Raleigh and the Origins of English Colonialism

FAIN: FB-50067-04

Alan Gallay
Western Washington University (Bellingham, WA 98225-5996)

Through patronage, prolific writing and colony building, Sir Walter Raleigh helped shape an entire nation's view of the need to settle new lands. This biography will link the political activities, the intellectual and artistic interests, and the emotional state of Raleigh and his associates to the early stages of English overseas expansion. An interdisciplinary study that connects the poetry, history, science, literature and religion of the period, I propose to reveal how colonialism grew out of the domestic milieu of the Elizabethan world. The book will help scholars and students understand the foundations of English colonialism in America.