Love and Hate in Jamestown by David A. Price

Just finished reading this book and it was another great find in the used book section at  KARM (Knoxville Area Regional Ministry). Not a very long book, around two hundred pages, but facts were compiled in such a way that the story moved the reader forward with interest. From the book jacket:

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 A 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 British men and women whose charge was to find gold and a route to the Orient, and who instead found 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, who 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.

I remember a couple of other American history novels that I read last year and rated them very high. Devil in the White City and Isaac's Storm by Erik Larson.