Cape Bretoniana: An Annotated Bibliography

Laurie C.C. Stanley-Blackwell is chair of the History Department at St.
Francis Xavier University. She is co-author of Historic Antigonish: Town
and County.

This annotated bibliography contains a treasure trove of information on
Cape Breton’s history, culture, politics, and economy. In 1978, an
earlier version titled Cape Breton: A Bibliography was published by the
Nova Scotia Department of Education. That modest 114-page listing of
publications relating to Cape Breton up to 1976 bears little resemblance
to its more comprehensive successor, a voluminous 789-page bibliography
with no fewer than 6,221 entries.

Cape Bretoniana is organized into 11 broad thematic and chronological
categories—General, Mi’kmaq, Early History, French Regime, British
Regime, Canadian Regime, Coal and Steel, Local, Religion, Culture, and
Genealogy—and encompasses titles for books, journal and magazine
articles, and postgraduate theses published before 1999. Each entry
contains a full bibliographical citation as well as a brief annotation.
Despite his stated objective of comprehensiveness, editor Brian
Tennyson, chose deliberately to exclude such sources as brochures,
newspaper articles, undergraduate theses, book reviews, films, and
records. The information is presented in an easily accessible format.
Both author and subject indexes are included.

The ample scope and size of this volume graphically testify to the
vitality and productivity unleashed by Cape Breton’s recent
“cultural renaissance.” The numerous entries for articles in Cape
Breton’s Magazine affirm our indebtedness to its visionary editor, Ron
Caplan, who has dedicated much of his career to making a permanent
record of the island’s oral history. This volume is also a credit to
the painstaking diligence and dedication of Dr. Tennyson; it is destined
to become an indispensable resource for professional and amateur
researchers alike and a welcome corrective to Cape Breton’s
stereotypical image as an economic backwater and touristic Brigadoon.