When Skins Were money: a History of the Fur Trade

by James A. Hanson

215 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Eric Graves · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was pretty good but I found two flaws.

1: The author claims at the beginning and the end that the fur trade did not lead to the extinction, or near extinction, of animals and yet the entire book works against his theory. If he were to change it to ‘regulated/quota fur trade does not lead to extinction’ his argument would have been better.

2: He did not cite any of his facts. As a historian it is important to do so. I would have liked to know where he got some of his numbers on the fur trade.

Otherwise it was a good book deserving 4 stars. The author opened a lot of doors to explore.

[Daniel Farabaugh · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a solid history of the fur trade although the author is working too hard to present it in a positive light. He tries to divorce it from the general destruction of the natives which is a bit of a stretch. The same is true when in the epilogue where he presents the most extreme elements of the animal rights' movement as the only objections to fur trapping. Otherwise, he does a nice job highlighting the nature of the trade and those involved.

[Sherri Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting book. I found some facts that I am not sure are correct but overall not a bad book.