American Colonies: The Settling of North America

American Colonies: The Settling of North America is the first volume of the five-part Penguin History of the United States series. In it, Pulitzer-prize-winning historian Alan Taylor surveys the history of the Americas before the formation of the United States. Other work by this author includes the American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804.

Taylor aims to expand, enrich, and complicate our understanding of this period. American Colonies covers a broader temporal and geographical range than most works of its kind, spanning from the earliest Paleolithic settlements in North America in 15,000 BCE to 19th century exploration of the Pacific. This inclusivity reflects Taylor’s primary goal of presenting a pluralistic history. Traditionally colonial narratives concentrate on the English colonies that became the first 13 states, but Taylor rejects this Anglocentrism. In calling his book American Colonies rather than, say, Colonial America, he signals his intent to present the continent’s colonial history rather than the history of the English.

American Colonies focuses primarily on the process of colonization: the introduction of new ideas, peoples, religions, cultures, technologies, even microbes, and the reactions that resulted. Arranged in chronological order, 19 chapters serve as case studies for the process of colonization in different regions.