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Into the American Woods: Negotiations on the Pennsylvania Frontier

by James H. Merrell

235 Members 1 Review (4.00) 2 Awards

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"An award-winning historian's beautifully written reconstruction of how Europeans lived in peace and war with Indians on America's colonial frontier." "They've been with us since the mythic past, when Hermes carried messages from the gods to the Greeks and Deganawidah with his disciple Hiawatha built the Great League of Peace among the Iroquois. They are the go-betweens, the shadowy figures who move between us and them, linking different worlds." "These were the "woods-men," wise in the ways show more of the American woods, knowledgeable about the other, able to navigate the treacherous shoals of misunderstanding and mistrust. From the Quaker colony's founding in the early 1680s into the 1750s, they did the hard, dirty work that helped maintain the fragile "long peace" between Indians and colonists. But, skilled as they were in the alchemy of translation and negotiation, they could not prevent the sickening plummet from peace to war after 1750. The bloodshed and hatred of frontier conflict at once made go-betweens obsolete and taught the harsh lesson of the woods: the final incompatibility of colonial and native dreams about the continent they shared. Long erased from history, the go-betweens of early America are recovered here in vivid detail."--BOOK JACKET. show less

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JBD1 2,919 reviews

A really fabulous narrative tale of interactions between colonists and American Indians in PA during the colonial era.

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Author Information

James H. Merrell

17+ Works 495 Members

James H. Merrell is Lucy Maynard Salmon Professor of History at Vassar College.

Awards and Honors

Awards

Pulitzer Prize (Finalist – History – 2000)

Bancroft Prize (2000)

Common Knowledge

Original title: Into the American Woods: Negotiators on the Pennsylvania Frontier
Important places: Pennsylvania, USA
Original language: English

Classifications

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Home & Garden, General Nonfiction
DDC/MDS: 974.8 — History & geography History of North America Northeastern United States (New England and Middle Atlantic states) Pennsylvania
LCC: F152 .M48 — Local History of the United States, Canada and Latin America United States local history Pennsylvania
BISAC: HIS HISTORY United States Colonial Period (1600-1775)
HIS HISTORY General

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Members: 235
Popularity: 136,883
Reviews: 1
Rating: (4.00)

Languages: English
Media: Paper
ISBNs: 2

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Published: 1999
Genres: History, Nonfiction, Home & Garden, General Nonfiction
DDC/MDS: 974.8
LCC: F152 .M48

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James H. Merrell

17+ Works 495 Members

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