Great Plains Studies, Center for

 

Date of this Version

Summer 2011

Citation

Great Plains Quarterly 31:3 (Summer 2011).

Comments

Copyright © 2011 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska.

Abstract

Although many individuals who reside in the Great Plains tend to think of furs in connection with the early nineteenth-century trade conducted along the upper Missouri River valley and in the Rocky Mountains, Eric Jay Dolin takes a broader view of the fur trade's role in history. Dolin explains that the role of furs can easily be traced throughout ancient civilizations. To make his point, he briefly mentions that early Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans engaged in the fur trade and that, during the Middle Ages, furs became a major part of commerce. The focus of his book, however, is on the fur trade's crucial role in American history from the early colonial period through the late 1800s.

Dolin divides his narrative into three parts, with part 1 addressing the fur trade during the early colonial period in North America, and part 2 focusing on the fur trade as a means of competition among European colonial rivals vying for control of the continent. For those whose interest is the transMississippi West, part 3, "America Heads West," will be especially appealing. Given the role that beaver and bison played in the fur and hide trade and their impact on the Great Plains, individual chapters of special interest include "The Precious Beaver," "Fall of the Beaver," and "The Last Robe," the latter looking at the demise of the bison during the nineteenth century.

Share

COinS