The English Embrace of the American Indians

Ideas of Humanity in Early America
1. Auflage 2017
ISBN: 978-3-319-46196-0
Verlag: Springer International Publishing

Buch, Englisch, 237 Seiten, Format (B × H): 153 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 4249 g

This book makes a wide, conceptual challenge to the theory that the English of the colonial period thought of Native Americans as irrational and subhuman, dismissing any intimations to the contrary as ideology or propaganda. It makes a controversial intervention by demonstrating that the true tragedy of colonial relations was precisely the genuineness of benevolence, and not its cynical exploitation or subordination to other ends that was often the compelling force behind conflict and suffering. It was because the English genuinely believed that the Indians were their equals in body and mind that they fatally tried to embrace them. From an intellectual exploration of the abstract ideas of human rights in colonial America and the grounded realities of the politics that existed there to a narrative of how these ideas played out in relations between the two peoples in the early years of the colony, this book challenges and subverts current understanding of English colonialpolitics and religion.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Rome, Alan S.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kolonialgeschichte, Geschichte des Imperialismus
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kultur- und Ideengeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Indigene Völker
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Historische & Regionale Volkskunde
• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein Religionsgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Kultureller Wandel, Kulturkontakt, Akkulturation

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction.- 2. The Savage Mind: Metaphysics and the Humanity of the Indian.- 3. Savages in the Streams of Time: The Indian in English Historical Consciousness.- 4. A Digression on Air: Race and Climate in Early America.- 5. Powhatan's Two Bodies: Civil Savage, Savage Colonist.- 6. Killing with Kindness: The Tragedy of Benevolence.- 7. Conclusion.

Über Autor(innen)

Alan S. Rome is Research Fellow at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, Australia. He works on the intellectual history of early modern America and Europe and has taught extensively in American and European history.