Champlain’s Dream by David Hackett Fischer and Northern Armageddon by Peter MacLeod
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Robert Gill Theatre, 214 College St. (3rd floor, St. George entrance)
7:30pm
Free. Limited seating.
An evening of lecture and Q & A.
David Hackett Fischer’s Champlain’s Dream is the enthralling story of an adventurer who was also an able leader with a rare vision for a new world founded on harmony and respect – where Europeans and Aboriginals would cooperate for mutual benefit. A complex, elusive man among many colourful characters, Samuel de Champlain participated in palace intrigues, endured raging storms at sea and fought with his Indian allies in ferocious wars. Champlain’s Dream brings to life a remarkable man.
The Battle of the Plains of Abraham is one of the pivotal events in North American and global history. This clash between British general James Wolfe and French general Louis-Joseph de Montcalm on September 13, 1759, led to the British victory in the Seven Years’ War in North America, which in turn led to the creation of Canada and the United States as we know them today.
Rooted in original research, featuring quotations and images that have never appeared before, Northern Armageddon immerses the reader in the campaign, battle and siege through the eyes of dozens of participants, such as British sailor William Hunter, four Quebec residents enduring the bombing of their city and a teenage Huron warrior. Shifting from perspective to perspective, we move from the bombardment of Quebec to the field of combat, where Montcalm and Wolfe gave their orders but thousands of individual soldiers determined the outcome of the battle. In the final chapters, MacLeod traces the battle’s impact on Canada, the United States, both countries’ Aboriginals and the world, from 1759 into the twenty-first century.
David Hackett Fischer, University Professor at Brandeis University, won the Pulitzer Prize in 2005 for Washington’s Crossing, which was also a New York Times bestseller. His other acclaimed books include Albion’s Seed and Paul Revere’s Ride.
D. Peter MacLeod is the pre-Confederation historian at the Canadian War Museum, where he curated the permanent exhibits on the Seven Years’ War and The Battle of the Plains of Abraham. He is the author of The Canadian Iroquois and the Seven Years’ War.
