The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan, the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America: Amazon.ca: Russell Shorto: Books

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From Publishers Weekly

Drawing on 17th-century Dutch records of New Netherland and its capital, Manhattan, translated by scholar Charles Gehring only in recent decades, Shorto (Gospel Truth) brings to exuberant life the human drama behind the skimpy legend starting with the colony's founding in 1623. Most Americans know little about Dutch Manhattan beyond its first director, Peter Minuit, who made the infamous $24 deal with the Indians, and Peter Stuyvesant, the stern governor who lost the island to the English in 1664. These two seminal figures receive their due here, along with a huge cast of equally fascinating characters. But Shorto has a more ambitious agenda: to argue for the huge debt Americans owe to the culture of Dutch Manhattan, the first place in the New World where men and women of different races and creeds lived in relative harmony. The petitions of the colony's citizens for greater autonomy, penned by Dutch-trained lawyer Adriaen van der Donck, represented "one of the earliest expressions of modern political impulses: an insistence by the members of the community that they play a role in their own government." While not discounting the British role in the shaping of American society, the author argues persuasively for the Dutch origins of some of our most cherished beliefs and their roots in "the tolerance debates in Holland" and "the intellectual world of Descartes, Grotius, and Spinoza." Shorto's gracefully written historical account is a must-read for anyone interested in this nation's origins.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

As the song goes, "Even Old New York was once New Amsterdam." Unfortunately, for many Americans, that is the limit of their knowledge about the Dutch colony that was seized by the English in 1664. Shorto, author of two previous books and articles published in the New Yorker and the New York Times Magazine, presents an outstanding and revealing chronicle of the Dutch presence on Manhattan Island. Much of his research is based on recently translated Dutch primary sources that have languished in archives in Albany. Written in elegant prose, this enthralling story provides original perspectives on several historical figures, including Henry Hudson, Peter Minuit, and Peter Stuyvesant. Shorto also highlights the contributions of Andriaen van der Donck, an energetic, charismatic man who played an integral part in creating a dynamic, diverse, and tolerant society that appears refreshing when compared to the neighboring Puritan-dominated colony in Massachusetts. This is an important work. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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First Sentence
On a late summer's day in the year 1608, a gentleman of London made his way across the city. Read the first page

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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Dutch Were Advocates of Multiculturalism?, July 11 2004

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James D. Williams (Irvine, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan, the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America (Hardcover)

Shorto's book is uneven. For people who know little about early colonial history, it provides some interesting information about New Amsterdam and the politics of colonization. The most dynamic part of the book is the tension between Stuyvesant, the director of New Amsterdam, and van der Donck, attorney, activist, and reformer who sought to give the colonists some voice in the West India Company's control over the town's governance. Although Shorto promises to provide new and vital information about New Amsterdam based on the recent translation of heretofore unavailable (in English) records, the promise is not really fulfilled. The new information consists, essentially, of accounts of law suits, brawls, and mismanagement. I would encourage readers to overlook this unfulfilled promise as typical publishing hype. Harder to overlook is Shorto's own political agenda. At every opportunity, Shorto insists on telling readers that New Amsterdam was a diverse community where blacks, Indians, and Jews were "tolerated" and that New Amsterdam laid the foundation for contemporary America's embrace of diversity and multiculturalism. This sort of redundancy is tremendously annoying--even somewhat insulting. Moreover, it reflects a lack of critical vision that is unacceptable in a history book. The mantra of "strength in diversity" is largely wishful thinking, and there are any number of examples that illustrate how unrestrained diversity weakens society. Consider the rise of identity politics over the last two decades and the fate of public education owing to the huge number of non-English-speaking students in our classes. Shorto would have produced a better book if he had stuck to history and left his political editorializing at home.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You're Not Much if You're Not Dutch!, July 3 2004

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Ardath N. Blauvelt (Hollis, NH United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan, the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America (Hardcover)

My last name is, as you can see, Blauvelt -- no relation to the pirate in the book, more's the pity -- but from the branch that migrated from New Amsterdam into northern NJ and Orange County, where, indeed, is the town named Blauvelt. And the saying above is a bumper sticker my father gave me. But, onto this book. The premise: that it is forgotten history, is a surprise to one raised on much of the lore recounted here, but I suspect that once outside the environs, or, as some reviewers of age (I think) state, outside the NY regents exam system, it may actually be forgotten or never learned history. In any event, as a Dutch descendant of those days, it is great to read this history so wonderfully woven and described. Lore that was warp and woof of my growing up: that "planks", now political platforms, were first Dutch references to staking out parts of private investment/ownership in a ship. Or, that the "dollar" is from a Dutch word, and so forth. Shorto brings the whole Dutch colonization experience to life as I have never read -- in the pages of a book -- for those uninitiated. The Dutch, like it or not, had a profound effect on the tenor and direction of this unique nation. Shorto, given my steeping in Dutch lore, does not exaggerate or assume -- he tells it like it was. And, given the historic sources he is using, it is high time the formerly unknown van der Donck was given his due. An endearing and interesting character who takes on, in a David and Goliath struggle, the better known, if not admired or admirable, Peter Stuyvesant. Thank you, Russell Shorto.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fast Paced and Very Entertaining, Jun 29 2004

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L. Sabin (Hudson Valley NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan, the Forgotten Colony that Shaped America (Hardcover)

Modern histoical narratives concerning Dutch New Amsterdam are few and far between. Ones that are amusing and informative reads are even more rare. The Island at the Center of the World is valuable for being both.

Centered on the history of New Amsterdam and its original Dutch environs, it is also written with a good sense of humor that this reader appreciated very much. Russell Shorto's descriptions are also great, even if he has no way of proving that the scenes he is describing are 100% hisotircally accurate.

His expansion of the thesis that Dutch multiculturalism eventually led to American multiculturialism may be a bit cunvoluted for some readers, but even if you don't fully agree with Shorto's history, the images that he presents in support of his ideas make for great reading along the way.

New Yorkers who love their own history will quickly devour this book.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitely worth reading!
Being both a native Manhattan-ite, and of Dutch descent, I'd have to say that in the NYC public school system of the 30's and 40's, good as it was, the origins of New Netherland... Read more

Published on July 7 2004 by K. Hazelhoff

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun, informative, provocative, well written
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... Read more