Back to Results
Cover image of The Brave New World
Cover image of The Brave New World
Share this Title:

The Brave New World

A History of Early America

Peter Charles Hoffer

third edition
Publication Date
Binding Type

A lively synthesis of early American history, now in its third edition.

The Brave New World covers the entire span of early American history, from 30,000 years before Europeans landed on North American shores to the Revolutionary War. With its exploration of the places and peoples of early America, this comprehensive new edition of a classic textbook brings together the most recent scholarship on the colonial and revolutionary eras, Native Americans, slavery and the slave trade, politics, war, and the daily lives of ordinary people.

In this edition, Peter Charles Hoffer incorporates the wealth...

A lively synthesis of early American history, now in its third edition.

The Brave New World covers the entire span of early American history, from 30,000 years before Europeans landed on North American shores to the Revolutionary War. With its exploration of the places and peoples of early America, this comprehensive new edition of a classic textbook brings together the most recent scholarship on the colonial and revolutionary eras, Native Americans, slavery and the slave trade, politics, war, and the daily lives of ordinary people.

In this edition, Peter Charles Hoffer incorporates the wealth of innovative work on early American history, including fresh material on

• environmental history
• the Dutch and French Caribbean
• Indigenous societies
• consumer goods
• mapping
• captivity tales
• settler imperialism
• power—who has it, who wants it, how it is expressed, and how it is opposed

Emphasizing how diverse and entangled the early American imperial world was, this edition also greatly expands the geographical scope of the book. An updated bibliographic essay offering short descriptions of relevant books, articles, collections, and anthologies rounds out the volume. Wide-ranging and inclusive, The Brave New World continues to provide students, instructors, and historians with an engaging and accessible history of early North America.

Reviews

Reviews

Instructors of courses in colonial America should consider this thorough textbook. Hoffer does a remarkable job.

Life in the New World was as difficult and varied as one can imagine. Peter Charles Hoffer presents a comprehensive picture of that life from many diverse perspectives in his book. He takes us beyond the usual US history course treatment of the topic of colonial America, and allows us to see it in a realistic setting. This is a valuable book for historians of any specialty.

A breathtaking triumph, and the more astonishing because 'vast early America' has metastasized in recent years beyond coherent comprehension. Peter Hoffer has somehow managed to master it all, providing shrewd analyses intermixed with storytelling. He shows balanced judgment as well as mordant irony, his writing full of eloquence and wit. The third edition of The Brave New World is the indispensable text of early American studies for our time.

About

Book Details

Publication Date
Status
Available
Trim Size
7
x
10
Pages
616
ISBN
9781421445427
Illustration Description
34 b&w illus.
Table of Contents

Preface
PART I: WORLDS IN MOTION
1. The First Americans
2. Europe in the Age of Discovery, 1400–1500
3. The Spanish Century, 1492 – 1588
4. Rivals for the Northland: England and France in America
5. The

Preface
PART I: WORLDS IN MOTION
1. The First Americans
2. Europe in the Age of Discovery, 1400–1500
3. The Spanish Century, 1492 – 1588
4. Rivals for the Northland: England and France in America
5. The Planter Colonies
6. A New England
7. The Middle Colonies
8. The Critical Years, 1675–1700
PART II: FROM PROVINCES OF EMPIRE TO A NEW NATION
9. The Empires Reinvented, 1660–1763
10. Provincial People and Places in the Eighteenth Century
11. Common Pastimes and Elite Pursuits
12. Mercantilism and Markets
13. The Last War and the Lost Peace, 1754–1763
14. A Nation in the Womb of Time, 1764–1775
15. Independence, War, and Republicanism, 1776–1783
Epilogue: The Way Ahead
Bibliographic Essay
Index

Author Bio
Peter Charles Hoffer
Featured Contributor

Peter Charles Hoffer

Peter Charles Hoffer is a distinguished research professor of history at the University of Georgia. He is the author of many books, including Sensory Worlds in Early America and Law and People in Colonial America.