Prologue : layered pasts -- Progenitors -- Legacies of power from medieval North America -- Legacies of conquest from medieval Europe -- Conquistadores -- Crusades of the Christ-bearers to the Americas -- Crusades of the protestants to new worlds -- Traders -- Native Americans and the power of trade -- Epidemics, war, and the remapping of a continent -- Planters -- Searching for order in new and old England -- Planting patriarchy in New England and Virginia -- Dutch, French, Spanish, and English counterpoints -- Imperialists -- Monarchical power reborn -- Planters besieged -- Revolution, war, and a new transatlantic order -- Atlanteans -- Producing and consuming in an Atlantic empire -- People in motion, enslaved and free -- Contending for a continent -- Gloomy and dark days -- Epilogue : present pasts. |