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Empire of the Bay: An Illustrated History of the Hudson's Bay Company
Peter C. Newman
Manufacturer: Viking Adult
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Caesars of the Wilderness
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Empire of the Bay: The Company of Adventurers that Seized a Continent
ASIN: 0670829692 |
Book Description
French Canadian workers who paddled canoes, transported goods, and staffed the interior posts of the northern North American fur trade became popularly known as voyageurs. Scholars and public historians alike have cast them in the romantic role of rugged and merry heroes who paved the way for European civilization in the wild Northwest. Carolyn Podruchny looks beyond the stereotypes and reveals the contours of voyageurs’ lives, world views, and values.
Making the Voyageur World shows that the voyageurs created distinct identities shaped by their French-Canadian peasant roots, the Aboriginal peoples they met in the Northwest, and the nature of their employment as indentured servants in diverse environments. Voyageurs’ identities were also shaped by their constant travels and by their own masculine ideals that emphasized strength, endurance, and daring. Although voyageurs left few conventional traces of their own voices in the documentary record, an astonishing amount of information can be found in descriptions of them by their masters, explorers, and other travelers. By examining their lives in conjunction with the metaphor of the voyage, Podruchny not only reveals the everyday lives of her subjects—what they ate, their cosmology and rituals of celebration, their families, and, above all, their work—but also underscores their impact on the social and cultural landscape of North America.
Customer Reviews:
The fur trade and labor relations.......2007-05-13
This book is a scholarly treatment of the French and later British/French-Canadian fur trade in the northern tier of North America. It looks at the fur trade from the perspective of labor relations, and clearly identifies the differences in class, culture, and power that were common to the 18th and 19th century especially in connection with the North American fur trade. The author covers the ground thoroughly, and readers will come away having learned a great deal. As a scholarly writer, it seemed to me, however, that Podruchny was sometimes trying too hard to make the mundane seem interesting, or to draw conclusions that were just slightly strained. Overall a well-done presentation of the British fur trade from a new perspective, and a valuable recent addition to the literature about this part of North American history.
Customer Reviews:
An incredible story.......2005-08-29
This is a tremendous history. Its scope isn't limited to Canada, but spans 400 years of North American history and touches nearly every corner of the world. No other corporation — and certainly none of the great military conquerors — ever controlled more of the earth's land area than the Hudson Bay Company.
Anyone half-awake these days must be aware of the rise of incredibly powerful, international corporations operating seemingly beyond law, yet for greed, ruthlessness, and singular pursuit of profit it's hard to imagine many businesses will ever out do this grand-daddy of them all, the HBC.
The HBC story is really appalling and enthralling, and Newman is an excellent writer in the style of Barbara Tuchmanm and Alan Moorehead. It's all an incredible adventure story, probably not much known outside of Canada, yet full of unbelievable characters and events. (Jules Verne's "Around the World in 80 Days" is based on the journey of an HBC executive, and other company men were the first to cross North America to reach the Pacific and Arctic oceans, beating Lewis and Clark by decades — and doing it pretty much alone since the HBC was more interested in pinching pennies than exploring new worlds.)
A really great book. I'd give it six stars if I could.
Incredible!.......2005-01-31
Hudson's Bay Company is quite simply the most successful commercial enterprise ever known to capitalism. Imagine a company that controlled one twelfth of the earth's surface, whose domain was 10 times larger than the Holy Roman Empire, a company whose beginnings date from 1682, that developed its own Army, its own Navy and whose stock is still reputed to be owned by Britain's Royal Family.
In the forward, the author claims this book is about the impact of Hudson's Bay Company on the development Canada over the past three centuries. But it is really not. The author is being too modest. It is really about the impact of Hudson's Bay Company on the development of North America and how HBC actually was responsible for the formation of Canada and the United States as we know them today.
Everything you read in this book is the result of the primary economic force of its time, fur. The fur business was the primary employer for the inhabitants of eighteenth century North America. As such, it was the primary driver for the continuing exploration of the North American continent.
This then is not just a book about corporate wealth accumulation but of territorial exploration and definition, of competing, overlapping claims at a time in which their simply was no law. HBC was the fur business in Canada and in a very real sense it was HBC that defined the northern territorial limits of the United States.
Read and enjoy this excellently written and well documented book. It is really a treasure. You will learn the amazing history of Canada and an incredible amount about the United States as well.
