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Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite
Samuel Marquis’s Empire and Frontier is set in 1689 New York, where Peter Schuyler serves as mayor of Albany as the province faces rebellion following England’s Glorious Revolution. Everything changes when New York City merchant Jacob Leisler seizes Fort James, claiming provincial power in support of the new Protestant monarchy. Schuyler quickly realizes that Leisler’s reach threatens Albany’s independence as the northern city prepares for war with France. As French troops gather in Canada, Schuyler works beside Lawrence, a Mohawk war captain whose people belong to the Five Nations of the Iroquois under the Covenant Chain with the English colonies. Their partnership links Albany’s defense to the wider conflict as rival governments seek allegiance across New York as imperial ambitions press against the northern frontier.
Samuel Marquis’s Empire and Frontier follows Peter Schuyler as war reshapes New York. The author does a beautiful job with period details, breathing life into seventeenth-century North America. Given the context that we are reading on colonialism, I found Schuyler to be a mixed bag when it comes to genuine likability. Whatever way a reader falls, there's no question that he is incredibly interesting. The author develops him into a fully fleshed-out historical figure, and his determination to hold his place within New York’s political order is palpable. It's not an easy goal, especially when his alliances place him inside competing colonial interests. The author shines in his cinematic prose and descriptions, presenting the borderlands as almost a character in their own right, from rain-soaked La Prairie in 1691, to the Mohawk River near Little Falls in 1700, where spring water slows the journey to Onondaga. Intelligently written and meticulously researched, readers who enjoy sophisticated historical non-fiction will adore this.
