A Concise History of Canada (Cambridge Concise Histories) by Professor Margaret Conrad (28-May-2012) Paperback

Cambridge Concise Histories

by Margaret Conrad

Margaret Conrad's history of Canada begins with a challenge to its readers. What is Canada? What makes up this diverse, complex, and often contested nation-state? What was its founding moment? And who are its people? Drawing on her many years of experience as a scholar, writer, and teacher of Canadian history, Conrad offers astute answers to these difficult questions. Beginning in Canada's deep past with the arrival of its Aboriginal peoples, she traces its history through the conquest by Europeans, the American Revolutionary War, and the industrialization of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to its prosperous present. As a social historian, Conrad emphasizes the peoples' the relationships between Aboriginal and settler, the French and the English, the Catholic and Protestant, and the rich and poor. She writes of the impact of disease, how women fared in the early colonies, and of the social transformations that took place after the Second World War as Canada began to assert itself as an independent nation. It is this grounded approach which drives the narrative and makes for compelling reading. In the last chapter, the author explains the social, economic, and political upheavals that have transformed the nation over the last three decades. Despite its successes and its popularity as a destination for immigrants from across the world, Canada remains a curiously reluctant player on the international stage. This intelligent, concise, and lucid book explains just why that is.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Canada, American History

Paperback

First published March 22, 2012

About the author

A specialist in the fields of Atlantic Canada and Women's history, Margaret Rose Conrad held the Canada Research Chair in Atlantic Canada Studies at the University of New Brunswick before retiring in 2009.

Reviews

[J.M. Hushour · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Great White North! Oft-derided as the 51st state, Canada has a fascinating history all its own that most stupid Americans know little to nothing about. That's alright, eh. Conrad's book is a nice introduction, though lacking some of the detail one might want in a general history, mostly with the arts and cultural stuff.
The first sections deal with First Peoples, early Canada, its exploration and European colonization. These are the most enlightening bits for an American reader, since the GWN took a much different trajectory than the 13. The later bits get pretty heavy into Canadian politics, meaning things like the ascendancy of the First Peoples (again), the environment, and Canada's relations with its southern neighbor get bogged down in the details of hyperlocalized topics, but it's not quite a detriment, just a little eye-glazing for the layperson. Quebec gets its due, though, and there's plenty of stuff on that and the Prairie West's individuality and lack of a Canadian consensus.

[汪先生 · Rating 3 out of 5]

可以大致了解脉络和一些重要事件。

[Jose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good intro to Canadian History. A bit dry in patches but it covers a huge territory and manages not to omit a lot of important points. It also manages quite admirably to pose the question of what constitutes Canada and what it means to be Canadian. As an American, one often gets the idea of Canada as a "better version of America". As a European, it is hard to shed the notion of opportunity and frontier outpost. This book does a great job at dispensing with both myths quickly while extracting the nuggets of truth in the source of these notions. We follow along as Canada emerges from its native past to a battleground between European powers to slowly shed the British ascendancy after two world wars to an uncomfortable relationship with America and finally to a difficult accommodation of everyone's claims and a leaning towards Asia. We also follow Canada from anything but paradise for its native inhabitants to a harsh frontierland of fur trappers, missionaries and liquor to a natural resources behemoth with its share of robber barons and labor/ethnic unrest, one muddled political compromise after another , a sense of mission after the First World War, a New Deal that goes the other way, prosperity and liberalism, province claims, the rising power of women and environmental groups, Quebec, New Foundland and Labrador, First Nation groups and immigrants and all the rest. In short, the book does an excellent job at un-defining what being Canadian means by not saying something trite along the lines of shared "values" (as wealthy folk always do when they want to make you work harder and complain less for THEIR money) or "we are all immigrants" (yes, and then, so is everybody else). On the contrary, it frames the question as the relationships of power within the land and its resources. It frames the question as the polarizing power of culture(s), not as a tourist brochure, but as something people die for and believe in beyond what's reasonable. And it points out the political forms and figures in which these struggles surfaced. In conclusion, it does it job at rising more questions than it answers and opening many doors to further exploration.

[Rex Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anything with "concise" in the title is bound to be truncated in spots you don't want it to be. Just accept it and enjoy what is there. Here, a lot is there. It gave my more or less blank slate good stuff to start filling in with. Well organized and easy to read, it did the job.

[Joe Kapraszewski · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book does its job and is exactly what Ms. Conrad calls it.. a concise history of Canada. Honestly, I thought a little more detail in some areas may have been warranted, but I will chalk that up to more curiosity on certain subjects and familiarity with other aspects of Canada, being that I have visited Canada multiple times, have been interested in Canada for many years, and have many Canadian friends. The suggested reading and bibliography makes up for any shortnesses, however, and will be a launching point for further studies in some of the parts of history as given. I will re-read this in the near future (maybe 6-12 months) to catch some points that I may have missed. Overall, I would recommend this as an excellent starting point for anyone who wants a good primer into Canadian history and a jumping point for learning more about North America's North.

