Osprey Essential Histories 44
The French Indian War 1754-1760
By Daniel Marston

The French Indian Wars in North America are part of the wider Global conflict known as the Seven Years war. But in truth the fighting in the America's predates the wider war, and it was events on the colonies' borderers that provided the spark that ignited the wider war.

The French Indian wars, although small in terms of the numbers of troops involved were complex in terms of the marching and countermarching that needed to be undertaken to traverse the severe terrain, mountains, forests and rivers, that was the arena for the fighting

Further the nature of the warfare undertaken was a strange mixture of formal gallantry and stomach churning brutality, with both sides undertaking partisan warfare that led to civilian casualties and horrendous atrocities. Plenty then to cover and Daniel Marston does a very fair job given the limited size of this book.

The volume is profusely illustrated with a wealth of contemporary pictures, colourful maps, and a limited number of uniform illustrations. One thing that I found slightly irritating was that illustrations and maps do not always appear on the same pages as when covered in the text. This means an amount of flipping backwards and forwards through the pages. But this is a minor criticism, the description of the various campaigns and major battles is comprehensive and interesting. There is also a section on the Indian revolt that followed the French wars and culminated in the battle of Bushy Run.

From a personal point of view the problem with this work is that it fails to represent the drama and human story behind this series of wars, and it does not fully explain the difference between the three main cultures engaged in the conflict. France's plans and objectives for the Americas were very different from the land hungry settlers, usually of Protestant extraction, from many European states that fell under British rule. And finally there are the native Americans whose culture and way of life was doomed by the conflict.

For the general reader and someone looking for a sound introduction to the conflict this is a good buy. However I would recommend that if you want to get a real feel for the war, and to discover the various incidents that led to James Fennimore Cooper's classic tale of daringdo then get hold of a copy of Montcalm and Wolfe by Francis Parkman, in fact why not read them together.

Softback/ 95 Pages
ISBN 1-84176-456-6
Price £9.99/$14.95

JOS

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