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Donald Shomette "Raid on America" (TB)

Long before the American Revolution, a Dutch fleet launched a daring assault on English colonies, invading the Chesapeake, reclaiming New York, and altering the balance of power in North America. Join renowned historian Donald Grady Shomette as he uncovers this overlooked chapter of American history.

RAID ON AMERICA: 

THE FORGOTTEN DUTCH RECONQUEST OF THE MIDDLE ATLANTIC IN 1673

In 1672, England formally declared war on its arch-rival, the United Provinces of the Netherlands, marking the beginning of the Third Anglo-Dutch War. In response, the Evertsen Expedition, under the command of Cornelius Evertsen of Zeeland, launched a surprise attack against the English East India Company fleet, to be followed by raids on both major and minor English and French colonial establishments in the Western Hemisphere. It is today an all but forgotten conflict in the history of colonial America, readily ignored in Anglo-American historical texts, but included the first major naval invasion of the Chesapeake Bay and fleet engagements therein, the Dutch re-conquest of New York, New Jersey, and Delaware and re-establishment of colonial governments in each, and the destruction of the French and English fishing industry in Canada.This is the story of that long ignored campaign that changed the world.

About the author:

Donald Grady Shomette, a native of Washington, D.C., completed his undergraduate work in art and art history at the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York. He was the recipient of an Honorary Ph.D. in Humane Letters from the University of Baltimore for his contributions to the arts, science, and literature. For nearly two decades he served on the staff of the Library of Congress and simultaneously as director of Nautical Archaeological Associates, Inc., an archaeological research organization, which conducted the first underwater cultural resource surveys in the states of Maryland, New Jersey, and Arkansas. Later he served a CEO of Cultural Resources Management, Dunkirk, Maryland. He is currently serving as Honorary President, and Executive Board Member of Filey Bay 1779 Research Group Ltd., North Yorkshire, UK. As a historian he has served as a consultant for many states, agencies of the U.S. Government, museums, universities, and non-profit establishments. As a marine archaeologist he has worked in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain under the sponsorship of such institutions as the National Geographic Society, the National Park Service, the United States Navy, and myriad educational foundations and museums. Shomette is the author of twenty books and contributor to international encyclopedias and anthologies of history, an most recently to an anthology of Southern Maryland poetry. His many scientific and popular articles have appeared in such publications as National Geographic, History and Technology, and Sea History. For more than a dozen years he served as lecturer and study leader for the Smithsonian Journeys Program in the Great Lakes and along the entirety of  of the North Atlantic seaboard of the United States. Thrice winner of the prestigious John Lyman Book Award for Best American Maritime History, and twice winner of the Marion V. Brewington Book Award for Best Book of the year in Naval Literature, Shomette was also honored with the Calvert Prize, the highest award in Maryland for historic preservation. His endeavors afield have also taken him into the field of historic cartography for the National Geographic Society, and into recorded sound and music as a lyricist and music producer. His most recent publication from Heritage Books, inc., is a two-volume set entitled Siege: The Canadian Campaign in the American Revolution, 1775-1776, a history of the first American invasion of Canada. 

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