The Elusive West and the Contest for Empire, 1713-1763

by Paul W. Mapp

Overview

A truly continental history in both its geographic and political scope, The Elusive West and the Contest for Empire, 1713-1763 investigates eighteenth-century diplomacy involving North America and links geographic ignorance about the American West to Europeans' grand geopolitical designs. Breaking from scholars' traditional focus on the Atlantic world, Paul W. Mapp demonstrates the centrality of hitherto understudied western regions to early American history and shows that a Pacific focus is crucial to understanding the causes, course, and consequences of the Seven Years' War.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781469600864
Publisher:	Omohundro Institute and UNC Press
Publication date:	02/01/2013
Series:	Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and the University of North Carolina Press
Edition description:	1
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Paul W. Mapp is associate professor of history at the College of William and Mary.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Brilliantly calculating the costs of ignorance, Paul Mapp shows that what eighteenth-century European statesmen didn't know about the North American interior not only hurt the empires they served, but reshaped the world itself. The Elusive West utterly reorients our understanding of the period 1713-1763. It is a superb book.—Fred Anderson, University of Colorado, Boulder

The Elusive West puts Paul Mapp at the forefront of an exciting generation of continental early Americanists. His dazzling research combines diplomacy and geography with political, military, and intellectual history. This trailblazing book gives weight to the vast American West, both real and imagined, during the vital half-century before 1763.—Peter H. Wood, Duke University, emeritus

By examining geographic misunderstandings of North America, Mapp helps us see imperial successes and failures in an entirely new way. His insights are based on his own expansive knowledge of the long history of exploration and map-making by multiple empires, as each tried to capture the elusive nature of the continent's interior. An important and innovative book.—Kathleen DuVal, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Editorial Reviews

The Elusive West and the Contest for Empire is written in a graceful, conversational style that asks good questions and makes thoughtful answers.—Journal of American History

Path-breaking. . . . A rich and novel story that will force historians to rethink some of the standard interpretations of the struggle for empire in 18th-century North America.—London Review of Books

Deeply researched and carefully argued.—American Historical Review

Recommended for classroom use and the general history buff seeking a new perspective.—Colonial Latin American Historical Review

Mapp's prose is lucid and engaging, and he displays a dazzling knowledge of early modern European cartography. . . . [This] book is first class all the way, from the many reproduced maps to the generous space allotted for the index, and it is a pleasure to pick up and peruse.—Arkansas Historical Quarterly

Thoughtfully researched, structured, and argued. . . . Mapp has written an excellent book.—Journal of Interdisciplinary History

An impressively well-researched and thoughtful work.—Southwestern Historical Quarterly

[A] thought-provoking study of the eighteenth-century colonial West before 1763.—The Historian

Mapp displays a knowledge of European diplomacy and Borderlands history that will dazzle. . . . [He] places the elusive West back on the misinformed maps of the time and restores contingency to the course of empire.—New Mexico Historical Review

Deeply researched and beautifully written and illustrated book. . . is highly recommended.—Tennessee Historical Quarterly

From the Publisher