Amsterdam

History

Russell Shorto

Europe

ABACUS +

Descartes' Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict between Faith and Reason

Sixteen years after René Descartes' death in Stockholm  in 1650, a pious French ambassador exhumed the remains of the controversial philosopher  to transport them back to Paris. Thus began a 350-year saga that saw Descartes' bones  traverse a continent, passing between kings, philosophers, poets, and painters.But as Russell Shorto shows in this deeply engaging book, Descartes' bones also  played a role in some of the most momentous episodes in history, which are also part  of the philosopher's metaphorical remains: the birth of science, the rise of democracy,  and the earliest debates between reason and faith. Descartes' Bones is a flesh-and-blood  story about the battle between religion and rationalism that rages to this day.A New York Times Notable Book 

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Island At The Center Of The World

Americas

Based on new documents just translated from C17th Dutch, this book tells the story of how a wilderness island populated by wolves, wild strawberries and native Indians, situated on a perfect natural harbour at the mouth of a great river leading into the centre of a new continent, became the crucial prize in a conflict between the Dutch and the English about who would control the recently discovered American continent. This is the page-turning story of the early years of Manhattan under Dutch rule, with at its heart a battle between men who would be its leader, the autocratic despot Stuyvesant, and the liberal-minded lawyer Van den Donck. It is Russell Shorto's thesis that the overlooked history of the original Dutch colony, and the attitudes of the Dutch settlers, were the principal inspiration for the free-trade, multi-cultural, upwardly-mobile 'melting pot' spirit of New York, and hence America.

The Island at the Centre of the World

DOUBLEDAY

Careers for People Who Like People

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt HMH

Careers for People Who Like to Perform

It was situated on a perfect natural harbour at the mouth of a great river leading into a huge new land. Manhattan Island was to grow into the most powerful city in the most powerful country in the world. THE ISLAND AT THE CENTRE OF THE WORLD returns to the origins of New York's extraordinary history. It tells how a wilderness populated only by wolves and native tribes became the melting pot from which developed the free-trade, multi-cultural and upwardly-mobile spirit of New York that in turn would shape the whole American nation.

The Island at the Centre of the World : The Untold Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Founding of New York

World

Black Swan.

Depicts the range of jobs available for those who want to make good use of foreign language fluency through interviews with a tour consultant, a literary agent, an international lawyer, and a foreign-language textbook editor.

Careers for Foreign Language Experts

Children's Books

Education & Reference

Tandem Library

A New York Times Bestseller In the late 1960s, an archivist in the New York State Library discovered an astounding 12,000 pages of centuries-old documents from the Dutch colony centered on Manhattan. For the past thirty years, scholar Charles Gehring has been translating this national treasure, and now, Russell Shorto has used this vital material to construct a sweeping narrative of Manhattan's founding that gives a startling, fresh perspective on how America began.

The Island At The Center of the World: The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America

Thorndike Press

When the British wrested New Amsterdam from the Dutch in 1664, the truth about its thriving, polyglot society began to disappear into myths about an island purchased for 24 dollars and a cartoonish peg-legged governor. But the story of the Dutch colony of New Netherland was merely lost, not destroyed: 12,000 pages of its records-recently declared a national treasure-are now being translated. Drawing on this remarkable archive, Russell Shorto has created a gripping narrative-a story of global sweep centered on a wilderness called Manhattan-that transforms our understanding of early America. The Dutch colony pre-dated the "original" thirteen colonies, yet it seems strikingly familiar. Its capital was cosmopolitan and multi-ethnic, and its citizens valued free trade, individual rights, and religious freedom. Their champion was a progressive, young lawyer named Adriaen van der Donck, who emerges in these pages as a forgotten American patriot and whose political vision brought him into conflict with Peter Stuyvesant, the autocratic director of the Dutch colony. The struggle between these two strong-willed men laid the foundation for New York City and helped shape American culture. The Island at the Center of the World uncovers a lost world and offers a surprising new perspective on our own.

The Island at the Center of the World

Vintage Books

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Books by Russell Shorto