Book Review

An approachable style and a sharp geographic focus make Lucy Eldersveld Murphy's social and economic history of the Fox-Wisconsin region a welcome addition to the early history of the Great Lakes. Murphy's detailed considerations of personal, family, and community histories provide a complex and inclusive ethnohistorical account of life at Green Bay and Prairie du Chien during difficult political, social, and economic transformations. Murphy describes the shifts from French to British and then to American authority, and also from a diverse economy to one dominated by the exchange of furs to one based on the exploitation of lead. Her main argument, which she makes by citing a number of individual and community examples, concerns the progression from accommodation to adaptation to conflict and to removal.

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Not satisfied with the usual challenges posed by the evidentiary shortcomings of ethnohistory, Murphy sets herself the more difficult task of writing an inclusive ethnohistorical account, one that considers women's perspectives and cultural differences. Following the trail blazed by Sylvia Van Kirk, Murphy prefers to see these challenges as opportunities. While she was not always able to find names for the women, her archival searching has paid rich dividends. She is successful in weaving together enough of their stories to provide a balanced perspective of what life was like for all of the people of the Fox-Wisconsin region.

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