Prince Rupert's Men.......2004-06-05
This is a splendid account of the three hundred and fifty year institution that is Hudson's Bay Company, and even incorporates a number of chapters that chronicle its great rival, the North West Company. Newman traces the origins of the Hudson's Bay Company back to those great explorers Raddison and Groseilliers, Frenchmen sponsored by the English, and then traces it through the many eras of economic and geographic expansion. This was a company that dealt primarily in furs, and as such, Newman begins by paying homage to the Canadian beaver. (If you want to learn a lot of fascinating things about beavers, this is the book for you). The great explorers of Canada's arctic and Western frontiers, Kelsey, Hearne and Fraser, are suitably honored, and the company's great arch-enemy, John Jacob Astor, is suitably reviled. Newman doesn't shy away from pointing out that the HBC was a rather cheap enterprise that kept its best people chronicly underpaid, and occasionally lapses into fond remembrance of the comparatively hedonistic - but less successful - Northwest Company. Ultimately, however, he pays tribute to the long-term impact of the HBC on Canadian culture and values; thrift, modesty, a preference for the collective over the needs of the individual. A masterpiece of narrative history.
A lifeless read..........2003-06-30
Trudging through this book was a task, and not something I rather enjoyed. I believe if you are going to read something, you should enjoy it. And this... did nothing for me. If you want to know about Canada, or better yet, the Hudson Bay Company; the Canadian Government offers great links and information that was far more enticing then this novel.
Phenomenal.......2002-01-24
Should be mandatory reading for all highschool and undergraduate history courses. There is absolutely no better account of the founding of North America by Europeans than this. I can't believe that I was unable to find availability of this book in Canada.
Customer Reviews:
Strangers in Blood.......2006-06-11
This book has a high "fog factor" and is difficult to read. It uses academic jargon and long sentences. The structure is complex and confusing. That is not to say that the book is inconsequential; indeed, the subject matter is quite important. It is simply difficult to access it through this book.
The back cover accurately describes the book as looking systematically at the families and offspring of the upper echelon of the Hudson Bay Company and the North West Company. Unfortunately, this was a male-dominated business and a male-dominated period in history. Men kept the written records. The author of "Strangers in Blood" relies heavily on anecdotal accounts of individuals, complete with many direct quotes. Thus, this is a book that follows the men of the fur trade. Their wives and offspring become adjuncts. The book partially compensates for this by providing information on societal pressures within the fur trade, as well as in Canada and England at the time. It also addresses the policies of the fur companies relative to dependents.
The book characterizes and contrasts family connections in the Hudson Bay Company and the Northwest Company. The presentation is roughly chronological from the late 1700 to the mid 1800s. The 1821 merger of the two companies is a focal point. Chapters and subchapters move back and forth between the two companies; as well as between various topics of gender and types of family relationships. The focus is on individuals, with every page containing a confusing array of proper names. The names of key individuals (men) reappear constantly until the reader longs for a wall chart to keep them straight. The author has even provided a few small pieces of such a chart and they are helpful.
One comes away with the feeling that the men of the fur trade took more responsibility for their families than one might expect. They usually tried to place their offspring, both male and female, in a position to start a life of their own. That included at least some education; an apprenticeship for men, and marriage for women. Fewer men stayed committed to the mothers of their children but some of the relationships were life-long.
From the early 1820s on, one man, George Simpson, had great influence over the fur trade and the people involved with it. He directed the Hudson Bay Company through the merger with the Northwest Company and for forty years afterward. He influenced the tenor of the fur trade and everything connected with it. Ms Brown shows his impact to be more negative than positive. Simpson, the clergy, and English women all arrived on the scene at about the same time. The result was increased racism, emphasis on class, and moral disapproval of "country marriages." These semi-formal unions with Indians and mixed-bloods were prevalent in the fur trade up until that time. The problems of integrating the descendents of the fur traders into society continue in Canada today.
Finally, I even want to complain about the title. "Strangers in Blood" is an English legal term for relationships that exist "in blood" but the law refuses to admit as legitimate. This book is about a much broader range of relationships. The author recognizes the problem in the final chapter. Someone in the publishing process should have insisted on a better title.
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- Exciting Canadian fur-trading history
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Hudson's Bay Company Adventures: The Rollicking Saga of Canada's Fur Traders (Amazing Stories)
Elle Andra-Warner
Manufacturer: Altitude Publishing (Canada)
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Empire of the Bay: The Company of Adventurers that Seized a Continent
ASIN: 1551539586 |
Book Description
This sizzling, action-packed account of Canada's riotous early days recounts the schemes and schemers that launched a famous trading empire. From its earliest days, the Hudson's Bay Company battled everyone and everything just to survive.
