L. F. Tantillo is mainly known for his amazing artwork depicting historical places and scenes in magnificent detail, but here he stretches his talent into a different area, giving us explanations regarding the construction of America's earliest technology. He gives details on fortresses with illustrations of tools, maps, villages, people and miscellaneous items of interest and curiosity. Surveying, setting twenty foot bastion posts into the ground to a depth of five feet, sawing planks by hand, making barrels, hats and trapping beaver are not easy, especially without modern equipment. The historical overview by Charles T. Gehring is an additional gift and the commentary by Peter A. Douglas enlightens us as to why the design of fortifications underwent a radical change when the development of more modern weaponry forced it. This gem opens a window onto the old "Suyt Riviere", explaining a lot as to why the colonists from the Netherlands could not hold their claimed territory in Delaware and New York, and why we speak English here today. ( )