Pioneers of France in the New World: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Pioneers of France in the New World, credited to Francis Parkman, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Pioneers of France in the New World by Francis Parkman (1823 - 1893) Vol 1 of Parkman's series "France and England in North America." Read by LibriVox volunteers, proofed by Heart of Texas, and produced by Karen Merline. Parkman (1823-1893) has been hailed as one of America's first great historians and as a master of narrative history. Numerous translations have spread the books around the world. The American writer and literary critic Edmund Wilson (1895-1972) in his book O Canada (1965), described Parkman’s France and England in North America in these terms: The clarity, the momentum and the color of the first volumes of Parkman’s narrative are among the most brilliant achievements of the writing of history as an art. Parkman's biases, particularly his attitudes about nationality, race, and especially Native Americans, has generated criticism. The Canadian historian W. J. Eccles harshly criticized what he perceived as Parkman's bias against France and Roman Catholic policies, as well as what he considered Parkman's misuse of French language sources. However, Parkman's most severe detractor was the American historian Francis Jennings, an outspoken and controversial critic of the European colonization of North America, who went so far as to characterize Parkman's work as "fiction" and Parkman himself as a "liar". Unlike Jennings and Eccles, many modern historians have found much to praise in Parkman's work even while recognizing his limitations. Calling Jennings' critique "vitriolic and unfair," the historian Robert S. Allen has said that Parkman's history of France and England in North America "remains a rich mixture of history and literature which few contemporary scholars can hope to emulate". The historian Michael N. McConnell, while acknowledging the historical errors and racial prejudice in Parkman's book The Conspiracy of Pontiac, has said: "...it would be easy to dismiss Pontiac as a curious perhaps embarrassing artifact of another time and place. Yet Parkman's work represents a pioneering effort; in several ways he anticipated the kind of frontier history now taken for granted...." Parkman's masterful and evocative use of language remains his most enduring and instructive legacy. This is Vol 1 of Parkman's series "France and England in North America." The LibriVox recording does not include footnotes, many of which are extended quotations from original French sources: See project Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3721 for footnotes. (Summary adapted from Wikipedia by Karen Merline)

Recording facts

• Recording title: Pioneers of France in the New World
• Author credits: Francis Parkman
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 30
• Listed recording duration: 10:22:40

Catalogue topics

• audio books
• history
• American history
• exploration

Opening tracks: first 24 of 30

1. 00 - Introduction — 11:05
2. 01 - PT 1 HUGENOTS IN FLORIDA: Ch 01 (1512-1561) Early Spanish Adventure — 12:36
3. 02 - Ch 02 (1550-1558) Villegagnon — 17:54
4. 03 - Ch 03 (1562, 1563) Jean Ribaut — 22:42
5. 04 - Ch 04 (1564) Laudonniere — 32:51
6. 05 - Ch 05 (1564, 1565) Conspiracy — 14:34
7. 06 - Ch 06 (1564, 1565) Famine - War - Succor — 29:13
8. 07 - Ch 07 pt 1 (1565) Menendez — 23:44
9. 08 - Ch 07 pt 2 (1565) Menendez — 23:10
10. 09 - Ch 08 (1565) Massacre of the Heretics — 24:40
11. 10 - Ch 09 (1565-1567) Charles IX - Phillip II — 8:00
12. 11 - Ch 10 (1567-1583) Dominique de Gourgues — 28:45
13. 12 - PT 2 SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN & HIS ASSOCIATES WITH A VIEW OF EARLIER FRENCH ADVENTURE IN AMERICA, AND THE LEGENDS OF THE NORTHERN COASTS: Ch 01 pt 1 (1488 - 1543) Champlain: Early French Adventure in North America — 24:35
14. 13 - Ch 01 pt 2 (1488 - 1543) Champlain: Early French Adventure in North America — 32:35
15. 14 - Ch 02 (1542-1604) LaRoche - Champlain - de Monts — 24:53
16. 15 - Ch 03 (1604, 1605) Acadia Occupied — 22:20
17. 16 - Ch 04 (1605-1607) Lescarbot and Champlain — 30:35
18. 17 - Ch 05 (1610, 1611) The Jesuits and Their Patroness — 17:04
19. 18 - Ch 06 (1611, 1612) Jesuits in Arcadia — 18:16
20. 19 - Ch 07 (1613) la Saussaye - Argall — 15:04
21. 20 - Ch 08 (1613-1615) Ruin of French Acadia — 14:54
22. 21 - Ch 09 (1608, 1609) Champlain at Quebec — 19:53
23. 22 - Ch 10 (1609) Lake Champlain — 18:35
24. 23 - Ch 11 (1610-1612) War - Trade - Discovery — 20:10

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This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.