The Beaver Men: Spearheads of Empire

by Mari Sandoz, Andrew R. Graybill (Introduction)

Overview

Covering more than two centuries, The Beaver Men recounts the beginning of the beaver trade along the St. Lawrence to the last great rendezvous of traders and trappers on Ham’s Fork, in what is now Wyoming, in 1834. The Beaver Men is the third in Mari Sandoz’s trilogy of books narrating the history of the American West in relation to an animal species.

Mari Sandoz (1896–1966) is the noted author of The Buffalo Hunters, The Cattlemen, and The Battle of the Little Bighorn (all available in Bison Books editions).

Andrew R. Graybill is an associate professor of history at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and the author of Policing the Great Plains: Rangers, Mounties, and the North American Frontier, 1875–1910 (Nebraska 2007).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780803226562
Publisher:	UNP - Bison Books
Publication date:	01/01/2010
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Mari Sandoz (1896–1966) is the noted author of The Buffalo Hunters, The Cattlemen, and The Battle of the Little Bighorn (all available in Bison Books editions).

 

Andrew R. Graybill is an associate professor of history at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and the author of Policing the Great Plains: Rangers, Mounties, and the North American Frontier, 1875–1910 (Nebraska 2007).

Table of Contents

Introduction
Acknowledgments
Foreword
BOOK I. SOFT GOLD
1. Bearded Men and Summer Fairs
2. Castor, Guardian of Hospitality
3. Paddle and Portage
4. Still Ponds and War Whoops
BOOK II. THE RISE OF THE COMPANY
1. River to the "Vermillion Sea"
2. The Romantic Explorations
3. The Gentlemen Adventurers
4. A Daring Race of Scots
5. The Five Villages--International Prey
BOOK III. THE FIERCER RIVALRIES
1. Voyageurs of the Plains
2. Americans to the Western Sea
3. Winter of the Explorers
4. Fur Fair and Blackfeet Wall
5. Pursuit of the Eternal Remnant
6. Romantic Buckskin to the Last Boisson
7. "Gone" Rendezvous and Foppish Silk
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Key to Map on Pages ii-iii

Editorial Reviews

“Mari Sandoz has brought into focus the materials, written down with power and clarity, of a mighty movement.”—J. Frank Dobie, New York Herald Tribune

New York Herald Tribune

“This book is not so much a historical study as a careful and intelligently drawn portrait of a world . . . that of the Great Plains during the period 1630–1834. [Sandoz’s] point of focus is the hunting of the beaver, but the cumulative effect of the study is much broader than the conventional historical examination. Her essential concern is ecological: the relations of living creatures with each other and with their physical world. It is this perspective, unique among chroniclers of the fur trade, that gives the book its very considerable value. . . . Miss Sandoz’s treatment of the Indian role is a good deal more complete than most studies; her sources include Indian documentation as well as the more conventional white man's documentation.”—Colorado Magazine

Colorado Magazine

“A brilliant, dioramic narrative, as vast in scope as the far-flung Great Plains.”—Saturday Review of Literature

Saturday Review of Literature

"The fate of the Plains Region was inextricably bound up with the fate of the buffalo; they fell together. This is the story Miss Sandoz has to tell, and she tells it beautifully, forcefully, epically. . . . A procession of interesting frontier figures, red and white [Wild Bill Hickok, Lonesome Charlie Reynolds, Buffalo Bill, Sheridan, Custer, and Indian chiefs Whistler, Yellow Wolf, Spotted Tail, Sitting Bull, passes through the narrative, briefly but sharply characterized."—New York Times Book Review

New York Times Book Review