Llama Book Suggestion Bleg

The Death of General Wolfe by Benjamin West

Can anyone out there recommend a good, solid overview of the French and Indian War (known to our overseas readers as the Seven Years' War)?

Even when I was a kid, this period of North American history was taught pretty much as a footnote and only in the context of setting up the conditions for the American Revolution. These days, I don't even think it gets mentioned in school.

Nonetheless, it's an important and fascinating piece of history (as well as a savage one). I've got numerous books that touch on various aspects of it, but none that really draw it all together. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

YIPS from Steve:

Oddly enough, in the past couple of years there have been three excellent books on King Philips War which was a full blown devastating Civil War in New England in the mid 1670s: Jill LePore's The Name of War: King Philip's War and the Origins of American Identity; Eric Schultz, King Philip's War: The History and Legacy of America's Forgotten Conflict; and James David Drake, King Philip's War: Civil War in New England, 1674-1675.

But you are right---there hasn't been a good popular history of the Seven Years War in probably a generation. There are, however, dozens of spiffy monographs on fish mongering in various neighborhoods in Lowell, Massachusetts, in April of 1788, (of course with different books dedicated each to gay, left-handed, wiccan, and midget fish mongerers, not to mention those cutting edge works demonstrating that Mercy Otis Warren and Abagail Adams were lesbian lovers) so you know the professional historians are earning their keep.

UPDATE: I've taken Dan's advice and ordered Parkman's book. I'm also picking up a copy of a more recent history of the war by Fred Anderson. I'll let you know what I think of them.