Customer Reviews:
Exciting Canadian fur-trading history.......2004-07-14
The early fur-trading history of Canada was not about exploring as much as it was about making money...and the author has brought to the book some of the most exciting stories and adventurers of that era. I liked how the author included stories about Native peoples and their importance to the fur-trade in early Canada.
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- The HBC on the Pacific, 1821-1843.
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Trading Beyond the Mountains: The British Fur Trade on the Pacific 1793-1843
Richard Somerset MacKie
Manufacturer: University of British Columbia Press
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ASIN: 0774806133 |
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The HBC on the Pacific, 1821-1843........1998-11-17
This scholarly history of the Hudsons' Bay Company focuses on the company in the years 1821-1843, immediately after its merger with the North West Company. Richard Mackie's thorough research attends closely to journals and correspondence of HBC employees. George Simpson, appointed Governor of the Columbia division by the company's London-based directors, is featured. Simpson was a prototype for the CEOs we now take for granted: ruthless, arrogant, at times heartless, he rationalized company operations, reduced labor costs, developed new products and markets, closed unprofitable divisions, and so on. Mackie takes a benign, at times almost adoring, view of Simpson's actions. The book becomes a paean to the "great men" of the HBC. It is more about Simpson and his fellows than about "the fur trade." The book is diligently researched, and noteworthy for Eric Leinberger's splendid cartography. It is written in clear, straightforward prose. Lacking from the book -- and here's where it loses marks for me -- is any reflection on what the HBC's actions during the early part of the nineteenth century mean now, at the end of the twentieth century. Also missing is any sustained attention to how the HBC's expansion in this area affected the Native populations. This is capital "H" history. Trading Beyond the Mountains will appeal to those interested in "Canada's first corporate merger."
Book Description
The Voyageur is the authoritative account of a unique and colorful group of men whose exploits, songs, and customs comprise an enduring legacy. French Canadians who guided and paddled the canoes of explorers and fur traders, the voyageurs were experts at traversing the treacherous rapids and dangerous open waters of the canoe routes from Quebec and Montreal to the regions bordering the Great Lakes and on to the Mackenzie and Columbia Rivers. During the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, explorers and fur traders relied on the voyageurs to open up the vast reaches of North America to settlement and trade.
A noted scholar of the fur trade, Grace Lee Nute was a curator at the Minnesota Historical Society, a professor of history at Hamline University, and the author of The Voyageur's Highway.
Customer Reviews:
History enriches canoe trips.......2007-08-24
Read this before, during, and after your Boundary Waters canoe trip and enjoy finding the places past and present intersect.
An Astonishing True Story.......2006-11-09
Grace Lee Nute's The Voyageur depicts significant figures in American and Canadian history who have received little attention. Indeed, Nute has written what many consider the classic exploration of the subject in this book that dates back to 1935. The book is divided into nine specific categories on such subjects as the voyageur's canoe, his journey, his songs, his life as explorer etc. Each section is compact, well-researched and fascinating.
The section on voyaging is especially astounding when we consider these men would carry hundreds of pounds on their back when reaching a portage or place where they had to carry their canoes and accessories overland to the next river or lake for their voyage. It is astonishing for me to think, as a resident of the Lake Superior region, what it would have been like to traverse that great lake 300 years ago, to pass through the rapids at Sault Sainte Marie when there were no locks, to sleep under your canoe, to winter inland above the Great Lakes in the dead of winter when the temperature was forty degrees below zero. Nute's book is a true tale of human courage, endurance, and determination, and she makes it clear the voyageur deserves much of the credit for many of the discoveries and explorations which are credited to other men, who never would have reached those places of discovery without their voyageurs' help.
My only criticism of the book is that most of Nute's research is based in the early eighteen hundreds, and I would have preferred to hear more about voyageurs from the earlier years of the seventeenth and eighteenth century. She does explore how important the voyageurs were even long after the United States was founded, in helping John Jacob Astor's American Fur Trade Company, and their roles in early American events, especially the War of 1812. The book is a must read for anyone who lives in the Great Lakes Region or is interested in the early exploration and settlement of North America.
