Name: The Island At The Center Of The World
Rating: 3.714285714285714 (7 reviews)
ISBN: 9781400078677

Russell Shorto

A history of the Dutch role in the establishment of Manhattan discusses the rivalry between England and the Dutch Republic, focusing on the power struggle between Holland governor Peter Stuyvesant and politician Adriaen van der Donck that shaped New York's culture and social freedoms. Reprint. 50,000 first printing.

The Epic Story Of Dutch Manhattan And The Forgotten Colony That Shaped America

The Island At The Center Of The World

Jeni Enjaian

I absolutely loved this book. While I wished it had been recorded by a better narrator, the subject utterly fascinated me. I loved the historiographical nature of the book, especially how the unlocking of the relatively obscure 17th Dutch language records unlocked a wealth of history of one of the biggest cities in the world, history almost unknown to the millions of people that live in the United States much less the world. The author lays out a cogent outline and supports his thesis well while creating a readable and enjoyable work of history for the popular (slightly academic) culture. He does indulge in a big of speculation but that's to be expected when so many records were lost or destroyed before translation. 
I highly recommend this book and am adding it to my amazon wish list.

Ray Mims

Garrett Jansen

Christian Beck

Faheem Kajee

Based on new documents just translated from C17th Dutch, this book tells the story of how a wilderness island populated by wolves, wild strawberries and native Indians, situated on a perfect natural harbour at the mouth of a great river leading into the centre of a new continent, became the crucial prize in a conflict between the Dutch and English about who would control the recently discovered American continent. This is the pageturning story of the early years of Manhattan under Dutch rule, with at its heart a battle between men who would be its leader, the autocratic despot Stuyvesant, and the liberal-minded lawyer Van den Donck. It is Russel Shorto's theory that the attitudes of the original Dutch settlers led to the free-trade, multi-cultural, upwardly-mobile 'melting pot' of New York, and that Van den Donck was the first to identify the principles of liberty and democracy that ended up underpinning the US contstitution.

The Island At The Center Of The World The Epic Story Of Dutch Manhattan And The Forgotten Colony That Shaped America

Reviews

Highlights