A Savage Empire
Trappers, Traders, Tribes, and the Wars That Made America
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4.3 • 6 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A surprising and sweeping history that reveals the fur trade to be the driving force behind conquest, colonization, and revolution in early America
Combining the epic saga of Hampton Sides's Blood and Thunder with the natural history of Mark Kurlansky's Cod, popular historian Alan Axelrod reveals the astonishingly vital role a small animal—the beaver—played in the creation of our nation. The author masterfully relays a story often neglected by conventional histories: how lust for fur trade riches moved monarchs and men to launch expeditions of discovery, finance massive corporate enterprises, and wage war. Deftly weaving cultural and military narratives, the author chronicles how Spanish, Dutch, French, English, and Native American tribes created and betrayed alliances based on trapping and trade disputes, producing a surprisingly complex series of loyalties that endured throughout the Revolution and beyond.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Freelance historian Axelrod (What Every American Should Know About American History) offers a unique take on our country's origins by exploring the bloody history of fur trading, an industry that affected not only fashion but the fate of a nation. As the fur craze swept through Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries, conflict escalated across the Atlantic as Spanish, Dutch, French, English, and Native American tribes sought to dominate the market and preserve their claims on what colonizers dubbed the New World, and indigenous peoples called home. Mapping the complicated milieu of alliances forged and broken, Axelrod plots the various forces that led to the Beaver Wars and eventually set the stage for the American Revolution. While thoroughly researched and lucidly composed, Axelrod lacks the narrative flair necessary to make his book appeal to general audiences. As such, this work of niche history is best left to early American academics.
