Western Canada: An Outline History

A.A. den Otter is a history professor at Memorial University of
Newfoundland and co-author of Lethbridge: A Centennial History.

As stated in his title, J. Arthur Lower has written an outline of western Canadian history. Although interpretation of the facts can never be avoided, Lower has provided a fairly balanced overview. His account is no romanticized tale of cowboys and Indians, nor a personal re-interpretation of accepted historiography, but a workman-like survey written in plain, undramatic prose.

After the mandatory brief geographical survey, Lower quickly dismisses native culture in order to get to the story of the white man, the explorers, fur traders, and early settlers. He briefly sketches the expansion and clashes of the Hudson’s Bay and North West Companies. But, obviously, Lower is anxious to get to the settlement period; and not until he reaches the 1870s does he slacken the pace to give deeper views of the CPR and other railways, the police, and the boom years at the turn of the century. Moving quickly through the war years, Lower lingers in the Depression era and subsequently guides his readers through World War II and the post-war years, into modern days.

No outline history can cover all the details, and it is pointless to fault Lower for sins of omission. If the book has any noteworthy flaw, it is its choppy style and organization. For example, Lower takes the story of western steamboats from the 1850s right into the twentieth century; he does not integrate this form into the whole development of transportation in western Canada. In this case, the disjointed impression created by Lower is unfortunate but not serious. This can not be said when Lower has the prairie bison disappear well before he deals with the Indian treaties; as a consequence, he loses sight of the impact of starvation on the Dominion’s treaty and reservations policy. The topical approach, followed throughout the book, destroys the sense of coherence and unity in history. Consequently, Western Canada: An Outline History will not be read for sheer enjoyment but rather as a reference book for those needing a quick overview of an issue.