Canada: A People's History, Vol. 1

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University and an avid outdoor recreationist. She is the
author of several books, including The Mountain Is Moving: Japanese
Women’s Lives, Kurlek and Margaret Laurence: T

Based on the CBC television series of the same name, both volumes of
Canada: A People’s History are “must-owns” for personal libraries
as well as those in schools and universities. They tell the story of a
young but complex nation with deep roots. Volume 1 covers Canada from
its earliest days to the beginning of the industrial age in the 1870:
the country’s original inhabitants, explorers, settlers, New France,
wars over the land, politicians, and the building of Confederation.
Volume 2 starts with the Métis rebellion in the Northwest led by Louie
Riel, and ends with the equally traumatic standoff in 1990 between the
Mohawks and the army at Oka, Quebec. In between, Canada participated in
two world wars, suffered through a traumatic depression, embarked on an
ongoing policy of welcoming immigrants from the rest of the world, and
coped with Quebec nationalism. The closing chapter, “A Nation in
Question,” focuses on the struggles over control of Canada’s vast
resources of oil, lumber, and minerals, and the Berger inquiry of the
1970s.

Don Gillmor is an award-winning journalist and the author The Desire of
Every Living Thing (1999). Achille Michaud is a journalist and
biographer. Pierre Turgeon is a journalist, publisher, and award-winning
author of 14 books. These well-researched volumes are beautifully
illustrated with paintings, maps, and photographs— almost all of them
in color—from a variety of archives. Also included are sidebars
highlighting noteworthy people and events, a bibliography for each
chapter, and an index. Canada: A People’s History brings the Canadian
experience into vivid focus and should not gather dust.