The Fist in the Wilderness
1979
First Published
3.89
Average Rating
490
Number of Pages
The story of the American fur trade has been told many times from different viewpoints, but David Lavender was the first to place it within the overall contest for empire between Britain and the United States. Rather than offering a simple hagiography of men like Jedediah Smith, Kit Carson, Jim Bridger and other legendary trappers, Lavender relates the story of men such as John Jacob Astor and Ramsay Crooks who competed with Britain’s Hudson’s Bay Company for the fur resources of the Great Lakes region and the upper Missouri River country. Within this framework of contest and competition, Lavender shows how the American Fur Company learned to exploit the needs and wants of Indian tribes to gain a superior economic position over the British. The brutal and bloody rivalry helped Ramsay Crooks develop the techniques for transporting furs, supplying trappers, and selling pelts that made fur trapping such an integral economic activity in early U.S. history.
Avg Rating
3.89
Number of Ratings
9
5 STARS
22%
4 STARS
56%
3 STARS
11%
2 STARS
11%
1 STARS
0%
goodreads
Author
David Lavender
Author · 22 books
David Sievert Lavender was a well-known historian of the Western United States, nominated twice for the Pulitzer Prize, who is best remembered by many for his River Runners of the Grand Canyon. Lavender spent most of his life in Ojai, California. An articulate and deeply knowledgeable speaker on the political and social history of the American West, he often spoke at the annual Telluride Film Festival.
