Search Connexions

Custom Search

Connexions Library

Articles, Books, Documents, Periodicals, Audio-Visual

Title Index

Author Index

Subject Index

Chronological Index

Spotlight: Most Popular

Format Index

Dewey Index

Library of Congress Index

Español

Français

Deutsch

Connexipedia

Connexipedia Subject Index

Search the Library

Connexions Directory
of Associations & NGOs

Subject Index

Associations Index

Selected Resources by
Subject Area

Donate or Volunteer

Your support makes our work possible. Please Donate Today

Volunteer Opportunities and Internships

Donate to Connexions
Get media attention with Sources


Stolen Continents
The "New World" Through Indian Eyes

Wright, Ronald
Publisher:  Penguin
Year Published:  1992  
Pages:  242pp   Price:  $13.99   ISBN:  0-14-013932-X
Resource Type:  Book
Cx Number:  CX6585

The history of the Americas through Native eyes.

Abstract:  Ronald Wright sets out to write the history of the Americas through Native eyes. Stolen Continents focuses on five Native peoples of the Americas - the Aztec of Mexico, the Maya and the Inca of South America, the Cherokee of the southern United States and the Iroquois of the northern US and southern Canada. Wright focuses on these five because they were among the most complex societies of the Americas and left correspondingly detailed records. Whenever possible, he incorporates Native eyewitness accounts of a history usually given over entirely to the viewpoint of the conquerors (Europeans).
Wright begins by asking why South and North America were so devastated by European contact that it was never really 'de-colonized', i.e., the government and majority of the peoples of the Americas remain of European origin, not native, as opposed to the situation in Asia and Africa for instance. Wright disputes the usual reasons Europeans give for the devastation of the Indian people, such as that these were more 'primitive' societies, that they were few in numbers and that they were weak and superstitious. The true answer, Wright maintains, was that the native Americans were wiped out by the diseases brought by the Europeans against which they had developed absolutely no resistance. Wright calls these deaths the 'greatest mortality in history'. With decimated populations, including loss of their leaders, the natives could not put up a proper resistance to the European invasion.
Stolen Continents is divided into three parts: Part I, Invasion, Part 2, Resistance, and Part 3, Rebirth. Invasion details the initial European contact and assault on each of the native groups in turn. Resistance describes the ways in which the conquered societies managed to keep some of their culture alive by accommodating the invading culture and using it for their own purposes. Rebirth describes each culture's current efforts at self-determination. This section ends with a detailed examination of the Oka crisis in Canada in 1990.
This book is scholarly, well-researched, very readable and filled with stories and quotations from native and European eyewitnesses. It includes an extensive bibliography and a detailed index.

[abstract by Eileen Neumann]

Subject Headings

    Connexions Information Sharing Services

Connexions Library
Catalogue of more than 10,000 books, articles, films, periodicals, websites and other resources.
Indexed by Author, Title, Format, Subject, Dewey number, Library of Congress classification, Year of Publication.
Connexions Directory Associations and NGOs dealing with social and environmental issues — A-Z Index or Subject Index.
For experts and media spokespersons also see the Sources directory and the comprehensive Sources Subject Index.
Links Selected Internet resources featuring information about alternatives.
Calendar Events from across Canada. Also see: Sources Calendar and news releases.
Publicity and Media Resources, publications and articles to help you get publicity and raise awareness. Plus Media Names & Numbers Canadian media directory, the Parliamentary Names & Numbers Canadian government directory, and mailing lists.
Donations Connexions welcomes your support. Your donations make our work possible. Volunteers always welcome.
Mission Connexions exists to support individuals and groups working for freedom and social justice. We work to maintain and make available a record of the theory and practice of people struggling against oppression and for social change. We believe that the more we know about the struggles, victories, and defeats of the past, and about those who took part in them, the better equipped we will be to bring a new world into being. Connexions maintains a physical archive of books and documents, and is engaged in an ongoing project to build and expand an indexed digital archive of documents. We try to feature a wide variety of resources reflecting a diversity of viewpoints and approaches to social change within our overall mandate of support for democracy, civil liberties, freedom of expression, universal human rights, secularism, equality, economic justice, environmental responsibility, and the creation and preservation of community. We are internationalist in our orientation, but as a Canadian-based project we feature an especially extensive collection of Canadian documents and profiles of Canadian activist organizations.