The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America | 
 enlarge | Author: Russell Shorto
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
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Avg. Customer Rating:  35 reviews
Sales Rank: 10572
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 416
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.8
ISBN: 1400078679
Dewey Decimal Number: 974.7102
EAN: 9781400078677
ASIN: 1400078679
Publication Date: April 12, 2005
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Product Description
When the British wrested New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664, the truth about its thriving, polyglot society began to disappear into myths about an island purchased for 24 dollars and a cartoonish peg-legged governor. But the story of the Dutch colony of New Netherland was merely lost, not destroyed: 12,000 pages of its records–recently declared a national treasure–are now being translated. Drawing on this remarkable archive, Russell Shorto has created a gripping narrative–a story of global sweep centered on a wilderness called Manhattan–that transforms our understanding of early America.
The Dutch colony pre-dated the “original” thirteen colonies, yet it seems strikingly familiar. Its capital was cosmopolitan and multi-ethnic, and its citizens valued free trade, individual rights, and religious freedom. Their champion was a progressive, young lawyer named Adriaen van der Donck, who emerges in these pages as a forgotten American patriot and whose political vision brought him into conflict with Peter Stuyvesant, the autocratic director of the Dutch colony. The struggle between these two strong-willed men laid the foundation for New York City and helped shape American culture. The Island at the Center of the World uncovers a lost world and offers a surprising new perspective on our own.
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Fascinating forgotten history of a culture that shaped Manhattan August 15, 2008
This last week my commute has been filled with fascinating stories of life on Manhattan in the early-mid 1600s, when the island was a Dutch colony on the frontier of a new world. I've been listening to Russell Shorto's book The Island at the Center of the World, and enjoying every bit. Shorto's account begins with the discovery of the Delaware and Hudson Rivers by the explorer Henry Hudson in 1609, who though himself British, was sailing under charter of the Dutch East India Company. He provides a colorful sketch of Hudson, a man doggedly determined to find the shortcut to India by trying in various directions, including through the Arctic (his theory being that the ice must melt in the summer because the sun shines all day and all night). The bulk of the book is a vivid account of the Dutch settlement of the New Netherland colony in the 1620s through 1660s, from the famed purchase of Manhattan for $24 (for which Shorto provides some useful context) to the loss of the colony to the British. In between is rich description of life in the colony, from dealing with the native Americans to the politics of the early colony, seasoned with stories of colorful characters including pioneers, prostitutes, and privateers. The thesis of the book is the intriguing assertion that the Dutch planted not only their people, but ideas, which made seminal contributions to the character of Manhattan and America. Shorto maintains that the history we traditionally hear is Anglo-centric (naturally, since the English were the winners of control of the American colonies) and tends to give all credit to the pilgrims and Puritans for creating the character of America, while the earlier Dutch colony is dismissed as inconsequential. Part of what made it easy to dismiss was the fact that the surviving records were largely neglected and untranslated out of 17th century Dutch (which even a modern Dutchman wouldn't understand) until quite recently. He makes a compelling case, showing the unique religious and cultural tolerance of the emerging Dutch nation in the 17th century, and how the early rational precursors of the Enlightenment (Descartes, Grotius, Spinoza all enjoyed the freedom of living in Leiden, in the Netherlands) were transplanted to Manhattan. Thus, the Dutch colony in Manhattan had a mix of nationalities and religions from the get-go, while the English colonies to the north were striving for a theocratic monoculture. The Dutch colony even included English residents, such as Quakers, who were outcast from the English colonies for their religious non-conformity. The thesis is brought to light as Shorto develops in depth two historical characters: Peter Stuyvesant, who was the governor of the colony on behalf of the Dutch West India Company, and a young lawyer named Adriaen van der Donck who actively politicked to secure a representative government for the town. While being careful not to overstep the actual sources, and being forthright about where he is filling in gaps, Shorto brings these two men to life, making both an engaging and persuasive account of how the Dutch in general, and those two men in particular, imbued Manhattan with its identity as a business and trading center and a multicultural melting pot, valuing religious tolerance as well as representative government and the right to petition the government for redress of grievances. (Those ideas were certainly not in evidence in 17th century Boston or Richmond.) I enjoyed this history of people and ideas, and I also enjoyed, by way of backdrop, learning about the formation of the modern Dutch nation, as well as the English political history of the period. It was especially interesting to read this book of 17th century Dutch early enlightenment after having recently read Ayaan Hirsi Ali's book Infidel, in which the tolerance and multiculturalism of the present-day Netherlands was a major theme. Makes me proud to have Dutch New York ancestors.
