Media Center: 'Barbarous Years' by Bernard Bailyn
WHO: Bernard Bailyn
WHAT:
THE BARBAROUS YEARS:
The Peopling of British North America: the Conflict of Civilizations, 1600-1675
WHEN:
Published by Knopf
November 7, 2012
WHERE: Colonial America
WHY:
“An extraordinary work of profound seriousness.
“This weighty book distills a lifetime of learning of one of our most authoritative historians of colonial America. Continuing his exploration of the demographic origins of the colonies, Harvard professor emeritus Bernard Bailyn offers a history of the colonies built up of brilliant portraits of the people who interacted in these strange and fearsome lands.
“Much of it is the story of the costs, savagery, terrors, and conflicts that attended the establishment of European outposts in what became the U.S. This is not your school-book colonial history; there’s no Anglo-American triumphalism in its pages. Rather, Bailyn describes ‘confusion, failure, violence, and the loss of civility’ and the extraordinary heterogeneity of the white and Indian populations.
“Only a historian as penetrating and stylish of pen as Bailyn could convince you that there was something important to say about the few Finns settling in the colonies. And the squeamish should be forewarned: the true barbarousness of people, European as well as Indian, and white against white, is appalling and shows how thin the veneer of civilization often is and was in the colonies’ early decades.” —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, in a featured, starred review
“The culmination of his work.
“Drawing on decades of sound, dynamic research, Bailyn has provided scholars and general readers alike with an insightful and engaging account of Colonial America that signals a reset on Colonial studies…While some of Bailyn’s superbly told tales are fairly well known, other parts of his narrative will come as a shock to many readers. An important book.”
—Brian Odom in a starred review for LIBRARY JOURNAL
“Magisterial…a gripping, detailed, often squirm-inducing account.”
—KIRKUS REVIEWS
“Perceptive and erudite.”
—Gilbert Taylor, BOOKLIST
Media Resources:
About the book | Author bio | Download the jacket or the author photo
Publicist for this title:
Gabrielle Brooks | 212-572-2152 | gbrooks@randomhouse.com