The Invasion Within: The Contest of Cultures in Colonial North America

by James Axtell

Book Overview

Colonial North America was not only a battleground for furs and land, but also for allegiances and even souls. In the three-sided struggle for empire, the English and French colonists were locked in heated competition for native allies and religious converts. Axtell sharply contrasts the English efforts to "civilize" the Indians with the French willingness to accept native lifestyles, and reveals why the struggle for control over the continent became...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195041542
• ISBN13: 9780195041545
• Release Date: November 1986
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Excellent book

Axtell is interested in acculturation and the "imapct the major competing cultures of Eastern North America- English, French, and Indian- had had on each other, especially when they set out consciously to educate or convert their rivals." (p.IX) This book reveals the social and cultural interactions in the norteast of North America. The author rejects the prejudice of the moral superiority of the Europeans over the "savage" Indians and gives a profound account of the cultural interactions and conversions among the English, French, and Indian inhabitants of northeast North America. The English had the weakest cultural impact, according to the author. The French were more flexible and more successful in bringing new converts, but the Indians were the most successful cultural power, concludes Axtell, thanks to their more natural lifestyle and tolerance towards the cultures of the Europeans, who wanted to settle among them. It's an excellent book that tells the story of Colonial North America from a very interesting angle and it is a definite must for readers interested in social and cultural history of North America.