Review

General Books

Natives and Newcomers by James Axtell is a remarkable compendium of essays on the dynamic interaction between indigenous peoples of North America and European explorers and settlers. The volume is anchored geographically—East of the Appalachian Mountains—and chronologically—between Columbus' voyage in 1492 and the conclusion of the American Revolution in 1783. The fourteen essays in this volume were penned by Axtell as articles, conference papers, distinguished lectures, and chapters in books between 1974 and 2000. Given Axtell's ethnohistoric training and focus, each essay contains elements of history, anthropology, culture, and a lively analysis of the porous nature of the barrier between natives and newcomers. The underlying assumption of the text is the notion that cultural frontiers in early North America were two-way, interactive, and dynamic. Axtell divides the cultural encounters and this group of essays into five parts: Contacts, Consumption, Conversions, Clashes, and Consequences. The essays in each part reveal Axtell's command of colonial and ethnohistory and testify to his skills in communicating complex and competing ideas. He uses language ("Babel of Tongues: Communicating with the Indians"), commercial interactions ("Making Do: Trade in the Eighteenth Century Southeast"), notions of civilization ("The White Indians"), imperial power ("The Rise and Fall of the Powhatan Empire"), and Indian contributions to colonial lifeways ("The Indian Impact on English Colonial Cultures") to illustrate the back and forth nature of settler-native relationships.	1
The central ideas posited and developed in Natives and Newcomers--to amplify the idea of "two-way" cultural interactions and to "write colonial history from the 'other' side of the frontier" (p. 10)—are affirmed and uniquely illustrated in each of Axtell's essays. In Natives and Newcomers, Axtell has conquered one of the most problematic historiographical conundrums: providing a group of essays that are of equal quality, that are focused on a clear idea, and that treat a topic in a comprehensive manner. Despite some repetitiveness from one essay to another, Natives and Newcomers: The Cultural Origins of North America fills an important lacuna in the literature and reflects favorably on Axtell's exalted position as the leader of ethnohistory in North America. The two strongest essays in the volume—"Dr. Wheelock's Little Red School" and "The Moral Dilemmas of Scalping"—polarize Native and Newcomer and prove that natives can become educated (at Dartmouth College, no less) and colonists can shed European conventions and embrace scalping as a military expedient. Natives and Newcomers is an important addition to the growing literature that infuses ethnohistory into the colonial American context. The essays stand alone and will be important sources for scholars and classrooms that consider Native Americans, Colonial America, and Ethnohistory.	2
Iona College James T. Carroll

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