Red, White, and Black: The Peoples of Early North America

I used this book greatly during my bachelor's degree requiring History Seminar 65 page paper on King Philip's War. This book is a great source for pre-colonial information. Especially things that are somewhat glossed over in high school and P.C. college texts. This is a hard and gritty look at the fledgling colonies and the myriad of groups (i.e. English, French, Dutch, Swedes, Slaves, etc.). I think this is a great text for research and History junkies like myself. It is a bit dry being fact based, but then you don't have to worry about much bias slipping in or opinion on institutions and people. This is who they were, this is what they did and this is why/how, etc. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone studying or interested in colonial America.

First of all, I can see where some would find this book boring- that is if the reader has no interest in American History. But this begs the questions- why would such a person pick up this book to begin with? For class maybe, but I imagine every student of history has read a difficult book or two. This one simply doesn't qualify. As far as books I've had to read for school, this was pretty easy to get through. This book is not a primary source. If you are looking for such a thing, look elsewhere. This is a well-researched account of life on the early American frontier, and the interaction between different cultures. Someone makes the claim further down that this book makes the Europeans look really bad. I disagree. This book does a fine job of looking at this time period from multiple view points. There are moments when the Europeans will come off badly, but almost any group has it's moments throughout history where it's not going to be a shining example of how to live your life. Aside from which, as this book points out, the Europeans are not one single group and the different European groups looked at within this book (The English, Dutch, French, and Spanish) all had different relationships with the various indigenous peoples of what would become the eastern United States. This book also takes a look at slavery and the origins of that horrid institution in the Americas. It is often fascinating reading and certainly doesn't deserve the one star reviews it's received.

RWB by Nash attempts to present a more accurate picture of colonial society. However, in the end, I believe Nash fails to do any real justice to his examination of this society's underpinnings. Essentially, Nash abandons this pursuit very quickly into the book and deals mostly with the facts of the era. Additionally, Nash's views seem all to decidedly Neo-Progressive. He simply will not concede a point or discuss a point, which does not fit this mindset. Another perhaps more disturbing issue is Nash's like of primary sources throughout his work. The majority of his sites are from other historians' works. But before you think of moving on and passing this work up understand a few basic things about it. First, by no means am I questioning Nash's historical ability or accuracy. Second, this work provides a novice student of history and excellent foundation to start to build an understanding of the Colonial Period on. Moreover, Nash's analysis though I find fault with it is still holds water in the historical community through refinements and redefinitions of his point. I suggest that any one seeking to get a handle on the Colonial period or start a study of this era should start here. However, do not read this work and take it as anything other then a meager beginning; instead, use it as a stepping stone to branch out into other works by Winthrop Jordan, William Cronon, Edmund Morgan, Bernard Bailyn, and Laurel Ulrich.

This book does a very good job regarding the mixing of the cultures in early America. The author gives enough of the pre-colonization history of the Indian cultures while still keeping focus on the thesis. The way Nash breaks down the various subjects is well done. This book is a very easy read and the maps, while I'd have prefered more, were extremely helpful.