La Salle, Discovery of The Great West

Francis Parkman, Jr. (1823 - 1893)

Parkman has been hailed as one of America's first great historians and as a master of narrative history. Numerous translations have spread the books around the world. The American writer and literary critic Edmund Wilson (1895-1972) in his book O Canada (1965), described Parkman’s France and England in North America in these terms: The clarity, the momentum and the color of the first volumes of Parkman’s narrative are among the most brilliant achievements of the writing of history as an art.

Parkman's biases, particularly his attitudes about nationality, race, and especially Native Americans, has generated criticism. The Canadian historian W. J. Eccles harshly criticized what he perceived as Parkman's bias against France and Roman Catholic policies, as well as what he considered Parkman's misuse of French language sources. However, Parkman's most severe detractor was the American historian Francis Jennings, an outspoken and controversial critic of the European colonization of North America, who went so far as to characterize Parkman's work as "fiction" and Parkman himself as a "liar".

Unlike Jennings and Eccles, many modern historians have found much to praise in Parkman's work even while recognizing his limitations. Calling Jennings' critique "vitriolic and unfair," the historian Robert S. Allen has said that Parkman's history of France and England in North America "remains a rich mixture of history and literature which few contemporary scholars can hope to emulate". The historian Michael N. McConnell, while acknowledging the historical errors and racial prejudice in Parkman's book The Conspiracy of Pontiac, has said: "...it would be easy to dismiss Pontiac as a curious perhaps embarrassing artifact of another time and place. Yet Parkman's work represents a pioneering effort; in several ways he anticipated the kind of frontier history now taken for granted...." Parkman's masterful and evocative use of language remains his most enduring and instructive legacy.

This is Vol 3 of Parkman's series "France and England in North America." The LibriVox recording does not include footnotes, many of which are extended quotations from original French sources: See project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/40143 for footnotes. - Summary by Summary adapted from Wikipedia by Karen Merline

Part 1: Pioneers of France in the New World
Part 2: The Jesuits in North America in the 17th Century
Part 4: The Old Régime in Canada
Part 5: Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV
Part 6: Montcalm and Wolfe
Part 7: A Half Century of Conflict

Genre(s): Early Modern

Language: English

Group: Parkman - France and England in North America

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 00 Introduction Phil Schempf
00:05:28
Play 01 Chapter I 1643-1669 Cavelier De La Salle Phil Schempf
00:15:36
Play 02 Chapter II 1669-1671 La Salle and the Sulpitians laurencetrask
00:23:01
Play 03 Chapter III 1670-1672 The Jesuits on the Lakes Paul Esmond
00:18:47
Play 04 Chapter IV 1667-1672 France Takes Possession of the West laurencetrask
00:14:12
Play 05 Chapter V 1672-1675 The Discovery of the Mississippi laurencetrask
00:35:55
Play 06 Chapter VI 1673-1678 La Salle and Frontenac laurencetrask
00:36:06
Play 07 Chapter VII 1678 Party Strife laurencetrask
00:15:55
Play 08 Chapter VIII 1677, 1678 The Grand Enterprise laurencetrask
00:15:34
Play 09 Chapter IX 1678-1679 La Salle at Niagara KevinS
00:17:43
Play 10 Chapter X 1679 The Launch of the “Griffin” Kathleen Moore
00:08:37
Play 11 Chapter XI 1679 La Salle on the Upper Lakes Kathleen Moore
00:21:45
Play 12 Chapter XII 1679, 1680 La Salle on the Illinois Shaun Blake
00:24:01
Play 13 Chapter XIII 1680 Fort CRÈVECŒUR laurencetrask
00:12:28
Play 14 Chapter XIV 1680 Hardihood of La Salle laurencetrask
00:18:57
Play 15 Chapter XV 1680 Indian Conquerors Andrew Kennedy
00:20:21
Play 16 Chapter XVI 1680 Tonty and the Iroquois Andrew Kennedy
00:35:16
Play 17 Chapter XVII 1680 The Adventures of Hennepin Rita Boutros
00:23:15
Play 18 Chapter XVIII 1680, 1681 Hennepin Among the Sioux Rita Boutros
00:32:47
Play 19 Chapter XIX 1681 La Salle Begins Anew Rita Boutros
00:19:25
Play 20 Chapter XX 1681-1682 Success of La Salle Rita Boutros
00:20:05
Play 21 Chapter XXI 1682, 1683 St. Louis of the Illinois Hopeforce1
00:28:53
Play 22 Chapter XXII 1680-1683 La Salle Painted by Himself Theoden Humphrey
00:23:34
Play 23 Chapter XXIII 1684 A New Enterprise Andrew Kennedy
00:31:07
Play 24 Chapter XXIV 1684, 1685 The Voyage laurencetrask
00:17:56
Play 25 Chapter XXV 1685 La Salle in Texas Rita Boutros
00:21:40
Play 26 Chapter XXVI 1685-1687 St. Louis of Texas Rita Boutros
00:45:20
Play 27 Chapter XXVII 1687 Assassination of La Salle Rita Boutros
00:21:38
Play 28 Chapter XXVIII 1687, 1688 The Innocent and the Guilty Rita Boutros
00:42:46
Play 29 Chapter XXIX 1688-1689 Fate of the Texan Colony Nate Oman
00:09:21