The Island at the Center of the World

This is a wonderful book that digs into the actual records of everyday life on the island of Manhattan during the occupation of the Dutch beginning when Hendrich Hudson first sailed up the river past the island in the early 1600s. read the the fascinating story of Adriaen van de Donck, one of the very first attorneys in the New World, and how he helped shape what would become the cultural center of the world.

In fact, van der Donck was the person for whom Yonkers, NY was named. I'll let you do your own research to discover just how that came to be (hint: he was a "young squire").

Great read! I recommend it highly to anyone interested in the history of our country. ( )

Painstaking translation for the past 35 years of original Dutch records by Charles Gehring, director of the New Netherland Project, are the foundation for the book. According to Shorto, the original documents may have been "lost" by the British to minimize the importance of the Dutch settlement. Better minds prevailed, and despite several fires and near disaster, much of the material was saved and has been stored at the New York State Library in Albany.

At the beginning of the book, we are asked to imagine a time machine traveling backwards in Manhattan, stripping away buildings, steel structures, and asphalt to bring back the land that was flattened, add back the streams and rivers that were forced into sewers, and the wildlife that has been pushed to other locales, until we see an untouched land with waves lapping at the shore. That is, until on the horizon we see sails.

I have spent almost my entire life in the tri-state area around Manhattan. I enjoyed hearing the non-Anglican names related to people, towns, rivers and counties that I have heard since I was a little girl, and about their roots in the earliest Dutch settlement of New Amsterdam. We were taught that Manhattan was settled by the Dutch, but that was the extent of its place in our local history. We hear familiar names - Henry Hudson, Peter Minuet, and Peter Stuyvesant; and some unfamiliar names - Adriaen van der Donck, lawyer and proponent of the tolerant society upon which the melting pot of New York City is built, ideas counter to the Puritan ideals that were the basis for the settlement in Massachusetts. The Dutch settlement founded in 1623 was lost to the British in 1664, but its influence on the character of Manhattan remains. The concept of District Attorney to represent the victim of a crime (van der Donck was the first), cookies instead of biscuits, the term boss, and even Sinterklass (Santa Claus) all have their origins in the early Dutch settlement.

I really wish that I had been reading this book, instead of listening to the audio. I understand that the book has maps and pictures which would have added to the experience. I also would have liked to go back and reread a few parts. Hard to do that with an audio book while driving in New Jersey traffic. There was a reference to a woman last name of Moody (an English name and my father's surname) who married a Dutchman. But I missed how that came about. There was a reference to Fort Gorges on Hogs Island off of Portland, Maine (named after Sir Ferdinando Gorges, an early English colonial entrepreneur and founder of the Province of Maine). My ears perked up as I heard this mentioned, because as we take the ferry from Portland to Great Diamond Island, we pass this little piece of history. There were similar instances where having the book would have been helpful.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the colorful early beginning of the Island of Manhattan. I would not recommend the audio book. I hope to find a copy at my local library so that I can go back and find the bits that I missed. ( )

I have owned this book about five years so it is definitely a TOME. I bought it because I knew nothing about the topic and it piqued my curiosity.
There has been significant new research which helped the author tell his story in great detail. Since the 1970's the records of the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam have been being translated and published. They figure prominently in the copious bibliography. The ample footnotes also attest to the amount of research that went into this book.
This was the beginning of the colonial era in the Americas. The Dutch had recently won their freedom from Spain and were getting wealthy from the spice trade. The colony was run by the West India Company and Peter Stuyvesant worked in Curacao before he took over New Amsterdam in 1647. There is a very striking portrait of him in the illustrations. He has dark eyes and a steely stare. His portrait is right above that of Adriaen van der Donck who led the opposition against Stuyvesant in a battle for self government by the colonists. That struggle is a large part of the story of the colony. In addition to self government the colonists fought for freedom of speech and dissent. The personalities of Stuyvesant and van der Donck and the political struggle dominated the narration. There was a foreshadowing of the American Revolution in the political struggle of the colonists.
I did not think that the writing gave justice to the story. At times the author seemed to just plod along filling in the narrative. It did seem to move better towards the end but I learned more from the book more than I enjoyed reading it. The one item that kept up my interest was the variety of items that this country inherited from the Dutch. Many of the boroughs of New York of course but odd items like the office of District Attorney which did not exist in English law. I did feel that I learned a lot. The Dutch were definitely a factor in American colonial life. They occupied all of New York and parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. To the extent the book satisfied my curiosity it was a worthwhile read. I don't think I would want to read it again. ( )

Manhattan, or New Amsterdam as it was known in the 1620s had a short colonization under the Dutch who founded New Netherlands before it was seized by the English in 1664. Under the directorship of Peter Minuit, famous not only for establishing this new colony for the Dutch but for purchasing it from the Indians for $24, this colony was a vigorous and cosmopolitan trading post.

Filled with details about the lives and trials of famous historical figures such as Henry Hudson, after whom the Hudson River is named, Peter Minuit and Peter Stuyvesant, the one-legged governor who lost Manhattan to the English in 1664, this book also covers lesser known individuals such as Adriaen van der Donck, who proposed and fought for more representative government, free speech and tolerance.

This reads more like an adventurous novel than it does a history book, and I credit Shorto's wonderfully descriptive style for bringing to life the people, sights, smells, thrills and tragedies to the reader. ( )

The book really suffers from the stupid title. Apart from the fact that every place is the center of the world relatively speaking, New Amsterdam was clearly a side show during the time frame discussed. Its wealth derived from the trade in beaver pelts and as a transport hub for pirates and the transfer back to the Old World. Precisely because it wasn't central to the Dutch, the English could take it over rather effortlessly. The dramatic confrontation built by the author ends in a anti-climatic surrender without a single shot being fired.

The author's claim that the Dutch traditions and culture shaped the future New York are widely exaggerated. The original Wall Street may have given its name to the location but was in no way responsible for the future financial center of the world. Only as New York did the town gain access to the large British markets and become the center of the Atlantic seaboard.

The book also suffers from the author's muddled allegiance. His fervent promotion of the USA as the bestest and greatest-ever nation clashes with his equally fervent pleading for Dutch culture and civilization. He missed to learn that there are many great places to live on this planet. Not all roads lead to New York. Staying in Amsterdam can be just as pleasant. One constant feature of the Dutch project of New Amsterdam was that it relied on outsiders (Frisians, Walloons) because the Dutch city slickers preferred the riches and comforts of home. Demography made New Amsterdam English, as the Dutch lacked the English reservoirs of misery in Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The Thirty Years' War had depleted the German population which might have supplied the numbers for the Dutch. Overall, though the Dutch escaped without economic losses from their American colony as the English accorded them large trade privileges. The Dutch later repaid perfidious Albion by supporting the American Revolution from the beginning. ( )