans helped to transform the colonists, turning many into pantheists, communal villagers, and woodland warriors. Similarly, many of the Native Americans became evangelical Christians, farmers, traders, and even commanders of nationalistic armies. Benjamin Franklin, marveling at the cooperation and mutual respect evident among the Six Nations of the Iroquois, suggested that colonial leaders should follow their lead. Yet, in the end, differences and treacheries drove the two peoples apart.
Based on extensive historical research and consultation with numerous Native American and academic sources, Gods of War, Gods of Peace offers a revelatory new view of how Native American and colonial religions shaped America and its ideals.
Synopsis
Synopsis
About the Author
Russell Bourne is the author of several books on American and Native American history and has worked as an editor at American Heritage and the Smithsonian Institution. He is a member of the Institute for American Indian Studies and lives in Ithaca, New York, and Castine, Maine.
Table of Contents
Preface: America's History of Contending Faiths
Ch. 1 The Devilish Interaction of Two Religions 1
Ch. 2 A Wampanoag "Saint" and a Narragansett Prince 25
Ch. 3 Two Men of Opposed Gods on the Northern Frontier 68
Ch. 4 The New England Apostle's Native Churches 118
Ch. 5 The Early Eighteenth Century's Flowering of Hope: The Great Awakening 167
Ch. 6 In the Twilight of an Empire, a Mission-Minded Schoolmaster and a Prophet for Pontiac 223
Ch. 7 Prophets of Two Separate Revolutions 273
Ch. 8 The Imminent Apocalypse and the Ultimate Removal 330
Bibliography 387
Acknowledgments 399
Index 407