BUT WHAT IF we lay aside John Smith's narrative perspective—Princess Pocahontas begs King Powhatan to save the brave Captain's life—and consider the same facts from Powhatan's point of view? That chief led a confederacy of Algonquian Indians spread out around Chesapeake Bay. But his control over the lesser chiefs in the area varied. Some tribal groups resisted paying tribute to him; others at a greater distance showed no allegiance and were rivals.
Into this situation stepped Smith, along with the strange new tribe of white people who had just arrived from across the Atlantic. In hindsight, we see the arrival of Europeans as a momentous event that changed North America dramatically. But from Powhatan's point of view? Here was simply another new group of people—strange indeed, but people he would have to figure into the balance of his own political equation. Should he treat the newcomers as allies or enemies? |
"AFTER THE FACT conveys an enthusiasm for its subject that is infectious...Authors Davidson and Lytle want to interest others in the challenges and occasional romance of their discipline."
—Time magazine
'WHAT MAKES AFTER THE FACT different—dare I say 'fun'?—is that it is a how-to-do-it history book [which] shows, by example, how to handle selection of evidence, historical perspective, analysis of documents, and oral interviews."
—New York magazine
"IN ADDITION TO TELLING SOME FASCINATING STORIES and aptly illustrating the historian functioning as detective, the authors are trying to tell us something about the nature of their craft—to define its uniqueness."
—C. Vann Woodward, New York Review of Books
—Time magazine
'WHAT MAKES AFTER THE FACT different—dare I say 'fun'?—is that it is a how-to-do-it history book [which] shows, by example, how to handle selection of evidence, historical perspective, analysis of documents, and oral interviews."
—New York magazine
"IN ADDITION TO TELLING SOME FASCINATING STORIES and aptly illustrating the historian functioning as detective, the authors are trying to tell us something about the nature of their craft—to define its uniqueness."
—C. Vann Woodward, New York Review of Books
"A sophisticated work for the historically unsophisticated" — The New Yorker