Little-Known Stories of American History

From a review of Tony Horwitz’s newest book, A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World. Quoting the author:

In our version of America, we don’t go back nearly far enough. It’s the winners who make history, and that’s why we start with the Pilgrims: with the Anglo-American and New England version of the story. Culturally, we need to expand the story to include the Spanish in particular, but also the French and the Portuguese. Not only are we not an Anglo nation now, but we never really were. Early America, if you think about it, was a lot like America today — very diverse — and even the parts of the story we think we know, we don’t know at all.

Horwitz is a NewMexiKen favorite, having enjoyed his Confederates in the Attic and Blue Latitudes and this terrific essay, which no doubt came from the research for A Voyage Long and Strange.

NewMexiKen spent part of this afternoon in San Felipe Pueblo (May 1st is the feast of St. Philip), so named by the Spanish in 1591, and the other part of the afternoon in Santa Fe, founded in 1610. The story of large parts of early America have never been taught.

I ordered the book.