Relying on meticulous original archival research, historian Peter Silver uncovers a fearful and vibrant early America in which Lutherans and Presbyterians, Quakers, Catholics and Covenanters, Irish, German, French, and Welsh all sought to lay claim to a daunting countryside. Such groups had rarely intermingled in Europe, and the divisions between them only grew-until, with the arrival of the Seven Years' War, thousands of country people were forced to flee from Indian attack.Silver reveals in vivid and often chilling detail how easily a rhetoric of fear can incite entire populations to violence. He shows how it was only through the shared experience of fearing and hating Indians that these Europeans, once irreconcilable, were finally united under the ideal of religious and ethnic tolerance that has since defined the best in American life.

About the Author
Peter Silver is an assistant professor of history at Princeton University. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey.

Reviews
"Penetrates searchingly into a dark chapter of Colonial history." -- Boston Globe


Awards
Winner of Bancroft Prize 2008 and Mark Lynton History Prize 2008.



Book Information
ISBN 9780393334906
Author Peter Silver
Format Paperback
Page Count 434
Imprint WW Norton & Co
Publisher WW Norton & Co
Weight(grams) 440g
Dimensions(mm) 211mm * 140mm * 28mm