Francis Parkman

Montcalme and Wolfe frames the war years through the lives of its two brilliant opposing generals. Weaving together the campaigns on both sides of the Atlantic. Parkman travels from opulent royal courts to muddy colonial fields, from Fort Necessity to the Plains of Abraham. He couples impeccable history with rich insightful narration, revealing the war as a deeply personal conflict between Louis de Montcalm and James Wolfe, the two ambitious leaders who ultimately died heroes' deaths on the frontlines. Accompanied by over forty detailed maps and illustrations,some selected specially for this edition,Parkman's timeless work shows how the enormous transfer of land from France to England at the war's end sowed the first seeds of colonialism,seeds that, in the due course, led America to its revolution, and eventually, its independence.

Francis Parkman (18231893), struggling against painful chronic illnesses and very largely self-taught in his field, was not only a pioneering historian but an enduring one. His monumental seven-volume history of discovery, conquest, and empire-building in the New World, France and England in North America (the final volume, Montcalm and Wolfe, is available in its entirety from Da Capo Press/ Perseus Books Group), remains unrivaled for its power, depth, scope, accuracy, and literary artistry. This reader, superbly edited by Samuel Eliot Morison, the Pulitzer Prizewinning historian in the Parkman tradition, comprises approximately one-seventh of the original. Rather than stitch together a patchwork of brief, disconnected extracts, Morison has chosen whole chapters or groups of chapters, thereby allowing the reader to follow a story from start to finish, and what stories they are: Champlain's efforts to establish a French empire in the vast forest wilderness; the torture and martyrdom of Father Jogues; La Salle's western expeditions and his murder by mutineers; the bloody Deerfield Massacre; the improbable, madcap, and successful siege of Louisbourg; the swift, dramatic battle on Quebec's Plains of Abraham, in which the fate of a continent was decided; and much more. The result is both an enthralling portrait of early North American colonial history and an unsurpassed introduction to the works of Francis Parkman.

Francis Parkman, America's greatest narrative historian, immortal for The Oregon Trail (1849), devoted much of his career to writing about the struggle of France and England for domination in America. The Conspiracy of Pontiac is an account of the Indian wars that occurred on the Appalachian frontier, extending from western Virginia to what is now Wisconsin and Michigan, in 1763-65. Parkman portrays the inflammatory situation that led up to and followed the French and Indian War. With France's loss of its North American colonies in 1763, the English took possession of French posts, English traders swarmed into Indian areas, and Anglo-American settlers pushed westward into what is now western Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. The consequence was widespread conflict—usually known as Pontiac's War, after the Ottawa leader. Volume 1 begins with a discussion of Indian tribes east of the Mississippi River, with emphasis on the Iroquois and Algonquin families. Parkman expands to include the French and British in the New World and their inevitable collision. Chief Pontiac enters the picture after the surrender of Canada by the French at Montreal in 1760. Because the French had befriended the Indians, the latter soon felt discontent with the victorious English. Revolt was in the air, and Parkman describes Pontiac's "conspiracy" in directing a siege against Detroit. Volume 2 shows the British forts and settlements in America under attack in 1763 by Pontiac's coalition of tribes. Pontiac made peace with the English in 1765, and four years later came to a violent end.

Francis Parkman, America's greatest narrative historian, immortal for The Oregon Trail (1849), devoted much of his career to writing about the struggle of France and England for domination in America. The Conspiracy of Pontiac is an account of the Indian wars that occurred on the Appalachian frontier, extending from western Virginia to what is now Wisconsin and Michigan, in 1763-65. Parkman portrays the inflammatory situation that led up to and followed the French and Indian War. With France's loss of its North American colonies in 1763, the English took possession of French posts, English traders swarmed into Indian areas, and Anglo-American settlers pushed westward into what is now western Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. The consequence was widespread conflict—usually known as Pontiac's War, after the Ottawa leader. Volume 1 begins with a discussion of Indian tribes east of the Mississippi River, with emphasis on the Iroquois and Algonquin families. Parkman expands to include the French and British in the New World and their inevitable collision. Chief Pontiac enters the picture after the surrender of Canada by the French at Montreal in 1760. Because the French had befriended the Indians, the latter soon felt discontent with the victorious English. Revolt was in the air, and Parkman describes Pontiac's "conspiracy" in directing a siege against Detroit. Volume 2 shows the British forts and settlements in America under attack in 1763 by Pontiac's coalition of tribes. Pontiac made peace with the English in 1765, and four years later came to a violent end.

This is the first of two volumes presenting all seven parts of Francis Parkman's monumental narrative history of the struggle for control of the American continent. Thirty years in the writing, Parkman's "history of the Ameican forest" is an accomplishment hardly less awesome than the adventures he describes. This volume begins with the tragic setlement of French Huguentos in Florida, then shifts north as explorers like Samuel de Champlain map the wilderness and wage savage forest warfare against the Iroquois; resolute Jesuits attempt to convert the Indians and suffer captivity, torture, and martyrdom in the wilderness; conflict rages in French Canada between religious extremists and fure traders. Dominating all is the fiercely indomitable La Salle, whose obsession with colonizing the Mississippi Valley leads to vast treks across the western prairie and assassination in a lonely Texas swamp.