David Hackett Fischer

I just saw David Hackett Fischer speak at the University Club in Chicago, about his new book about Champlain. I got that one plus Albion’s Seed, Paul Revere’s Ride and Washington’s Crossing signed. I got to ask one question — whether he was going to ever finish American Plantations, and whether it would provoke the same PC outrage that Albion’s Seed had. He answered, in effect “yes” to the first one, and ducked the second one.

When he was signing my books I asked him if he had read Walter Russell Mead’s books, God and Gold and Special Providence. Fischer, remarkably, had never heard of him. I wrote the titles on the back of a business card. I asked him if he knew of the work of Alan Macfarlane, and he said yes but did not get the sense he knew Macfarlane’s work well. I said he really ought to look at the Modern World series, which really provides a lot of the background for Albion’s Seed. My time ran out then. My next two questions would have been about The Anglosphere Challenge and The Cousins’ Wars, but alas, no time.

DHF seems like a very decent chap.

His next book will be a comparative study of the USA and New Zealand. That could be good.