A Few Acres of Snow: The Saga of the French and Indian Wars
by Robert Leckie

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Book Reviews of A Few Acres of Snow: The Saga of the French and Indian Wars

Book Review: Interesting and lively narrative; a couple of reservations.
Summary: 4 Stars

However, there are some irritating aspects. First, on at least two occasions material is repeated, sometimes word-for-word, in different chapters (compare the final three paragraphs on page 100 with the last two paragraphs on page 158 and the first paragraph on page 159, and also page 126 and pages 165 to 166). This appears to be at least rather sloppy editing, and gives the reader some problems in keeping the succession of events straight.

Second, Leckie seems to be somewhat prejudiced against women. He names Queen Elizabeth I "the Pirate Queen," as if England alone engaged in somewhat less than legal behavior on the seas, and he devotes one of the few footnotes in the book to the following tirade:

"Permit the author a single digression on this subject [women in combat]: In World War II the chief German ace, Erich Hartmann, shot down no less than 352 enemy planes. Our chief ace, Richard Bong, had 40 kills. What would happen to an American female fighter pilot challenging either one of these superior gentlemen of the skies? Obviously, she would lose her life, and the U.S. Air Force would lose not only the time and money wasted in training her as well, but also an aircraft valued at $36 million." I translate this argument as: "An average female fighter pilot challenging the best aces of WWII would 'obviously' lose. Therefore, it is ridiculous to think of using women as combat pilots." One could equally well argue that an average male fighter pilot challenging one of these aces would also probably lose-but this does not cause Leckie to suggest that men should not be allowed into combat.

These two characteristics of the book kept me wondering what other prejudices and padding I might have missed.

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