John Nelson, Merchant Adventurer: A Life between Empires [Hardcover]

Richard R. Johnson (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195065050 | ISBN-13: 978-0195065053 | Publication Date: January 31, 1991 | Edition: 1ST

John Nelson was an entrepreneur born in the mid-seventeenth century--a man, in Richard Johnson's words, "operating ahead of the government and settled society from which he came," who "responded to conventions and conditions derived from several different and often competing cultures." For Nelson, this meant trading out of Boston to the French and Indians of Canada, pursuing his family's dreams of the proprietorship of Nova Scotia, and promoting schemes of espionage and military conquest on both sides of the Atlantic. In the course of a long and adventurous life, Nelson served as middleman between Canada and New England; led an uprising that toppled the royal government of Massachusetts in 1689; and passed years in French prisons, including the Bastille, and then at court in London as a player in the complex European diplomacy of the time. Nelson's career reveals in bold colors the political and economic pressures exerted upon colonial America by the expansion and bitter conflict of European empires--he himself complained of being "crusht between the two Crownes." Yet it also shows how one man fashioned a life as "spy, speculator, multinational merchant, memorialist, politician, prisoner, parent, friend, and gentleman." Gracefully written and widely researched, the book is both a fine example of the new Atlantic history and a vivid recounting of the fortunes of an exceptional individual.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A meticulously researched and beautifully crafted book that reveals much about the evolution of new colonial empires in the 18th century....Highly recommended for academic libraries interested in British and American history."--Choice

"This work represents the imaginative sleuthing, felicitous writing, and expansive overview we have come to expect from Richard Johnson. The author sets out 'to recover the life of a man'--John Nelson-- and he succeeds with such empathy and such lucidity that it is hard to put the book down."--Alison Olson, University of Maryland

"Richard Johnson's John Nelson: Merchant Adventurer is a searching and learned study of an important colonial merchant who moved in the orbit of the British Empire and who affected the conduct of affairs in French, Acadian, and New England circles. The book succeeds as biography and history, weaving together trans-Atlantic policy, business, local politics, and the life of its subject. It is in every respect a little gem."--Robert Middlekauff, Huntington Library

"Johnson not only offers an engaging and insightful account of the fortune and misfortune of a merchant, revolutionary, spy, and prisoner of war, but also reveals how Nelson's personal links between empires were crushed by the solidifying ambitions of English, French, and colonial governments."--Ian K. Steele, University of Western Ontario

"The biography is a model of research in English, Canadian, and American archives. Johnson sheds bright new light onto a corner of history of empires usually in deep shadows, and he does so with grace and judgment."--American Historical review

About the Author

Richard R. Johnson is at University of Washington, Seattle.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1ST edition (January 31, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195065050
• ISBN-13: 978-0195065053
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,654,758 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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