A New World
Writing off the top of the best historical scholarship of the past 50 years, Quinn (rhetoric, Univ. of California, Berkeley) tells the story of John Smith, William Penn, Samuel de Champlain, John Winthrop, William Bradford, and others in lavish detail and epic sweep. When his writing is good, as in his depiction of the Jesuit fathers in the cruel climes of frigid Canada, his narrative is engrossing. Elsewhere, as in his portrayal of Puritan John Winthrop, Quinn overwrites, piling phrase upon phrase in a gorgeous exercise of pleonasm. Although Quinn's narratives are driven by the particular vision of 17th-and 18th-century white men, his stories are leavened by depictions of the annihilation of the Pequots, the tragic fall of Huronia, and the travails of the Acadians. In contrast to the usual drab historical study, this is a crazy quilt of a book, full of vivid colors and dramatic patterns, sure to please a general audience.David B. Mattern, Univ. of Virginia, CharlottesvilleCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.