In this sweeping, enthralling biography, acclaimed Pulitzer Prize-winner David Hackett Fischer magnificently brings to life the visionary adventurer who has straddled our history for 400 years. Champlain's Dream reveals, with rare immediacy and drama, the story of a remarkable man: a leader who dreamed of humanity and peace in a world riven by violence; a man of his own time who nevertheless strove to build a settlement in Canada that would be founded on harmony and respect. With consummate narrative skill and ...
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In this sweeping, enthralling biography, acclaimed Pulitzer Prize-winner David Hackett Fischer magnificently brings to life the visionary adventurer who has straddled our history for 400 years. Champlain's Dream reveals, with rare immediacy and drama, the story of a remarkable man: a leader who dreamed of humanity and peace in a world riven by violence; a man of his own time who nevertheless strove to build a settlement in Canada that would be founded on harmony and respect. With consummate narrative skill and comprehensive scholarship, Fischer unfolds a life shrouded in mystery, a complex, elusive man among many colorful characters. Born on France's Atlantic coast, Samuel de Champlain grew up in a country bitterly divided by religious wars. But, like Henry IV, one of France's greatest kings whose illegitimate son he may have been and who supported his travels from the Spanish Empire in Mexico to the St. Lawrence and the unknown territories, Champlain was religiously tolerant in an age of murderous sectarianism. Soldier, spy, master mariner, explorer, cartographer, and artist, he maneuvered his way through court intrigues in Paris, supported by Henri IV and, later, Louis XIII, though bitterly opposed by the Queen Regent Marie de Medici and the wily Cardinal Richelieu. But his astonishing dedication and stamina triumphed.... Champlain was an excellent navigator. He went to sea as a boy, acquiring the skills that allowed him to make 27 Atlantic crossings between France and Canada, enduring raging storms without losing a ship, and finally bringing with him into the wilderness his young wife, whom he had married in middle age. In the place he called Quebec, on the beautiful north shore of the St. Lawrence, he founded the first European settlement in Canada, where he dreamed that Europeans and First Nations would cooperate for mutual benefit. There he played a role in starting the growth of three populations -- Qu�b�cois, Acadian, and M�tis -- from which millions descend. Through three decades, on foot and by ship and canoe, Champlain traveled through what are now six Canadian provinces and five American states, negotiating with more than a dozen Indian nations, encouraging intermarriage among the French colonists and the natives, and insisting, as a Catholic, on tolerance for Protestants. A brilliant politician as well as a soldier, he tried constantly to maintain a balance of power among the Indian nations and his Indian allies, but, when he had to, he took up arms with them and against them, proving himself a formidable strategist and warrior in ferocious wars. Drawing on Champlain's own diaries and accounts, as well as his exquisite drawings and maps, Fischer shows him to have been a keen observer of a vanished world: an artist and cartographer who drew and wrote vividly, publishing four invaluable books on the life he saw around him. This superb biography (the first full-scale biography in decades) by a great historian is as dramatic and richly exciting as the life it portrays. Deeply researched, it is illustrated throughout with 110 contemporary images and 37 maps, including several drawn by Champlain himself.
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Add this copy of Champlain's Dream to cart. $31.02, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Reno rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Reno, NV, UNITED STATES, published 2008 by Knopf Canada.
Add this copy of Champlain's Dream: the Visionary Adventurer Who Mad a to cart. $37.00, very good condition, Sold by Brian Bauld (B-Line Books) rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Amherst, NS, CANADA, published 2008 by Knopf Canada.
Add this copy of Champlain's Dream: the Visionary Adventurer Who Mad a to cart. $41.00, like new condition, Sold by Brian Bauld (B-Line Books) rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Amherst, NS, CANADA, published 2008 by Knopf Canada.
Because I am a history buff, "Champlain's Dream" by David Hackett Fischer was recommended to me by a friend. I have found it to be a fascinating book that is fun to read. It is full of documented facts and excitement (hard to believe for "dry" history). I find the book an engaging way to learn more about a time period often overlooked in texts.
Sheila A
Nov 26, 2010
excellent research--plodding style
I enjoyed the book . it was recommended by a francophile friend. Since my family has French Canaian ancestry I learned much about the place our ancestors settle. The book assumes basic knowledge of European history so may not be suitalbe for a beginner.At 500+ pages of small print plus a 200 page addendum I found it slow going. I would recommend it with that caveat. Probably the best most through biography of Champlain.
NEEngineer
Apr 9, 2010
Champlain CD & Book Both Good
The CD was very interesting and informative, although a little more scholarly than I expected. There was so much information about the geography of France, eastern Canada, and the east coast of the US that I had to buy the book to see the maps and pictures. The story tied togeather a lot of the history of the age of exploration with geography. Spain, Portugal, and England were not the only players. France was in the New World Exploration and Exploitation Game too. France may have been a little more civilized about it. Because I read this book I understand why there were Indians at the recent Vancouver Olympics. France's more humane attitude toward the natives in the begining is still evident today, 400 years later.
