The Sixty Years' War for the Great Lakes contains twenty essays concerning not only military and naval operations, but also the political, economic, social, and cultural interactions of individuals and groups during the struggle to control the great freshwater lakes and rivers between the Ohio Valley and the Canadian Shield. Contributing scholars represent a wide variety of disciplines and institutional affiliations from the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. Collectively, these important essays delineate the common thread, weaving together the series of wars for the North American heartland that stretched from 1754 to 1814. The war for the Great Lakes was not merely a sideshow in a broader, worldwide struggle for empire, independence, self-determination, and territory. Rather, it was a single war, a regional conflict waged to establish hegemony within the area, forcing interactions that divided the Great Lakes nationally and ethnically for the two centuries that followed.
IntroductionNelsonLarry L.SkaggsDavid CurtisThe Sixty Years' War for the Great Lakes, 1754–1814: An OverviewSkaggsDavid CurtisFrench Imperial Policy for the Great Lakes BasinEcclesW. J.Henry Bouquet and British Infantry Tactics on the Ohio Frontier, 1758–1764Brodine Jr.Charles E.The Microbes of War: The British Army and Epidemic Disease among the Ohio Indians, 1758–1765WardMatthew C.Charles-Michel Mouet de Langlade: Warrior, Soldier, and Intercultural “Window” on the Sixty Years' War for the Great LakesMcDonnellMichael A.The Iroquois and the Native American Struggle for the Ohio Valley, 1754–1794ParmenterJon W.The French Connection: The Interior French and Their Role in French-British Relations in the Western Great Lakes Region, 1760–1775WidderKeith R.“Ignorant bigots and busy rebels”: The American Revolution in the Western Great LakesSleeper-SmithSusanFortress Detroit, 1701–1826DunniganBrian LeighRethinking the Gnadenhutten Massacre: The Contest for Power in the Public World of the Revolutionary Pennsylvania FrontierSadoskyLeonardWar as Cultural Encounter in the Ohio ValleyPerkinsElizabeth A.Liberty and Power in the Old Northwest, 1763–1800HinderakerEricSupper and Celibacy: Quaker-Seneca Reflexive MissionsCoxRobert S.The Mohawk/Oneida Corridor: The Geography of Inland Navigation Across New YorkLord, Jr.PhilipIroquois External Affairs, 1807–1815: The Crisis of the New OrderBennCarlThe Firelands: Land Speculation and the War of 1812HurtR. DouglasReluctant Warriors: British North Americans and the War of 1812ErringtonE. JaneForgotten Allies: The Loyal Shawnees and the War of 1812EdmundsR. David“To Obtain Command of the Lakes”: The United States and the Contest for Lakes Erie and Ontario, 1812–1815SeikenJeffThe Meanings of the Wars for the Great LakesCaytonAndrew R. L.About the Editors and ContributorsIndex
David Curtis Skaggs is Professor Emeritus of History, Bowling Green State University. He has written numerous books, including A Signal Victory: The Lake Erie Campaign, 1812-1813. Larry L. Nelson is the author of Men of Patriotism, Courage and Enterprise: Fort Meigs and the War of 1812 and other works.
