The Upper Country: French Enterprise in the Colonial Great Lakes

by Claiborne A. Skinner

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801888380
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	06/27/2008
Series:	Regional Perspectives on Early America
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	660,907
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Claiborne A. Skinner is an instructor of history and social science at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy.

Table of Contents

Preface
Glossary
Prologue: The Fur Trade and New France to 1676
1. Frontenac and La Salle, 1673–1682
2. The Great Turtle and the Rock, 1683–1687
3. War in the Wilderness, 1687–1701
4. The Foxes, 1701–1736
5. Illinois and the Chickasaw Wars, 1700–1740
6. A Country More Worthy of His Majesty's Attention, 1736–1754
7. ''A Few Acres of Snow,'' 1740–1754
Notes
Bibliographic Essay
Index

What People are Saying About This

Denys Delâge

A great analysis of the French colonial model and an historiographic leap forward... The best and most reliable synthesis I have read on the subject yet.

— Denys Delâge, Université Laval

Timothy J. Kent

The Upper Country presents an impressive scope of the past in an easy-to-read, accessible style that is sometimes laced with wonderfully dry humor. Clearly a passionate labor of love, it is a story masterfully told which brings this era and its participants to life again.

— Timothy J. Kent, historian, author, living-history researcher

Gilles Havard

A very useful synthesis... From this story of an embattled Pax Gallica emerge larger-than-life characters like Nicolas Perrot, Duluth, Tonti 'Iron Hand,' Cadillac, Louvigny, the Huron Kondiaronk, and the Iroquois Black Kettle—important men too often neglected in American historiography.

— Gilles Havard, author of The Great Peace of Montreal of 1701: French-Native Diplomacy in the Seventeenth Century

From the Publisher

A great analysis of the French colonial model and an historiographic leap forward . . . The best and most reliable synthesis I have read on the subject yet.
—Denys Delâge, Université Laval

A very useful synthesis . . . From this story of an embattled Pax Gallica emerge larger-than-life characters like Nicolas Perrot, Duluth, Tonti 'Iron Hand,' Cadillac, Louvigny, the Huron Kondiaronk, and the Iroquois Black Kettle—important men too often neglected in American historiography.
—Gilles Havard, author of The Great Peace of Montreal of 1701: French-Native Diplomacy in the Seventeenth Century

The Upper Country presents an impressive scope of the past in an easy-to-read, accessible style that is sometimes laced with wonderfully dry humor. Clearly a passionate labor of love, it is a story masterfully told which brings this era and its participants to life again.
—Timothy J. Kent, historian, author, living-history researcher

An excellent book.
—Dale Miquelon, University of Saskatchewan

An easily accessible handbook for historians.
—Benjamin G. Scharff

Dale Miquelon

An excellent book.

Benjamin G. Scharff

An easily accessible handbook for historians.

Denys Delâge

A great analysis of the French colonial model and an historiographic leap forward . . . The best and most reliable synthesis I have read on the subject yet.

Editorial Reviews

Recommended. General readers and undergraduates.
--Choice

A broad and compelling synthesis of the history of New France.
--Rebecca Nutt, Journal of Interdisciplinary History

A historical narrative that is very readable, engaging, and coherent . . . What Skinner accomplishes in less than two hundred pages is really quite remarkable.
--Gregory Kennedy, H-French-Colonial

A lively and lucid work of historical synthesis . . . Skinner's mining and close reading of primary sources, along with his well-written and concise narrative, brings the historical actors and events to life.
--Justin M. Carroll, Annals of Iowa

An engaging traditional narrative of the expansion of New France.
--Leslie Choquette, Business History Review

An informative volume that would be a useful tool for the teaching of early Canadian, American, or North American pasts.
--Thomas A. Rumney, Historical Geography

An informative volume.
--Thomas A. Rumney, Historical Geography

Claiborne Skinner's The Upper Country offers a succinct overview of one of the great, if too often untold, theaters of North American history.
--Daniel Samson, Enterprise and Society

Provides a fine, detailed analysis of French efforts to appropriate this region, to control and extract the greatest possible benefit from it, all the while emphasizing the importance of Amerindian alliances in both exploiting this region and in denying access to the British.
--Jean Lamarre, Canadian Historical Review

Skinner . . . knows his subject well. The Upper Country is a straightforward narrative of familiar milestones of the French expansion in the Great Lakes and the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys.
--Andrew Cayton, Reviews in American History

Skinner is particularly adept at expressing the shifting dynamic of French-Indian affairs and the fur trade, as well as the movements of allied forces in response to wars with the Fox, Chickasaw, and Natchez . . . An affordable, lively, well-mapped, and reasonably comprehensive synthesis of events in the upper country on the eve of a war that ultimately determined control of a continent.
--Michael F. Dove, Itinerario: European Journal of Overseas History

Skinner provides a welcome introduction to many of those who made the Upper Country an important part of colonial North America. . . For those needing an introduction to the Upper Country of New France, this a good place for you to begin your quest.
--David Curtis Skaggs, Northwest Ohio History

Skinner's ambitious survey history of the upper country is timely . . . One major contribution this book makes is that it will likely expose more American students to the notion that the history of America is not just the story of the British colonists.
--Sara E. Chapman, H-France

Skinner's work is a superb, even masterful, synthesis that testifies to the importance of New France and the history of French colonization to the overarching narrative of early America.
--Bryan Rindfleisch, H-Canada

The French enterprise in the Upper Country was complex. Still, Skinner makes admirable sense of it within about two hundred pages by using both American and French historiographies to present a work that accurately summarizes the innovative research of the past two decades on this topic. In The Upper Country Skinner offers a survey that will be of great help to undergraduate students not only in the United States but in Canada as well.
--Guillaume Teasdale, Michigan Historical Review

From the Publisher

A lively and lucid work of historical synthesis . . . Skinner's mining and close reading of primary sources, along with his well-written and concise narrative, brings the historical actors and events to life.

