Publisher's Synopsis
George Bancroft was a well known American historian, an ambassador to the United Kingdom, and a U.S. Secretary of the Navy. His seminal work was History of the United States of America: From the Discovery of the Continent, which he revised many times. The book presented here represents volume one of Bancroft's final revision.
Volume One traces the history of the United States from Columbus' voyage to the New World until the year of 1688. As such, this book can be viewed as almost a pre-history of the U.S., highlighting the major events that lead to the eventual creation of a state independent of Great Britain. Bancroft's book marches along what is now familiar territory for students of history, and opens with accounts of the early voyages to America and French settlements on the continent. Bancroft hits on all of the major historical events one would expect to find in such a volume: early English colonization, Virginia's first charter, slavery and its role in the American settlements, the pilgrims, plantation life, the expanding colonies, Virginia's great rebellion, the revolution of 1688, and much more. Volume One concludes with a synopsis of the status of the colonies as of 1688, and a brief look at what is on the horizon.
History of the United States of America: From the Discovery of the Continent was one of the first great history books, with Bancroft's survey of American history is exhaustive. As with many older history books, there are some misinterpretations and items presented as fact that have since been disproven, however these do not detract from the overall quality of the work. This is not just a history of the United States, but a love letter to a country that the author clearly cared about deeply.
George Bancroft's History of the United States of America is one of the great American history books. While it may have been surpassed by modern history textbooks in terms of both scope and accuracy, the passion dripping from Bancroft's every word is unmatched, and truly a pleasure to read for all students and scholars of history.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
