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The Oxford History of the United States #1
Contested Continent: The Struggle for North America, c. 1000-1680
Not yet published
Expected 1 Jun 26The newest volume in the acclaimed Oxford History of the United States series, Contested Continent recounts the origins of "America" and how it came to birth the United States.
The Oxford History of the United States is by far the most respected multi-volume history of our nation. The series includes three Pulitzer Prize winners, two New York Times bestsellers, and winners of the Bancroft and Parkman Prizes. In the newest volume in the series, Peter C. Mancall recounts how North America was forged from the experiences of millions of Indigenous women and men as well as Europeans and Africans.
The first volume of the Oxford History of the United States series, Contested Continent is also the most ambitiously far-ranging history of North America concentrating on the period from c. 1000 to 1680, from the arrival of Norse explorers to an explosion of revolts that underlined the stubborn struggle to master the continent some two centuries after Columbus's landfall. This history spans the continent from the North Atlantic to the West Indies and includes the entire Atlantic basin. Mancall emphasizes the experiences of diverse peoples while, at the same time, telling a new story about the origins of major aspects of American culture. He illuminates the rise of a booming trans-Atlantic economy based on the extraction of abundant American natural resources; the central role that European migrants and their descendants played in the enslavement of Africans and the displacement of Indigenous peoples; and the spread of self-governing polities where many enjoyed religious freedom. None of these developments was inevitable. Conflicts broke out frequently as different peoples battled over precious resources. Europeans' appetites for material gain and expanding Christendom brought horrific consequences for those brutalized, enslaved, and vulnerable to infectious diseases.
This is a sweeping history of developments crucial to the eventual founding of the United States. Contested Continent underscores the titanic struggles between the peoples who had populated the Americas for centuries and the migrants from the Old World who initiated changes that created a New World that offered boundless opportunities for some and crushed the aspirations of others.
The Oxford History of the United States is by far the most respected multi-volume history of our nation. The series includes three Pulitzer Prize winners, two New York Times bestsellers, and winners of the Bancroft and Parkman Prizes. In the newest volume in the series, Peter C. Mancall recounts how North America was forged from the experiences of millions of Indigenous women and men as well as Europeans and Africans.
The first volume of the Oxford History of the United States series, Contested Continent is also the most ambitiously far-ranging history of North America concentrating on the period from c. 1000 to 1680, from the arrival of Norse explorers to an explosion of revolts that underlined the stubborn struggle to master the continent some two centuries after Columbus's landfall. This history spans the continent from the North Atlantic to the West Indies and includes the entire Atlantic basin. Mancall emphasizes the experiences of diverse peoples while, at the same time, telling a new story about the origins of major aspects of American culture. He illuminates the rise of a booming trans-Atlantic economy based on the extraction of abundant American natural resources; the central role that European migrants and their descendants played in the enslavement of Africans and the displacement of Indigenous peoples; and the spread of self-governing polities where many enjoyed religious freedom. None of these developments was inevitable. Conflicts broke out frequently as different peoples battled over precious resources. Europeans' appetites for material gain and expanding Christendom brought horrific consequences for those brutalized, enslaved, and vulnerable to infectious diseases.
This is a sweeping history of developments crucial to the eventual founding of the United States. Contested Continent underscores the titanic struggles between the peoples who had populated the Americas for centuries and the migrants from the Old World who initiated changes that created a New World that offered boundless opportunities for some and crushed the aspirations of others.
752 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication June 1, 2026
3778 people want to read
About the author
Peter C. Mancall
32 books27 followersA 1981 graduate of Oberlin college, Peter Mancall attended graduate school at Harvard University, where he received a Ph.D. in history in 1986. Mancall was a visiting Assistant Professor of History at Connecticut College from 1986 to 1987. After teaching as a Lecturer on History and Literature at Harvard for two years, he took a position at the University of Kansas in 1989. In 2001, Mancall took a position at the University of Southern California, where he helped to create the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute in 2003, becoming its first director. He has served on the editorial board of several journals, and from 2007 to 2009 he was Associate Vice Provost for Research Advancement at the University of Southern California.
Mancall has written five books and edited eight others, and written around forty book reviews in such journals as American Historical Review, Journal of American History, Journal of Economic History, Journal of the Early Republic, and many others. His newest book, Fatal Journey: The Final Expedition of Henry Hudson—A Tale of Mutiny and Murder in the Arctic was published by Basic Books on June 9, 2009. Mancall has accepted an offer to write Volume 1 of the Oxford History of the United States series covering American colonial history to c. 1680.
~from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_C....
Mancall has written five books and edited eight others, and written around forty book reviews in such journals as American Historical Review, Journal of American History, Journal of Economic History, Journal of the Early Republic, and many others. His newest book, Fatal Journey: The Final Expedition of Henry Hudson—A Tale of Mutiny and Murder in the Arctic was published by Basic Books on June 9, 2009. Mancall has accepted an offer to write Volume 1 of the Oxford History of the United States series covering American colonial history to c. 1680.
~from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_C....
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April 17, 2026Agreeing to write the first chronological volume of a project that is as widely distinguished as it is frustratingly prolonged is a courageous undertaking, especially when the primary material for most of this time period, c. 1000—1680, is sparse or nonexistent. In the past forty-four years, the Oxford History of the United States has maintained a reputation for respected, well-written histories, all of which I have read, though the publisher has received justified criticism for the limping pace. Apparently, two volumes yet remain to be completed; hopefully, that will happen within my lifetime.
