Recommended Resources
Early Settlements
The books, articles, films, and websites in this section will enhance the materials included on our website for this era of American history. Many of the books are by the historians whose essays and lectures you have read and listened to here and offer in-depth studies of the topics that have caught your interest. The websites and other resources open new ways to explore American history and take advantage of new interpretations and new technologies to enhance classroom or at-home learning.
Lange, Karen. 1607: A New Look at Jamestown. Washington, DC: National Geographic Children’s Books, 2007.
Josselyn, John. Colonial Traveler: A Critical Edition of Two Voyages to New-England. Ed. Paul J. Lindholdt. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1988.
Anderson, Virginia DeJohn. Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Mancall, Peter C. Deadly Medicine: Indians and Alcohol in Early America. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995.
Berkin, Carol. First Generations: Women in Colonial America. New York: Hill and Wang, 1996.
Whitney, Gordon Graham. From Coastal Wilderness to Fruited Plain: A History of Environmental Change in Temperate North America, 1500 to the Present. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
Greene, Jack P. Pursuits of Happiness: The Social Development of Early Modern British Colonies and the Formation of American Culture. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1988.
Chaplin, Joyce E. Subject Matter: Technology, the Body, and Science on the Anglo-American Frontier, 1500–1676. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.
Recommended Resources from Other Sub-Eras
Newitt, Malyn. A History of Portuguese Overseas Expansion, 1400–1668. New York: Routledge, 2004.
McWilliams, James E. A Revolution in Eating: How the Quest for Food Shaped America. New York: Columbia University Press, 2005.
Taylor, Alan. American Colonies: The Settling of North America. New York: Penguin Books, 2002. First published 2001 by Viking Putnam.
Haskins, James, and Kathleen Benson. Building a New Land: African Americans in Colonial America. Illus. James Ransome. New York: Amistad, 2001.
Maestro, Betsy C. Exploration and Conquest: The Americas after Columbus, 1500–1620. With illustrations by Giulio Maestro. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1994.
Berkin, Carol. First Generations: Women in Colonial America. New York: Hill and Wang, 1996.
Cannavale, Vincent C. Voices from Colonial America: Florida, 1513–1821. Washington DC: National Geographic Children’s Books, 2006.
Diffie, Bailey W., and George D. Winius. Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, 1415–1580. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1977.
Breen, T.H., and Stephen Innes. Myne Owne Ground: Race and Freedom on Virginia's Eastern Shore, 1640-1676. 25th Anniversary ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Maestro, Betsy, and Giulio Maestro. Struggle for a Continent: The French and Indian Wars, 1689-1763. New York: HarperCollins, 2000.
Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American Myth. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.
Hoffer, Peter Charles. The Great New York Conspiracy of 1741: Slavery, Crime, and Colonial Law. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2003.
Weber, David J. The Spanish Frontier in North America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992.
Bonomi, Patricia U. Under the Cope of Heaven: Religion, Society, and Politics in Colonial America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.
White, Richard. “It’s Your Misfortune and None of My Own”: A New History of the American West. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991.