



The result, as laid out in Dolin's new book "Fur, Fortune, and Empire: The Epic History of the Fur Trade in America," was a major boost in the evolution of the colonies into a powerful new player on the world stage. From the 17th century right on up to the Gilded Age, the developed world's appetite for fur and its unique qualities made the new continent, with its wealth of fur-bearing wildlife, a seemingly inexhaustible resource. Historian Eric Jay Dolin brilliantly argues that the trade in animal skins turned colonial America into a tumultuous frontier where global powers battled for control.
