By Eric Jay Dolin
W. W. Norton & Company, $29.95
The fur trade drove and shaped American history in surprising ways, as this lively volume by bestselling author Eric Jay Dolin shows. Fur, Fortune, and Empire traces the fur trade from explorer Henry Hudson’s 1609 encounter with Indians wearing “good furs” at the mouth of what is now known as the Hudson River all the way to China. Those interested in the history of the Northern Wilds should put this book on their must-read lists. –Shelby Gonzalez