The Encyclopedia of North American Colonial Conflicts to 1775: A Political, Social and Economic History

摘要

It is often observed by visitors that everything about the USA or Canada is big, and that is certainly true of ABC-Clio's project for a series of 14 encyclopaedias on US military history, all presumably to be on the scale of the work here reviewed, which extends to half a million words by 150 contributors, in three volumes and 875 entries, covering personalities, organisations, tribes, places, geographical features, wars, battles, incidents, acts, treaties, and technical terms related to the military history of North America from 1492 up to (but not including) the War of Independence. The extent of the Encyclopedia allows it to include not only the major wars and battles which could be found in other reference books, but a host of lesser conflicts, and personalities of relatively junior rank. Some, indeed, have left so little trace that their dates of birth and death - and in one or two cases even their proper names - are unknown. This is particularly true of the many Native American leaders featured; the editors are fully aware that the history of North America was almost entirely written from the point of view of the colonial (or post-colonial) victors.