Marooned
Jamestown, Shipwreck, and a New History of America’s Origin

Marooned is a fascinating read full of the basic information about what really happened in the First American Colony. One of the more dramatic things I learned in passing from this book was that Powhattan’s real name was Wahunsonacock and that he was the paramount chief of Tsenacomoco, an alliance o......more

OK, I was hooked when Kelly made the argument in the first chapter that my ancestor Stephen Hopkins, who usually gets treated like little more than a malcontent in most histories, was philosophically, the first American. (He was the only person involved directly in both the Jamestown colony and the......more

A well researched, engrossing account of the early attempts at American colonization in Jamestown. Removing the usual mythology, author Joseph Kelly, brings the settlement, the surrounding areas and it's various occupants to life in clear, sometimes gruesome detail. For everyone interested in early......more

Those five stars of this review don't often total that high in my judgement. But Kelly's thesis, that the "Symarones' or "cimarron" maroons marooned in the Americans, whites and blacks, indigenous and mixed, all constitute a founding better suited than a Puritan city on a hill convinces. I happen to......more

This is a tale of two books. One is good, the other not so much. When Kelly is focused on the history of Jamestown, this book really shines. He has a great handle on the characters, of which there are many, and I found he was able to put a lot of things in perspective. John Smith was an egomaniac who......more