Early Americas Strange Journey, Book Review Example

Author Tony Horwitz is both a journalist and a writer of history books, so it should come as no surprise that his 2009 book, A Voyage Long and Strange, incorporates elements of both professions. In his introduction, Horwitz recounts a visit he made to Plymouth Rock, which we was surprised to find was merely a small stone at the bottom of a pit. Considering the amount of attention paid by present-day history education to the Pilgrims’ landing at that locale, Horwitz found the site anti-climactic. It did, however, spur him to reconsider his view of American history. Although he had a college degree in the topic, he realized he knew very little about the actual events that ultimately led to the colonization of the Americas by Europeans. From this epiphany grew the endeavor that led to this book. In it, Horwitz both recounts the history of Europeans in America, from the earliest Norse settlements, through the Spanish explorers, and finally, to the English settlement at Plymouth, over six hundred years after the beginning of his story.

That Horwitz ends with the place most Americans consider the beginning fits the pattern of this book. In almost every case, the received wisdom about American history proves wildly inaccurate when compared with what we know of actual history. The telling of the tale of Europeans in America would be engaging enough, although nothing particularly new, but Horwitz takes things a step further by exploring simultaneously the modern perceptions of these events, especially in the places we now associate with them. Just as the real Plymouth Rock changed his ideas about the Pilgrims, so too do his journeys in the footsteps of the early explorers and settlers. Horwitz uses his keen journalist’s eye to describe the places he visits and the people he meets, making his book not just a study of history, but also a sociology text of sorts; he examines the influence of history on the present in the places where history occurred, and also in the ways we interpret our history and use it to tell ourselves stories about our origins and who we are.

The first chapter of the book addresses the history of the Norse in America. Horwitz traces the discovery of America and the first European settlements, which were situated on a barely habitable coastal area of Newfoundland in modern-day Canada. He first tells the stories as related in the Norse sagas of Leif Erickson and his relatives who sailed to Canada from Greenland. These colorful and violent tales make great reading and Horwitz’s wry commentary adds to the experience. Having thus set the historical stage, he goes on to recount his visit to the site of the earliest known Norse settlement, which has become an unlikely (and largely unsuccessful) tourist attraction, keeping the local village alive even as its fishing industry fails. Ever fair in his explorations, Horwitz also recounts the history of the native peoples of the area and attends a pow-wow held by the Micmac, who were likely the war-like natives who helped discourage the Norse from making a permanent settlement.

Next, Horwitz takes on the mythology surrounding Christopher Columbus, a man alternately venerated as a great explorer and repudiated as the founder of a centuries-long genocide. The author undermines both views of the man, presenting him as a complex person with both great talents and great failures. He then shifts again to the present day, in which he visits the first permanent Spanish settlement in the New World, Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. He relates the effects of Columbus worship and the “curse of Columbus” in the D.R., as well as the curious monument that supposedly houses Columbus’s bones and the ceremony surrounding the anniversary of his birth.

Having looked at the origins of the Spanish culture in the Americas, Horwitz turns to the great Spanish explorers, presenting in great detail the courses they set along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, into the Southwest, and surprisingly, into the Great Plains and the heart of the South. Following the pattern set earlier in the book, he discusses the history of each explorer, the effects of this contact on the native peoples, and the present-day perception and influence of those explorers on local cultures and the greater ideology of America. For example, he decides to see what it would have been like for De Soto to cross the Mississippi River in a small boat, so he takes up with a “river rat” who takes him canoeing on the river, an experience both enlightening and exhausting.

The final segment of the book deals with the settlement of America by Europeans. He begins with the religious refuge established by French Huguenots in Florida, before moving on to the first English settlement, the “lost colony” of Roanoke. He then covers Jamestown before finally concluding with Plymouth. He sticks to his method of blending history with twenty-first century explorations, and in both approaches, he tells engaging tales and raises controversial points that still resonate. For example, in his story of Jamestown, he deals extensively with the question of race, which arises both from the story of the marriage of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith, but also from the racial mixing provoked by settlement and by slavery.

Horwitz’s book does a great job of making early American history entertaining, thought provoking, and relevant to modern life. He is a talented enough storyteller that he could have written an interesting book of pure history, especially since most people are even more ignorant of what really happened than he was. By drawing the connections between the past and the present, however, he sets his book above the average. Even though not every reader will agree with all the points he makes, he provides enough evidence to back up his perspective that readers will at least understand him. For those who do not want to work that hard, this is an engrossing book that reads as easily as a novel. It is not pure history, but it “does history” extremely well.

References

Horwitz, T. (2009). A Voyage Long and Strange: On the Trail of Vikings, Conquistadors, Lost Colonists, and Other Adventurers in Early America. New York, NY: Picador.