Dominion and Civility

Was the relationship between English settlers and Native Americans in the New World destined to turn tragic? This book investigates how the newcomers interacted with Algonquian groups in the Chesapeake Bay area and New England, describing the role that original Americans occupied in England's empire during the critical first century of contact. Michael Leroy Oberg considers the history of Anglo-Indian relations in transatlantic context while viewing the frontier as a zone where neither party had the upper hand. He tells how the English pursued three sets of policies in America—securing profit for their sponsors, making lands safe from both European and native enemies, and "civilizing" the Indians—and explains why the British settlers found it impossible to achieve all of these goals. Oberg places the history of Anglo-Indian relations in the early Chesapeake and New England in a broad transatlantic context while drawing parallels with subsequent efforts by England as well as its imperial rivals—the French, Dutch, and Spanish—to plant colonies in America. Dominion and Civility promises to broaden our understanding of the exchange between Europeans and Indians and makes an important contribution to the emerging history of the English Atlantic world.

In this age of overspecialization, readers will appreciate Oberg's attempt to synthesize and bring order to the first century of English colonization. Oberg's detailed and lively account... offers a provocative synthesis of English imperial policy towards Indians. Readers will enjoy this well-crafted narrative., Oberg helps remind historians that imperialists were, necessarily, less tribal than their colonial or Amerindian counterparts., Oberg's book is perceptive.... No historian... has yet completely explained the full significance of the frontier experience on the attitudes and character of the American people.... But Oberg's Dominion and Civility will aid in that definition., The author's 227-page overview is fast-paced but definitely not lacking in detailed description (and great quotes) derived from 'old-fashioned' exhaustive research. His impressive, well-utilized, thoughtfully integrated evidence conclusively demonstrates that colonists' materialistic objectives and ruthless militancy was consistent across the American landscape, with little differentiation due to distinctive inherited folkways.... Dominion and Civility deserves a wide readership., Oberg's fresh prose and exhaustive use of primary and secondary sources makes for a wonderfully lucid overview of English imperial advances into the New World during the first century of her involvement. Dominion and Civility provides a useful and interesting recasting of these well-worn stories of American colonial history as part of a new colonial history of the North American continent, and it is a worthwhile addition to the field.

Michael Leroy Oberg is Assistant Professor of History at the State University of New York, Geneseo.