Pathfinders of the West

Fur trading and the struggle over credit for exploration drive Agnes C. Laut's account of the North American Northwest. Her foreword argues that Pierre Esprit Radisson and Médard Chouart Groseillers deserve a larger place in histories of the region. She explains how explorers' journals, archival papers and her own knowledge of the terrain inform her reconstruction of their routes. The book also covers La Vérendrye, Lewis and Clark, and other figures associated with western exploration.

The narrative gives these disputes a practical setting of ships, forts, ice and rival trading interests. In one episode, Radisson returns to English service and sails for Hudson Bay, while Jean Groseillers struggles to protect a French trading post. Laut places documentary notes alongside an adventure-driven account of precarious alliances. Readers interested in exploration history can examine both the events she recounts and the evidence she uses to challenge earlier writers.