Essay - A Comparison of Two Books European-indian Contact: New England Books:...

a comparison of two books

European-Indian Contact: New England

*****: James Axtell- The Invasion Within: The Contest of Cultures in Colonial North America

William Cronon- Changes ***** the Land: Indians, Colonists and the Ecology ***** ***** Engl*****

***** Civilization of *****ern America as a Result First Cont*****ct Between the Natives and the Europeans

The two authors, James Axtell and William Cronon analyze in their respective works The Invasion Within: The Contest ***** Cultures in Colonial North America and ***** in the Land: *****, Colonists and the Ecology of New England essential aspects ***** the first interaction and ***** first exchanges between the Native American people that used to inhabit ***** land of North America and the Europeans ***** colonized them after Columbus' discovery. Axtell's book, as its title indicates, focuses on the way in which ***** three ma***** ethnicities, the Native Indians, ***** English and the French attempted a mutual conversion, each struggling to impose its cultural identity over ***** ***** of the other. Axtell thus advocates that ethnohis*****ry is the best instrument for the examination of the confluence between the three cultures, Indian, Engl*****h and French. He focuses there*****e on the way in which each of the three nations perceived ***** *****s, ***** how they struggled to impose ***** own views over the o*****rs. As the title of the work **********, ***** main contention of the monograph is ***** the "inv*****ion" in North America was much more than a political or economical conquest; it *****, in fact, a contest ***** the cultural identities ***** ***** three ***** that encountered ***** other. According ***** Axtell therefore, the invasion touched the very essence of each culture, ***** inner, spiritual nature. On the other hand, ***** Cronon's work, Changes in the *****: *****, ***** and the Ecology of New ***** reveals a very ********** and unique historical perspective: the author investigates the first contact between the Native *****s and ***** Europeans through an analysis ***** their different management of the ecological system. Cronon's main assumption is thus that the relationship ***** exists between the environment and the inhabitants of a certain territory is crucial to the investigation of that culture's particular views and lifestyle. Thus, although ***** approaches to the main subject that ***** two books propose are essentially different, it is obvious that ***** sh***** a common view ultimately: both texts advocate that the American civilization ***** the present day ***** largely a result of the w*****y in which the two nations first interacted and ***** the maze of ***** influences ***** ensued.

The ********** of the ***** books under investigation have ***** a ***** scope but aim at the same purpose, th***** is, to analyze ********** way in which the first contact between the ***** ***** ***** colonizers influenced the future development of America as a nation. Thus, ***** main thesis as stated in his ***** is that the *****itial ***** between the three nations is marked by the cultural ***** between *****. Each of the ***** nations, the Natives,