This book by Rene Chartrand, with four 2-page full color illustrations by Patrice Courcelle, includes three 3-D maps, an order of battle, photos of the French regimental flags, photos of the trenches today, and chapters which cover the battle, leaders, plans, armies, aftermath, etc. There are modern and 18th Century diagrams and uniform plates.

This book is thought-provoking and interesting. It should be read several times in order to catch the subtle observations of the author. Since strengths and weaknesses of both sides are presented in an even-handed manner, this book will be the topic of pointed conversation around campfires at F&I War reenactments for years to come.

Reenactors will want to add this book to their personal libraries, but others may also find it an extremely enjoyable read.

(Tourists to Ticonderoga/Lake George/Lake Champlain, as well as locals, will want this book, as it will provide a quick understanding which goes deeper than a brochure yet isn't cumbersome)

René Chartrand, a senior curator with Canada's National Historic Sites, has written a ground-breaking account of the climatic British attack on Fort Ticonderoga (then called Carillon by the French) in July 1758. Unlike most of the Osprey Campaign Series which merely summarize well-known battles, Chartrand has written a well-researched account that adds considerable detail, particularly from the French perspective.

The standard recounting of the strategic situation leading to the campaign, the opposing plans and opposing leaders are succinct but adequate. The section on the opposing armies is quite good, including a very detailed order of battle for both sides. Perhaps the only slight here is in the lack of discussion of opposing tactical methods.

Where this volume begins to add value to the study of this campaign is in the skirmish at Bernetz Brook on 6 July. Most accounts focus on the untimely death of the British second-in-command, Brigadier General Howe, in this engagement and the effect his death had on the British army. Chartrand goes much further and clearly shows how the British bumped into an errant French scouting detachment in the forrest below Ticonderoga and annihilated it. Over 300 French troops were killed or captured. Prior to this, Chartrand also shows how ineffective Montcalm's effort to block British progress up Lake George was; the British easily bypassed French patrols on the shoreline by unexpected water movements at night. Instead the British were able to advance all the way up Lake George in two days and the French effort to delay or even monitor them was a failure.

Chartrand also provides a good deal of information on how the British reconnaissance of the defenses of Ticonderoga failed. Most accounts mention the perfunctory survey by the young engineer Lieutenant Clerk, but they fail to mention the probe by Lieutenant Colonel Bradsheet and another engineer officer. Chartrand points out that Clerk was deceived by the effective camouflage of the French defensive line while Bradsheet mistakenly reported the French picket line as the main line of resistance. British overconfidence bred the false assumption that the French defense was fragile and that a hasty frontal assault would succeed.

However the British frontal assault was a costly disaster; in six hours the British suffered about 2,500 casualties in a series of disjointed attacks. Again, most accounts tend to blame the French use of abatis or fallen trees as an obstacle as the main cause of the failure. Chartrand clearly shows how the impetuousness of one of the British brigade commanders who began an unauthorized unsupported attack led to a chain reaction of other British units joining the fray. One unit after another attacked, and was smashed in the French killing field below their defenses. British reconnaissance and security in the battle was abysmal despite the presence of Roger's Rangers; French militia harassed their flanks in the woods and the British never realized how weak the French right flank was. Chartrand also provides useful information on French casualties, it is interesting that the French suffered 106 men killed even though they were well dug-in and few British troops came close to their lines. The role of American colonial units in the battle is also well-covered.

Contrast this 94-page volume with the over-rated 800+ page Crucible of War by Fred Anderson. In that book, the Battle of Ticonderoga merited only eight pages and Anderson omitted key details of the battle while almost completely ignoring the French side.If you are interested in one of the more interesting battles of the French and Indian War, this volume is a golden nugget of useful and often overlooked information.

Parkman's Montcalm and Wolfe is more than history, it's American Literature. His prose flows elegantly and distinguishly across each page. The reader can definitely tell that Parkman was most passionate about this work, he spent most of his life researching and writing it. The care and attention he gave to the work shows. Granted this is probably not the best book for a high school student on the French and Indian war, but for someone who has read and enjoys to read history this is definitely worth a go.

