The French and Indian War: Deciding the Fate of North America

I love history, and enjoy reading about it. However, reading about wars can be very tedious if the author gets bogged down in minutia and the finer points of military strategy. Having previously read 1812 I was well acquainted with Borneman's style. He gives sufficient background and the reasons which compelled the conflict, he provides enough detail to make the movements leading up to the battles understandable and logical, he doesn't overly indulge in the minute by minute accounts of the battles some fall into, and he sums up how peace was made and what the lasting repercussions of the conflict were in the near and far term. This is not the end all and be all of the French and Indian War. If you enjoy this book you may want to read others with more in depth examination, but you're not going to find a 300 page book that so succinctly lays out the war in easy to understand language. In this, as in 1812, the author pays particular attention to the interconnectedness of events happening in Europe (and at times in colonial empires around the world), and examines how a conflict like the French and Indian War put the North American continent on a path towards The American Revolution and the origins of the idea of manifest destiny, which would eventually see America span from coast to coast and beyond. I see a trend in his writing in this direction, as his next book was a biography of 11th president James K. Polk, which I will be reading next. This book was a fairly fast and easy read, and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to better understand a conflict often seen as a footnote in classes on American history, but which had implications which spanned generations and two future wars over a period of over half a century.

A smooth easy read on a critical period of history of which most of us are largely ignorant. Not much depth, but that wasn't what I was looking for.

The was a wonderful read and informative book. The book covers such a large cast of characters. I fully recommend reading it.

I enjoyed reading this book, it took longer to read than anticipated because I was constantly ‘googling’ people and places. The author provided incite into what led to our break from Great Britain that I / we were never taught so thank you.

This entire adventure was a learning process for the early colonists. The future United States was still deeply imbedded in the European style of warfare and living in general.. Every acre of land was a new adventure to the west of the Appalachians. We didn't have much history in terms of hit and run warfare and the Colonial leaders of this conflict were actually leaning a new way of fighting on the fly. The Native Americans were deeply imbedded with their white father, the King Of France. They depended upon France for their basic needs and acceptance of a new spirit. The Colonial powers were very loosely organized, its leaders were more interested in social position rather than winning battles and money and supply were in short supply. Battles were not fought on familiar battlegrounds. The unknown wilderness and many rivers and lakes were foreign to them. Behind every rock and tree could be found native Americans who knew how to defend their natural rights and use the terrain to their fullest advantage. The war was long and it was bloody. The end of the French and Indian war found England in a very weakened economic position and its world dominance was quickly fading. The end of this war marked the actual beginning of the American Revolution. And in 13 short years, America declared its independence and began its epic battle for nation building. During this time, the British were defeated and the Native Americans were devastated as a culture and their thousand of years of development were slowly coming to an end.Our early Americans' thirst for land and the Native American fight to preserve their rights came to major conflict and as usual, the man with the biggest stick and deepest pockets prevailed. It was never a question of right or wrong but the age old strategy of divide and conquer. We sure did a good job of that. One of the major advantages of this war is that England found itself fighting many conflicts on many international fronts and their manpower, firepower, and money became very short in supply. And then our American colonists began their fight for independence and in a few short years we declared our independence from a world power. But our native Americans as well as the French would never reach a position of dominance or even be given the opportunity to live in harmony with this new nation. Land was king and the native Americans were simply overpowered pawns in the great game of greed.A very sad story in the development of these United States but with out our victory in the French and Indian War as well as the defeat of England in the Revolutionary War, the America we know today might have never come to life. But our Native Americns and their culture became doomed bywarfare and death and they died by the thousands and slowly found themselves being assimilated into a new culture. But their early history and spirit will live on forever.

This is a pretty good history book. Predictably a little dry at times, but not as much as one might think. The author is good at summarizing the reasons for events and their significance.

If your into early american history this is a great book to learn what led up to the revolutionary war.

He did a great job with Admirals, with French and Indian war- well not so much. Too much jargon, little astute observation and no real gripping narrative.It reads like an instruction manual.

A highly readable, and enjoyable history of this fascinating conflict.First class book. I read a lot of military history; few books I’ve enjoyed so much as this.

As must be expected from an American author, Walter R. Borneman gives an American-centric view of the Seven Years War -- known in the U.S. as the French and Indian War, hence the title. To his credit, Borneman recognizes that this conflict was global -- it was truly the first world war. He covers the British and French battles for empire in Asia and Africa, albeit briefly, as well as the familiar story of war in Europe and North America.But his subject is mainly the North American actions. He gives a thorough description from the British North American viewpoint. He gives some due to the French side but this is somewhat superficial. Robert Leckie's book, "A Few Acres of Snow", does the French story much better.Borneman's account is almost entirely from secondary sources, the annotations demonstrating to what extent this is a synthesis of professional histories of the era rather than original research. As a result, the conflicting historical accounts of events are often given although he leaves us in no doubt as to which version of events he prefers.As with all good history, this book dwells on the many and sundry personalities whose decisions and actions moved events forward. He has his heroes and villains, the latter including Major-General James Wolfe, whom he regards as incompetent. He is kinder to figures like Braddock and Amherst than some other authors. He generally respects Montcalm, as do most historians, except for what he considers the blunders of the Plains of Abraham.This war was the culmination of a century of rivalry for the interior of North America between the French and English. For the French it was mostly a matter of the fur trade; for the English, the expansion of settlement. Borneman devotes five chapters to this rivalry with details of the battles that helped lead to the declaration of war. Ten chapters are devoted to the war itself up to 1760, during which time the main actions were fought. The capture of Quebec in 1759 together with the holding of the fortress by the besieged British during the ensuing winter ended the main actions. With France unwilling to allot resources to relieve its colony, the remaining five chapters describe the limited military actions of 1760-1763. These were mostly a mopping up by the British.In keeping with a theme developed by Borneman in his earlier book, "1812", he concludes this study with a chapter discussing how the events of this war both served to unify the British North American Provinces and distance them from their mother country. Although in reality the War of Independence may not have been inevitable, Borneman's thesis makes it seem so.This is a very readable book which carries us along to Borneman's conclusions seamlessly.

Good History Book

Extremely good. More easily digestible than Crucible of Warwick.

The begining of a Country...