This revealing analysis of Medieval cartography and native American travel upends conventional narratives about discovering the New World. For generations, American schools have taught children that Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492. But evidence shows that Leif Erikson set foot on the continent centuries earlier. As debate continues over which explorer deserves the credit, early maps of North America suggest that we may be asking the wrong questions. How did medieval Europeans have such specific geographic knowledge of North America, a land even their most daring adventurers had not yet discovered? In Erikson, Eskimos, and Columbus, James Robert Enterline presents new evidence that traces this knowledge to the cartographic skills of indigenous people of the high Arctic, who, he contends, provided the basis for medieval maps of large parts of North America. Drawing on an exhaustive chronological survey of pre-Columbian maps, including the controversial Yale Vinland Map, this book boldly challenges conventional accounts of Europe’s discovery of the New World.

Horned helmets. Pirates. Murderers. The Vikings are often depicted as fierce invaders who straddle the line between barbarians and civilized people. However, the Norse spread throughout Europe and Asia during the Middle Ages, taking with them new ideas. They discovered and settled the islands of Iceland and Greenland and tried to build their own idealized societies, free of the kings they left behind in Norway and Denmark. In Iceland the experiment worked and thrived while the settlement in Greenland failed. Using information gathered from archaeology and historical sources, Ryan Sines answers the question: What allowed Iceland to succeed while the last Greenlander died waiting for a supply ship that never came?

The impact of Christopher Columbus's first transatlantic voyage launched an unprecedented explosion of European exploration. Throughout the last 500 years, scholars have recognized this transforming event, and they have written extensively on the subject. To date, no American author has dedicated a book to Columbus's life before 1492. This biography does so, with a focus on geographical experiences that affected his formulation of a transatlantic concept. Incorporating extensive research from American and European scholars (historians, geographers, anthropologists, and cartographers), the author proposes that Columbus systematically built a transatlantic voyage proposal from knowledge gained on previous voyages in the Mediterranean Sea and Eastern Atlantic Ocean. The book's extensive use of maps place Columbus's actions on specific land and ocean locations. Persons interested in gleaning more information about Columbus's maritime background will find a plethora of maps to visualize the extent of his early travels.

This new four-volume encyclopedia is the most comprehensive and up-to-date resource available on the history of Native Americans, providing a lively, authoritative survey ranging from human origins to present-day controversies. From the origins of Native American cultures through the years of colonialism and non-Native expansion to the present, Encyclopedia of American Indian History brings the story of Native Americans to life like no other previous reference on the subject. Featuring the work of many of the field's foremost scholars, it explores this fundamental and foundational aspect of the American experience with extraordinary depth, breadth, and currency, carefully balancing the perspectives of both Native and non-Native Americans. Encyclopedia of American Indian History spans the centuries with three thematically organized volumes (covering the period from precontact through European colonization; the years of non-Native expansion (including Indian removal); and the modern era of reservations, reforms, and reclamation of semi-sovereignty). Each volume includes entries on key events, places, people, and issues. The fourth volume is an alphabetically organized resource providing histories of Native American nations, as well as an extensive chronology, topic finder, bibliography, and glossary. For students, historians, or anyone interested in the Native American experience, Encyclopedia of American Indian History brings that experience to life in an unprecedented way.

This book examines the story of the ‘discovery of America’ through the prism of the history of the Franciscans, a socio-religious movement with a unique doctrine of voluntary poverty. The Franciscans rapidly developed global dimensions, but their often paradoxical relationships with poverty and power offer an alternate account of global history. Through this lens, Julia McClure offers a deeper history of colonialism, not only by extending its chronology, but also by exploring the powerful role of ambivalence in the emergence of colonial regimes. Other topics discussed include the legal history of property, the complexity and politics of global knowledge networks, the early (and neglected) history of the Near Atlantic, and the transatlantic inquisition, mysticism, apocalypticism, and religious imaginations of place.

This brief, up-to-date examination of American colonial history draws connections between the colonial period and American life today by including formerly neglected areas of social and cultural history and the role of minorities (African-Americans, Native-Americans, women, and laboring classes). It summarizes and synthesizes recent studies and integrates them with earlier research. Key topics: European Backgrounds. The Native Americans. The Spanish Empire in America. The Portuguese, French, and Dutch Empires in America. The Background of English Colonization. The Tobacco Colonies: Virginia and Maryland. The New England Colonies. The Completion of Colonization. Seventeenth-Century Revolts and Eighteenth-Century Stabilization. Colonial Government. African-Americans in the English Colonies. Immigration. Colonial Agriculture. Colonial Commerce. Colonial Industry. Money and Social Status. The Colonial Town. The Colonial Family. Religion in Colonial America. Education in Colonial America. Language and Literature. Colonial Arts and Sciences. Everyday Life in Colonial America. The Second Hundred Years' War. The Road to Revolution. The Revolutionary War. Governments for a New Nation. Market: For anyone interested in Colonial History, American Revolution, or Early American Social History.