A History of the Original Peoples of Northern Canada. Rev. ed.

Peter Goodchild, an editor and author, teaches ESL in Japan.

Most texts on Canadian aboriginal society are either too elementary or
too technical to satisfy the educated general reader. Crowe’s book
manages to bridge that gap.

The book needs closer copyediting; without dwelling on such esoterica
as the tautology of “noise pollution,” one might at least impose
uniformity in the capitalization of key terms. The epilogue in
particular seems hastily written. (And yet this is already a “revised
edition.”)

A second problem is that there is a tendency to simply recite data: for
example, the third chapter, “A Variety of Peoples,” leads us from
one culture to another in a manner that suggests a dreary lack of
variety. The solution might be to discard the mechanical approach, to
leave out the complete descriptions, and to dwell only on the
significant differences.

Before the next edition of this book is printed, it needs to be
attacked with a large pair of scissors and a roll of adhesive tape,
wielded by an editor with a flair for the dramatic. But the book
contains a story that is well worth reading.