A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World

Having just read " Cities of Gold " which covered in great details the spanish exploration in the Southwest U.S., I enjoyed reading more about East Coast Voyages of discovery. The author uses an easy and often humorous way of describing the events. In short it is an easy to read and informative bookA Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World

great research and well written. Our children should be doing this history reviews, if not through this book then through other text books. It is time to change our view of North American History.

I have been a fan of Mr. Horwitz ever since "Confederates in the Attic". He brings a human element to history, and has a wonderful ability to make an otherwise droll subject in a lesser author's hands, come to life. In this book he shares insights on a part of American history that gets little attention, unless you go looking for it. I enjoyed it very much.

This is a really good audio book for folks that have an interest in history, especially early North American History.

The Conquistadors were the savages, not the naturals.

And I still prefer Turkey even if the first Thanksgiving wasn't in Plymouth!

This at least shows the fact that the origins of the USA's civilization is in the South. Spanish-speaking St. Augustine in Florida was the first European settlement, in 1565. The first-ever democratic elections in America were held in the Jamestown colony in 1607, etc. Because the North won the Civil War, they have written the history text books, which make it sound like Plymouth Rock was the cradle of the American nation. When in fact, the beginings of African-America were already one year in the past when the Pilgrims landed in New England, as African indentured servants landed on the Virginia coast in 1619. I am please to find Horwitz revealing the truth about this. I have not gotten there yet, but I am assuming he also credits the existence of the United States to the charity and patriotism of a Jew named Hayem Salomon; this man was an immigrant in New York from Poland, who bacame the wealthiest man in the Anglo-American colonies before 1775. Without his dedication and pocket book Continental Congress would not have had the resources to finance the Revolutionary War. In the middle of the 1780s, Salomon died penniless in a poor flat in New York. Congress never paid him back the vast fortune he contributed. But in recent years Congress did authorize the issue of a postage stamp bearing his likeness.