Status
Available
Publication
London : HarperPress, 2007.
Description
Four centuries ago, a group of men--led by a one-armed ex-pirate, an epileptic aristocrat, a reprobate cleric and a government spy--left London aboard a fleet of three ships to start a new life in America. They arrived in Virginia in the spring of 1607 and set about trying to create a settlement on a tiny island in the James River. Despite their shortcomings, and against the odds, they built Jamestown, a ramshackle outpost that laid the foundations of the British Empire and the United States of America. Drawing on new discoveries, neglected sources and manuscript collections scattered across the world, this book reveals a reckless, daring enterprise led by outcasts of the Old World who found themselves interlopers in a new one. It charts their journey into a beautiful landscape and a sophisticated culture that they found both ravishing and alien, which they yearned to possess but threatened to destroy--From publisher description.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member morbidromantic
I was given this book by respected historians, so I felt confident that this book would be good quality, not full of false information or unchecked/invalid sources. It has been a while since I’ve done any study of American history, so what better new start than to begin at the very beginning.
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This book read as easy as a novel, which is rare in a history book because they can get rather technical, dry and textbook-like. There were times when it didn’t even feel like I was reading a nonfiction book because it was just so interesting and full of adventure and intrigue. You’ll get it all in this book: political manipulations, death, disease, mutiny, war, sabotage, desperation and adventure. This book is neither oversimplified nor overly complicated. There are times, I admit, where you may feel that the book drags. I suffered during the parts about British government and technical arrangements, but they were mere pieces in a book that is largely very entertaining while remaining informative. It’s a far cry from Disney, though. By the end of it, you’ll be well aware of the brutality of America’s early founding… from both the settlers and the Natives. Additionally, this book includes an international scope. While discussing the founding of the Jamestown colony, the author writes about how other leaders in countries like France and Spain felt. If you love history, nonfiction or a good adventure book, this one is definitely for you. Show Less
LibraryThing member nakmeister
This is a serious (though not academic and boring) history book about England's first colony in America. I deem it to be halfway between a popular history book (such as those by Giles Milton) and an academic book). It tells the story in quite a lot of detail and refers to sources used from time to
The story of the Jamestown colony is a fascinating one to me, all the more so because it is the beginning of modern America. This book goes into quite a lot of detail, which I like, but is an exciting and interesting read. For me it was something of a page turner, not dry at all. Reading it in 2007, the book is very topical as it is the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown this year (precisely when I was reading it in fact!).
I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the early history of America, or just to anyone who likes reading solid, interesting history books.
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time (a bibliography and notes section is at the back).The story of the Jamestown colony is a fascinating one to me, all the more so because it is the beginning of modern America. This book goes into quite a lot of detail, which I like, but is an exciting and interesting read. For me it was something of a page turner, not dry at all. Reading it in 2007, the book is very topical as it is the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown this year (precisely when I was reading it in fact!).
I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the early history of America, or just to anyone who likes reading solid, interesting history books.
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LibraryThing member justabookreader
Savage Kingdom is a recounting of the settlement of Jamestown, in particular, the people who led the enterprise and took on the challenge of settling a land they knew nothing about. It follows their journey in a landscape completely alien to them with inhabitants they can’t control, and in the
The book is very broad in its scope. It covers the goings on in England, John Smith’s explorations into Native American territories, the Jamestown settlement, the settlements in New England, the Spanish, Spanish America, and the monarchy’s involvement and interest in the Jamestown settlement. Sometimes I felt it was too inclusive. It wasn’t narrowed down and was more like a semester lecture and general overview of the world at the time instead of being sharply focused on the settlement.
I did enjoy the Native American interactions with the settlers though. John Smith’s adventures, trading, crowing of Powhatan, fighting, etc. provided interesting insights into how and where it all failed; it’s more than just a general misunderstanding brought about by a language barrier. Englishman with no ability to survive in the wilderness and with very meager survival skills were expecting the Native American tribes to feed them and became dumbfounded when it didn’t happen. They were so arrogant in assuming the land was theirs for the taking and truly believed someone would care for them.
Savage Kingdom was a frustrating book for me because you see all the faults and in many ways the problems inherent in the system. I wanted to really enjoy this book but I didn’t and I think it was due to the fact that I read another book on the subject last year and I felt I had already read some of this. It doesn’t make it bad, just not for me. It was well researched but I couldn’t get into it.
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end, threaten to destroy.The book is very broad in its scope. It covers the goings on in England, John Smith’s explorations into Native American territories, the Jamestown settlement, the settlements in New England, the Spanish, Spanish America, and the monarchy’s involvement and interest in the Jamestown settlement. Sometimes I felt it was too inclusive. It wasn’t narrowed down and was more like a semester lecture and general overview of the world at the time instead of being sharply focused on the settlement.
I did enjoy the Native American interactions with the settlers though. John Smith’s adventures, trading, crowing of Powhatan, fighting, etc. provided interesting insights into how and where it all failed; it’s more than just a general misunderstanding brought about by a language barrier. Englishman with no ability to survive in the wilderness and with very meager survival skills were expecting the Native American tribes to feed them and became dumbfounded when it didn’t happen. They were so arrogant in assuming the land was theirs for the taking and truly believed someone would care for them.
Savage Kingdom was a frustrating book for me because you see all the faults and in many ways the problems inherent in the system. I wanted to really enjoy this book but I didn’t and I think it was due to the fact that I read another book on the subject last year and I felt I had already read some of this. It doesn’t make it bad, just not for me. It was well researched but I couldn’t get into it.
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LibraryThing member buffalogr
Boring book, if historically accurate
LibraryThing member SharronA
Information from a large variety of source documents, compiled into an interesting narrative (without much padding). Excellent narration by David Drummond. This audiobook is about 14 hours, unabridged, and I have to admit I multi-tasked for a few minutes here and there. I'm not a history buff, but
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did study Jamestown in elementary school in Virginia, and have visited it numerous times. I thought I knew a lot about the settlement, but this book increased my knowledge, understanding, and perspective. Show Less
LibraryThing member KarenIrelandPhillips
The "savages" of the title are really the white men, who descend to plunder without much understanding of the privation they're about encounter.
The writing itself is a little plodding, with leaps of topic inherent in not telling the story in one narrative arc and different povs.
The writing itself is a little plodding, with leaps of topic inherent in not telling the story in one narrative arc and different povs.
LibraryThing member DarthDeverell
In Savage Kingdom: The True Story of Jamestown, 1607, and the Settlement of America, Benjamin Wooley writes, “One of the great questions of history, which it is the purpose of this book to consider, is how such a morsel of colonial ambition, popped into the mouth of the Chesapeake in 1607, could,
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a few centuries later, produce a nation capable of disgorging the most powerful navy ever to sail the high seas?” (pg. xvii). He continues, “Their mission had been shaped not by the prospect of a colonial adventure in North America so much as by convulsive events back home. Powerful forces unleashed by the Protestant Reformation, and the spread of the Muslim Ottoman Empire to the east, had shaken the very foundations of European civilization” (pg. xvii). To this end, “Though the Indians were called ‘savages’ by the English, and their homeland a ‘savage kingdom’, the interlopers well knew, and half acknowledged, that it was their own savagery, horribly exposed in the religious wars in Europe and carried like an infection across the ocean, that was the greater threat” (pg. xviii). Wooley concludes, “The story of England’s attempt to colonize America is much closer to that of Prospero and Caliban than the pious Pilgrims” (pg. xviii). Furthermore, “It is about being caught in a dirty struggle to survive, haunted by failure, hungering for escape, dreaming of riches and hoping for redemption” (pg. xviii). Show Less