Customer Reviews

A Majority of Scoundrels: An Informal History of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company

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My favorite comment about this book comes from the author himself. When criticised for his lack of credentials by the academic historians, Berry replied, in defense of what is still generally held to be the best book on the subject: "History is the fiction that the historians write."

Never have I seen such a poorly proof-read edition of so fine a book. It's criminal. Page 61 has legendary mountain man Hugh Glass being killed by hostile Indians in the "winter of 1932-33." That would have made the poor guy over 140 years old at the time. And that's just the beginning. There are over 15 typos in the first five chapters alone, which would disqualify this publisher (Comstock Editions) as the operator of a Quick-Copy franchise.

Great book! But you're going to have to track down a much earlier edition in order to appreciate it.

This book chronicles the fur trade era from 1822-1834 through the eyes of William Ashley's men and the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. Such giants of the times like Jed Smith, Jim Bridger, the Sublettes, Tom Fitzpatrick and many others are given thorough examination of their roles in attempting to capture the fur trade business, along with their exploration accomplishments of the American west. The cutthroat competition from the Hudson's Bay Company, Astor's American Fur Company and the Missouri Fur Company, not to mention Indian hostilities, hunger, thirst and the always present forces of nature, made the fur trade business a precarious way of life. If one is not familiar with the geography of the west, it would be helpful to have a map handy as there is not one in the book. There were a few typos which can be overlooked, but there is one historical blunder I must point out. This is on page 50. It is mentioned that Vanderburgh and Carson were exempted from Leavenworth's criticism of the Missouri Fur Company's handling of the Aricara battle. This is NOT Kit Carson as the index states it is. This man was Kit's older half brother Moses. Other than these few discrepancies, the book was presented very well and was a pleasure to read.

Having long ago lost my original copy from the '70's, I'm glad to see this classic back in print. Fully rounded with details of Jim Bridger, Hugh Glass and others on the world economic canvas painted by John Astor, Berry gives us the complete picture. It should be on the short list for any course in American history along with the Lewis and Clark journals.

The best book I've ever read for giving the complete picture of the fur trade out West. Not only the unique and colorful individuals, but the international scene that sets the background or framework for the times. Gives info on Hudson's Bay, trappers from Santa Fe, John Jacob Astor, as well as the St. Louis firms. Highly recommended for anyone interested in those exciting times. Shows who REALLY opened the West.

A very thorough examination of the life and times of the hardy men who blazed the trails

Subtitle: An Informal History of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company. The years covered are 1822 to 1834. This book, copyrighted in 1961, is an excellent popular history of the American mountain men of the period. The author's style is awake and intelligent. He does not extemporize. The book is carefully researched and he is careful to stay within the boundaries of what he knows or to admit when he goes beyond it. For example, in telling the story of Hugh Glass, he refuses to speculate on why John Fitzgerald and Jim Bridger abandoned him.

"No one will ever know why Fitzgerald and Bridger abandoned Hugh Glass. Speculation is virtually useless, because the whole drama is something quite beyond our comprehension. It has been fictionalized in several ways and explained in several others. I have no theory. They did it, and there began an ordeal that remains one of the most incredible feats of the human animal ever recorded. (56)

For those who don't know, Glass was severely mauled and bitten by a grizzly bear. Fitzgerald and Bridger were left behind with him, to stay till he recovered or died. They stayed with him, they said, for five days. They said he'd died and they'd buried him. He showed up later, quite alive and ready to kill them for what they'd done. They'd "left him alone, without a rifle, without knife, without even the fixens from his possible sack." His story of survival is one of the classics of the period.

The book has three parts: [1] Ashley and His Men 1822-1826, [2] Smith, Jackson & Sublette 1826- 1830, [3] The Rocky Mountain Fur Company 1830-1834.

"The men of the fur trade - the mountain men - were probably the most independent, tough-minded, asocial bunch of nonconformists you are likely to run across. The society in which they lived was virtually anarchic; every man his own conscience, every man assuming the responsibility for his own actions. As a group, they lived more nearly in a rule-less society than any other I can think of. They were aggressively independent as individuals; they knuckled under to no man, and personal freedom was the principal good they sought." (300)

"To most of modern America, this is not a congenial attitude. We put our faith in the group, in the society, in the state. We organize committees and conduct brainstorming sessions out of some weird conviction that if you get enough third-rate minds working together a first-rate idea is bound to come out of it. The individual impulse is smashed and perverted. Even the normally healthy impulse to freedom becomes converted into a stupidly negative rebellion against society, producing nothing. When the impulse to freedom is thus converted into a purely negative thing, it becomes simple fraudulence; an aping of society, but in the reverse. The superficiality of the society is equaled by the superficiality of the grandstanding rebels; and both derive from the same weakness, a lack of any strong sense of individual worth and responsibility.

"This was the main thing the mountain men had that made it worth while for them to live the kind of life they did; a massively strong sense of the worth of the individual, and his independence. It is one of the main reasons we find them difficult to comprehend today." (301)