In the past thirty years historians have come to realize that the shape and temper of early America was determined as much by its Indian natives as it was by its European colonizers. No one has done more to discover and recount this story than James Axtell, one of America's premier ethnohistorians. Natives and Newcomers is a collection of fifteen of his best and most influential essays, available for the first time in one volume. In accessible and often witty prose, Axtell describes the major encounters between Indians and Europeans--first contacts, communications, epidemics, trade and gift-giving, social and sexual mingling, work, cultural and religious conversions, military clashes--and probes their short- and long-term consequences for both cultures. The result is a book that shows how encounters between Indians and Europeans ultimately led to the birth of a distinctly American identity. Natives and Newcomers is an essential text for undergraduate and graduate courses in Colonial American history and Native American history. "With admirable clarity, good humor, and methodological rigor, Axtell has succeeded in telling the story of those often hopeful, yet ill-fated, early encounters between vastly different groups of people."--The Journal of Interdisciplinary History"Gracefully written and persuasively argued, this collection of essays is Axtell at his best. The essays explore the various social, political, and economic consequences of interactions between Natives and Europeans in early North America with Axtell's usual insight, his keen eye for nuance, and a coherence that belies their origins as separate works. Natives and Newcomers is a wonderful model of the practice of ethnohistory and a superb introduction to the topic of inter-cultural exchange and to the cultural origins of North America. This book is ideal for classroom use in a variety of disciplines."-José António Brandão, Western Michigan University"Vividly written, smartly argued, and wide-ranging, Axtell's interconnected essays explore both the conflicts and conjunctures that characterized early Indian-European relations in North America. I can't imagine a more engaging way to enter this lost world than through the crystalline prose of this master essayist, who turns his ethnohistorian's gaze on newcomers and natives alike."-David J. Weber, Southern Methodist University"A pioneer in ethnohistory, James Axtell brings wit, clarity, and erudition to the study of Early American encounters. What gives this collection of essays special power is Axtell's insistence that the history of cultural encounter is a profoundly human story, a continuing struggle under often horrendous circumstances to establish mutual understandings. In a fiercely contested field of scholarship, Axtell provides his readers with many original insights that should promote rich discussion."-T. H. Breen, Northwestern University James Axtell is at College of William and Mary.