Empire and Frontier

"Covering more than a decade of warfare and diplomacy, Mr. Marquis combines a brisk narrative style with thoughtful analysis to offer a well-crafted account of complex events. Alongside vivid descriptions of political upheaval and brutal backwoods combat, Empire and Frontier contains compelling studies of figures such as Jacob Leisler." 

"Marquis reveals a mostly forgotten frontier war and relates how it shaped the American Revolution and modern American life."

"A solid history revives a largely forgotten war."

"Training a story-teller’s imaginative eye on period documents and other historians’ research, Samuel Marquis brings to life three seventeenth-century characters most readers will have never heard of: the New York colonist Peter Schuyler, the mixed-race 'interpretress' Hilletie van Olinda, and the Haudenosaunee war captain known only as 'Laurence the Mohawk.' The result is a compelling tale about the colonial world that Indigenous, Dutch, English, and French powers bloodily created together. Fast-paced, quirky, and opinionated, this is a book to be noticed."

"Fascinating and richly detailed, Empire and Frontier vividly brings back to life an eighteenth century America where wars were fought with tomahawks and smooth-bore muskets, and combatants travelled by snowshoes and in birchbark canoes. But out of this polyglot and often brutal frontier came the beginnings of a new kind of politics, for a brand-new kind of nation."

"Samuel Marquis has peopled his vivid history of King William’s War with memorable characters, including a fascinating Mohawk/Dutch interpreter named Hilletie van Olinda, as well as better-known politicians, military leaders, and even pirates. He blends the stories of these individuals to reveal how this conflict—one of many during the generations when Europeans sought to control eastern North America—devastated the lives of those who endured its horrors. This fast-paced narrative shows how the Haudenosaunee controlled the fate of European colonists who had been desperate to create profitable communities in the Northeast since Henry Hudson sailed upriver in 1609."

“In Empire and Frontier, Samuel Marquis delivers a gripping, well-researched narrative that illuminates one of the more overlooked chapters in early American history: the unlikely alliance between Dutch-American frontiersman Colonel Peter Schuyler—mayor of Albany, Indian Affairs commissioner, and militia leader—and the Five Nations of the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee). Marquis humanizes this cultural collision without romanticizing the era, bringing to life high-stakes diplomacy, friendships, and raw battlefield realities that helped check French expansion and shape the future contours of North America. Vivid and insightful, this book puts you on the gritty edge of the frontier.”

"In a riveting historical narrative, Samuel Marquis sheds much-appreciated light on an era that is opaque or even unknown to many readers of American history: the violent clashes and complex diplomacy between European-American colonists and Native Haudenosaunee peoples at the end of the 17th century. Taking a detailed look at Peter Schuyler and other figures central to the period, Marquis creates a rich narrative interwoven with individual heroism, wartime brutality, political subterfuge, and cultural interconnection. Students or enthusiasts of early American history will find this a valuable addition to the canon, as will any reader with an interest in those who helped forge our nation and the risks they took, and the sacrifices they made, along the way."

"Empire and Frontier tells the gripping story of the violent struggle for imperial supremacy in North America between England and France during King William’s War in the 1690s. It’s a highly momentous tale, filled with deadly skirmishes and shifting alliances with local Indian tribes along the Albany frontier. Much of this fascinating narrative is told from the perspective of Peter Schuyler, a distinguished Dutch-American soldier and politician, who played a crucial role in maintaining the 'Covenant Chain' with the Iroquois Confederacy. Samuel Marquis reveals, in meticulous detail, how invaluable this Iroquois partnership was in protecting English settlements in the Province of New York and the northeastern colonies. This fine book is essential reading for anyone interested in great power rivalry during the seventeenth century." 

"Empire and Frontier combines the charm and accessibility of biographical writing and the analytical probing of academic scholarship. By narrating the forging of the Anglo-Iroquois military alliance with a focus on the dramatic interactions between captivating individuals, Samuel Marquis does a great service to the field of diplomatic history. This biographical approach highlights the role that individuals play in shaping the fates of nations."

"In Empire and Frontier, Samuel Marquis recovers a pivotal but long-neglected chapter of early United States history—a fragile alliance between English colonists and the Five Nations of the Iroquois during King William's War. Marquis writes with the narrative drive of the best popular historians, and his eye for character, human complexity, and cross-cultural nuance makes this essential reading for anyone interested in how empires were made and unmade on the American frontier."