Francis Parkman: France and England in North America Vol. 2 (Loa #12): Count Frontenac and New France Under Louis XIV / A Half-Century of Conflict / M

Parkman's writing is comprehensive, intelligent, and almost overwhelming at times. The topics are so broad that it sometimes takes me a while to wrap my head around what, exactly, the author is saying, but that challenge is usually a lot of fun!

I have sought to expand my understanding of American history . No better author than Parkman for the early centuries . He spent years among many of the tribes he writes about , extensively read the writings of the earliest French explorers and settlers involved . Parkman's still stands as the most in depth and at the same time , most exciting histories of the North American peoples. He obviously respects the Native Americans but does not gloss over their character nor sets them on a pedestal . These histories of his are not P.C. inspired , but seeks to tell the truth and realities of mans interaction and often clashes , with men of totally different cultures. All his histories are about these early Americans are so exciting you can smell the smoke of campfires and hear the great speeches of Native American speakers and the foresight of the men , the French and English and American settlers who led in these early years . A truly eye opening book .

I am thrilled with my copy of Francis Parkman's history! Came neatly packaged and arrived promptly. No complaints at all!

How the French colonized Canada, converted the Indians to Christianity, and continually harrassed the English colonists and the English Crown until they finally provoked them into open warfare. In the end, they lost the war and Canada. Parkman gives us quite a detailed account of events leading up to and of the final conflict, but it's not always easy reading. It is, however, fascinating enough to slug your way through. It's hard to imagine the suffering and pain of the soldiers and pioneer families on the frontier -- if the smallpox or dysentary didn't get you, you had to face raids by savages who, if they took you alive, were likely going to torture you to death, then feast on your remains while your family members were forced to watch. Not a pretty end for an American Dream, to say the least.

Francis Parkman is one of those titans of history writing, with a stature equal to that of Gibbon, Carlyle, Prescott, Herodotus, Thucydides and Churchill. His tales of the first colonial wars thus assume a mythological status, and the main protagonists of this, the second part of the Library of America volume - Frontenac, Montcalm and Wolfe - are all larger than life. The story of Count Frontenac is set against the era of Louis XIV and his drawn-out continental wars against William of Orange and the English. Frontenac proves an adroit military commander, dealing sharply with the Iroquois, and even more decisively with the English colonists of North America. One cannot help but have goosebumps reading Parkman's matchless prose as Count Frontenac departs Canada after his first spell as governor: "When [Frontenac] sailed for France, it was a day of rejoicing to more than half the merchants of Canada . . . but he left behind him an impression, very general among the people, that, if danger threatened the colony, Count Frontenac was the man for the hour." The story of Wolfe and Montcalm, and the final collapse of New France in 1759, has assumed the same proportions as Hector and Achilles. This is largely, if not solely, due to Parkman's magisterial account of the fall of Quebec; indeed, so stark is his influence today that a modern biographer of Bouganville (Montcalm's deputy) simply - and, I think, very appropriately - related the Plains of Abraham saga by block-quoting Parkman. Whether read as history or historiography, Parkman remains a giant.