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This review of Gilles Havard’s Histoire des coureurs de bois: Amérique du Nord, 1600-1840 presents the book as an example of a new kind of scholarship that takes on a massive topic, patiently peels it open layer by layer, exposes it to penetrating microhistorical analysis, and finally offers a comprehensive picture that places it in the broadest possible historical context. By doing so, Havard manages to provide a wide-ranging view of these independent fur traders as important historical actors who sometimes worked to advance France’s imperial ambitions in North America, sometimes worked against them, and sometimes worked exclusively for their own benefit. Eschewing the thesis-driven framework that currently dominates North American historiography, Havard is able to develop multiple important themes, moving nimbly from imperial, colonial, economic, social, cultural, gender, and environmental histories to histories of the state, technology, and memory. Histoire des coureurs de bois shows in practice how conceptual creativity can be balanced with detailed and comprehensive analysis, without compromising either.