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Ghost Empire How the French Almost Conquered North America
Philip Marchand
ISBN: 0-275-99417-1
ISBN-13: 978-0-275-99417-4
480 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 1/30/2007
List Price: $49.95 (UK Sterling Price: £34.95)
Discount Price: $24.98 Sale Price for U.S. Customers Only. Save 50%. Ends 12/31/2009.
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Also Available: Ebook
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects: Reviews:
  • Ghost Empire: How The French Almost Conquered North America is an outstanding survey which tells of explorer LaSalle, murdered by his own men but a key figure in claiming land for France in 1682. Had history not gone differently, a French-speaking empire might have extended a thousand miles beyond Quebec, Catholic in religion and strong in Native rights issues. In presenting the story of LaSalle's achievements and speculating on what could have been, an exciting alternative history is created which weaves past and present in a powerful account of conquest, culture and change. A top pick for both college-level American history collections and any general-interest public library strong in lively, thought-provoking American history surveys.
    —The Bookwatch     September 2007
  • Marchand describes the 17th-century explorations of North America by Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, combined with his own travels tracing after the figure that, had he not been murdered by his own men in Texas in 1678, could have given birth to a French empire across North America. The figures encountered by La Salle in the 17th century and the figures encountered along La Salle's path some 300 years later by Marchand are used to explore how French America could have looked, had it come to pass.
    —Reference & Research Book News     May 2007
  • French North America, a country that might have been but never materialized, inspired Marchand to take to the road and seek its traces. With his itinerary guided by the explorations of La Salle in the 1680s, Marchand combines various moods of writing in an original way. His structure is a straight-up travelogue to a dozen-plus sites of French colonial forts and settlements, starting in Texas, where La Salle came to grief in 1687, reverting to Montreal, and continuing through the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi River....[M]archand fits his commiseration with amateur historians and reenactors between layers of reflection on habitant culture, its Catholicism and its relations with Indians. Further deepening the philosophical mood are Marchand's ruminations on his Catholic faith and his reconnection with his French Canadian ancestry. If it's possible for people to internalize their history, then here is an inveigling and thoughtful example from the book critic of the Toronto Star.
    —Booklist     April 1, 2007
  • Marchand's storytelling does remind readers that the footprints of La Salle and other French visitors and residents have all but vanished from what was once the French empire in North America. Recommended. Undergraduate and general collections.
    —Choice     1/1/2008
Description: After he explored the Great Lakes and the entire Mississippi, Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was murdered by his own men when he led them on a disastrous mission to Texas. But the vast land he claimed for France in 1682 could have become—had it not been for a few twists of history—a French-speaking empire extending more than a thousand miles beyond Quebec. This alternative North America would have been Catholic in religion and granted Native peoples a prominent role.

Philip Marchand probes the intriguingly flawed character of La Salle and recounts the astonishing history of the Jesuit missionaries, coureurs de bois, fur traders, and soldiers who followed on his heels, and of the Indian nations with whom they came into contact. He also reports on the ways in which the drama of this ghost empire continues to be played out in battle reenactments and in parish churches and wayside restaurants from Montreal to Venice, Louisiana. Throughout the book, Marchand draws on memories of his own Catholic childhood in Massachusetts to interpret the lingering attitudes, fears, hopes, and iconography of a people who, more deeply than most, feel the burdens and the ironies of history.
About the Author: Philip Marchand is the books columnist for the largest circulation newspaper in Canada, the Toronto Star.
PDF Catalogs:
Greenwood History Spring 2008.pdf
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