Inventing Americans in the Age of Discovery: Narratives of Encounter

Through an in-depth analysis of writings by John Mandeville, Richard Eden, George Best, Ralph Lane, John Smith and John Underhill, this study traces the selection, combination, adaptation and invention of rhetorical strategies that English-speaking Europeans used to make sense of their encounters with the Americas. The author explores how these rhetorical strategies enabled European colonists to form new ways of understanding themselves and their relationship to the indigenous inhabitants.

Michael Householder is an assistant professor of English at Marshall University.