American Colonies

I've been reading this book off and on for 2 years, and I finally was able to finish it during quarantine. This is the most ambitious history book I've ever read - close to 500 pages about nothing more than the colonial period, the vast majority pre-Revolutionary war. To give you an idea of the density of this book - the conditions that led to the American Revolution were covered in about 5-10 pages. Not that that war was the main focus of the book, but still!

I don't think I've read enough history to fairly evaluate this. On the one hand it was exceedingly dryly written. There are no heroes or villains to latch onto here - simply a dispassionate survey of events. This was apparently intentional - the “Penguin History of the United States” was meant to be a synthesis across multiple disciplines. Still, even though it was dry, there was so much great information here, tying together so many disparate events.

Instead of chronological, the book is structured in three major eras: “Encounters”, “Colonies” and “Empires”. Within those eras, we get narratives by region, with a focus on all the Americas, not just your typical “thirteen colonies”.

I loved how this book both helped me trace current topics in American Politics (the racism and inequality were there from the very beginning!) but also corrected a lot of the conventional wisdom around the colonial period. Balancing the narrative across the major European powers (not just Britain, but France, Spain, the Netherlands, and even Russia) and the various spheres (eastern seaboard, West Indies, Mexico, Florida, the Southwest, California, Hawaii, and even Alaska).

Here are some things I want to remember about what I learned - Inequality was highest in the plantation economies of the south and the West Indies. Planters built up large estates, which were staffed at first with indentured servants from the mother country, later slave labor from Africa. - Because the climate of the Northeast did not support a “cash crop” for export, societies there developed in a much more equal way. Land ownership was evenly distributed and crops were mostly raised for subsistence. - Religious freedom was only one factor of many that led people to cross the ocean; economic prospects were just as if not more important. - Europeans did venture into the interior of the African continent to find and capture slaves. The African slave trade was enabled by Africans who captured slaves and brought them to the coast to sell to Europeans. - The wars of the colonial period were fought mainly over the balance of power in Europe. Britain was on a fairly equal footing with Spain and France, until during the 1700's they developed a huge advantage on the ocean - due to their expertise in shipping (which was spurred by the Navigation Acts). This allowed Britain to become the dominant force in the region. - The colonists were very happy being British until very late in the game. The British way overspent on a couple of wars, most notably the French and Indian war (Seven Years' War), which was waged largely in America, and wanted to tax the colonists to help them pay for it. In addition, they worried that the colonists were becoming too outspoken and independent (the planter elite, who already had local power). - The Indians were a pretty savvy bunch. They played the British and French against each other, and generally figured out how to maintain and advance their own interests. However, they were undone by, it seems, not recognizing until too late the end game of the colonists (which was to cover the entire continent, like a virus). - The West Indies were highly valued due to their economic primacy. However, the fact that they were islands, with no ability to create more land, and plantation economies, meant they were unable to be a dynamic society, and so people were drawn more to the mainland, where there was more economic mobility. - The European elite did not at all value the Indians' way of life and culture - which was not inferior, simply different. In many ways, it was actually better. There are many stories of captured Indians trying to flee European society at all costs, while Europeans captured by the Indians often didn't want to return to European society.

I'm looking forward to reading more history. Funny enough, the Penguin Series was never completed - only books 1, 3, 5 were ever published - 2 and 4 are missing. So I'm going to read 1776 next, as a way of filling the gap (sorta).