The true story of Pocahontas, at least as far as die English were concerned, is one of redemption. Smith was not in love widi her and she was not in love with him. Pocahontas was only 11 or 12 when they first met. The location is early Virginia, but the theme is a romance that has litde to do widi reality. But it seems to me that die story of Smith and Pocahontas is somewhat divorced fromJamestown. Stephens: Yet the story ofPocahontas and John Smith seems to occupy an important place in the American imagination. The victors tend to write the dominant version of history, and so Jamestown was largely forgotten. As a consequence of die Soudi losing die war, die New England founding myth became established as die nation's beginning, taught to millions of school children in dieir textbooks and celebrated annually at Thanksgiving. But, of course, the Civil War was what really clinched it for New England. Sectional rivalries, particularly between Virginia and Massachusetts, existed already in the 1780s. Stephens: Did 19th-century American historians have something to do with this? Horn: I trace it back to the late 18th century. If you took a straw poll, I bet you'd probably find that whereas most Americans have heard of die Mayflower and die Pilgrims, far fewer would know much, if anytiiing, aboutJamestown.

Randall Stephens: How prominent is Jamestown in the American popular imagination? James Horn: The history of Jamestown has been almost completely overshadowed by die history of Plymouth. Historically Speaking assonate editorRandallStephens spoke with Horn in October2006.

Horn is currently workingon a history of the lostRoanoke colony. 'Horn 'brings togethertheperspectives of recentgenerations of scholars in this relatively brief andhighly readable book.

Historian Camilla Townsend, Rutgers University, describes this study as a 'grandeffort. His most recentwork is A Land As God Made It:Jamestown and die Birth of America (BasicBooks, 2005). He is abo the editor of thejust-published Library of America's edition ofJohn Smith's works. A social historian, Horn has analysed colonialsociety within the broader context of the 17th-century Anglophone world. He is the author of numerous books and articles on colonialAmerica, includingAdapting to a New World: English Society in the Seventeendi-Centary Chesapeake (University of North Carolina Press, 1994). Library at The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation andlectureratthe College of William andMary. Stephens JAMES HORN IS O'NEILL DIRECTOR OF THE JOHN D. In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Ħ Historically Speaking March/April 2007 Jamestown Redivivus: An Interview with James Horn Conducted by RandallJ.

James horn jamestown