- Tyler R. Tichelaar, author of Iron Pioneers and The Queen City, available on Amazon
A vanished way of life.......2001-04-01
Our census returns published in 2001 indicate that the population of the United States is increasingly of mixed race and ethnic identity. If I had a dollar for every pundit who claimed that this is a revolutionary situation that has never happened before in America, I could buy my own fleet of birchbark canoes. Of course, there have been many subsets of North American society that have been characterized by a mixing and blurring of ethnic identity. Some of these subsets arose centuries ago. One of them is that group of French-Canadian-Indian men and women known as the "metis" or "voyageurs." The social customs of this group, their values, their strengths, their love of life, are recounted here by an enthusiast. Miss Nute was a pioneer. She wrote before her time. I heartily recommend this book to everyone.
Book Description
For nearly half a century, siblings John and Mary McLoughlin engaged in an unbroken correspondence. This exchange of heartfelt fictional letters, based upon their life histories, took place against a background of tumultuous change, and whilst they themselves were undoubtedly affected by these changes and the inevitable ravages of time, their love for and loyalty to one another remained steadfast. At the turn of the nineteenth century, British colonial Canada and America sought to define their borders as the French lost their control of the continent, exhausted by the terror and bloodbath of the Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars respectively. In this time of upheaval, the lives of the siblings diverged into two very different paths. Mary entered a convent of Ursuline Sisters in Quebec City, whilst John became active in the fur trade, a vagabond life fraught with loneliness, physical hardship and corrosive competition; the polar opposite of the cloistered life his sister led as a Bride of Christ. However, a cloistered life did not restrict Mary's sharp and eager mind; she knew only too well that for a country in the throes of a difficult birth, a certain amount of religious observance was essential for even a glimmer of much-needed political stability in the physical world her brother moved in. Throughout the decades, each guides the other through bereavement, physical pain, and the growth of their family, and ultimately, their rise to the top of their respective fields; Mary to the role of Mother Superior and John to the "Father of Oregon", their deaths followed by the birth of two nations whose infancy they also shared.
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- Canadian explorations
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First Across the Continent: Sir Alexander Mackenzie (The Oklahoma Western Biographies , Vol 14)
Barry M. Gough
Manufacturer: University of Oklahoma Press
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The Journals of Alexander MacKenzie: Exploring Across Canada in 1789 & 1793
ASIN: 0806130024 |
Amazon.com
The first white man to cross North America, Scottish-born Alexander Mackenzie (1764-1820) was typical of his generation of explorers: this bold adventurer who surveyed the untamed wilderness with impressive accuracy was also a hardheaded businessman who ventured into unknown Canadian territory in search of profits from fur trading. Canadian historian Barry Gough admires Mackenzie's toughness and daring without glossing over the towering ego and knack for self-promotion that won him a knighthood from England in 1802. First Across the Continent is another enjoyable entry in the University of Oklahoma's Western Biographies series.
Customer Reviews:
Canadian explorations.......2006-06-15
This is a well-written, concise (200 pages) biography of Alexander Mackenzie, the great Canadian explorer, best remembered for two important journeys made in western Canada, one to the Arctic Ocean in 1789, the other to the Pacific in 1792-93. Mackenzie was born in Scotland in 1762 and came to America as a teenager. He lived first in New York State around Johnstown, but moved to Montreal in 1778, where he entered the fur trade. By the 1780s, Fort Chipewyan, on the southern shore of Lake Athabasca, had become an important fur trading post, and this became Mackenzie's base of operations for his two explorations. The first, in 1789, took him north to Great Slave Lake and the river that would later bear his name, down which he ventured to the Beaufort Sea. Three years later he journeyed west from Fort Chipewyan along the Peace River and then over the Continental Divide to the Fraser and finally overland to the Pacific near Bella Coola. Thus Mackenzie and his men became the first to travel to the Pacific from an interior post on the continent (basically the first to cross the continent from sea to sea). He wrote an excellent account of his travels in 1801 (Lewis and Clark studied it thoroughly), much of it having to do with the Indians he encountered and which also included a history of the Canadian fur trade. He was knighted in 1802 and settled in Scotland. Although the book is a full biography, Gough focuses on the two journeys, the itineraries of which he has made extensive explorations of his own, and details the routes carefully, explaining much of what the explorers would have seen and experienced. He's a compelling writer and the book is a most interesting one. Highly recommended.
Factual narrative.......2000-01-08
Pretty good book. Gives a rather matter-of-fact account of MacKenzie's life. Not alot of detail or passion in either of his 2 great voyages. Interesting in all the other people brought into the story. Now I want to read about Peter Pond, MacKenzies' predecessor. Short and a quick read.
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