Carl J. Ekberg

This very detailed book is based primarily on a thorough and informed study of 18th century French-language documents in St. Louis and in Illinois county courthouses plus Spanish documents in the Archive of the Indes. The authors build a strong case that St. Ange de Bellerive was in many ways more important in establishing St. Louis in its first years than either Pierre Laclede (considered by many historians to be the city's founder) or Auguste Chouteau. Ekberg has studied the French in the Mississippi Valley for decades. He better understands the cultural, economic, social, and legal context of the wills, marriage contracts, indentures, and deeds better of the French period in St. Louis (the 1760s and much of the 1770s) than any other published historian. This book is a must for anyone seriously interested in early St. Louis whether from a legal, economic, gender, ethnic, or social perspective.… (lisätietoja)

THE BOOK
Alas, this poor little book has no cover here on GoodReads. And sadly it's listed as a hardback when it is not. In fact, I don't believe it was ever issued as anything but an oversized paperback.

If I can squeeze in one more comment about the book, let me say that the paper appears to be of good quality. In fact I kept trying to 'separate' the pages because they always seemed double thick.

THE CONTENT

CARL EKBERG is probably America's best living author of American history. Or if not the pinnacle, certainly in the top handful. His writing is wonderful and if it's topped by anything it is his knowledge of this area of early American history.

The focus of his works that I have read involve the French/French Creoles in the Ste. Genevieve area. If you are intrigued at all by the notion of French customs and lives in the early Americans by all means look at his other works. COLONIAL STE. GENEVIEVE (ISBN 1880397145) and STEALING INDIAN WOMEN: Native Slavery in the Illinois Country (ISBN 025203208X) changed forever my understanding of early American history and how it might have been better if we had been less British and perhaps a bit more French.

In any case, read those books and not this one.

I say to read the others because this book has a particularly narrow focus and purpose and it's a book that (in my estimation) is going to appeal to people who are already familiar with the Ste. Genevieve story, or who are visiting tourist.

In fact it was commissioned, and as such it is very much of a promotional piece. 'Piece' here being the fascinating Bolduc home. Yes, there is a short history of Louis Bolduc and his descendants. In fact there is a genealogy.

Cutting to the chase...

THE GOOD
-- A well written and brief history of a community were French laws and customs existed for a long while.
-- Interesting information about the Bolduc home and homes in the area. The book may seem long at close to 200 pages, but in fact only the first 60 or so pages are Ekberg's writing. The rest consists of pictures of the home, diagrams, and the genealogy.

I loved reading and understanding more about the French log cabin construction. Unlike the horizontal style favored by your Daniel Boone, the French laid their logs on end, which is to say, vertically on sills.

-- The stories of the lives of the families was touching. And I always am struck by the infant mortality and the frequency with which women conceived. (The two are probably related.)

THE BAD
-- Being commissioned by the Colonial Dames of America might have dulled Carl's pen. Maybe not but I was struck by the glossing over of a marriage that had to take place because a 14 year old girl was knocked up. Normally I would expect Mr. Ekberg to just say this, instead the wording was left as 'married someone 20 years his junior... baby joined them shortly'. (Oh, the olden times.)

-- The only other bad thing are the photos. And I don't understand this. The Dames use very nice paper and yet they really drag the whole book down by using extremely muddy black-and-white photos. And old photos at that. Now I'm going to have to go and take my own color photos.

SUMMARY
There is wonderful-ness therein, but this isn't a book (again in my estimation) that is going to be for the causal reader. If you are going to be playing tourist in that area, then pick it up; but generally the other books I referenced would be where I suggest you start if you want to learn about this still vague and mysterious piece of American history.

~purchased… (lisätietoja)