Professor Mancall describes multiple European attempts to establish settlements in the New World, efforts that felt to this reader like sparks flung across the ocean, where some kindled and others died out. This story follows those sparks to eastern Canada, New England, the central Atlantic coast, the Caribbean and Florida, and the American Southwest, including Mexico. The conditions for new arrivals were harsh. I suppose that if word were to have spread throughout Europe of the health risks to be encountered across the Atlantic Ocean, few would have sailed westward. The difference between the growth of Spanish settlements and those of the French, English, Dutch, and even Swedes was striking, which I assume was a combination of the frenzied Spanish allure for gold and silver combined with more accommodating physical environments. The further north the Spanish ventured, into Florida for example, the less successful their experiences. Such were the difficulties that more than a century passed between the voyages of the earliest discoverers and the rise of appreciable European settlements in the lands now known as the United States.
Within North America, this era is largely devoid of the great artists, writers, politicians, generals, and scientists that serve to anchor many an engaging history. Instead, we meet explorers who were succeeded by colonists fighting for survival, and in a few cases, enrichment. Much suffering occurred among those early colonists, the Indigenous, and the enslaved. To provide a short glimpse into our compromised past, Professor Mancall writes of a significant Indigenous rebellion in New England in the 1670s:
Incidents like this were repeated with differing levels of intensity and frequency throughout these pages. What a chasm between these brutalities and our sustained puritan imaginings for early America. A wonder then we do not choke on our Thanksgiving turkey portions each year. But the brutalities ranged 360 degrees, with no group, neither Indigenous nor European, beyond reproach. Clearly, the Europeans have the weaker moral position in retrospect being the uninvited ones who threatened Indigenous lands and ways of life, propelled variously with self-serving convictions, many religiously emboldened.
Slavery, involving both Indigenous and African souls, and the decimation of Indigenous Americans through disease and war are transgressions that can never receive a satisfactory accounting, shames that I believe our culture will carry in perpetuity, borne within our collective subconscious. The author treats both subjects at length. These days, too many appear to prefer ignoring the uncomfortable past, even deriding those who attempt to educate us. This book will be welcomed by those who are keen to part the comforting, rosy curtains, those curious to glance upon an unfamiliar, yet balanced, portrait of our nation’s formative years, a portrait that reminds us of the potential actions of unchecked human nature.
[A Note to the Editors:
I am grateful to have been provided a Digital Review Copy of this work through Edelweiss. The pages were marked “UNCORRECTED PROOF” and dated 12/30/2025 12:25:54 PM. I found the following potential items for your review:
p. 354, Line 18, “2014” should be “1614”
p. 370, Line 18, check condensed text
p. 413, Line 27, quotation should end with .’ ” instead of .”
p. 462, Line 29, check condensed text
p. 504, Line 1, should likely read “soldiers had by then laid waste” rather than “soldiers had by laid waste”?
]
Professor Mancall describes multiple European attempts to establish settlements in the New World, efforts that felt to this reader like sparks flung across the ocean, where some kindled and others died out. This story follows those sparks to eastern Canada, New England, the central Atlantic coast, the Caribbean and Florida, and the American Southwest, including Mexico. The conditions for new arrivals were harsh. I suppose that if word were to have spread throughout Europe of the health risks to be encountered across the Atlantic Ocean, few would have sailed westward. The difference between the growth of Spanish settlements and those of the French, English, Dutch, and even Swedes was striking, which I assume was a combination of the frenzied Spanish allure for gold and silver combined with more accommodating physical environments. The further north the Spanish ventured, into Florida for example, the less successful their experiences. Such were the difficulties that more than a century passed between the voyages of the earliest discoverers and the rise of appreciable European settlements in the lands now known as the United States.
Within North America, this era is largely devoid of the great artists, writers, politicians, generals, and scientists that serve to anchor many an engaging history. Instead, we meet explorers who were succeeded by colonists fighting for survival, and in a few cases, enrichment. Much suffering occurred among those early colonists, the Indigenous, and the enslaved. To provide a short glimpse into our compromised past, Professor Mancall writes of a significant Indigenous rebellion in New England in the 1670s:
Natives who surrendered, including a group of 150 who turned themselves in at Plymouth, enjoyed no protection, especially those confined in the dismal conditions of Deer Island in Boston Harbor. Colonists sold them into slavery—all but one elderly man, whom they decapitated instead, rationalizing that this constituted more humane treatment than a life of bondage.
Incidents like this were repeated with differing levels of intensity and frequency throughout these pages. What a chasm between these brutalities and our sustained puritan imaginings for early America. A wonder then we do not choke on our Thanksgiving turkey portions each year. But the brutalities ranged 360 degrees, with no group, neither Indigenous nor European, beyond reproach. Clearly, the Europeans have the weaker moral position in retrospect being the uninvited ones who threatened Indigenous lands and ways of life, propelled variously with self-serving convictions, many religiously emboldened.
Slavery, involving both Indigenous and African souls, and the decimation of Indigenous Americans through disease and war are transgressions that can never receive a satisfactory accounting, shames that I believe our culture will carry in perpetuity, borne within our collective subconscious. The author treats both subjects at length. These days, too many appear to prefer ignoring the uncomfortable past, even deriding those who attempt to educate us. This book will be welcomed by those who are keen to part the comforting, rosy curtains, those curious to glance upon an unfamiliar, yet balanced, portrait of our nation’s formative years, a portrait that reminds us of the potential actions of unchecked human nature.
[A Note to the Editors:
I am grateful to have been provided a Digital Review Copy of this work through Edelweiss. The pages were marked “UNCORRECTED PROOF” and dated 12/30/2025 12:25:54 PM. I found the following potential items for your review:
p. 354, Line 18, “2014” should be “1614”
p. 370, Line 18, check condensed text
p. 413, Line 27, quotation should end with .’ ” instead of .”
p. 462, Line 29, check condensed text
p. 504, Line 1, should likely read “soldiers had by then laid waste” rather than “soldiers had by laid waste”?
]
Displaying 1 of 1 review