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 enlarge | Author: Fred Anderson
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Category: Book
List Price: $16.00
Buy New: $7.54
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Avg. Customer Rating:  24 reviews
Sales Rank: 31021
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.8
ISBN: 0143038044
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.26
EAN: 9780143038047
ASIN: 0143038044
Publication Date: November 28, 2006
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| Customer Reviews:
 Fantastic March 11, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I've read many books about the American Revolution, and they generally concentrate on events after about 1770. This book gives you a good history of what America and Canada were like between 1720 and 1770. I've picked up more history about the role of the American Indian tribes with respect to interaction with the French, British and colonies than any other book I've ever read. The book is very well written, and moves right along. The author takes you through the alliances with various Indian tribes and the French, British and Colonists. Who knew that Pennsylvania basically hired the Iroquois to act as enforcer and protector against other tribes. The author also takes you through the massacre at Fort William Henry, which was the backdrop to Last of the Mohicans. Reading this book makes me want to see the movie again. Lots more to like in this book including the rise and influence of William Pitt and the impact of events in Europe on the conflicts in North America. Enjoy.
Superb balance of narrative, scholarship and originality February 3, 2007
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
The French and Indian Wars are generally treated as a subtheme in the wider context of the war between Britain and France that in a single year -- 1759 -- gave Britain its Empre -- Wolfe's capture of Quebec, Clive's victories in India which provided the treasures that funded the Industrial Revolution, the capture of the sugar islands that createdSilicon Valley wealth for the new political class, and Hawke's and Boscawen's naval victories that began the ownership of the oceans that soon was extended by Cochrane and Nelson as the consequent protagonists of an entirely new style of sea battle.
The American colonial part of this triumph is generally seen as at most a sideshow, although one of the well-known and great ironies of history is that the entire war was launched -- after a long build up -- by the blunder of a young British officer, George Washington that gave the French the excuse they needed to start what was indeed the first global war.
This excellent, well-written book with, from my own knowledge, its impeccably researched and balanced scholarship, shifts the focus from Europe to the complex four-sided relationships and intense politics of the Iroquois Six Nations, very sophisticated and key to the British success, the British administrators/military commanders, the Colonial players and their French equivalents. It helps explain better than any other book I have read how it was this period and this war that is at the roots of the American Revolution and perhaps made it inevitable.
It is strong in bringing to life key personalities -- not Washington, who is a constant background presence -- but Amherst, Johnson, Montcalm and Vaudreil and their competition and conflicts, and also the extent to which alliances with the Indians who controlled the territories of the Ohio "West" and the betrayals on both sides were fundamental to the war. It also and undramatically shows how the anti-Indian racism emerged and how the Indians were hardly the "Noble Savages" of romantic myth.
It's a great story if you are not familiar with the era and the War. If you are, I think it offers a thought-provoking new slant on an old subject. It is compact and subtle. It does not push any pet topic or thesis.
I recommend this unreservedly.
Nasty "three party" war . December 19, 2006
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is a fast read, packed with colorful military figures, political developments, important battles and conflicts in North America linked to parallel war in Europe. We have three nations involved: French, British (including land thirsty colonists) and oscillating between them undecided manipulated and confused Natives. Too bad for North America Indians they could not consolidate and fight as a one Nation, but this is typical among humans - short term goals are more important than meaningful, potentially long lasting ones. Indians lost off course, British won mostly due to superior Royal Navy. While reading I constantly tried to assess which nation was truly "savage". In the end my opinion has been firmly made. If you want to find out how ugly this lengthy war was and why we have North America the way it is now, I recommend "The War That Made America" by all means.
 Fred Anderson explains the French-Indian War in this book companion to the PBS series December 14, 2006
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
A few years ago I read Fred Anderson's excellent and detailed history of the French and Indian War (1755-1763). This new book is a much shorter and less detailed account of the war. The Seven Years War was a world war fought in North America, the European continent and the high seas. The war pitted the British against the French in a bloody conflict. Britain emerged the victor winning North America. The war set the stage for the American Revolution as colonials grew sick of being ruled by the haughty British government in London.
Anderson's work is a brief overview of the war in America. It is intended for general readers and is short on detail. The book is copiously illustrated with period art and pictures of the weapons used in the war.
Fascinating people were involved from the young George Washington to the
fatuous Edward Braddock; James Wolfe and the French general Montcalm.
Anderson tells us of the importance of the Iroquois Six Nation confederacy whose expulsion of the Ohio country Indians from their lands added to the complexity of the conflict. The Iroquois generally sided with the British while the Ohio country tribes favored their French trading partner allies.
This is an important and largely neglected chapter in American history.
The Seven Years War was a major eighteenth century war. It's importance to building the foundation for the British Empire is key.
Anderson has done a good job with his limited objective of giving a survey of the war. His bibliography is impressive. I consider him as the leading living scholar on the war.
Great Book For Casual Readers of History December 8, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Professor Anderson's book gives us about as complete a recounting of the French And Indian War as can be accomplished in under 300 pages. In "The War That Made America" he has deftly related the events of this period with sound explanations of the struggles and motivations that brought participants from so many different social and political groups to this conflict. He thoroughly explains what was stake for the parties involved and the consequences for nations and leaders, with particular emphasis on the contributions of George Washington and how the expulsion of the French from North America and the imperial actions of the British crown created the events and climate that brought on the American Revolution.
The most significant contribution of this book is how Mr. Anderson has made an understanding of the French And Indian War accessible in a volume aimed at the general reader of history. I highly recommend this book to other general history readers.
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