Listening to the Fur Trade uses the written record, oral history, and material culture to reveal histories of sound and music in an era before sound recording. The trading post was a noisy nexus, populated by a polyglot crowd of highly mobile people from different national, linguistic, religious, cultural, and class backgrounds. They found ways to interact every time they met, and facilitating material interests and survival went beyond the simple exchange of goods. Listening to the Fur Trade uncovers the songs and ceremonies of First Nations people, the paddling songs of the voyageurs, and the fiddle music and step-dancing at the trading posts that provided its pulse.

Dr. Daniel R. Laxer graduated with his B.A. in History and Music from the University of Alberta and went on to study histories of music and sound in the fur trade for his M.A. at York University and Ph.D. at the University of Toronto. He has published in numerous academic journals such as Ontario History, The Journal of Canadian Studies, and Material Culture Review. His newly published book is part of the Early Canada / Avant le Canada series of McGill-Queen’s University Press. He currently works as a historical researcher for the Negotiations and Reconciliation Division of Ontario’s Ministry of Indigenous Affairs.  

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