Annals of Iowa - Justin M. Carroll

Recommended. General readers and undergraduates.

Choice

An engaging traditional narrative of the expansion of New France.

Business History Review - Leslie Choquette

A broad and compelling synthesis of the history of New France.

Journal of Interdisciplinary History - Rebecca Nutt

Skinner . . . knows his subject well. The Upper Country is a straightforward narrative of familiar milestones of the French expansion in the Great Lakes and the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys.

Reviews in American History - Andrew Cayton

Skinner’s ambitious survey history of the upper country is timely . . . One major contribution this book makes is that it will likely expose more American students to the notion that the history of America is not just the story of the British colonists.

H-France - Sara E. Chapman

Skinner’s work is a superb, even masterful, synthesis that testifies to the importance of New France and the history of French colonization to the overarching narrative of early America.

H-Canada - Bryan Rindfleisch

An informative volume that would be a useful tool for the teaching of early Canadian, American, or North American pasts.

Historical Geography - Thomas A. Rumney

A historical narrative that is very readable, engaging, and coherent . . . What Skinner accomplishes in less than two hundred pages is really quite remarkable.

H-French-Colonial - Gregory Kennedy

Claiborne Skinner's The Upper Country offers a succinct overview of one of the great, if too often untold, theaters of North American history.

Enterprise and Society - Daniel Samson

Provides a fine, detailed analysis of French efforts to appropriate this region, to control and extract the greatest possible benefit from it, all the while emphasizing the importance of Amerindian alliances in both exploiting this region and in denying access to the British.

Canadian Historical Review - Jean Lamarre

Skinner provides a welcome introduction to many of those who made the Upper Country an important part of colonial North America. . . For those needing an introduction to the Upper Country of New France, this a good place for you to begin your quest.

Northwest Ohio History - David Curtis Skaggs

Skinner’s work is a superb, even masterful, synthesis that testifies to the importance of New France and the history of French colonization to the overarching narrative of early America.

— Bryan Rindfleisch

H-Canada

A historical narrative that is very readable, engaging, and coherent... What Skinner accomplishes in less than two hundred pages is really quite remarkable.

— Gregory Kennedy

H-French-Colonial

An informative volume.

— Thomas A. Rumney

Historical Geography

Claiborne Skinner's The Upper Country offers a succinct overview of one of the great, if too often untold, theaters of North American history.

— Daniel Samson

Enterprise and Society

Skinner is particularly adept at expressing the shifting dynamic of French-Indian affairs and the fur trade, as well as the movements of allied forces in response to wars with the Fox, Chickasaw, and Natchez... An affordable, lively, well-mapped, and reasonably comprehensive synthesis of events in the upper country on the eve of a war that ultimately determined control of a continent.

— Michael F. Dove

Itinerario: European Journal of Overseas History

The French enterprise in the Upper Country was complex. Still, Skinner makes admirable sense of it within about two hundred pages by using both American and French historiographies to present a work that accurately summarizes the innovative research of the past two decades on this topic. In The Upper Country Skinner offers a survey that will be of great help to undergraduate students not only in the United States but in Canada as well.

— Guillaume Teasdale

Michigan Historical Review

Provides a fine, detailed analysis of French efforts to appropriate this region, to control and extract the greatest possible benefit from it, all the while emphasizing the importance of Amerindian alliances in both exploiting this region and in denying access to the British.

— Jean Lamarre

Canadian Historical Review

Skinner provides a welcome introduction to many of those who made the Upper Country an important part of colonial North America... For those needing an introduction to the Upper Country of New France, this a good place for you to begin your quest.

— David Curtis Skaggs

Northwest Ohio History

Skinner’s ambitious survey history of the upper country is timely... One major contribution this book makes is that it will likely expose more American students to the notion that the history of America is not just the story of the British colonists.

— Sara E. Chapman

H-France

Skinner... knows his subject well. The Upper Country is a straightforward narrative of familiar milestones of the French expansion in the Great Lakes and the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys.

— Andrew Cayton

Reviews in American History

A lively and lucid work of historical synthesis... Skinner's mining and close reading of primary sources, along with his well-written and concise narrative, brings the historical actors and events to life.

— Justin M. Carroll

Annals of Iowa

An engaging traditional narrative of the expansion of New France.

— Leslie Choquette

Business History Review

A broad and compelling synthesis of the history of New France.

— Rebecca Nutt

Journal of Interdisciplinary History

The French enterprise in the Upper Country was complex. Still, Skinner makes admirable sense of it within about two hundred pages by using both American and French historiographies to present a work that accurately summarizes the innovative research of the past two decades on this topic. In The Upper Country Skinner offers a survey that will be of great help to undergraduate students not only in the United States but in Canada as well.

Michigan Historical Review - Guillaume Teasdale

Skinner is particularly adept at expressing the shifting dynamic of French-Indian affairs and the fur trade, as well as the movements of allied forces in response to wars with the Fox, Chickasaw, and Natchez . . . An affordable, lively, well-mapped, and reasonably comprehensive synthesis of events in the upper country on the eve of a war that ultimately determined control of a continent.

Itinerario: European Journal of Overseas History - Michael F. Dove