The Island at the Center of the World

The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America

By: Russell Shorto

Narrated by: Russell Shorto

In a landmark work of history, Russell Shorto presents astonishing information on the founding of our nation and reveals in riveting detail the crucial role of the Dutch in making America what it is today.

In the late 1960s, an archivist in the New York State Library made an astounding discovery: 12,000 pages of centuries-old correspondence, court cases, legal contracts, and reports from a forgotten society - the Dutch colony centered on Manhattan, which predated the 13 "original" American colonies. For the past 30 years, scholar Charles Gehring has been translating this trove, which was recently declared a national treasure. Now Russell Shorto has made use of this vital material to construct a sweeping narrative of Manhattan's founding that gives a startling, fresh perspective on how America began.

In an account that blends a novelist's grasp of storytelling with cutting-edge scholarship, The Island at the Center of the World strips Manhattan of its asphalt, bringing us back to a wilderness island - a hunting ground for Indians, populated by wolves and bears - that became a prize in the global power struggle between the English and the Dutch. Indeed, Russell Shorto shows that America's founding was not the work of English settlers alone but a result of the clashing of these two 17th-century powers. In fact it was Amsterdam - Europe's most liberal city, with an unusual policy of tolerance and a polyglot society dedicated to free trade - that became the model for the city of New Amsterdam on Manhattan. While the Puritans of New England were founding a society based on intolerance, on Manhattan the Dutch created a free-trade, upwardly mobile melting pot that would help shape not only New York but America.

The story moves from the halls of power in London and The Hague to bloody naval encounters on the high seas. The characters in the saga - the men and women who played a part in Manhattan's founding - range from the philosopher Rene Descartes to James, the Duke of York, to prostitutes and smugglers. At the heart of the story is a bitter power struggle between two men: Peter Stuyvesant, the autocratic director of the Dutch colony; and a forgotten American hero named Adriaen van der Donck, a maverick, liberal-minded lawyer whose brilliant political gamesmanship, commitment to individual freedom, and exuberant love of his new country would have a lasting impact on the history of this nation.

©2005 Russell Shorto (P)2016 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Astonishing.... A book that will permanently alter the way we regard our collective past." (The New York Times)

"A tour de force.... The dramatic story of New York's origins is splendidly told.... A masterpiece of storytelling and first-rate intellectual history." (The Wall Street Journal)

"As readable as a finely written novel...social history in the Barbara Tuchman tradition." (San Jose Mercury News)

Essential reading for every American

Thrilling story, well told, narrated beautifully.
This is the central story of America, the beginning of our democracy on Manhattan island, NOT the tyrannical theocracies of New England.
We have much to thank the Dutch for; foundational ideas on our individual freedoms and right to self-determination, our Bill of Rights, our strength in our diversity, our free trade tradition.
The winners, the English, wrote the history and buried our Dutch origins.

Great Story About A Great City

Loved it. It is a great historical story told with a creativity to make seemingly irrelevant events relevant in the beginnings of the most relevant American city.

Great New York Book

I am a professional tour guide in Manhattan; if you like history in general and the history of New York in particular, you're going to love this book. Minutely detailed, which may not be great for the casual historian, but foot me I loved every second.

Incredibly scholarly yet literary and entertaining in the first degree

I was swept away from the first with Shortin’s revolutionary yet impeccably researches thesis that New Amsterdam spawned the American chapter and base social assumptions. That would have sufficed for five stars. But his continual excursions from dry, scholarly discourse into frank, folksy characterizations harmed my pants off. On top of this dual triumph of facts and engagement add his courageous and triumphant reading of his own book that reveals both his rhetorical prowess and the further support of his sincerity audible in his evident struggle to balance credibility and passion which manifests throughout in his tone of voice. I can only tell the author that it was very cruel of him to bring his shattering tale to an end, and I shall eagerly await more of the same.

Interesting to learn about the True beginning of America

I loved hearing and learning about the true beginnings of America. It was so interesting to learn about Dutch history and how America was actually settled. The author's voice did not change much and was hard to listen to at times. His historical writing and creating the text was wonderful though.

I had no idea.

This is an amazing book. I’ve learned so much about New York’s & America’a history that was never taught in school. I know know how our great melting pot was created. Highly recommend.

Amazing! Important History for All Americans to Read/Listen

In my search for the real history of my ancestors, I was surprised to find I had ancestors among the first settlers of New Netherland. I’m no scholar but wanted to know more. The author made the history actually understandable and so full of life that I feel much more connected to the past which yielded our present. Obviously I’m no great writer but the author is. I almost fell out of my chair when I realized my ancestor was on the same boat to New Netherland as Adriane van der Donck! (The Oak Tree) the author included so many details but not too many! It came alive for me. Grateful to have audible option.

Redefining Out Origins

As someone from the former New Netherlands/New Sweden, I've been thrilled with this book. Even as someone who lives here I didn't learn any of this in school. I'm so lucky to have found this book to put meat on what had been curiosities for me when flipping through Wikipedia pages. I finally feel like I understand the full narrative rather than just one off events without context. This ought to be required reading for every American history teacher in the country.

Epic indeed!

The author/narrator brings to life the remarkable tale of Dutch New Amsterdam and its indisputable influence on the making America. Must reading for New Yorkers and lovers of liberty everywhere!

Great stuff

I've learned new things even we in the Netherlands weren't taught. Probably because the documents were still in hiding and nobody knew about it anymore. It is fun to hear all these typical Dutch names play roles in a story far away and yet so familiar. I knew Dutch words and places remained in Harlem, Brooklyn etc. but that district attorney was Scout and that it originated in the Dutch Schout was news to me for instance. It was a great effort to make these records come to life in a story worth telling.