 Great book on New Amsterdam July 21, 2008
Shorto does a great job of bringing the men and women of New Amsterdam to life with his humor and his imagination. By the end, we feel we know them all -- from the movers and shakers like Van Der Donck and Stuyvesant, to the unremembered scribe whose tears -- or wine? or simply water? stain the colony's records. The book is damaged, unfortunately, by Shorto's dislike of the Puritans, and perhaps he would rethink his thesis that American liberties were birthed by the Dutch if he were more familiar with the history of English liberties. Still, this book is a must-read.
How New Amsterdam became New York June 2, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Russell Shorto wrote an exiting historical novel of the days that New Amsterdam was the centre of trading in the Western hemispshere, in the first half of the 17th century. It is based on recently discovered records. The story is centered around the first governor of New Amsterdam, Adriaen van der Donck. The book offers convincing arguments for the thesis that New Amsterdam, not New England, is the true basis of the modern United States. The liberal attitude, the tolerant multi cultural society and the comnmercial traditions of the Dutch were the basis of present day American culture. It was a tragic event that the colony had to capitulate for the brute military force of the British in 1664. However, the Dutch heritage has lived on to this day. An excellent book!
Great book April 7, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is a great example of why 17th century American history is just as interesting if not more interesting then 18th century American history. Whereas 18th century American history can be summed up rather simplistically this is not always the case with the 17th century. In the beginning it was the French, Spanish and Dutch who were strong and the English who were Johnny come lately's. The idea that the English would eventually rise to become masters of a good portion of the continent was still very much in doubt.
So here we have the story of New Netherlands a sound idea which suffered from to much micro management by a series of governor-generals who were either unlucky or incompetent. If the Dutch had focused a little more on this colony and treated it as an equal partner the course of American history might have been very different.
Books like this are great social history because far from saying that the residents of New Netherlands were disorganized idiots waiting for the English to show up it proves that the two groups just had different ideas of what they wanted this continent to be.
Overall-Read it if you want a fresh perspective
New Holland February 25, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The Island at the Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan
As a born and bred New Yorker, I am abysmally ignorant of the contributions of the Dutch to my native city. I didn't know, for instance, that Wall Street was originally the barrier between the Dutch Colony and the outside world; that Broadway was named for the wide north-south avenue; and that "boss" is an English corruption of the Dutch "baas," or overseer of an apprentice.
Russell Shorto, in "The Island at the Center of the World," has done all New Yorkers and the rest of us a favor by filling in the blanks. With the aid of newly-discovered documents written in obscure 17th century Dutch, Shorto paints a picture of a vibrant, multi-ethnic, and tolerant Dutch Society that predates the arrival of the English and stakes a legitimate claim to being one of the original colonies.
Most histories of Manhattan make the obligatory reference to Peter Minuit's purchase of the wilderness tract from the Indians for a pittance. In fact, by seventeenth century standards, the Dutch paid the going price for the land. It was also not a purchase, in the European sense, but a temporary loan with right of use by the Indians.
At its peak, the Dutch colony encompassed an area including New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland, and parts of Pennsylvania including present day Philadelphia.
The religious fanaticism of the English Puritans actually worked to the advantage of the Dutch, by bringing persecuted members of religious sects who were not accepted by the Puritans into the commercial and social mix of New York. Tolerance of differences (still the central theme of America, despite the rhetoric over immigration) was a central tenet of the Dutch:
"Tolerance was more than just an attitude in the Dutch Republic. Following the bloody persecution of thousands in the previous century at the hands of the Spanish, the Dutch provinces had broken new ground by writing into...their constitution the guarantee that "each person shall remain free, especially in his religion, and that no one shall be persecuted or investigated because of their religion." This sentence became the ground on which the culturally diverse society of the seventeenth century was built."
Some reviewers have compared Shorto favorably with Barbara Tuchman (The Guns of August, A Distant Mirror). That's not bad: what's wrong with history being vivid and readable as well as scholarly and well-researched?
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