In this iconoclastic book, Francis Jennings recasts the story of
American colonization as a territorial invasion. The traditional history
of early America paints the colonies as a transplantation of European
culture to a new continent--a "virgin land" in which Native Americans
were assigned the role of foil whose main contribution was to stimulate
the energy and ingenuity of European dispossessors. Jennings rejects
this ideology and examines the relationships between Europeans and
Indians from a far more critical point of view. Shorn of old mythology
and rationalizations, Puritan actions are seen in the cold light of
material interest and naked expansion.