For over two hundred years no Indian force in America was so powerful and feared as the Iroquois League. Throughout two thirds of this continent, the cry of "The Iroquois are coming!" was enough to demoralize entire tribes. But these Iroquois occupied and controlled a vast wilderness empire which beckoned like a precious gem to foreign powers. France and England secured toeholds and suddenly each was claiming as its own this land of the Iroquois. Alliance with the Indians was the key; whichever power controlled them could destroy the other.

Wilderness Empire is the gripping narrative of the eighteenth-century struggle of these two powers to win for themselves the allegiance of the Indians in a war for territorial dominance, yet without letting these Indians know that the prize of the war would be this very Iroquois land. It is the story of English strength hamstrung by incredible incompetence, of French power sapped by devastating corruption. It is the story of the English, Indian and French individuals whose lives intertwine in the greatest territorial struggle in American history—the French and Indian War.

Allan Eckert has molded the raw facts of history into a moving, perceptive and penetrating narrative filled with the grace and pathos, action and beauty, humanity and savagery of which survival on the American frontier was all a part. A seasoned writer, noted naturalist and historian, he is author of The great Auk, Wild Season, and The Crossbreed. Now Wilderness Empire, comes as the second work in his great series "The Winning of America." The Frontiersmen, the first volume in the series, was the thrilling narrative of America's first major thrust westward. It won such enthusiastic acclaim from critics across the nation as:

"Eckert has written a remarkably dramatic history ... the most complete history of the Northwest Territory ever to appear, and written it well, indeed. This book is one of those rare volumes we hate to finish reading, if only because a great adventure ends for the reader on the last page. We look forward to the next volume."

—Mankind magazine

"No matter how many histories or novels you may have read, you will not have read one that makes you feel and sense so vividly what the struggle was like."

—Boston Herald Traveler