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On Savage Shores

How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe

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On Savage Shores

By: Caroline Dodds Pennock
Narrated by: Caroline Dodds Pennock
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About this listen

A New Statesman Best Book of the Year 2023. A Waterstones Book of the Year 2023. An Economist Book of the Year. One of Smithsonian Magazine's Ten Best History Books of 2023. A BBC History Magazine Book of the Year 2023. Winner of the Voltaire Medal.

'An untold story of colonial history, both epic and intimate, and a thrilling revelation' Adam Rutherford

'Mind-blowing . . . this is how history should be told' Benjamin Zephaniah

In this groundbreaking new history, Caroline Dodds Pennock recovers the long-marginalised stories of the Indigenous Americans who - as enslaved people, diplomats, explorers, servants and traders - left a profound impact on European civilisation in the 'Age of Discovery'. On Savage Shores is a sweeping account of power and influence in America and Europe - one which could forever change the way we understand our global history.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2023 Caroline Dodds Pennock (P)2023 Weidenfeld & Nicolson Civilization Europe Social Sciences World Middle Ages Colonial Period Africa Latin American

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Loved this book. Listened to it alongside the kindle version. Dodds Pennock reads her work with clear enthusiasm and it enhances the messages delivered. I think "The Stuff of Life" chapter was my favourite as I am particularly interested in Material Culture & Food History. It was clear that this is only the scratching the surface of what happened between indigenous Americans & Europeans but this is all the sources can tell us.

Foregrounding the Indigenous experience

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An excellently researched book that brings previously unexplored issues to life in a new way. Makes you think about the past differently. Well worth a listen . Passionately presented.

A Worthy and Informative Read

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This fascinating book tells the story of the eastward journeys made by native peoples during the early colonisation of the Americas. I had no idea there were so many. It gave me a totally new perspective. The stories also provide an excellent vehicle to explore wider issues such as slavery, colonialism and ownership of cultural heritage, which resonate loudly in the present day.

A new perspective

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I absolutely adored this book. I’d been excited about it for some time and it didn’t disappoint. I am ashamed of how little of this I knew and it is a much read/listen to really enlighten people about indigenous travel to Europe. It is such a necessary reframing of the story and one that I am excited about exploring as a history teacher. I also loved the narration from the author, I always think it immerses you in the book even more when the person who has written it is reading it.

A real challenge of what we think we know

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This book vividly brings to life the indigenous people, from all over the Americas, who travelled to Europe in the late 15th and 16th centuries. It changes the way we think of the 'Discovery of America". I would recommend downloading the attached .pdf before you start reading.

It is beautifully written and read by the author.

A Fascinating Listen

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Thought provoking and a needed text to address the complexities of how different societies encountered each other historically

Interesting and necessary

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This book is well written and well read by the author, who is an academic expert on Aztec history. Its views are fashionable and the speculation and conjecture of the author take you on what seems like a mythical journey in a way that is persuasive and interesting. It portrays the colonisation of South America from the perspective of indigenous people. Some of whom were taken back to Europe, and the book presents their views of what they encountered. However, in the introduction, the author explained the difficulty in obtaining such views and said that she had “to tentatively suggest what they thought about it, given their background”. In other words, some of these indigenous people’s views are really the authors views from the twenty-first centuries perspective. This is where I had a problem, as there was simply too much speculation for me. Is this book meant to be a factual, academic, historical account? Or is it an entertaining, complex, work of historical faction aimed at bringing the past to life? I am not an historian so I could not answer such questions.

After listening to the audio book, I did a search and discovered a recent review of this book by the eminent historian Professor Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, in the Jan 2023 Spectator. His review is rather cutting. He says “ Unhelpfully, Caroline Dodds Pennock excludes indigenous people’s archives as a means of illuminating their feelings. She mistakenly supposes that ‘we rarely are able to hear indigenous voices’”. And, “Instead, she falls back on putting thoughts into their heads, or speculating on what they ‘must’ have felt. Woke nonsense warps her vision. She deprives native people of the power to craft their own destinies by portraying them chiefly as victims of the conquistadors”.

Rarely have I read a book where caveat emptor applies, but here I think it does.

Caveat emptor

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Fascinating theme and impressive research, marred by recurring, distracting, self-flagellation. Possibly influenced by cultural tides that peaked in 2021-2022?

Fascinating theme and research, marred by self-flagellation

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