Full Description
In Modernity and Its Other Robert Woods Sayre examines eighteenth-century North America through discussion of texts drawn from the period. He focuses on this unique historical moment when early capitalist civilization (modernity) in colonial societies, especially the British, interacted closely with Indigenous communities (the "Other") before the balance of power shifted definitively toward the colonizers.
Sayre considers a variety of French perspectives as a counterpoint to the Anglo-American lens, including J. Hector St. John de CrÈvecoeur and Philip Freneau, as well as both Anglo-American and French or French Canadian travelers in "Indian territory," including William Bartram, Jonathan Carver, John Lawson, Alexander Mackenzie, Baron de Lahontan, Pierre Charlevoix, and Jean-Baptiste Trudeau. Modernity and Its Other is an important addition to any North American historian's bookshelf, for it brings together the social history of the European colonies and the ethnohistory of the American Indian peoples who interacted with the colonizers.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part 1. Views of Modernity: Internal/External Discovery
1. CrÈvecoeur: British America before and during the Revolutionary Upheaval
2. Philip Freneau: After the Revolution
3. Moreau de Saint-MÉry: Fin de SiÈcle
Part 2. Views of the Other: Travels in "Indian Territory"
4. The Zero Degree of the Other: Indian Violence and "Adventure" with Indians
5. Accounts of Travel in New France: Lahontan and Charlevoix
6. Anglo-American Travelers: John Lawson and Jonathan Carver
7. Travels of William Bartram, Quaker Botanist
8. Fur Traders: Alexander Mackenzie and Jean-Baptiste Trudeau
Epilogue: Into the Nineteenth Century-George Catlin
Conclusion
Appendix: Chronology of Historical Events, Travels, and Publications
Notes
Bibliography
Index
