The island at the center of the world : the epic story of Dutch Manhattan, the forgotten colony that shaped America

Resource Information

The work The island at the center of the world : the epic story of Dutch Manhattan, the forgotten colony that shaped America represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Manchester City Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

The island at the center of the world : the epic story of Dutch Manhattan, the forgotten colony that shaped America

Title remainder

the epic story of Dutch Manhattan, the forgotten colony that shaped America

Statement of responsibility

Russell Shorto

Creator

• Shorto, Russell

Author

• Shorto, Russell

Subject

• Manhattan (New York, N.Y.) -- History -- 17th century
• Minuit, Peter, 1580-1638
• New York (N.Y.) -- Biography
• Donck, Adriaen van der, 1620-1655
• New York (N.Y.) -- Politics and government -- To 1898
• Stuyvesant, Peter, 1592-1672
• New York (N.Y.) -- History -- Colonial period, ca. 1600-1775
• Dutch Americans -- New York (State) | New York -- History -- 17th century

Genre

• Biography

Language

eng

Summary

When the British wrested New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664, the truth about its thriving, polyglot society began to disappear into myths about an island purchased for 24 dollars and a cartoonish peg-legged governor. But the story of the Dutch colony of New Netherland was merely lost, not destroyed: 12,000 pages of its records?recently declared a national treasure?are now being translated. The Dutch colony pre-dated the “original” thirteen colonies, yet it seems strikingly familiar. Its capital was cosmopolitan and multi-ethnic, and its citizens valued free trade, individual rights, and religious freedom. Their champion was a progressive, young lawyer named Adriaen van der Donck, who emerges in these pages as a forgotten American patriot and whose political vision brought him into conflict with Peter Stuyvesant, the autocratic director of the Dutch colony. The struggle between these two strong-willed men laid the foundation for New York City and helped shape American culture. The Island at the Center of the World uncovers a lost world and offers a surprising new perspective on our own.

Assigning source

--Amazon

Biography type

contains biographical information

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

974.7/102

Illustrations

• illustrations
• maps
• portraits
• plates

Index

index present

LC call number

F128.4

LC item number

.S56 2004

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography