Long before the Davie Crockets, the Daniel Boones and Jim Bridgers, the French had pushed far wes... more Long before the Davie Crockets, the Daniel Boones and Jim Bridgers, the French had pushed far west and north establishing trade and kin networks across the continent. They founded settlements that would become great cities such as Detroit, Saint Louis, and New Orleans, but their history has been largely buried or relegated to local lore or confined to Quebec. Foxcurran, Bouchard, and Malette scrutinize primary sources and uncover the alliances, organic links and metissage, or mixing, between early French settlers and voyageurs and the indigenous nations. It began with the founding of New France by Samuel de Champlain in the early 1600s and continued well into the 19th century long after France was no longer a force in North America. The authors have combined keen and accessible story telling with vintage maps, forgotten documents (such as the little known writings of Alexis de Tocqueville), and old photos or paintings. What they have discovered and now recount will propel the story ...
The book tells the story of the trade and kin networks established by French explorers and Métis ... more The book tells the story of the trade and kin networks established by French explorers and Métis across North America. The discoveries within this book will re-establish the story of these people, the French language, and their ways of life into North American history
Spanning nine time zones from Norway to the Bering Strait, the immense Russian Arctic was mostly ... more Spanning nine time zones from Norway to the Bering Strait, the immense Russian Arctic was mostly unexplored before the twentieth century. This changed rapidly in the 1920s, when the Soviet Union implemented plans for its conquest. The Conquest of the Russian Arctic, a definitive political and environmental history of one of the world's remotest regions, details the ambitious attempts, from Soviet times to the present, to control and reshape the Arctic, and the terrible costs paid along the way. Paul Josephson describes the effort under Stalin to assimilate the Arctic into the Soviet empire. Extraction of natural resources, construction of settlements, indoctrination of nomadic populations, collectivization of reindeer herding--all was to be accomplished so that the Arctic operated according to socialist principles. The project was in many ways an extension of the Bolshevik revolution, as planners and engineers assumed that policies and plans that worked elsewhere in the empire would apply here. But as they pushed ahead with methods hastily adopted from other climates, the results were political repression, destruction of traditional cultures, and environmental degradation. The effects are still being felt today. At the same time, scientists and explorers led the world in understanding Arctic climes and regularities. Vladimir Putin has redoubled Russia's efforts to secure the Arctic, seen as key to the nation's economic development and military status. This history brings into focus a little-understood part of the world that remains a locus of military and economic pressures, ongoing environmental damage, and grand ambitions imperfectly realized.
Much has been published theorizing the origins of states, but ethnography has lagged behind in de... more Much has been published theorizing the origins of states, but ethnography has lagged behind in developing the conceptual tools to theorize the state, generally preferring to study the margins of states or “stateless” societies, even though they were enmeshed in or colonized by states. In recent decades states seem to have been bypassed by an interest in global and transnational phenomena that presumes states as political organizations to be increasingly irrelevant. This review examines three texts that cut across archaeological ...
It is rare to find an analysis of nationalism that does not invoke Benedict Anderson's I... more It is rare to find an analysis of nationalism that does not invoke Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities, first published in 1983 and then reprinted in 1991. Although the term has caught the imagination of many researchers, the concept of the 'imagined community'is based on a number of questionable premises. The first problematic assertion is that prior to modernity the medieval period's sacred languages and scripts provided the basis for universal religious communities. The emergence of capitalism purportedly ...
Long before the Davie Crockets, the Daniel Boones and Jim Bridgers, the French had pushed far wes... more Long before the Davie Crockets, the Daniel Boones and Jim Bridgers, the French had pushed far west and north establishing trade and kin networks across the continent. They founded settlements that would become great cities such as Detroit, Saint Louis, and New Orleans, but their history has been largely buried or relegated to local lore or confined to Quebec. Foxcurran, Bouchard, and Malette scrutinize primary sources and uncover the alliances, organic links and metissage, or mixing, between early French settlers and voyageurs and the indigenous nations. It began with the founding of New France by Samuel de Champlain in the early 1600s and continued well into the 19th century long after France was no longer a force in North America. The authors have combined keen and accessible story telling with vintage maps, forgotten documents (such as the little known writings of Alexis de Tocqueville), and old photos or paintings. What they have discovered and now recount will propel the story ...
The book tells the story of the trade and kin networks established by French explorers and Métis ... more The book tells the story of the trade and kin networks established by French explorers and Métis across North America. The discoveries within this book will re-establish the story of these people, the French language, and their ways of life into North American history
Spanning nine time zones from Norway to the Bering Strait, the immense Russian Arctic was mostly ... more Spanning nine time zones from Norway to the Bering Strait, the immense Russian Arctic was mostly unexplored before the twentieth century. This changed rapidly in the 1920s, when the Soviet Union implemented plans for its conquest. The Conquest of the Russian Arctic, a definitive political and environmental history of one of the world's remotest regions, details the ambitious attempts, from Soviet times to the present, to control and reshape the Arctic, and the terrible costs paid along the way. Paul Josephson describes the effort under Stalin to assimilate the Arctic into the Soviet empire. Extraction of natural resources, construction of settlements, indoctrination of nomadic populations, collectivization of reindeer herding--all was to be accomplished so that the Arctic operated according to socialist principles. The project was in many ways an extension of the Bolshevik revolution, as planners and engineers assumed that policies and plans that worked elsewhere in the empire would apply here. But as they pushed ahead with methods hastily adopted from other climates, the results were political repression, destruction of traditional cultures, and environmental degradation. The effects are still being felt today. At the same time, scientists and explorers led the world in understanding Arctic climes and regularities. Vladimir Putin has redoubled Russia's efforts to secure the Arctic, seen as key to the nation's economic development and military status. This history brings into focus a little-understood part of the world that remains a locus of military and economic pressures, ongoing environmental damage, and grand ambitions imperfectly realized.
Much has been published theorizing the origins of states, but ethnography has lagged behind in de... more Much has been published theorizing the origins of states, but ethnography has lagged behind in developing the conceptual tools to theorize the state, generally preferring to study the margins of states or “stateless” societies, even though they were enmeshed in or colonized by states. In recent decades states seem to have been bypassed by an interest in global and transnational phenomena that presumes states as political organizations to be increasingly irrelevant. This review examines three texts that cut across archaeological ...
It is rare to find an analysis of nationalism that does not invoke Benedict Anderson's I... more It is rare to find an analysis of nationalism that does not invoke Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities, first published in 1983 and then reprinted in 1991. Although the term has caught the imagination of many researchers, the concept of the 'imagined community'is based on a number of questionable premises. The first problematic assertion is that prior to modernity the medieval period's sacred languages and scripts provided the basis for universal religious communities. The emergence of capitalism purportedly ...
Before the Davie Crockets, the Daniel Boones and Jim Bridgers, the French had pushed far west and... more Before the Davie Crockets, the Daniel Boones and Jim Bridgers, the French had pushed far west and north establishing trade and kin networks across the continent. They founded settlements that would become great cities such as Detroit, Saint Louis, and New Orleans, but their history has been largely buried or relegated to local lore or confined to Quebec. In this seminal work, Foxcurran, Bouchard, and Malette scrutinize primary sources and uncover the alliances between early French settlers and voyagers and the indigenous nations.
Long before the Davy Crocketts, the Daniel Boones and Jim Bridgers, the French had pushed far wes... more Long before the Davy Crocketts, the Daniel Boones and Jim Bridgers, the French had pushed far west and north establishing trade and kin networks across the continent. They founded settlements that would become great cities such as Detroit, Saint Louis, and New Orleans, but their history has been largely buried or relegated to local lore or confined to Quebec. Foxcurran, Bouchard, and Malette scrutinize primary sources and uncover the alliances, organic links and métissage, or mixing, between early French settlers and voyageurs and the indigenous nations. It began with the founding of New France by Samuel de Champlain in the early 1600s and continued well into the 19th century long after France was no longer a force in North America.
The authors have combined keen and accessible story telling with vintage maps, forgotten documents (such as the little known writings of Alexis de Tocqueville), and old photos or paintings. What they have discovered and now recount will propel the story of the peoples engendered—and still thriving—, their French lingua franca, and their ways of life back into the heart of the narrative of North American history where they belong.
Songs Upon the Rivers also challenges historical orthodoxies. The French-speaking Canadien and Métis, who descended from the French and indigenous nations, developed a hybrid culture invigorated by their close kinship ties with the indigenous peoples across the continent. Yet they kept their French songs and language, which effectively made French the lingua franca of the American and Canadian West well into the 19th century.
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Foxcurran, Bouchard, and Malette scrutinize primary sources and uncover the alliances, organic links and métissage, or mixing, between early French settlers and voyageurs and the indigenous nations. It began with the founding of New France by Samuel de Champlain in the early 1600s and continued well into the 19th century long after France was no longer a force in North America.
The authors have combined keen and accessible story telling with vintage maps, forgotten documents (such as the little known writings of Alexis de Tocqueville), and old photos or paintings. What they have discovered and now recount will propel the story of the peoples engendered—and still thriving—, their French lingua franca, and their ways of life back into the heart of the narrative of North American history where they belong.
Songs Upon the Rivers also challenges historical orthodoxies. The French-speaking Canadien and Métis, who descended from the French and indigenous nations, developed a hybrid culture invigorated by their close kinship ties with the indigenous peoples across the continent. Yet they kept their French songs and language, which effectively made French the lingua franca of the American and Canadian West well into the 19th century.