
Fur, Fortune, and Empire
The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America
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Narrated by:
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Tom Weiner
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By:
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Eric Jay Dolin
About this listen
From the best-selling author of Leviathan comes this sweeping narrative of one of America’s most historically rich industries. Beginning his epic history in the early 1600s, Eric Jay Dolin traces the dramatic rise and fall of the American fur trade industry, from the first Dutch encounters with the Indians to the rise of the conservation movement in the late 19th century.
Dolin shows how the fur trade, driven by the demands of fashion, sparked controversy, fostered economic competition, and fueled wars among the European powers as North America became a battleground for colonization and imperial aspirations.
The trade in beaver, buffalo, sea otter, and other animal skins spurred the exploration and the settlement of the vast American continent, while it alternately enriched and gravely damaged the lives of America’s native peoples.
Populated by a larger-than-life cast, including Dutch governor Peter Stuyvesant, President Thomas Jefferson, America’s first millionaire John Jacob Astor, and mountain man Kit Carson, Fur, Fortune, and Empire is the most comprehensive and compelling history of the American fur trade ever written.
©2010 Eric Jay Dolin (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Story
In 1804, John Colter set out with Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on the first US expedition to traverse the North American continent. During the 28-month ordeal, Colter served as a hunter and scout, and honed his survival skills on the western frontier. But when the journey was over, Colter stayed behind. He spent two more years trekking alone through dangerous and unfamiliar territory, charting some of the West's most treasured landmarks.
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Piqued Curoisty
- By Julie on 01-30-22
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When America First Met China
- An Exotic History of Tea, Drugs, and Money in the Age of Sail
- By: Eric Jay Dolin
- Narrated by: A. T. Chandler
- Length: 10 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Ancient China collides with newfangled America in this epic tale of opium smugglers, sea pirates, and dueling clipper ships. Brilliantly illuminating one of the least-understood areas of American history, best-selling author Eric Jay Dolin now traces our fraught relationship with China back to its roots: the unforgiving nineteenth-century seas that separated a brash, rising naval power from a battered ancient empire. It is a prescient fable for our time, one that surprisingly continues to shed light on our modern relationship with China.
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Superior book! Excellent read!
- By melissa c. on 01-28-23
By: Eric Jay Dolin
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Left for Dead
- Shipwreck, Treachery, and Survival at the Edge of the World
- By: Eric Jay Dolin
- Narrated by: L.J. Ganser
- Length: 7 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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The best-selling author of Black Flags, Blue Waters tells the story of a wild encounter between an American sealing vessel, a shipwrecked British brig, and a British warship in the Falkland Islands during the War of 1812. Fraught with misunderstandings and mistrust, the incident left three British sailors and two Americans including the captain of the sealer, Charles H. Barnard abandoned in the Falklands for eighteen months.
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Great history
- By Pullman on 07-31-24
By: Eric Jay Dolin
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The Earth Is Weeping
- The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West
- By: Peter Cozzens
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 18 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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With the end of the Civil War, the nation recommenced its expansion onto traditional Indian tribal lands, setting off a wide-ranging conflict that would last more than three decades. In an exploration of the wars and negotiations that destroyed tribal ways of life even as they made possible the emergence of the modern United States, Peter Cozzens gives us both sides in comprehensive and singularly intimate detail.
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Excellent detailed history of US conflict with Native Americans
- By White Thai on 06-24-17
By: Peter Cozzens
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Tecumseh and the Prophet
- The Shawnee Brothers Who Defied a Nation
- By: Peter Cozzens
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 19 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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The first biography of the great Shawnee leader in more than 20 years, and the first to make clear that his misunderstood younger brother, Tenskwatawa, was an equal partner in the last great pan-Indian alliance against the United States. Tecumseh and the Prophet presents the untold story of the Shawnee brothers - the two most significant siblings in Native American history, who, Cozzens helps us understand, should be writ large in the annals of America.
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Excellent. Good companion to other Tecumseh bios
- By Chris on 11-05-20
By: Peter Cozzens
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Merchant Kings
- When Companies Ruled the World, 1600-1900
- By: Stephen R. Bown
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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It was an era when monopoly trading companies were the unofficial agents of European expansion, controlling vast numbers of people and huge tracts of land, and taking on governmental and military functions. The leaders of these trading enterprises exercised virtually unaccountable, dictatorial political power over millions of people.
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Very interesting
- By richard on 02-20-24
By: Stephen R. Bown
What listeners say about Fur, Fortune, and Empire
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- Katelyn
- 09-28-20
Great book!!
Really a great source of info on the mountain man and history of the fur trade from the 1600s to the late 1800’s
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- Matt
- 09-25-23
Very well written
Interesting in many ways, great story which coincides with American founding. Read this book, it’s very well written.
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- Thomas R.
- 03-01-19
Great Coverage
Excellent background information on why and how the many countries sent men over to participate in the fur trade. Motivations are explained for countries, Indians & individuals on why the fur trade business made great business sense and then what it became by the corrupting influences.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Damian
- 08-05-22
Starts a little slow, but…
…gradually gained momentum until, as the author promised, he leaves us (wanting more) on the precipice of Teddy Roosevelt. Most refreshing is the author’s refusal to digress into a politically correct ethnic or environmental tirade. Clearly plenty of terrible repercussions from the fur trade…(and he doesn’t ignore the same)…yet he is not out to catalogue villainies or apportion blame. He relates history in an evenhanded and fair manner and is rarely sidetracked by virtue signaling.
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- Anonymous User
- 01-22-19
Great book
While I had already knew the fur trade was big business, I had no idea how much of an impact it had.
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- Howard Houchen
- 12-15-21
Nicely Done!
Dolin offers a well researched book on a topic few would dare tackle. A bit of a "dry" narration buy well worth the listen.
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- Amazon usser
- 03-16-23
A stich that holds it together.
A great story that connects many seemingly unconnected stories of American origins. The who, what and why that underlined American settlement through global politics. insightful introduction to environmentalism and figures of developing a continent.
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- The Quilted Wayfarers
- 12-07-24
Great overview of History in relation to the trade
This book was awesome. Really gets into the history of the United States and major events and how fur trade, mountain men, and explorers had an impact on it. Manly men who lived rough lives and were def not perfect by any means but represent the spirit of America.
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- Larry and Cindi
- 03-16-21
Great audiobook
I throughly enjoyed this: America’s history told from the perspective of mountain men, and fur trading
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- Steve
- 07-18-22
Great book
Well written good listen. Informative
Recommend for those that like history of early America and how the country grew westward
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