"The Brave New World covers early American history, from 30,000 years before Europeans ever landed on North American shores to the creation of the new nation. Peter Charles Hoffer combines Atlantic Rim scholarship with a Continental perspective, illuminating early America from all angles - from its first settlers to the Spanish Century, from African slavery to the Salem witchcraft cases, from prayer and drinking practices to the development of complex economies, from the colonies' fight for freedom to an infant nation's struggle for political and economic legitimacy."--Jacket.