As has been said, Montcalm and Wolfe is Parkman's masterpiece. It was the first thourough account of the French and Indian War and contains some of the most detailed descriptions of the people, places, and events that shaped the North American theater of the first truly global conflict. Here we encounter the dramatic events which lead toward the final confrontation for dominion over the continent. We see a young Virginia Colonel named George Washington leading troops into battle for the first time at Fort Necessity, Braddock's fateful campiagn along the Monogahela, the massacres at Fort Oswego and William Henry by the Indians under Montcalm, the fall of Fort Dusquene, and finally, the culmination of many long and bloody battles, the capture of Quebec and the almost romanticized deaths of Montcalm and Wolfe at the Plains of Abraham. What is truly interesting is that we see the war through the eyes of someone still living in a time when the Indian wars of the west were still being fought and when the country was in the grip of Manifest Destiny and, as a result, Parkman is often very harsh in his views of the Indians and their "savage" ways. Yet, even so, he often gives them more credit than most of his contemporaries.

It is unforunate that today so little is taught or learned about this important event in American history. Today, it seems that the French and Indian War is all but ignored save for being mentioned as a prelude to the American Revolution which it helped spawn rather than as the major turning point in the history of North America and the world. For it is this bloody conflict, fought in the unending wilderness of America, where French regulars and courer de bois crept through the dark woods alongside painted Huron and Ottawa warriors to attack the English settlements, and young redcoated soliders marched shoulder to shoulder to their horrific deaths by rifle ball and tomahawk, that gave birth to what would become the Untied States and changed the course of world history. But even more than that, it is a fascinating period of history more powerful than any piece of fiction. This is history of the highest order. Highly recommended.

Parkman "wrote the book" on the French and Indian War and created a benchmark for historians that has stood on its merits since published in 1884. Moreover, Parkman creates a primer on making history real and exciting for the reader. His writing style bridges the century since he wrote it. This book is one of seven in Parkman's series "The French and English in North America". Each volume was intended to stand alone. This, the final and most popular volume, covers the fall of Quebec and events leading up to it. The first chapter alone, "The Combatents" does an extraordinary job of setting the scene in Europe that led to this savage wilderness war in North America. Also of interest will be the foreword which paints a vivid picture of the unusual Mr. Parkman. "Montcalm and Wolfe" reads well, provides a sense of "being there" and must be one of the great histories not only of the battle for North America, but of European history as well.

This book and its companion, Count Frontenac & New France Under Louis XIV represents one of the US's first great histories. Detailed, but lively written with only a few give-away phrases to let the reader know that this history was written over 100 years ago, these 2 volumes are a must read for any serious US/North American history buff.

This multi-volume edition of Parkman's magnum opus might appear initially daunting, as it covers more than 1,200 pages of material. Suffice it say, however, that the rewards are entirely worth the effort of fording your way through this majestic work.

Parkman triumphed over numerous personal disabilities (extremely poor eyesight and recurring pain in his limbs), to produce some of the most important and transcendent histories of the 19th century, works that secured him a place in the American Pantheon, beside Prescott and Bancroft. He has been interpreted both as an example of literary Romanticism by some, and as a supreme pessimist by others. His objective as an historian was to "while scrupulously and rigorously adhering to the truth of facts, to animate them with the life of the past, and, so far as might be, clothe the skeleton with flesh." This notion is reflected repeatedly throughout these volumes. His style is highly descriptive, borrowing as it does from his numerous treks to the sites he writes of. The Jesuits, trappers, governors, nuns and explorers he depicts come across as flesh-and blood, breathing, human beings, engaged in real activities. He has little place for abstraction, and never dwells overlong on minutiae. The ramifications of particular pacts or treaties, for instance, are subordinate to actual events and places. When he takes the reader into an Indian log-house, he/she can practically taste the smoke as it permeates the air.

