A01=Claiborne A. Skinner
Author_Claiborne A. Skinner
Category=NHK
Category=NHTB
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
French Illinois
Fur Trade
Michilimackinac
New France
ox Wars
voyageurs
Product details
- ISBN 9780801888380
- Weight: 295g
- Dimensions: 140 x 216mm
- Publication Date: 22 Aug 2008
- Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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The Upper Country melds myth and conventional history to provide a memorable tale of French designs in the middle of what became the United States. Putting the reader on the battlefields, at the trading posts, and on the rivers with voyageurs and their allies from the Indian nations, Claiborne Skinner reveals the saintly missionaries and jolly fur traders of popular myth as agents of a hard-nosed, often ruthless, imperial endeavor. Skinner's engaging narrative takes the reader through daily life at posts like Forts Saint Louis and Michilimakinac, illuminates the complexities of interracial marriage with the courtship of Michel Aco at Peoria, and explains how France's New World adventurism played a role in the outbreak of the Seven Years War and the beginning of the modern era. In this story, many of the traditional heroes and villains of American history take on surprising roles. The last Stuart kings of England seem shrewd and even human; George Washington makes his debut appearance on the stage of history by assassinating a French officer and plunging Europe into the first truly global war.
From unthinkable hardship to dreams of fur trade profits, this fascinating exploration sheds new light on France and its imperial venture into the Great Lakes.
Claiborne A. Skinner is an instructor of history and social science at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy.
