The Forty Years that Created America: The Story of the Explorers, Promoters, Investors, and Settlers Who Founded the First English Colonies

The Forty Years that Created America: The Story of the Explorers, Promoters, Investors, and Settlers Who Founded the First English Colonies. Edward M. Lamont. (Lantiam, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2014, Pp 285. $39.00.)

While much has been written about the first explorers of the New World and the colonial period of American history, little scholarly attention has been given to the connection of these two topics. Edward M. Lamont seeks to fill this gap with this ambitious book. With only 254 pages of text-the rest is notes, acknowledgments, and an index-it is a dense, concise presentation of material that actually covers over 175 years. This includes details of the early explorers in the opening chapter (1492-1558) and final comments of conclusion (1620-1675). The bulk of the material, however, encompasses the forty years between Sir Walter Raleigh's failed project in Roanoke in 1585 and the successful establishment of Jamestown in...