Paul W. MappThe Elusive West and the Contest for Empire, 1713-1763 (Published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and the University of North Carolina Press)

Not quite what I expected in looking into the background of the European conflict in the Americas prior to the American Revolution, but very interesting and informative nonetheless, and I am glad that I read it. A major drawback is the lack of a separate bibliography and long footnotes within the body of the work rather than in a separate section for footnotes.

Mapp's work is useful in drawing attention to the role of the "elusive west" in European thinking at the time of the Seven Years' War. In actuality, as his own footnotes somewhat reveal, the importance of the west among European explorers and leaders is not new to his work. His chief contribution is to show how that illusion shaped the decisions of the French. I'm not convinced that Mapp has correctly interpreted the reason for the French action of passing New Orleans on to Spain. He is certainly off-base in faulting a young George Washington for not going far enough west (!) and in minimizing the role of the Ohio Valley in the war. The history shows what dominated British policy in the west following the war and it wasn't about Mexico or the Pacific Northwest. Although Mapp's focus is on this war, it is surprising that (as a history professor in a major Virginia college), he nowhere notes the early history of the elusive west in the thinking of Virginians from Governor Berkeley to the explorers of the Trans-Allegheny region (e.g. Batts, Fallan, Lederer, and others). It is most unfortunate that he approves uncritically Higonnet's misleadinganalysis of the sequence of the events leading to the war, which was not the result of the cupidity of British governors, but of the way in which British officials in London and French officials in Paris perceived each others' global ambitions and especially their American territorial claims. Apparently, the author has not studied T.R. Clayton's refutation (1981) of Higonnet's misunderstandings or he would not think the latter offered "the best analysis" of these prliminary events. In his "Crucible of War," Fred Anderson and Daniel Baugh in his "Global Seven Years' War" more perceptively followed Clayton. At the same time, these short comings do not detract from the Mapp's contribution. No one can fault Mapp's scholarship and the brilliant way in which he presents his case. Nor could an author want a better production of his/her work than that produced here by the University of North Carolina Press.

I am a brazilian historien. The book is very good for the understanding the global process in XVIII century.

good book.