When it comes to Native Americans, Parkman is far from sentimental. In fact, he bridled at the notion, common in 19th Century Romanticism (particularly Rousseau and even more conspicuously in Chateaubriand's ), of the Indian as noble savage. Parkman's earlier book on the Oregon Trail stemmed in part from his experiences amongst the Sioux on the Western Plains. The Indians depicted in these pages are, for the most part, more savage than noble. The Iroquois are especially ferocious in their raiding parties and in their methods of reprisal. Those who fell victim to their wrath were in for days and nights of unspeakable torture. Parkman describes these scenes almost too vividly. But as he himself would note,
"Faithfulness to the truth of history involves far more than research, however patient and scrupulous, into special facts. The narrator must seek to imbue himself with the life and spirit of the time." There are some academics that would argue that Parkman is not as objective as he would like us to think. He has a fairly consistent Protestant, Bostonian, Brahmin bias as regarding Catholicism, for instance. His view of Native Americans is hardly what could be termed politically correct. However one may feel about his viewpoint, one can not dismiss his power of depiction, or the scope of his genius and enterprise. When taking into account the fact that he produced volume upon volume of history, under the most debilitating circumstances, there can be no denying that he qualifies, as perhaps no one else, as "The American Gibbon." For the reader who wants to relive history at its most vivid, Parkman provides the goods. He paints in realistic detail the struggles, adventures and misadventures, the faith and foibles, great tribulations and monumental victories of an exceedingly noteworthy cast of characters. There are the infinitely stoical, but often-scheming Jesuits. There is the monomaniacal, driven, but honest-dealing and ultimately tragic figure of LaSalle. Champlain is another noteworthy figure, truly heroic in stature. The most heroic figure, however, may after all be Parkman himself. Shaped as he was by the notions of greatness fostered by such writers as Carlyle, it was a state he strove consciously to achieve. This collection, along with others in the Modern Library series, indicates that he achieved his goal. Thanks to The Modern Library for making authors such as Parkman accessible once more.

Francis Parkman's account of two centuries of French colonization in North America is a true classic -- undoubtedly superceded in many of the details of its scholarship, but unsurpassed as a Romantic narrative history of two eventful centuries. The publisher is to be commended for making the complete epic available in two affordable volumes. The reader will find the pacing leisurely, and high interest inevitably cannot be uniformly sustained, but patience and perserverance will be richly rewarded.

On the 13th of September, 1759, the British victory on the Plains of Abraham, just outside of Quebec City, created a historic milestone. From this point in time onward, the North American colonies were dominated by British values and systems and Canada turned to reflecting an English rather than an French outlook.

Obtaining comprehensive knowledge about the Quebec campaign is suprisingly hard. The Canadian encyclopedia reference, for example, is scant. When I visited the Plains of Abraham this fall, accessing material of this scope proved difficult in either language. I wish I had had this book at that time in order to better appreciate the historic significance of the surrounding scenery. To a person interested in the military past of Canada, this book will be a great asset in understanding the details of what took place.

From a military history perspective, with the death from wounds of both the British General Wolfe and the French General Montcalm the reasons behind key strategic decisions just before the battle, are logical constructs rather than personal revelation. Some important things, like why Wolfe chose the Anse-au-Foulon as the landing site along the river cliffs, will never be known for sure. This well researched book does shed light on the reasoning for various actions which the leaders recorded at the time.

René Chartrand in Quebec 1759 outlines the importance of viewing this battle in a wider context of the French and English struggle for domination during the Seven Years' War. He deals with the strategic plans of both sides and the maps are helpful in understanding the scope of the War in terms of North America. Throughout the highly illustrated book, the maps carry the reader along in understanding the movement of the armies. As well, a 16" x 11" isographic map of the battlefield is attached to the back page.

The Order of the Battle Series is organized to work as a reference volume with the section headings written along the outside pages and with a timechart along the bottom highlighting the time context of the material on the page. The text gives detailled accounts of how the units involved came to be, a thumbnail sketch of their leaders, and details of their uniforms. Not as much time is spent discussing their weapons.

One of the reasons why this book received four stars, rather than five, is that interesting details of the earlier part of the French/English struggle are found buried in the details of the units themselves. Readers then have to put these nuggets into an order for themselves in building an appreciation of the military efforts preceeding Quebec. I suspect that the format of the "Order of Battle Series" is the reason. Osprey Miltary also has a "Campaign Series" which deals more crisply with these types of issues. Perhaps Quebec 1759 would have been better placed in this format given it was the campaign that was of most interest rather than the rather short battle.

Other small niggly things are that the cover is not as pictured in the ads and is moderately bland. Further, in 1760, the French came back to Quebec City, defeated the British in battle, yet, due to the British Fleet, was unable to exploit the victory. This is only hinted at in the last paragraph. Perhaps the Plains of Abraham would not have seen as such a decisive battle if the French had reoccupied Quebec City the next year!

