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The English Embrace of the American Indians

Ideas of Humanity in Early America

  • Book
  • © 2017

Overview

Authors:
  1. Alan S. Rome

    1. University of Sydney , Sydney, Australia

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  • Provides a controversial new analysis of the relationship between English settlers and Native Americans in early colonial America

  • Features religious, philosophical, and political explorations of the history of Anglo-Native American relations

  • Appeals to scholars of postcolonial literature, colonial historiography, and the history of human rights

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
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  2. Introduction

    • Alan S Rome
    Pages 1-11

  3. The Savage Mind: Metaphysics and the Humanity of the Indian

    • Alan S Rome
    Pages 13-52

  4. Savages in the Streams of Time: The Indian in English Historical Consciousness

    • Alan S. Rome
    Pages 53-89

  5. A Digression on Air: Race and Climate in Early America

    • Alan S Rome
    Pages 91-122

  6. Powhatan’s Two Bodies: Civil Savage, Savage Colonist

    • Alan S Rome
    Pages 123-157

  7. Killing with Kindness: The Tragedy of Benevolence

    • Alan S Rome
    Pages 159-198

  8. Conclusion

    • Alan S Rome
    Pages 199-208

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 209-237
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Keywords

About this book

This book makes a wide, conceptual challenge to the theory that the English of the colonial period thought of Native Americans as irrational and subhuman, dismissing any intimations to the contrary as ideology or propaganda. It makes a controversial intervention by demonstrating that the true tragedy of colonial relations was precisely the genuineness of benevolence, and not its cynical exploitation or subordination to other ends that was often the compelling force behind conflict and suffering. It was because the English genuinely believed that the Indians were their equals in body and mind that they fatally tried to embrace them. From an intellectual exploration of the abstract ideas of human rights in colonial America and the grounded realities of the politics that existed there to a narrative of how these ideas played out in relations between the two peoples in the early years of the colony, this book challenges and subverts current understanding of English colonial politics and religion.

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of Sydney , Sydney, Australia

    Alan S. Rome

About the author

Alan S. Rome is Research Fellow at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, Australia. He works on the intellectual history of early modern America and Europe and has taught extensively in American and European history.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: The English Embrace of the American Indians

  • Book Subtitle: Ideas of Humanity in Early America

  • Authors: Alan S. Rome

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-46197-7

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: History, History (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-46196-0Published: 27 December 2016

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-83466-5Published: 07 July 2018

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-46197-7Published: 16 December 2016

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: IX, 237

  • Topics: US History, Imperialism and Colonialism, History of Religion

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