The Last Invasion of Canada: The Fenian Raids, 1866-1870

James G. Snell is a history professor at the University of Guelph,
author of In the Shadow of the Law: Divorce in Canada, 1900-1939, and
co-author of The Supreme Court of Canada: History of the Institution.

The Fenian raids of the 1860s are well known in Canadian history. The
Last Invasion presents the military history of those raids.

The product is disappointing. The reason such unimportant military
events deserve or warrant a military study is never made clear in the
book. Nothing of military significance occurs in these raids. While they
were clearly of some import as political events, the author makes no
attempt to go over that well-trodden ground.

The Last Invasion is based almost entirely on printed sources. No new
archival evidence has been uncovered. Instead, what Senior offers is a
detailed version of the standard account of the raids. The story is
entirely descriptive, providing no analysis of any of the underlying
issues or themes and asking no fundamental questions. The sources cited
fail to include some of the more recent literature impinging on the
topic.