Ghost Empire: How the French Almost Conquered North America

After he explored the Great Lakes and the entire Mississippi, Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was murdered by his own men when he led them on a disastrous mission to Texas. But the vast land he claimed for France in 1682 could have become—had it not been for a few twists of history—a French-speaking empire extending more than a thousand miles beyond Quebec. This alternative North America would have been Catholic in religion and granted Native peoples a prominent role.

Philip Marchan...