The Island at the Center of the World

Astonishing . . . A book that will permanently alter the way we regard our collective past. -- The New York Times A tour de force. . . . The dramatic story of New York's origins is splendidly told. . . . A masterpiece of storytelling and first-rate intellectual history. -- The Wall Street Journal As readable as a finely written novel. . . . social history in the Barbara Tuchman tradition. --San Jose Mercury News Literary alchemy. . . . Shorto's exhaustively researched and highly readable book is a stirring re-examination. . . . Brilliant and magisterial narrative history -- Chicago Tribune Masterly . . . A new foundation myth . . .Shorto writes at all times with passion, verve, nuance and considerable humor. -- The New York Times Book Review Rattlingly well told-a terrific popular history about a past that beautifully illuminates the present. -- The Sunday Times [London] A dramatic, kaleidoscopic and, on the whole, quite wonderful book. . . . This is one of those rare books in the picked-over field of colonial history, a whole new picture, a thrown-open window. . . . [A] full-blooded resurrection of an unfamiliar American patriot. - The New York Observer Deserves to be a bestseller . . .narratively irresistible, intellectually provocative, historically invaluable - The Guardian A spry, informative history. . . . Shorto supplies lucid, comprehensive contexts in which to see the colony's promise and turmoil. . . . [D]elivers the goods with clarity, color and zest. - The Seattle Times As Russell Shorto demonstrates in this mesmerizing volume, the story we don't know is even more fascinating than the one we do . . .Historians must now seriously rethink what they previously understand about New York's origins . . . - The New York Post Russell Shorto fires a powerful salvo on the war of words over America's origins . . . he mounts a convincing case [that], in Shorto's w