Patterns of Vengeance: Crosscultural Homicide in the North American Fur Trade

Calif.?]: Ninth Judicial Circuit Historical Society, [Pasadena, 1999. First Edition. Octavo with red and tan cloth boards with gilt title stamping; 248 pages; index; 24 cm Near fine with slightest edgwear to boards; green sticker on front pastedown. Hardcover. ISBN: 096350861X

"This is a study of issues, not a history of events. It asks why things happened, not what happened or what were the consequences. It is concerned with a single, particular, and very unusual action, retaliation for homicide committed in a rosscultural environment. Patterns of vengeance are studied, not the "historical' question of how vengeance for homicide evolved from its imposition by the first fur trappers or Hudson's Bay Company's traders, acting in a legal wilderness, to the implementation of state-imposed law. The objective is to study principles of law as they were applied at a particular stage in multicultural history." --Preface by the author