ABSTRACT

Providing a survey of colonial American history both regionally broad and "Atlantic" in coverage, Converging Worlds presents the most recent research in an accessible manner for undergraduate students.

With chapters written by top-notch scholars, Converging Worlds is unique in providing not only a comprehensive chronological approach to colonial history with attention to thematic details, but a window into the relevant historiography. Each historian also selected several documents to accompany their chapter, found in the companion primary source reader.

Converging Worlds: Communities and Cultures in Colonial America includes:

  • timelines tailored for every chapter
  • chapter summaries
  • discussion questions
  • lists of further reading, introducing students to specialist literature
  • fifty illustrations.

Key topics discussed include:

  • French, Spanish, and Native American experiences
  • regional areas such as the Midwest and Southwest
  • religion including missions, witchcraft, and Protestants
  • the experience of women and families.

With its synthesis of both broad time periods and specific themes, Converging Worlds is ideal for students of the colonial period, and provides a fascinating glimpse into the diverse foundations of America.

For additional information and classroom resources please visit the Converging Worlds companion website at www.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415964999.

chapter |10 pages

Introduction

part I|104 pages

Beginnings

chapter 1|36 pages

European Ambitions and Early Contacts

Diverse Styles of Colonization, 1492–1700

chapter 2|40 pages

Tentative Testimonies

The Aztecs, Conquest, and The Black Legend

chapter 3|23 pages

Indians of North America: First Encounters

First Encounters

part II|158 pages

Regions

chapter 4|26 pages

The Chesapeake Bay

chapter 5|28 pages

New England

chapter 6|42 pages

The Caribbean Islands

British Trade, Settlement, and Colonization

chapter 7|31 pages

The Middle Colonies

chapter 8|23 pages

The Carolinas

Shaping of a Slave Society

part III|158 pages

Themes

chapter 9|40 pages

Judgment at Salem

War, Witchcraft, and Empire

chapter 10|24 pages

Purgatory

Interpreting Christian Missions and North American Indians

chapter 11|32 pages

The Slave Trade And Slavery

chapter 12|55 pages

Women, Family, and Gender

part IV|184 pages

Transformations

chapter 13|27 pages

American Backcountries

chapter 14|28 pages

Spiritual Awakenings

chapter 15|28 pages

Enlightenment

chapter 16|28 pages

Ambitions

Expansion of New France

chapter 17|34 pages

French and Indian War

chapter IV|29 pages

Afterword

A Revolutionary Era