Vast Early America Lecture with Peter C. Mancall
September 14, 2026, 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm EDT
Join us on Monday, September 14, at 4:00 pm, in Blow Hall, room 201, for the Vast Early America Lecture with Peter C. Mancall.
“A New History of the Early Colonial Period” will explore the topics and themes addressed in his most recent book, Contested Continent: The Struggle for North America, c. 1000-1680 (volume one of the Oxford History of the United States). A sweeping history of developments crucial to the eventual founding of the United States, the book emphasizes the experiences of diverse peoples while telling a new story about the origins of major aspects of American culture. 
“Contested Continent is magisterial. Mancall’s smoothly written and prodigiously researched work opens the door to the America of the pre-Columbian age in which the foundation for the America we know was laid. This book is destined to become indispensable.” — Annette Gordon-Reed, Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard, author of The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, and fellow member of the OI Board of Directors.
Peter C. Mancall is Distinguished Professor; the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of the Humanities; the Linda and Harlan Martens Director of the USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute; Professor of History, Anthropology, and Economics at the University of Southern California; and Chair of the Board of Directors of the Omohundro Institute. His eight books include Fatal Journey: The Final Expedition of Henry Hudson—A Tale of Mutiny and Murder in the Arctic (Basic Books, 2009); and The Trials of Thomas Morton: An Anglican Lawyer, His Puritan Foes, and the Battle for a New England (Yale, 2019). In the 2019-2020 academic year he was the Harmsworth Professor of American History at Oxford University; and he was the Robert C. Ritchie Distinguished Fellow at the Huntington Library in 2024-2025.
This event is free of charge and open to all. Tickets are not required but reservations are recommended. Register via the link below. Nearby visitor parking is available on Richmond Road or in the designated Passport spots in the parking lots outside Blow Hall and W&M’s Zable Stadium. Questions? Call 757-221-1115 or email us at oieahc@wm.edu.