I have two good books to recommend this week. Here we go...

• The Saltwater Frontier: Indians and the Contest for the American Coast by Andrew Lipman examines the history of the southern New England and the Long Island Sound during the first few decades of contact. He does a very good job establishing a sense of place, and emphasizing that Europeans and Native Americans met first as fellow watermen. Too often the popular narrative omits Native American watercraft, placing them as re-actors on the edge of the forest who only enter the story once Europeans arrive on their shores. Here Lipman details a world where the Narragansett, Wampanoag, Montauketts, and Mohegan were intimately tied to the sea. He describes their skill with gigantic dugout canoes, some longer than the European craft making the trans-Atlantic voyage, as well as the smaller birchbark craft used for sheltered waterways, and dives into their dominance of the coastline during the first decades of contact. I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in Native American and colonial history, as well as anyone interested in New York/New England history.

• Masters of Empire: Great Lakes Indians and the Making of America by Michael McDonnell is also highly recommended. McDonnell pivots our typical perspective of U.S. history and tells the story of the Anishinaabeg looking east from their heartland. In the past authors like Richard White saw the Great Lakes region as a bit of a shattered wasteland inhabited by refugees in the wake of devastating Iroquois mourning wars. Rushforth's Bonds of Alliance: Indigenous and Atlantic Slaveries in New France and this volume re-examine this perspective, finding greater cultural continuity in the area than previously thought. From their vitally important position at the Straits of Mackinac, and surrounding areas, the Odawa were able to control trade and respond rapidly to a quickly changing world. Instead of re-acting to Europeans, McDonnell describes how the Anishinaabeg worked to support their own goals, with the French, English, and Dutch as subordinate players in a larger indigenous world of alliances and historic feuds. I'm only halfway through this one, but I do enjoy it. Highly recommended if you liked Richter's Looking East from Indian Country, or are interested in the larger history of the Great Lakes region.

Hey, can anyone give me a suggestion on literature about Burmese History?

Hi. Does anyone know of a book that covers the Indian Independence Movement solely from a History of Ideas perspective?

Although it is quite the tome, I have been reading through the Story of Christianity, volumes 1 and 2 by Justo Gonzalez for some time now. As far as a readable but intelligent survey of Christian theology, church practice, and the spread of ideas and how they impacted the church, Gonzalez is fantastic.

If anyone is interested in getting a better understanding of the development of various ideas and movements throughout the history of the Christian church, I am happy to say that I have loved every chapter of Gonzalez, and he has helped clear a lot of my misunderstandings about much of church history. Volume 2 begins with the Reformation and Martin Luther, and it is more exciting reading than some fiction I have been reading lately.

Can someone recommend me books on recent history of SEA? Mainly the decolonization and establishment of government in the specific countries : Burma/Myanmar and Vietnam. I prefer the books to be as recently published as possible please.