Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Champlain's Dream
    Champlain's Dream
    Champlain's Dream
    Audiobook (abridged)10 hours

    Champlain's Dream

    Written by David Hackett Fischer

    Narrated by Edward Herrmann

    4.5/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    Winner of the Pritzker Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing

    In this sweeping, enthralling biography, acclaimed historian David Hackett Fischer brings to life the remarkable Samuel de Champlain—soldier, spy, master mariner, explorer, cartographer, artist, and Father of New France.

    Born on France's Atlantic coast, Champlain grew to manhood in a country riven by religious warfare. The historical record is unclear on whether Champlain was baptized Protestant or Catholic, but he fought in France's religious wars for the man who would become Henri IV, one of France's greatest kings, and like Henri, he was religiously tolerant in an age of murderous sectarianism. Champlain was also a brilliant navigator. He went to sea as a boy and over time acquired the skills that allowed him to make twenty-seven Atlantic crossings without losing a ship.

    But we remember Champlain mainly as a great explorer. On foot and by ship and canoe, he traveled through what are now six Canadian provinces and five American states. Over more than thirty years he founded, colonized, and administered French settlements in North America. Sailing frequently between France and Canada, he maneuvered through court intrigue in Paris and negotiated among more than a dozen Indian nations in North America to establish New France. Champlain had early support from Henri IV and later Louis XIII, but the Queen Regent Marie de Medici and Cardinal Richelieu opposed his efforts. Despite much resistance and many defeats, Champlain, by his astonishing dedication and stamina, finally established France's New World colony. He tried constantly to maintain peace among Indian nations that were sometimes at war with one another, but when he had to, he took up arms and forcefully imposed a new balance of power, proving himself a formidable strategist and warrior.

    Throughout his three decades in North America, Champlain remained committed to a remarkable vision, a Grand Design for France's colony. He encouraged intermarriage among the French colonists and the natives, and he insisted on tolerance for Protestants. He was a visionary leader, especially when compared to his English and Spanish contemporaries—a man who dreamed of humanity and peace in a world of cruelty and violence.

    This superb biography, the first in decades, is as dramatic and exciting as the life it portrays. Deeply researched, it is illustrated throughout with many contemporary images and maps, including several drawn by Champlain himself.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateOct 14, 2008
    ISBN9780743579544
    Author

    David Hackett Fischer

    David Hackett Fischer is a University Professor and Warren Professor of History emeritus at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He is the author of numerous books, including the 2005 Pulitzer Prize winner Washington’s Crossing and Champlain’s Dream. In 2015, he received the Pritzker Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing.

    More audiobooks from David Hackett Fischer

    Related to Champlain's Dream

    Related audiobooks

    Historical Biographies For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Soldiers On The High Seas

      Mar 1, 2022

      Soldiers On The High Seas
      2 min read

    • Article

      Charles Spencer

      Aug 24, 2022

      Hutchinson Heinemann £22 When Charles II returned from exile in 1660, Parliament and people were keen to draw a line under the uniquely bloody period of the three civil wars. The monarchy was to be restored without recriminations against the Parliame

      3 min read

    • Article

      We Shall Never Surrender

      Nov 2, 2022

      We Shall Never Surrender
      5 min read

    • Article

      THE FIRST (and last) KING of HAITI

      Jan 26, 2023

      PAUL CLAMMER Paul Clammer is a freelance writer and author with over 40 guidebooks for Lonely Planet and the Bradt Travel Guides' book Haiti, the first standalone book for the country in English since the 1980s. He's been travelling to Haiti since 20

      8 min read

    • Article

      A Sunny Depiction Of Dark Times

      Sep 28, 2023

      A Sunny Depiction Of Dark Times
      6 min read

    • Article

      The King Of Westminster

      May 24, 2023

      The King Of Westminster
      5 min read

    • Article

      Britain’s Black Trailblazers

      Oct 1, 2020

      Britain’s Black Trailblazers
      14 min read

    • Article

      Ten Notable Military Amateurs

      Oct 10, 2023

      Ten Notable Military Amateurs
      9 min read

    • Article

      A Leader Is Born

      Sep 2, 2021

      A Leader Is Born
      8 min read

    • Article

      Picking Fights With Puritans

      Mar 26, 2019

      Picking Fights With Puritans
      3 min read

    • Article

      Reviews

      Oct 8, 2020

      Reviews
      6 min read

    • Article

      The ‘Science’ Of The Heavy Cavalryman

      Oct 29, 2021

      The Carolingian Empire By Heinrich Fichtenau ISBN: 978-0802063670 University of Toronto Press (1978) One effect of this was to produce an enormous interest in the reign of Charlemagne (768-814), who seemed to have restored order from the chaos of the

