The Shame and the Sorrow

Dutch-Amerindian Encounters in New Netherland

Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States, Colonial Period (1600-1775), Native American
Cover of the book The Shame and the Sorrow by Donna Merwick, University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Donna Merwick ISBN: 9780812202809
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc. Publication: March 1, 2013
Imprint: University of Pennsylvania Press Language: English
Author: Donna Merwick
ISBN: 9780812202809
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.
Publication: March 1, 2013
Imprint: University of Pennsylvania Press
Language: English

The Dutch, through the directors of the West India Company, purchased Manhattan Island in 1625. They had come to the New World as traders, not expecting to assume responsibility as the sovereign possessor of a conquered New Netherland. They did not intend to make war on the native peoples around Manhattan Island, but they did; they did not intend to help destroy native cultures, but they did; they intended to be overseas the tolerant, pluralistic, and antimilitaristic people they thought themselves to be—and in so many respects were—at home, but they were not.

For the Dutch intruders, establishing a settled presence away from the homeland meant the destabilization of the adventurers' values and self-regard. They found that the initially peaceful encounters with the indigenous people soon took on the alarming overtones of an insurgency as the influx of the Dutch led to a complete upheaval and eventual disintegration of the social and political worlds of the natives.

How are the Dutch to be judged? Donna Merwick, in The Shame and the Sorrow, asks this question. She points to a betrayal both of their own values and of the native peoples. She also directs us to the self-delusion of hegemonic control. Her work belongs alongside the best of today's postcolonial studies in the description of cross-cultural violence and subtle questioning of the nature of writing its history.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

The Dutch, through the directors of the West India Company, purchased Manhattan Island in 1625. They had come to the New World as traders, not expecting to assume responsibility as the sovereign possessor of a conquered New Netherland. They did not intend to make war on the native peoples around Manhattan Island, but they did; they did not intend to help destroy native cultures, but they did; they intended to be overseas the tolerant, pluralistic, and antimilitaristic people they thought themselves to be—and in so many respects were—at home, but they were not.

For the Dutch intruders, establishing a settled presence away from the homeland meant the destabilization of the adventurers' values and self-regard. They found that the initially peaceful encounters with the indigenous people soon took on the alarming overtones of an insurgency as the influx of the Dutch led to a complete upheaval and eventual disintegration of the social and political worlds of the natives.

How are the Dutch to be judged? Donna Merwick, in The Shame and the Sorrow, asks this question. She points to a betrayal both of their own values and of the native peoples. She also directs us to the self-delusion of hegemonic control. Her work belongs alongside the best of today's postcolonial studies in the description of cross-cultural violence and subtle questioning of the nature of writing its history.

More books from University of Pennsylvania Press, Inc.

Cover of the book Tragicomic Redemptions by Donna Merwick
Cover of the book The Academic Job Search Handbook by Donna Merwick
Cover of the book Dynamics of Difference in Australia by Donna Merwick
Cover of the book First Lady of Letters by Donna Merwick
Cover of the book A Voice for Human Rights by Donna Merwick
Cover of the book Christianity, Empire, and the Making of Religion in Late Antiquity by Donna Merwick
Cover of the book The Research Triangle by Donna Merwick
Cover of the book The Markets for Force by Donna Merwick
Cover of the book Food Chains by Donna Merwick
Cover of the book Matching Organs with Donors by Donna Merwick
Cover of the book "The Man Who Thought Himself a Woman" and Other Queer Nineteenth-Century Short Stories by Donna Merwick
Cover of the book Blind Impressions by Donna Merwick
Cover of the book Radical Pacifism in Modern America by Donna Merwick
Cover of the book Human Rights in Latin America by Donna Merwick
Cover of the book Thinking in Public by Donna Merwick
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy