Fortune and La Tour: The Civil War in Acadia. 2nd ed.

Margaret Conrad is a professor of history at Acadia University. She is
the author of Intimate Relations: Family and Community in Planter Nova
Scotia, 1759–1800, and Making Adjustments: Change and Continuity in
Planter Nova Scotia, 1759–1800 and the co

First published in 1983, Fortune and La Tour has received widespread
critical acclaim. Its author managed the rare feat of producing history
that is both well researched and lucidly written. MacDonald’s
accomplishment is especially to be commended because of the paucity of
sources and the complexity of her subject. Between 1635 and 1650, Acadia
(now Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) was wracked by a civil war between
two rival French claimants for control over the region. Mi’kmaq, New
England, English, Scottish, and French characters figure prominently in
a drama that reveals much about the North Atlantic world at a time when
nation–states were only beginning to coalesce and communications were
considerably less reliable than they are today. In MacDonald’s
account, Charles de Menou d’Aulnay comes off as the villain of the
piece, but both he and his adversary Charles de Saint Etienne de La Tour
are blamed for ruining Acadia. The senseless destruction of forts and
communities and the endless intrigues on both sides of the Atlantic
meant that Acadia failed to keep up with other areas of North America in
investment and settlement.

MacDonald does a masterful job of describing the context in which this
contest for power developed and leads the reader sure-footedly through
the twists and turns in La Tour’s fortunes. La Tour immigrated to
Acadia when only in his early teens. His three “diplomatic”
marriages—the first to the daughter of a Mi’kmaq chief, the second
to a French woman who died defending his fort on the St. John River, and
the third to the widow of his dead rival—provide readers a glimpse of
the way power was orchestrated in La Tour’s class and culture. A
page-turner to the end, this book is quite simply a gem. In this second
edition, the author has made a few changes to the text to accommodate
scholarly findings since 1983, but unfortunately the bibliography has
not been brought up to date.