When the British wrested New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664,
the truth about its thriving, polyglot society began to disappear
into myths about an island purchased for 24 dollars and a
cartoonish peg-legged governor. But the story of the Dutch colony
of New Netherland was merely lost, not destroyed: 12,000 pages of
its records–recently declared a national treasure–are now being
translated. Drawing on this remarkable archive, Russell Shorto has
created a gripping narrative–a story of global sweep centered on a
wilderness called Manhattan–that transforms our understanding of
early America.
The Dutch colony pre-dated the “original” thirteen colonies, yet
it seems strikingly familiar. Its capital was cosmopolitan and
multi-ethnic, and its citizens valued free trade, individual
rights, and religious freedom. Their champion was a progressive,
young lawyer named Adriaen van der Donck, who emerges in these
pages as a forgotten American patriot and whose political vision
brought him into conflict with Peter Stuyvesant, the autocratic
director of the Dutch colony. The struggle between these two
strong-willed men laid the foundation for New York City and helped
shape American culture. The Island at the Center of the World
uncovers a lost world and offers a surprising new perspective on
our own.
關於作者：
Russell Shorto is a contributing writer at the New York
Times Magazine, and the author of two previous books: Gospel
Truth, about the search for the historical Jesus, and Saints
and Madmen, about psychiatry and religion. The hub of his
research for The Island at the Center of the World was the
New Netherland Project at the New York State Library, where the
archives of the Dutch colony centered on Manhattan are being
translated. He lives in New York’s Hudson Valley with his wife and
their two daughters.
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