Love and Hate in Jamestown

John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Start of a New Nation

By: David A. Price

Narrated by: Josh Innerst

A gripping narrative of one of the great survival stories of American history: the opening of the first permanent English settlement in the New World. Drawing on period letters and chronicles, and on the papers of the Virginia Company–which financed the settlement of Jamestown–David Price tells a tale of cowardice and courage, stupidity and brilliance, tragedy and costly triumph. He takes us into the day-to-day existence of the English men and women whose charge was to find gold and a route to the Orient, and who found, instead, hardship and wretched misery. Death, in fact, became the settlers’ most faithful companion, and their infighting was ceaseless.

Price offers a rare balanced view of the relationship between the settlers and the natives. He unravels the crucial role of Pocahontas, a young woman whose reality has been obscured by centuries of legend and misinformation (and, more recently, animation). He paints indelible portraits of Chief Powhatan, the aged monarch who came close to ending the colony’s existence, and Captain John Smith, the former mercenary and slave, whose disdain for class distinctions infuriated many around him–even as his resourcefulness made him essential to the colony’s success.

Love and Hate in Jamestown is a superb work of popular history, reminding us of the horrors and heroism that marked the dawning of our nation.

Critic reviews

"A fine book...one that personifies the virtues I esteem...clarity, intelligence, grace,
novelty, and brevity."
--David L. Beck, San Jose Mecury News

Solid and engaging... Price focuses on the human story of Jamestown, nearly mythic
in its resonances."
--Caleb Crain, New York Times Book Review

"Splendidly realized...firmly grounded in original sources...and in later scholarship, it has
the immediacy of contemporary journalism...by teasing out the themes of love and hate,
Price has given the Jamestown story a contemporary freshness."
--Michael Kenney, Boston Globe

"Combining a gift for storytelling with meticulous scholarship...Price sorts reality from
legend in his splendid new book....it is superbly done."
-- Roger Bishop, BookPage

"Sparkling....Price relates the entire riveting story of the founding of Virginia....built
unobtrusively on the best scholarship....a splendid work of serious narrative history."
-- Publishers Weekly

"A graceful narrative history of the troubled Jamestown colony....A first-rate work of
popular history, and sure to become a standard."
--Kirkus

“Price has digested the most recent scholarship on early Virginia, then filtered it through his instincts as a storyteller to create the most historically correct and stylistically elegant rendering of John Smith and Pocahontas that I have ever read."
–Joseph J. Ellis, author of Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation

"In a rousing tale of the early years of Jamestown, David A. Price rescues Pocahontas and the Virginia settlement from Hollywood cartoons as deftly as the young Indian princess may have saved Captain John Smith from execution by her father, the great Powhatan."
–Jon Kukla, author of A Wilderness So Immense

"A juicy feast of compelling storytelling....a meticulosuly researched volume ...that scans
in the imagination like a motion picture. Love and Hate in Jamestown deserves an honored spot
in any history buffs library."
--Jerrold J. Ladd, Sr., Fort Worth Star-Telegram

"A fine book...one that personifies the virtues I esteem...clarity, intelligence, grace,
novelty, and brevity."
--David L. Beck, San Jose Mecury News

Easy listening! Great book!

I definitely enjoyed this read! I'm not all knowing about that part of history in America. I definitely learned a lot from listening to this book! The narrator did a great job! I liked the style of the author. I didn't get confused on who people were and it was easy to follow! Some of these types of books ramble on and on. I felt like it told a great story of some of the beginnings in America. Overall this was a great book for me! I would recommend it! Credit well spent!!

Captain John Smith

Reestablishes the fact that Captain John Smith is a hero no matter how many may try to disprove that fact.

Excellent

Really enjoyed the authors account of early Virginia colonization. I thought the book was balanced, keeping the listener entertained but still providing facts/details to represent the history. Good job weaving in general coverage of Virginia with the personal accounts and stories of John Smith

An insightful American origin story

Looking past the obvious Pocahontas-John Smith story, this is a much more expansive look at the Jamestown colony and what made it thrive, fail, and ultimately survive it's early years. Giving perspectives from the political and business interests of London to the coastal and inland tribes of Virginia, this is a balanced telling of the heros, rogues, victims, and winners of our first enduring English settlement in North America.
The recording is good and the narrator serves the story well.

Wonderful popular history

The author gives just the right amount of detail and never lets the story bog down. Very good narration as well.