      5 min read

    • Article

      WWII in Iran & Iraq

      Jul 2, 2019

      WWII in Iran & Iraq
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Rise Of The Modern Historical Profession

      Sep 7, 2021

      It is really very striking how little was written in English, until quite recently, on the history of medieval warfare. Before the late nineteenth century there was a good deal of writing about war, but little was about medieval history. The Classica

      5 min read

    • Article

      Raw And Immersive Tale Of The Civil War

      May 26, 2022

      LATE IN THE SUMMER OF 1641, with Charles I deep in dispute with his Parliament, alarming reports reached Westminster of Catholics amassing arms at Basing House in Hampshire. At this point in time, few expected civil war, but plenty feared an imminent

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Leadership Paradigm

      Aug 2, 2023

      The Leadership Paradigm
      17 min read

    • Article

      This Issue's Contributors

      Sep 28, 2023

      “People sometimes think that the Roman empire was acquired and governed by Roman emperors. But it was absolutely the reverse: Roman emperors inherited an empire.” Mary considers the statesmen who ruled Rome's empire on page 66 “Researching the siege

      1 min read

    • Article

      An Enlightenment King Vindicated

      Nov 25, 2021

      THIS OUTSTANDING NEW BIOGRAPHY of George III is timely. The first of the Hanoverians to identify as British was mocked, slandered and vilified during his lifetime and is still regularly cited in the American media as the epitome of tyranny. Over the

      5 min read

    • Article

      The other Napoleon

      Jan 12, 2024

      The other Napoleon
      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Champlain's Dream

    4.5/5

    128 ratings13 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Sweeping and inspiring saga of a little known historical figure of major significance. Excellent biography and history of early Canada prior to 1650. Intimate portrait of the estimable explorer and colony builder.

