Suggested Jamestwone Reading List

This alphabetical selection of books offers historians’ most recent efforts to recount the events and personae that affected the founding and early developments of the first permanent English colony in America. As Jamestowne’s Quatercentenary (400 years) approaches, they can help provide a better understanding of how our ancestors survived and the driving forces that gave birth to the American nation. Except as noted these books are available from public libraries, Amazon.com and many bookstores.

A Land As God Made It; Jamestown and the Birth of America; James Horn; Basic, 2005. Armed with unparalleled knowledge of Jamestown’s role in early American history, historian James Horn has written a gripping account of the first years of the colony that gave rise to America. From the unimaginable hardships endured by early colonist in their efforts to establish a settlement, to the dramatic exploits of Captain John Smith and his relationship with the two great Powhatan chiefs of the era, Jamestown began the long process by which different people came together to create America.

Captain John Smith: Jamestown and the Birth of the American Dream; by Thomas Hoobler and Dorothy Hoobler, Wiley; 2005. “This biography is one of those important, smaller, history books by informed scholars that often lead the way in our fundamental historical understanding. From Hoobler and Hoobler comes a surprisingly insightful life study of the surprisingly appealing John Smith. The vast majority of Americans know virtually nothing about Smith. What is known is usually wrong. Truthful, well-written, and informed books like this are of critical importance in keeping the record straight.” (From a review by Bill Lewis for Northshire Bookstore). It gives important context for Karen Kupperman’s edition of Smith’s writings (see next).

Captain John Smith; A Select Edition of His Writings; edited by Dr. Karen Ordalh Kupperman; University of North Carolina Press, 1988. Captain John Smith was one of the most insightful and colorful writers to visit America in the colonial period. While his first venture was in Virginia, some of his most important work concerned New England and the colonial enterprise as a whole. This is an intelligent and imaginative selection and thematic arrangement of Smith's most important writings. As a reasonably priced distillation of the best of John Smith, Kupperman’s edition will allow a wide audience to discover what a remarkable thinker and writer he was.

Jamestowne Rediscovery 1994-2004; by William M. Kelso and Beverly Straube; Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, 2004. Jamestown Rediscovery documents the discoveries of APVA's archaeological team since 1994. Through text and full-color images this book illustrates the rediscovery of James Fort and the treasures unearthed with it. Photographs and contextual reports allow the reader to learn about the artifacts and the story they tell about the first permanent English settlement in America.

Love and Hate in Jamestowne; by David A. Price; Alfred A. Knopf, 2005. With 2007 fast approaching, more books will surely be written about Jamestown, but for now, this is currently the most popular narrative history of the early years of the first permanent English settlement in North America.

Pocahontas – Medicine Woman, Spy, Entrepreneur, Diplomat, by Paula Gunn Allen. HarperSanFrancisco; 2004. This is a bold “biography” that tells an extraordinary story from a Native American perspective. Dr. Paula Gunn Allen of UCLA draws on sources often overlooked by Western historians and offers remarkable new insights into the adventurous life and sacred role of this foremost American heroine. She offers new concepts and ideas about her critical role in Jamestowne’s survival and eventual success.

Pocahontas, Powhatan, Opechancanough: Three Indian Lives Changed by Jamestown, by Helen C. Rountree; University of VA Press. 2005. Helen Rountree provides in a single book biographies of Pocahontas, Powhatan and Opechancanough, three important figures in Jamestowne’s earliest years. She depicts the Indian experience with the English settlers – from the wary initial encounters presided over by Powhatan, to the uneasy diplomacy characterized by the marriage of Pocahontas and John Rolfe, to the warfare and eventual loss of native sovereignty that came during Opechancanough’s reign. Rountree draws a portrait of Powhatan life in which the land and the seasons governed life and the English were seen not as heroes but as Tassantassas (strangers), as invaders, even as squatters.

The Virginia Adventure – Roanoke to James Towne; by Ivor Noel Hume; University of Virginia Press, 1994. Formerly chief archaeologist at Colonial Williamsburg, Ivor Noel Hume pieced together revelatory information extrapolated from the shards and postholes of excavations at sites on Jamestown Island (prior to 1994) with contemporary accounts found in journals, letters, and official records of the period. This is an account of high and low adventure, of noble efforts and base impulses, and of the inevitably tragic interactions between Indians and Europeans, marked by greed, treachery, and commonplace savagery on both sides.
Note: The following book is not widely distributed but can be ordered through the Jamestowne Society’s website at http://www.jamestowne.org/BookLink.htm

The Story of Virginia’s First Century, by Mary Newton Stanard, privately printed by The First North Carolina Company of the Jamestowne Society; originally published 1928 (reprinted 2005). Almost eighty years old, this book is also titled “A History of the Jamestowne period – 1607-1700.” While it is dated and does not enjoy the benefit of recent scholarship and archeological findings, it nevertheless offers a richly detailed picture of Jamestowne during its active existence. It was recently republished with a new bibliography.

Video

Jamestowne Rediscovery- A World Uncovered is a 48-minute video introduction to the archeological discoveries in the book, Jamestowne Rediscovery 1994-2004, listed above. Hosted by veteran television journalist Roger Mudd, the program follows the work of the archaeologists of the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. Director of Archaeology Dr. William Kelso provides an inside look at the process of modern archaeology, from how simple stains in the soil show the “footprint” of the fort to unearthing the remains of one of the colony's first settlers. Available from Jamestown Museum Store; Jamestown, VA 23081 or sallshouse@apva.org for $21.95 plus $4.50 shipping.