Between Two Worlds

Gaskill's chapter headings are as colourful as his prose, which is also taut, direct and orderly... His hold on overlapping narratives remains impressive and confident. In fact the book may appeal most to those who want a rollicking adventure story, told with pace and much detail. Hisrtory Today beautifully written, sweeping and yet fine-grained account Times Higher Education There are many fine books on British and Irish migration to colonial America, and this deserves a foremost place among them, not least for its originality in being as much about England as it is about America Times Higher Education Throughout this account, his scholarship and originality are worn lightly Times Higher Education An entertaining romp through kaleidoscopic images of colonists coping with the shock of the new while clinging to the older verities of their origins ... Readers can delight in Gaskill's winning narration of the old certainties in a new style. Wall Street Journal The conversion of English adventurers into American pioneers emerges, beautifully and brutally. New Yorker This book is not meant to be a history of 17th century America, though it succeeds rather well in that regard. Gaskill instead seeks to chart the development of a distinctive American identity in the new world. He succeeds quite brilliantly. Gerard de Groot, The Times [An] elegant and vivacious narrative ... Gaskill, who has dug deep in the primary sources, imposes order on an extraordinary range of material. Blair Worden, Literary Review extraordinary scholarship Independent, Rachel Trethewey Malcolm Gaskill re-creates the Englishness of early America in a transatlantic history that is deeply researched yet vividly told. Through his epic stories of adventure we gain a new appreciation of the planters, saints and warriors who established the English roots of modern America - men and women who helped make a New World out of the culture and language of the Old. David Reynolds, author of America, Empire of Liberty Between Two Worlds offers a comprehensive history of the English people's experience in America in the seventeenth century, in its continuing and changing relation to events in England. By including people in all the colonies and at all levels of society, we gain a true and compelling picture of these experiences. Karen Kupperman, author of The Jamestown Project A well-written, refreshing examination of seventeenth-century America (including both mainland and Caribbean settlements) from the English perspective. Written by an accomplished English historian, Between Two Worlds will provide readers with many new insights into the conservative English people who became Americans almost in spite of themselves. Mary Beth Norton, Professor of American History at Cornell University and author of In the Devil's Snare: The Salem Witchcraft Crisis of 1692 There are many fine books on British and Irish migration to colonial America, and this deserves a foremost place among them, not least for its originality Donald M. MacRaild, Times Higher Education Supplement This is a superb book. It could stand alone as a sweeping and comprehensive account of the first century of English settlement in The New World. But Malcolm Gaskill goes further and offers us a fascinating view of the formation of an English America in which colonists gradually become Americans and the English at home become increasingly distant. Between Two Worlds is simply the best book on the subject. James Horn, author of A Land As God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America We don't really know ourselves until we travel elsewhere. For those who thought they knew their American or British history, Malcolm Gaskill's new book does just that. He takes two familiar histories that are often told separately, of England and colonial America, and shows how inseparable they actually were. Between Two Worlds is not just beautifully written and grippingly told-it is also arrestingly original. Andrew Preston, author of Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith: Religion in American War and Diplomacy This is the finest book that I have read for showing how the first English colonies in America influenced the homeland, and vice versa. In the process, it shows splendidly how complex and divisive the experience of settlement was, and yet how much it already shaped the future United States. Ronald Hutton