As Henry Hudson navigated the wide river that would later bear his name, he worried that his Dutch patrons would be disappointed by his failure to find the famed route to the East. What became immediately apparent from the Indians dressed in deer skins and "fine furs" was that Hudson had discovered something equally impressive. News of his 1609 journey to America sparked a fierce competition for claiming this uncharted continent, teeming with untapped natural resources.
This resulted in the creation of an American fur trade, which fueled economic rivalries and ignited wars among European powers, and later between the United States and Great Britain, as North America became a battleground for colonization and imperial ambitions.
In the book "Fur, Fortune, and Empire," author Eric Jay Dolin recounts the rise and fall of the fur trade, when the motto was "get the furs while they last". Beavers, sea otters, and bison were slaughtered, used for their valuable furs that were transformed into extravagant hats, coats, and blankets. Reading "Fur, Fortune, and Empire" means understanding how North America was explored, exploited, and settled, while the native Indians were enriched and simultaneously exploited by the trade.
Fur, both an economic elixir and an agent of destruction, was inextricably linked with many central events in American history, including the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, and the War of 1812, as well as the unrelenting pull of Manifest Destiny and the opening of the West. This work provides an international character that surpasses the scope of any Hollywood movie, including Thomas Morton, the anarchist who angered the Pilgrims by trading arms with the Indians; the British explorer Captain James Cook, whose discovery in the North Pacific helped begin America's trade with China; Thomas Jefferson, who dreamed of expanding the fur trade beyond the Mississippi; America's first multi-millionaire John Jacob Astor, who built a fortune based on fur, and intrepid mountain men like Kit Carson and Jedediah Smith, who carved their way through a mountainous and relentless landscape, leaving behind a mythical legacy that continues to resonate today.
Concluding with the near extinction of the bison in the late 1800s, "Fur, Fortune, and Empire" is an epic story that brings three hundred years of American experience to life, proving categorically that the fur trade played a crucial role in the creation of the nation we are today.
Pages: 464, Year of Publication: 0805, Dimensions: 14x14cm