      Solid narration draws no negative attention.
    • 5/5
      This was extremely well written. The reader is engaged throughout the book. I did not know that much about Champlain. He most certainly deserves a far more prominent place in our History books. He was highly intelligent and played a major role in the settlement of the new world. In the early 1600's he crossed the Atlantic 27 times! He managed to live in harmony with the American Indians. Great read. I highly recommend it.
    • 4/5
      A vivid portrayal of this time, I felt like I was with the explorers seeing North America wilderness for the first time, meeting tribes of Indians. And meeting this extraordinary man who brought it aĺl off.
    • 4/5
      Fascinating
    • 5/5
      I read this book maybe five years ago but it has stuck with me. The stories of Champlain's interactions with the native people are so rich and were certainly nothing I had expected. The sophistication of the Huron people versus the bare bones lives of the Micmac people. Seriously anybody with any interest in North America should read this book!
    • 5/5
      Outstanding! Probably too detailed for a casual reader, but excellent for anyone with an intense interest in the contact period.
    • 5/5
      This was a wonderful book. If Champlain wasn't the most important explorer ever to land on our shores, I don't know who was. He was an absolutely incredible man. Great story telling, and it makes driving up and down the Ottawa River so much more interesting.
    • 5/5
      What a great book! Author David Hackett Fisher has done an amazing job in bringing us the story of Samuel de Champlain. The research he cites is comprehensive and well documented. He's also provided several annexes that explore related topics such as the unresolved issue of Champlain's birth date, the type of money used in Champlain's time, and much more.Not only is this a thorough history, it is simply great writing. At times, it reads like a novel (I mean that as a compliment...it's engaging.) If only my sons' high school text books were this compelling! I was particularly interested in Champlain's relationship with the Indians of what is now Quebec and New England, and couldn't help but wonder how different life in Canada may have been had that kind of nation-to-nation perspective endured.The author is obviously a fan of Champlain's and the book paints him in a very favourable way. Champlain's humanity and vision shine through it all. Is that a completey accurate portrait? Who knows, but it didn't detract from my overall enjoyment of this book.
    • 5/5
      A rare 5 star rating for one of the most informative books I have ever read. This book filled a gap in my understanding of northeastern North America at this period in history. Not only was I informed of the redoubtable Champlain's adventures but also the activity in this region at this time after Columbus and of the forces in Europe that propelled French exploration in the Americas. I am from Bangor, Maine and I know exactly where Champlain's meeting w the Penobscots took place in September of 1604 thanks to Fischer. I can only imagine.
    • 3/5
      Interesting biography of Champlain which portrays him as a businessman and sympathetic to the native people. The author makes the point that much of Champlain work was to arrange financing to support the colony and this resulting in him crossing the Atlantic very frequently. Quite readable but what is missing is any attempt to describe to what extent, if any, Quebec was a successful investment.
    • 5/5
      - Best yet book overall on Champlain because of story format- helpful footnotes and maps, well researched- a bit thin on the Georgian Bay Watershed and its Aboriginal occupants in coverage of the trunchements and Champlain himself- nice inclusions of Francais with English explanations
    • 5/5
      Everything popular history should be.
    • 5/5
      A Masterpiece of Historical WritingIn this incredible biography of one of Canada's founders, Samuel de Champlain, Pulitzer Prize winning author David Hackett Fischer produces yet another textual masterpiece. "Champlain's Dream" combines a stirring narrative with a dizzying array of historical sources which results in the rare kind of history book that will be read for many generations to come.First off, Fischer's ability to put together source material into a coherent and compelling narrative is nothing short of brilliant. The book reads like a novel with Champlain as the central character. Yes, at times, you can sense a bit of Stockholm syndrome, hero worship, but the writing is so fluid and exciting that anyone can appreciate it regardless of its historiographical content.As for the content, Fischer's major point is to show that Champlain was a visionary. A man who could see what others couldn't. A man who knew what he wanted and went for it. Deeply disturbed by the religious strife in France, Champlain felt that he could establish New France as a bastion of religious pluralism, a place for Huguenots and Catholics alike could put down roots. Champlain's own faith is of major discussion here. Born as a Catholic, most likely converted to Protestantism, and re-affirmed a Catholic later in life. All throughout, however, Champlain had a deep sense of personal piety, Christian values, which governed his dealings with others, and most notably with the natives.As mentioned above, despite Champlain's mostly altruism towards the natives, his faith informed much of his inherent ethnocentrism, writing that "they [Huron] adore and believe in no God nor in any such thing, but live like brute beasts." (p. 340). So while, Champlain respected the natives' traditions, he could look beyond their lack of moral law and monotheistic faith. Paternalism certainly figured into his intentions in helping to "christianize" the natives. If there is any criticism of Fischer, it is that he is dismissive of such condescension. Perhaps, it is anachronistic to polemicize these colonial attitudes, but at the same time it is equally anachronistic to trivialize them.The part of the book that I enjoyed the most were the cultural aspects after the colonies of Quebec and Acadia were firmly established after the critical take-off years of 1633-35. Fischer does a great job outlining and explaining the nuances of language evolution in colonial New France. The sections on the Acadiens or Cajuns, and the Metis were especially well done. Fischer's insight combined with source material has excellent breadth and depth.One of the major themes of "Champlain's Dream" is to emphasis the differences between New France and the settlements of the British in New England and Virginia. Fischer writes: "These Frenchmen did not try to conquer the Indians and copel them to work, as in New Spain. They did not abuse them as in Virginia, or drive them away as in New England. In the region that they began to call Canada, from 1603 to 1635, small colonies of Frenchmen and large Indian nations lived close to one another in a spirit of amite and concorde. They formed a mutual respect for each other's vital interests, and built a relationship of trust that endured for many years." (p. 528).If all of the above was not enough to convince a serious historian why this book is so significant, then you'll be happy to know that Fischer includes a compilation of almost 400 pages of primary and secondary source material as Appendixes. There are excerpts of Champlain's writings (he was a historian of his day), cartographies, photographs, and much more. Throughout the book, Fischer includes many relevant primary source photographs and documents. All of this rich information alone is reason enough to buy this book.Fischer is an old-school historian. You won't find much post-colonial theory, or sociological analysis. He explicitly states that he is happy that the decades of revisionism, postmodernism, historical relativism are mostly behind and that historiography is going back to its roots: to write about the world and the great men who created it.Overall, I can see no reason why anyone would not want to purchase this book. It is a fantastic piece of writing, of history, of fantasy becomes reality. I think Fischer has another award-winning book on his hands, and he deserves it.