Bloody Mohawk: The French and Indian War & American Revolution on New York's Frontier
Bloody Mohawk offers an enjoyable and readable run through the history of the Mohawk River Valley, embroiling the French and British empires, the Iroquois Federation and various American settlers ranging from Dutch fur-traders to German farmers to New England's evangelicals. I love the way Berleth balances a mighty landscape against equally compelling characters. Constant warfare made this strategic waterway a scary place for much of the 18th century, a terror spread over a landscape of rivers, lakes and portages long obscured by modern development. Berleth's keen sense of geography makes readers want to get out their bicycles, canoes and walking boots to explore the physical terrain he animates with historical figures that show the power of dueling empires and organized Native Americans. --Kathleen Hulser, Public Historian, Senior Curator of History, New-York Historical SocietyRichard Berleth creates an exceptional narrative here that is forever driven by the unique geography of the Mohawk Valley, as well as by the people who settled there from the powerful Iroquois, to avaricious European fur traders, to the colonials who fought in and ultimately won a series of devastating eighteenth-century wars. --Robert Weibel, New York State Historian & Chief Curator New York State Museum