Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Books
  3. Elusive Empires
  • Cited by 79
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
February 2010
Print publication year:
1997
Online ISBN:
9780511528651
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511528651
Subjects:
History, Colonial American History, History of Native American Peoples
Information

Book description

This book, first published in 1997, examines the efforts of France, Britain, and the United States to extend imperial dominion over the Ohio Valley, focusing on the relations between Europeans and Indians to tell the story. It treats empires as cross-cultural constructions whose details were negotiated by their participants, not directed from London, Paris, or Philadelphia. Hinderaker argues that three models of empire competed for acceptance in the region: empires of commerce and of land, each of which was attempted by both the French and the British, and an empire of liberty, which grew out of the American Revolution and eventually became the basis for Euro-American occupation of the valley. The result is a fascinating story that carefully considers the wealth of recent scholarship on the West, but simultaneously offers a strikingly new interpretation of the American Revolution and its legacy in the relations between Indians and the new American nation.

Reviews

"In this day of increasingly narrow historical specialization, this book is wonderfully expansive." J. Russel Snapp, The Virginia Magazine

"Hinderaker is at his best in depicting the Ohio Valley and Mississippian Indian cultures and economies, and in contrasting the British/Colonial and French experiences in opening the Ohio Valley frontier....this work is informative and provocative in interpretation." H.M. Ward, Choice

"This clearly written and solidly researched overview of Indian and white relations in the Ohio Valley provides an excellent place to begin any study of the region." R. Douglas Hunt, The Journal of American History

"Elusive Empires is an imaginative, elegantly written account of the imperial contest for the Ohio Valley from the arrival of French explorers and missionaries in the late seventeenth century to the final triumph of American interests in the decade that followed the Revolution." Susan E. Gray, The North Carolina Historical Review

"Elusive Empires is an imaginative, elegantly written account of the imperial contest for the Ohio Valley from the arrival of French explorers and missionaries in the late seventeenth century to the final triumph of American interests in the decade that followed the Revolution." Susan E. Gray, The North Carolina Historical Review

"His analysis of the various cultures is fascinating." Lee Soltow, Journal of Interdisciplinary History

"Elusive Empires is well written, and Hinderaker has advanced the understanding of relations between Europeans, Euroamericans, and Native Americans by synthesizing old and new scholarship." David L. Kimbrough, Journal of Illinois History

"Elusive Empires is well written, and Hinderaker has advnaced the understanding of relations between Europeans, Euroamericans, and Native Americans by synthesizing old and new scholarship." David L. Kimbrough, Journal of International History

"Elusive Empires is well written, and Hinderaker has advnaced the understanding of relations between Europeans, Euroamericans, and Native Americans by synthesizing old and new scholarship." David L. Kimbrough, Journal of International History

"This thoughtful study, based upon wide research in various sources, makes useful distinctions among the three types of frontier empires." The Journal of the Early Republic

Refine List

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

Contents

Contents
  • 1 - Networks of Trade
    pp 3-45
      • You have access
    • PDF
    • Export citation

Metrics

Altmetric attention score

Full text views

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

Book summary page views

Total views: 0 *
Loading metrics...

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Usage data cannot currently be displayed.

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.