Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
1992
Abstract
James Ronda blends new documentation with older sources to provide an ample study of New York businessman John Jacob Astor's failed effort to spawn a transcontinental and transglobal fur trade enterprise in the second decade of the nineteenth century. The new interpretations include a view of Astor as capable of being, when pushed to the limit, a scoundrel and a liar (273, 274). Ronda also provides interesting discussions of the Russian connection, the relation between biologists and Astorians, and the political ramifications to the United States of Astor and Astoria. Meanwhile, the main narrative treats the rise and fall of Astoria fairly traditionally. Following Washington Irving in the last century and Hiram Chittenden early in this, Ronda disappointingly retains the thesis that Astor and Astoria were victims of fortune.
Comments
Published in GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY 12:3 (Summer 1992). Copyright © 1992 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.