The Forgotten History of America: Little-Known Conflicts of Lasting Importance From the Earliest Colonists to the Eve of the Revolution

From the founding of the first permanent European settlement in North America (1565) to the bloody chaos of the British frontier in Pontiac’s War (1763), the vividly written narrative of The Forgotten History of America spans the two centuries of American history before the Revolutionary War. Today, Americans think of 1776 as the beginning of an era. A nation was born, commencing a story that continues to this day with our own lives. But the War of Independence also marked the end of another era—one in which many nations, Native American and European, had struggled for control of a vast and formidable wilderness. That saga—though separated from us now by a gulf of time that makes it strange, and even alien—was the history out of which our own emerged. This book returns to the time before our nation was formed, when the clash between America's first peoples and the newcomers from Europe was still new. Focusing on events that are all but forgotten today, author Cormac O’Brien’s masterful storytelling reveals how actors as diverse as Spanish conquistadores, Puritan ministers, Amerindian sachems, mercenary soldiers, and ordinary farmers traded and clashed across a landscape of constant, often violent, change. He tells how these dramatic moments helped to shape the very world around us. These lesser-known conflicts of the pre-Revolutionary past unveil a world of heroism, brutality, and tenacity. Brought brilliantly to life through O'Brien's expressive narrative and more than 100 archival images, The Forgotten History of America shows us how deep the roots of our own time truly run.