The Story of the Americas

by Leland Dewitt Baldwin

This is the first book in which the history of the entire Western Hemisphere is told as one continuous narrative. Four hundred and fifty years of exploration, settlement and cultural development-from Columbus' first voyage until the present day-are the raw material out of which this narrative is made. North and South America are presented as the crucible of a colonizing experiment of unparalleled success. The participants were the Spanish of South America and southern North America, the Portuguese in Brazil, and the English, French, Dutch and Swedes in various sections of North America.

As we know, the experiment worked, and it is no small part of Captain Baldwin's task is to have gauged the measure of success achieved by each of the participating nations in the various states that grew out of their efforts. Because-after all-the success was relative, total in some places and far from total in others. That the over all picture is encouraging must be admitted by the most frost bitten enemies of democracy. As he surveys mankind from Hudson Bay to Tierra del Fuego and from Cape Breton to Vancouver Sound. Captain Baldwin finds the unifying bond linking the many countries of the Western Hemisphere has sometimes the thickness of a submarine cable, at other times that of a persistently thickening rope. He finds too, that democracy has as many faces as the states that boast its blessings.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

719 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1943

Reviews

[Rudyard L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not impossible I'm the only person in the world to have read this book since 1950 at least. I bought this book at a used bookstore in a middle of no-where town in Pennsylvania (the author's home state). I had to create the Goodreads entry for it and it is barely even on Amazon. This book was written in the midst of World War 2, during paper rationing. This results in pages so thin that when I took this book through airport security, it set off the alarm systems for being so dense. Also, this book was written in a style about 40 years out of date at the time and would be considered borderline heretical in a few decades. This slated this book to be endlessly forgotten. Thus, as the only person recorded to have ever read this, I feel a sense of duty to write the book review.

That being said, this book is a masterpiece. It is easily one of my favorite history books of all time. I'm a pretty hard core history buff, so that title does not come easily. This book summarized in a single sentence is "Why is America rich and Mexico poor?" Baldwin studies the history of the Americas from Christopher Columbus to the Second World War. The main focus is "What impact did European settlement and civilization have on separate parts of the Americas". Each nation is viewed as a separate attempt by a European country to impart its society, often emphasizing completely different characteristics and taking in different levels of native culture. Paraguay and Mexico were both colonized by Spain, but Paraguay became a communist Catholic theocracy while Mexico was a feudal caste slave economy. This shows why the nations in the Americas are so different and explains their complex relationships today.

The main focus of this book is the colonization and settlement itself. This will result in strange choices. For example, the American Civil War will receive almost no page time, but the 18th century Canada-Santa Fe trade route receives 10 pages. Leland Dewitt Baldwin is a fabulous writer. He really should have been a novelist rather than a historian. It feels as if Errol Flynn is reading these lines to inspire his pirate crew in some Swashbuckling film of the age. Stories of incredible adventure and drama are told and will have you on the edge of your seat for hundreds of pages.

However, my favorite part of the book is Baldwin's bizarre knowledge and deep erudition. I learned an insane amount from this book. I feel cheated by the history I learned in school that they missed out on all this incredible material.
For Example:
1. It's quite possible that the English and Portuguese knew about America before Columbus and were just keeping it secret.
2.The Pacific North-West was settled by Scottish fur trappers who created a feudal society that peacefully surrendered power to the American pioneers.
3. Paraguay was a once a communist theocracy that successfully fought a war of independence against Spain while it was the main world power.
4.The state of South Carolina once fought a personal war against the nations of Spain and France---AND WON.
5. There were bands of Brazilian roving thugs called the Paulistas that roved across almost the entire South American continent in the 17th century, enslaving entire whole regions.

This book hasn't aged well in all the right ways. It has a classic style that is really out of fashion and the deep historical knowledge that went with it. Histories of today tend to focus on small, nearly insignificant regions of the past. They also tend to forget that history was mainly done by a bunch of scared and hungry teenagers trying the best they could in insane circumstances, and occasionally succeeding brilliantly. In any histories of this era, you tend to run into things that would today be considered politically incorrect. This really isn't an issue here. Baldwin freely admits that the Europeans were often terrible scumbags and the natives many times had the moral high ground. He makes some pretty insensitive comments against Africans, but he actually makes a very stirring argument for the equality of the races, an end to segregation and for racial integration multiple times.

In summary, this book is an incredible masterpiece that deserves more attention.

[Aidan Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m a big fan of Rudyard who is the one who inspired me to read this book. It most certainly was a difficult venture to obtain this book but it was worth its while.

This book is everything gave everything I wanted when it comes to the colonial and imperial history of the America’s. He put more emphasis on Latin America than he did the North Anglo Saxon which I found refreshing. It’s a must read for those who can get their hands on this book!