Many readers will be familiar with the general story of English settlement. If it true that history is written around the campfires of the victors, it is also true that in securing a colonial dominion in North America, England, along with the Indians it subjugated, the Africans it enslaved and the other Europeans it rooted out, paid a heavy price.īailyn’s exploration of the forces at play is not new.

The result is a violent struggle that consumed North America in the years after the establishment of Jamestown in 1607.īailyn’s title is apt given the variety of “barbarisms” that occur when cultures collide. His encompassing narrative delves into a range of topics, including the lifestyle of native peoples, the greed of English trade company investors and the hopes and dreams of people seeking religious tolerance while at the same time attempting to evangelize those with different beliefs. A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian from Harvard, Bailyn seems to leave no stone unturned in his exploration of America in the 1600s. The Barbarous Years is about change, rapid and dramatic change with longstanding cultural and social implications. If we are lucky, we will have our times analyzed by an historian with the intellectual and literary skills of Bernard Bailyn, who in his new book, The Barbarous Years, provides a highly detailed and meticulously researched account of the first great stage of England’s dominion over North America.

The Barbarous Years by Bernard Bailyn