Overall, this 96 page book was an interesting read. The maps were extremely useful and the use of illustrations, many which I saw for the first time, provided another way of appreciating the struggles and tribulations of the soldiers and civilians involved in the struggle. As a Canadian, this book helped me more comprehensively understand the events leading up to the actual battle and placed other things that I knew into a richer context of fact. I would recommend this work to anyone interested in the military history of Canada.

Osprey's Order of Battle series offers considerably more detail than its standard Campaign series format. In Quebec 1759, René Chartrand provides his usual high quality level of historical research, as well as unique insights into this famous campaign that determined the fate of New France. The volume begins with eight pages that provide the strategic background to the campaign and outline the opposing French and British plans. However, the heart of the volume consists of 49 pages spent detailing all the various French and British units that participated in the campaign. Each line infantry battalion receives one full page of coverage, listing its strength, organization and recent history. Minor units, such as the French colonial cavalry, various militias, Royal Marines, artillery and engineers also receive similar coverage. For anyone interested in the Quebec campaign, the order of battle information provided herein will be indispensable. There is also considerable information on the unit commanders interwoven throughout this section. The campaign itself is covered in the final 30 pages and Chartrand's summary is flawless. Many minor logistical and administrative issues are addressed, in addition to the tactical maneuvering. Chartrand's account of the final climactic Battle on the Plains of Abraham is the best that I have ever read concerning that action. A large foldout map of the battlefield is also provided. This is a superb piece of military historical research.

One of the weaknesses of Canadian historiography is the way that history, political science and economics tend to be separated. There is less of the interdisciplinary approach which has done so much to benefit Anglo-American historiography since the sixties. As a consequence much analysis of economics and political science is confined by the abstractions of those disciplines, while much history tends to have a "high politics" or even frankly patriotic character. This has particularly hurt the study of rural history, where most Canadians lived before the second world war. Sylvester's monograph seeks to look more closely at the rural countryside. His book starts off promisingly by noting how American historiography has paid increasing attention to questions of how capitalist the countryside was. Sylvester looks at the francophone community of Montcalm, Manitoba, and he emphasizes that one cannot assume that the Canadian prairie was born capitalist. Instead the limits of rural capitalism persisted well into the twentieth century. He then goes on to helpfully discuss such matters as the demographics of prairie life, the limits of credit and commercial diversification, and how inheritance practices subtly changed as farmers sought to benefit their children while Montcalm society became more commercialized and less egalitarian.

All this is useful, but one wishes for more. There is not the kind of detail one finds in Christopher Clark's The Roots of Rural Capitalism, or Steven Hahn's The Roots of Southern Populism. Whereas class was central to these books, especially Hahn's, class and the details of commercialization are given much less focus. On questions like mutuality and common property there is almost nothing. More could have been said about divisions within the community; Sylvester prefers to concentrate on the family. More could have been said about gender: the most interesting role women play in Sylvester's account is when they inherit as wives. Indeed, there is rather little on capitalism per se, except to say that as long as most people were farmers they were not fully capitalist. A comparative account might lead one to suggest that in many ways 1880 Manitoba was clearly more capitalist that an 1880 Georgia struggling over the legacy of slavery. There is also surprisingly little on politics; there is a brief account of an election squabble in 1878 that led to bloodshed, but there is nothing on Progressivism, or the two party system, and next to nothing about rural registration. There is not much here about conflict at all. Considering that scholars such as Hahn, David Szatmary, Alan Taylor and Charles Sellars have seen "subsistence culture" as crucial to the rise of Jeffersonian and Jacksonian democracy, as well as later protest movements, the absence of such a discussion in Sylvester's account is striking. There are some comments on Catholicism and francophone identity, and there is a brief mention that most farmers did not appreciate the classical pretensions of francophone newspapers editors. There are some tantalizing accounts of francophone reaction to the first and second world wars, which seem to suggest a more national and anti-Petainiste attitude than one might have thought. But usually Catholicism and identity are taken for granted. Rather revealingly, when Sylvester talks about emigration to Winnipeg, he concentrates on the businesses that francophones formed, and not in their roles in unions or political parties. Much of the book is based on court records, and this unfortunately leads to a rather dry tone. Clearly, Canadian rural history is in no danger of running out of questions to answer.