Colin G. Calloway is Professor of History and Samson Occom
Professor of Native American Studies at Dartmouth College. His many
books on early American history include New Worlds for All:
Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America and The
American Revolution in Indian Country. His most recent work, One
Vast Winter Count: The Native American West Before Lewis and Clark
(2003), received the Ray Allen Billington
Prize, the Merle Curti Award, and many other prizes and was named
one of Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year.
"An engrossing, gracefully written volume....Like its companion
titles in Oxford University Press' 'Pivotal Moments in American
History' project, this book stresses the power of contingency and
individual agnacy....The Scratch of a Pen represents a worthy
addition to the series, and a necessary read for anyone interested
in how military-diplomatic events impacted society and culture in
pre-Revolutionary America."--Alan Cate, Parameters
"Well crafted, scholarly, and stimulating, this book offers fresh
perspectives on a signpost year."--Stephen Brumwell, American
Historical Review
"An impressive achievement."--The International History Review
"What makes Calloway's work significant is the way he tells the
story. He covers a vast amount of material in a small amount of
space yet manages to maintain its complex nuances without confusing
the reader or obscuring the event....[A]n excellent introduction to
the complexity of early America. The book will give readers of all
types the opportunity to understand a truly pivotal moment in
American history."--Reviews in American History
"Forget the constitution and the Declaration of Independence: it
was the Treaty of Paris, signed in 1763 at the close of the French
and Indian War, that set the stage for the birth of
America."--Atlantic Monthly
"A colonial revolution, Indian wars for independence, the cultural
survival of a defeated empire...all here brought into sharp focus
by Calloway's illuminating account."--Boston Globe
"A spellbinding tale of a year in American history....In 1763, with
the peace treaty that ended the French and Indian War, France and
Spain handed over all the territory east of the Mississippi, as
well as Canada, to the British. Calloway's enthralling chronicle
follows the lives of settlers, Indians and immigrants as this new
British rule affected them. He demonstrates convincingly that the
seeds of the American Revolution were planted in 1763, as a
near-bankrupt Britain began to impose heavy 'taxation without
representation....' This first-rate cultural history, part of
Oxford's Pivotal Moments in American History series, reveals that
the events of 1763
changed not only the political geography of a nation but also its
cultural geography, as various groups moved from one part of the
country to another."--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Colin Calloway's engaging and absorbing new book makes a
persuasive case for adding 1763 to the short list of watershed
years--among them 1492, 1607, 1776, 1861, 1929, and 1941--that have
shaped America. Moving with ease from London and Paris to Detroit
and New Orleans, from Indian villages to frontier settlements, from
glorious visions to grubby realities, The Scratch of a Pen somehow
never loses sight of the colorful cast of characters occupying
center stage in that tumultuous time. These peoples come vividly to
life in a fascinating tale full of profound consequences--intended,
and otherwise--for the shape of things to come."--James H. Merrell,
author of
Into the American Woods
"In this compact and beautifully crafted book, Colin Calloway shows
how mid-eighteenth-century North America stood at the vortex of
global conflict and how the Seven Years War reshaped the
continent's human as well political geography. By seeing epic
events through Native American eyes, as well as through the eyes of
the Spanish, French, and English, Calloway captures the full
continent-wide drama triggered by the end of the 'great war for
empire' in 1763. A
resoundingly successful book."--Gary B. Nash, author of The Unknown
American Revolution: The Unruly Birth of Democracy and the Struggle
to Create America
"The year 1763 was a pivotal one in American history, witnessing a
peace treaty that set in motion enormous changes. The Scratch of a
Pen looks at how 1763 laid the groundwork for the American
Revolution, but it is far richer than that. With striking clarity
and graceful prose, Colin Calloway explores every nook and cranny
of this extraordinary year, revealing blunders, deceit, treachery,
tragedies, and triumphs that would in time turn the world
upside
down and change America forever."--John Ferling, author of A Leap
in the Dark and Adams vs. Jefferson
"Calloway's work promises to deepen both academic and popular
interest in the Seven Years War and
eighteenth-century-America."--Andrew Denson, Indiana Magazine of
History
"This book will enlighten many people who thought they had a
reasonably solid grasp of this period in American
history."--Kenneth J. Moynihan, The Historian
"For a synthesis of such great breadth, it is not only remarkable
coherent, but elegant...It demonstrates that greater attention
should be paid not only to the diplomatic encounters between
Europeans and natives, but among native groups."--Karim M. Tiro,
Diplomatic History
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