Tuesday Tome - North Country

North Country: The Making of Minnesota by Mary Lethert Wingerd is a beautiful book I've been living with for a few weeks, and will continue to live with for a few months. It's a lot to take in, so I'm taking it nice and slow. Most days I read somewhere between three to ten pages. I'm currently finishing up the second chapter which begins with this paragraph:

As the eighteenth century dawned, the Upper Mississippi and the western Great Lakes were beyond the edge of European empires. Though geographers in London, Paris, and Madrid might redraw their maps of North America to reflect the spoils of European wars, in reality the Dakotas and Ojibwes were the masters of the land that would become Minnesota. Europeans who ventured into Indian country to reap the riches of its furs trod carefully on this alien soil. Their small parties of adventurers had no real power in the midst of thousands of Native people; moreover, they were weeks, if not months, away from their provisioning points. Survival itself, let alone success, depended on the goodwill of Indian trading partners. Thus, of necessity, traders schooled themselves in Native customs and , living among the Indians, adopted many of their ways.

I can't say enough about the quality of this book. Not only is it well-written and beautifully illustrated, but the binding, format, and paper quality are all first rate. This is a book made to enjoy and reference for years to come.

Wingerd's approach to the narrative is nuanced and thoughtful with a writing style that is both engaging and unassuming. The complexities of Minnesota history have often been obscured by romanticized legends, traditions, and stories told from the ethnocentric perspective of European settlers. Wingerd goes deeper to reveal the precolonial indigenous culture, their earliest contact with the French and the British, and the ensuing intricacies of economics, fur trade, treaties, intermarriage, cultural exchange, and politics.

Wingerd's text is accompanied by one-hundred-forty-one plates of illustrations, photos, maps, and works of art. Most of the illustration pages are printed in color on glossy high-quality paper. These illustrations, chosen and captioned by Kirsten Delegard, really make the book come alive as they depict the places, people, and events described in the narrative.

This book should be in the library of anyone who wants to know and understand Minnesota history. I'm very glad to have finally added it to mine.