| The Battle for North America
(1948)
|
| Front Cover |
Book Details |
|
| Genre |
Non-Fiction |
| Subject |
Canada - History - To 1763 (New France) |
| Publication Date |
1948 |
| Format |
Hardcover (9.1
mm)
|
| Publisher |
Doubleday |
| Editor |
John Tebbel |
| Extras |
Dust Jacket; Dust Jacket Cover |
|
| Personal Details |
| Store |
American Political Biography Press |
| Purchase Price |
$10.00 |
| Acquire Date |
12/5/2019 |
| Condition |
Good/Good |
| Rating |
0 |
| Links |
Library of Congress
|
|
| Product Details |
| LoC Classification |
F1030 .P247 |
| Dewey |
971.01 |
| No. of Pages |
775 |
| First Edition |
No |
| Rare |
No |
|
| Notes/Review |
John Tebbel condensed this work from the 13-volume France and England in North America that Francis Parkman completed in 1892. It is essentially the story of New France. That is, the story of the French in North America, from the earliest exploration to France's defeat in the culmination of the French and Indian Wars.
In music, I eschew "Greatest Hits" records in favor of the fuller source material: I want to hear it all, as my tastes don't always follow the crowd. So, with this material, I might be tempted to have a go at the Parkman work. But I really don't want to devote so much time to this period: 13 volumes is a bit much. That said, I may want to take a deeper dive into parts of the story. I was fascinated by the travels of LaSalle, for example, and maybe I'll read La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West.
In the century-plus since Parkman wrote the original work, language has changed quite a bit. Today, we use a much smaller vocabulary, and sentence structures have gotten simpler. So I was concerned that I'd find the text not only difficult to get through but a bit on the dry side as well. Here, I think, Tebbel did a great job. The prose is clearly not modern, but I found it easy enough to get through, and often poetic.
This volume has an index but no footnotes or bibliography. I'm not terribly surprised by this, but I am used to having those things and I understand that norms in this area have changed quite a bit in the century and a quarter since Parkman's original work was published.
The only maps are on the endpapers. I think it would be better with more maps. Many of the place names have changed since the action took place, but I was able to follow along by referring to modern maps.
The events depicted here set the stage for the founding of the United States and I highly recommend this book to any students of American history. |
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