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A Seattle Times selection for one of Best Non-Fiction Books of 2010 Winner of the New England Historial Association's 2010 James P. Hanlan Award Winner of the Outdoor Writers Association of America 2011 Excellence in Craft Award, Book Division, First Place "A compelling and well-annotated tale of greed, slaughter and geopolitics." —Los Angeles Times As Henry Hudson sailed up the broad river that would one day bear his name, he grew concerned that his Dutch patrons would be disappointed in his failure to find the fabled route to the Orient. What became immediately apparent, however, from the Indians clad in deer skins and "good furs" was that Hudson had discovered something just as tantalizing. The news of Hudson's 1609 voyage to America ignited a fierce competition to lay claim to this uncharted continent, teeming with untapped natural resources. The result was the creation of an American fur trade, which fostered economic rivalries and fueled wars among the European powers, and later between the United States and Great Britain, as North America became a battleground for colonization and imperial aspirations. In Fur, Fortune, and Empire, best-selling author Eric Jay Dolin chronicles the rise and fall of the fur trade of old, when the rallying cry was "get the furs while they last." Beavers, sea otters, and buffalos were slaughtered, used for their precious pelts that were tailored into extravagant hats, coats, and sleigh blankets. To read Fur, Fortune, and Empire then is to understand how North America was explored, exploited, and settled, while its native Indians were alternately enriched and exploited by the trade. As Dolin demonstrates, fur, both an economic elixir and an agent of destruction, became inextricably linked to many key events in American history, including the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, and the War of 1812, as well as to the relentless pull of Manifest Destiny and the opening of the West. This work provides an international cast beyond the scope of any Hollywood epic, including Thomas Morton, the rabble-rouser who infuriated the Pilgrims by trading guns with the Indians; British explorer Captain James Cook, whose discovery in the Pacific Northwest helped launch America's China trade; Thomas Jefferson who dreamed of expanding the fur trade beyond the Mississippi; America's first multimillionaire John Jacob Astor, who built a fortune on a foundation of fur; and intrepid mountain men such as Kit Carson and Jedediah Smith, who sliced their way through an awe inspiring and unforgiving landscape, leaving behind a mythic legacy still resonates today. Concluding with the virtual extinction of the buffalo in the late 1800s, Fur, Fortune, and Empire is an epic history that brings to vivid life three hundred years of the American experience, conclusively demonstrating that the fur trade played a seminal role in creating the nation we are today.
Matt White's connections with both prairie plants and prairie people are evident in the stories of discovery and inspiration he tells as he tracks the ever dwindling parcels of tallgrass prairie in northeast Texas. In his search, he stumbles upon some unexpected fragments of virgin land, as well as some remarkable tales of both destruction and stewardship.
Originally published as a collection in 2006, this volume covers the Atlantic slave trade from its origins to 1600, the selection of essays here look at the reasons for the causes of slavery and serfdom; slavery in Africa; the development of the slave trade; the demographic situation in Latin America; and European attitudes to slavery as an institution. The volume also has an introduction by the editor commenting on the contribution each essay makes.
Here is the first comprehensive history of the Colfax County area of northeastern New Mexico. Best known today as the home of the Philmont Scout Ranch, where thousands of Boy Scouts from around the world gather every year, this beautiful country has a violent and varied past. Centering around the town of Cimarron, the region includes much of the vast Maxwell Land Grant, one of the largest pieces of land to be owned by one man in the history of the United States. Controversy over control of the land began in the sixteenth century with quarrels among rival American Indian tribes. Spanish and later American troops continued the bloodshed for centuries more. The culmination of the area’s history of violence was the notorious Colfax County War between homesteaders and landowners that began in 1875 and continued until the Supreme Court acted fifteen years later. A gold and silver rush lured prospectors to the Maxwell ranch and booming Elizabethtown in the 1860s. But by 1870 the supply of precious metals was almost exhausted, and today Elizabethtown is a ghost town. “An interesting and welltold account of an important area, Philmont deserves a place on the Western book shelf.”—Denver Post