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Review
| Sir Walter Raleigh and the Quest for El Dorado, by Marc Aronson. New York: Clarion Books, 2000. 222 pp. $20.00, cloth.John Winthrop, Oliver Cromwell, and the Land of Promise, by Marc Aronson. New York: Clarion Books, 2004. 206 pp. $20.00, cloth.
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| Within two well-researched and engagingly written books, author Marc Aronson opens up the dangerous arena of the sixteenth century Atlantic world for younger readers. While not diluting the complicated realities of that time period, Aronson succeeds in making the politics, personalities, motivations, triumphs, and failures of such diverse figures as Sir Walter Ralegh, John Winthrop, Oliver Cromwell, John White, Anne Hutchinson, Roger Williams, and Queen Elizabeth accessible for all readers. In Sir Walter Ralegh and the Quest for El Dorado, Aronson creates narrative tension throughout the book by emphasizing how the mission to seek a lost city of gold held fortune and danger for both the English and the natives of the Americas. The undertaking to find "El Dorado" is enveloped in England's greater quest for political hegemony, the rise of Sir Walter Ralegh, and his relationship with Queen Elizabeth. |
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By showing Raleigh's travails in conquering Ireland and establishing the plantation system to control the territory and his attempts to launch a colony in what would eventually become colonial Virginia, Aronson places the reader inside the swirling interplay of personality, technology, imperial politics, native relations, and the contingencies of history. The author carefully traces the dichotomy of Raleigh the poet and author and Raleigh the military adventurer and shows his frustrations in both roles. He failed to find the "El Dorado" he sought and did not receive his queen's full devotion. Perhaps the most intriguing element of the book is the exploration of the Orinoco River in South America. It is here that readers are treated to the difficulties faced by both explorers and the indigenous peoples with whom they interacted. Aronson helps readers to understand that while the search for the golden city was intriguing for Europeans, its results were frustrating and dangerous. |
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Aronson's second book—John Winthrop, Oliver Cromwell, and the Land of Promise examines the role religious fervor played in the choices made by both John Winthrop and Oliver Cromwell. In the first half of the book the author traces the evolution of Protestant dissent in England and the challenges the dissenters faced under the reign of King Charles I. From the evangelical conversion of John Winthrop, to the religious dissenters exodus to British North America, Aronson scrutinizes how the Puritans hoped to live a life more consistent with their vision of God's desires and their own internal challenge to embrace religious freedom and choice. In addition, he explores the difficulties the Puritans had in respecting the full meaning of religious freedom—tolerating those that choose other faiths or rejected religion all together. This challenge is considered in the relationship between Puritan leadership and religious dissenters Roger Williams and Ann Hutchinson. In addition, the tension between religious beliefs and acceptance of others is examined in a short but engaging examination of the Pequot War. |
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The second half of this book focuses on the precarious political position in which King Charles found himself by 1642 and the relationship between his political difficulties and religious beliefs. The author reviews the rise of Oliver Cromwell and the role he played in the battle for power between parliament and king and between Protestant and Catholic during the English Civil War. Aronson concludes his examination by contrasting what he sees as the success of religious toleration in the English Civil War with the intolerance of Puritan New England. However, Aronson's broader argument, that understanding the role of religious fundamentalism in both Puritan New England and the English Civil War will facilitate an understanding of the rise of militant Islam in the current world, will be lost on most of the young readers the book targets. Nonetheless John Winthrop, Oliver Cromwell, and the Land of Promise is an enticing telling of an important story that will be attractive to young readers. |
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Complete with wonderful maps, illustrations, primary source images, and a timeline, both books are worthwhile sources for students conducting independent reading assignments or simply reading to foster a deeper love of history. Both Sir Walter Ralegh and John Winthrop are wonderful tales for upper-middle and high school students. Although their length, almost 200 pages each, makes the books cumbersome to use as a classroom assignment, they still merit consideration for inclusion in school libraries, teachers' personal collections, or as supplementary readings for students to examine the sixteenth century Atlantic world. |
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| Franklin High School, Reinster Town, Maryland |
Bruce Allyn Lesh |
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