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Cable Forest Lodge Library

Astoria & empire

Book Cover
Average Rating
Publisher:
University of Nebraska Press
Pub. Date:
[1990]
Language:
English
Lexile measure:
1220L
Description
In his 1836 account Washington Irving immortalized Astoria, but it has been a footnote to the history of western expansion—a doleful reminder of John Jacob Astor's failed attempt to establish a fur-trading empire at the mouth of the Columbia from 1810 to 1813. Now James P. Ronda makes clear the importance of the Astoria venture in large and complex struggle for national sovereignty in the Northwest. Astoria and Empire is the first modern account and assessment of Astor's enterprise and the first ever to unravel the tangled skein of Astoria's international connections. "On the Columbia," Ronda writes, "lines of national rivalry, personal ambition, and cultural diversity intersected to shape a larger continental destiny."

In examining the ways in which Astor's Pacific Fur Company attempted to create the first American empire west of the Rockies, Ronda offers new interpretations of Astoria's origins, of Astor's role as an imperial strategist who negotiated with the Russian American Company and fought with the archrival North West Company, and of his intricate schemes to save Astoria from ruin during the War of 1812. Astoria and Empire draws on important archival sources only recently discovered, including Duncan McDougall's journal, which allows the reconstruction of daily life at Astoria. If the book is a study of rival empires, it is also a social history of exploration and the fur trade. Richly detailed, it teems with Indians of many tribes and international cast of traders, naval officers, diplomats, and rogues. They act on a historical stage stretching from Russia and the Orient to North America and from New York, Washington, and St. Louis to Astoria, the crossroads of an empire.

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ISBN:
9780803289420
9780803238961
Lexile measure:
1220L
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Grouping Information

Grouped Work ID6b68a4cc-eddf-c757-e8c8-7c16727d97a7
Grouping Titleastoria and empire
Grouping Authorjames p ronda
Grouping Categorybook
Grouping LanguageEnglish (eng)
Last Grouping Update2021-03-11 16:10:02PM
Last Indexed2023-10-01 05:41:15AM

Solr Fields

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0
accelerated_reader_reading_level
0
author
Ronda, James P., 1943-
author_display
Ronda, James P.
available_at_cable
Cable Forest Lodge Library
detailed_location_cable
Cable Adult Nonfiction
display_description
In late December 1788 a worried Spanish official in Mexico City set down his fears about a new and aggressive northern neighbor. Viceroy Manuel Antonio Florez offered a gloomy prediction about the future of Spanish-United States relations in the West. He already knew about the steady march of frontiersmen toward St. Louis and now came troubling word of Robert Gray's ship Columbia on the Northwest coast. All this seemed to fit a pattern, a design for Yankee expansion. "We ought not to be surprised," warned the viceroy, "that the English colonies of America, now being an independent Republic, should carry out the design of finding a safe port on the Pacific and of attempting to sustain it by crossing the immense country of the continent above our possessions of Texas, New Mexico, and California." Canadian fur merchants and Russian bureaucrats also viewed the young republic as a potential rival in the struggle for western dominion. The viceroy's vision of the future proved startlingly accurate. Within the next two decades an American president would authorize a federally funded expedition to find just the sort of transcontinental route Florez imagined. Equally important, a New York entrepreneur would propose and put into motion an ambitious plan to make the Northwest an American political and commercial empire. John Astor's Pacific Fur Company, with Astoria as its central post on the Columbia River, was Florez's nightmare come true. Astoria had long represented either a daring overland adventure or simply a failed trading venture. The Astorians surely had their share of adventure. And the Pacific Fur Company never brought its founder the profits he expected. But all those involved in the extensive enterprise knew it meant more. Thomas Jefferson once described Astoria as the "germ of a great, free and independent empire," believing that the entire American claim to the lands west of the Rockies rested on "Astor's settlement at the mouth of the Columbia." And John Quincy Adams, the expansionist-minded secretary of state, labeled then entire Northwest as "the empire of Astoria." This book seeks to explore Astoria as part of a large and complex struggle for national sovereignty in the Northwest. The Astorians and their rivals were always engaged in more than trading and trapping. They were advance agents of empire. -- from Preface. "At the heart of this book, Ronda provides vivid and masterly accounts of the voyage of the Tonquin, the overland journey of Wilson Price Hunt, and a day-by-day analysis of the history of Astoria from its establishment in 1810 to the decision of the partners to sell the post to the rival North West Company in 1813....Ronda is as much concerned with the theme of empire as he is with the fortunes of business." -- Journal of Military History.
format_cable
Book
format_category_cable
Books
id
6b68a4cc-eddf-c757-e8c8-7c16727d97a7
isbn
9780803238961
9780803289420
itype_cable
BOOK - PAPERBACK
last_indexed
2023-10-01T10:41:15.521Z
lexile_score
1220
literary_form
Non Fiction
literary_form_full
Non Fiction
local_callnumber_cable
979.5 RON pb
owning_library_cable
Cable Forest Lodge Library
owning_location_cable
Cable Forest Lodge Library
primary_isbn
9780803289420
publishDate
1990
publisher
University of Nebraska Press
recordtype
grouped_work
subject_facet
Astoria (Or.) -- History
Columbia River Valley -- History
Fur trade -- Northwest, Pacific -- History -- 19th century
Fur trade -- Oregon -- History -- 19th century
Fur traders -- Northwest, Pacific
Northwest, Pacific -- History
Oregon Territory -- History
Overland journeys to the Pacific
Pacific Fur Company
Voyages to the Pacific coast
title_display
Astoria & empire
title_full
Astoria & empire / by James P. Ronda
title_short
Astoria & empire
topic_facet
Fur trade
Fur traders
History
Overland journeys to the Pacific
Voyages to the Pacific coast

Solr Details Tables

item_details

Bib IdItem IdShelf LocCall NumFormatFormat CategoryNum CopiesIs Order ItemIs eContenteContent SourceeContent URLDetailed StatusLast CheckinLocation
ils:.b18961034.i2977679xCable Adult Nonfiction979.5 RON pb1falsefalseAvailableAug 17, 2015caanf

record_details

Bib IdFormatFormat CategoryEditionLanguagePublisherPublication DatePhysical DescriptionAbridged
ils:.b18961034BookBooksEnglishUniversity of Nebraska Press[1990]xiv, 400 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

scoping_details_cable

Bib IdItem IdGrouped StatusStatusLocally OwnedAvailableHoldableBookableIn Library Use OnlyLibrary OwnedHoldable PTypesBookable PTypesLocal Url
ils:.b18961034.i2977679xOn ShelfAvailablefalsetruetruefalsefalsetrue9999