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(More customer reviews)Eric Jay Dolin, author of Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America, now explores the history of the American fur trade in Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America. I'll be honest, I wasn't crazy about Leviathan - it had an amazing amount of detail, but I felt it was more a collection of anecdotes than a historical analysis. Fur, Fortune, and Empire suffers from similar defects, but also has a more focused narrative. I felt like the book was a typical freshman college report - an A for the amount of effort and research, but a B for the depth of analysis and writing.
First, the book: Fur, Fortune, and Empire follows some of the pivotal events of the American fur trade. While the book claims to cover the period from 1550-1900, in reality it focuses on the early 1600s and early 1800s. Dolin argues that the fur trade was integral to American history, leading to the founding of cities like Springfield, MA (my dad's hometown) and encouraging British settlers to expand into Dutch and French territory. I think Dolin is right about this and makes a good case for the importance of the fur trade in U.S. history. For that alone, Fur, Fortune, and Empire is worth reading.
Now the bad. At times when reading Fur, Fortune, and Empire, I felt almost like I was reading a World Bank report. It is brimming with the traditional elements of history: "names, dates, and places," dryly recited. However, there's no exciting characters, little analysis, and at times just becomes just a forgettable collection of anecdotes. I've read many, many academic history books, many much longer than this book's 300 photos, but the best books have one central theme or argument and stick with it. By contrast, Fur, Fortune, and Empire could really have benefitted from an timeline and/or a conclusion that outline the key points of the fur trade (such as when and why certain developments took place). Much of this is in the book, but it's hidden in between all of the anecdotes. Some other way of highlighting important developments would have given Dolin's work more of an impact - a memorable takeaway because, let's face it, I don't have a photographic memory and probably won't remember most of the anecdotes in the book a year from now.
Overall, Fur, Fortune, and Empire will probably be a difficult read, but is packed with anecdotes. If you frequently read histories of early America, this would be a worthwhile addition to your list (or, if you liked Leviathan, you'll probably love this book). But I wouldn't recommend the book to general audiences - the narrative is simply too dry, too much a collection of trivia to excite most readers. I suspect the book's greatest appeal will be for professional historians who focus on early America or natural resource consumption. For general audiences, I'd give the book 3.75 stars.
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