Breaking the Backcountry: The Seven Years War in Virginia and Pennsylvania 1754-1765

This book brings a new perspective on the overall setting and conditions surrounding the French and Indian War. Using original research from archives in the U.S. and Britain, Ward delivers a fresh analysis as well as an engaging explication of events.

He describes the impetus, progress and devastating effects of the war as it played out in the backcountry. He combines Indian history, social history and military history to present a complete picture of the competing interests and struggles facing the people engaged in this conflict. Ward illuminates how the backcountry colonies not only played a critical part in the war itself, but opened the door to some of the definitive elements of the next few decades – western expansion, widespread fear and hatred of Indians, free colonial trading, a new spirit of self-reliance, and, most crucially, the Revolutionary War and the evolution of a new nation.

A fascinating, all encompassing read.
329pp., biblio, notes, paperback, $27.95.