It is to Mr. Shorto's immense credit, that he, like a number of other historians of his generation (Roxanne Dunbar-Otiz, Gerald Horne, Andrea Stuart, and Eugene D. Genovese, among them) has resisted this temptation to take the "socially-approved" shortcut to literary glory, and instead, has given us more full-bodied, unalloyed, fully contextualized narratives that can stand the test of time and also that include moral warts and all.
By embedding the smaller personal stories of the individuals, inside the larger geopolitical context of the times, these more fuller explicated narratives open up space for the new vistas of interpretation and understanding that is sorely needed in U.S. History. These are vistas in which the wider contextualization relieves the author and the narrative of the need (and temptation) to yield to the gravitational pull to shape storytelling solely around patriotically inspired melodramatics.
Here, the reader will see unmistakably how Mr. Shorto has connected the dots through a careful re-contextualization of the New York origin story. And how doing so actually opens up new space and pumps vital new life into the 350-year old excavated facts that make up the substance of the story. And how does he do this exactly? By connecting what goes on at eye level -- primarily between the personalities of Peter Stuyvensant, Adraien van der Donck, and Henry Hudson -- with what is also going on in the much larger arena above their heads on the geopolitical plane. With this connection between the facts on the ground and the context above it securely made, there can be no mistake that the story is about authentic history in the making, rather than just about closely hewing to socially-approved, safe, patriotic storytelling.
I would hope, and would like to think, that in addition to the author's exquisite prose, it is as much his way of embedding the two stories into one, that is most responsible for this book being awarded both the "Washington Irving Prize for contribution to New York History," as well as the "Gold Medal of the Holland's Society for Literary Excellence." Ten stars
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
