American Colonies: The Settling of North America#

Alan Taylor ()
Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5)

I picked up American Colonies to refresh my understanding of pre-colonial North America—a subject I had learned in school, but had not revisited as an adult. The experience was incredibly rewarding. Taylor’s writing is accessible, clear, and comprehensive without feeling overwhelming.

The book excels at framing Indigenous history on its own terms. Beginning with migration patterns, population centers, and Native American political structures, Taylor avoids getting lost in minutiae while still offering a rich and serious treatment of early North American civilizations. His sections on Spanish colonization were especially illuminating for me, as someone whose education had been primarily British-focused.

Taylor covers all of North America—not just the eastern seaboard but Mexico, the Southwest, and the West Coast—giving cultural, religious, and political context to each region. His treatment of the British colonies is particularly strong. By breaking them into New England, the Carolinas, and the Middle Colonies, he shows how geography, migration patterns, economies, and belief systems shaped each region differently. It’s striking how many of these early cultural distinctions still echo in modern America.

Overall, American Colonies delivers an exceptional political, cultural, economic, and religious overview of early North America. It sets the stage for the American Revolution with clarity and nuance, and is one of the most accessible foundational histories I’ve read.