[Timothy Liu · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a good overview of Canadian history. The author focuses a little too much on easily forgettable details about changes in Parliament, and sometimes strays towards making broad generalizations. Overall still a good book.

[Jake Zwiebel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good book. A bit too detailed to be “concise” but also not long enough to really dig deep into history. It’s a solid overview.

[Grace Britton]

Helped me fall asleep on many occasions

[⋆｡°⭒gabs⭒°｡⋆ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tiene una visión muy blanca de la historia. Se enfoca mucho en los problemas políticos y deja completamente de lado los eventos sociales y culturales.

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Does what it says on the tin but manages to be very dry. The 20th Century gets too cursory a treatment.

[Bryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a lot of thrills and spills, but a clear and well-rounded introduction, with good coverage of Indigenous issues, women's rights, and the interplay with American history.

[Shelby · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 Stars

Likes:
- A great overview of the history of Canada overall, from its beginning days all the way up to 2011. Covers political, social, economic, and military details among others.
- I personally most enjoyed the sections that detailed the social history throughout the times.
- I learned a lot from this book. While it does not necessarily provide a deep dive into all of the topics it is a great starting point and gives you plenty of interesting topics to look into further.
- Despite my criticism of the subsections within the chapters seen below, I do think that these subsections did a good job of showing the overall sentiment of the times rather than having to focus on each nitty-gritty detail in chronological order.

Dislikes:
-Sometimes it was hard for me to place what time period the events were taking place. The chapters separate out specific times periods but they are often quite large time periods and often have several prime ministers governing within these times. The chapters are then broken down into subsections looking at specific parts of society (i.e. the environment, the economy, specific political events, etc.). While I think that how these subgroups are broken down makes sense, I do think that it made keeping track of when these things happened a bit more difficult than if it was broken up by which prime minister was in office or if a more chronological approach were taken.
- Similarly, there are a lot of people who are introduced in this book (as to be expected given it is covering history). Some of these people were only mentioned fleetingly, and I had difficultly remembering who was who during the short period that they were discussed during the book.
- I personally would have enjoyed more maps, especially in the early days and when the dominion was beginning to form. I personally really enjoyed the maps in the first chapter showing the span of territory and presence of the different aboriginal languages and thought that similar maps would have been helpful in later chapters when the landmass and border of Canada began changing.

Areas to Dive Deeper into in the Future:
- Dionne quintuplets from 1934
- WW2 history in Asia
- Alberta's tar sands
- Bhopal
- Acadians
- Quebec and francophone Canada
- Newfoundland and Labrador's specific history
- Nunavut's specific history
- The metis and the Red River settlement / rebellion

[Andy Dorsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well-researched, well-written, and very even-handed, yet of necessity a disappointment. While Margaret Conrad makes an excellent attempt, no one can realistically hope to cover 500 years of the history of one-seventh of our planet in any kind of depth in less than 300 pages. Conrad seems a little torn between feeling an obligation to list all the important names, dates, and election results, and devoting adequate space to rather more interesting facets of concrete social change. I nonetheless felt that within the confines of the limited space, she fairly addresses topics that previous generations of historians would have ignored or downplayed. Though a sort of old-school "Everything worth knowing about Canadian history" book, it's nonetheless inclusive and avoids (as much as possible) the old white man's master narrative.

All told, you can't fault a book for providing exactly what it promises. As a newcomer to Canadian history, I wanted to start with a brief overview, and Conrad has certainly given me that. Now we'll see which in-depth studies of particular topics I dive into next.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I acquired this book because my husband and I are trying to immigrate to Canada. We don't want to look stupid when we do show up in our newly adopted country. This book starts waaay back in ancient history with the Ice Age and continents still drifting apart. But it does catch up nicely, all the way up to Trump's first presidential term. I know, I know Trump was a United States President. But he had some significant impact on Canada. And if you don't know how, well, you'll have to read this book.

The author seems to have covered most of the bases in Canadian history: Native Americans, colonizers, historical events, political parties, why Quebec is so different, and social and cultural people and things. She left out a few things that I noticed: the adoption of a national anthem, 09/11 and the Day the World Came to Town in Gander, Newfoundland, the Exxon Valdez oil spill off the coast of British Columbia in 1989. I know that in writing a book like this there's invariably stuff that gets left out or forgotten but these seem especially glaring. I am giving this book four stars.

[William Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book. If you are a student of Canadian history, a novice to the story of the Great White North or just a lover of maple syrup, this is the book for you. This work describes Canadian history in an absolutely frank yet sensitive way, paying particular attention to aboriginal Canadians. The author also gives equal attention to every period as is possible in a summary this brief. This author plays no favorites and pulls no punches, but she has a passion for the land she writes about, and if you share that passion, you will enjoy this book as much as I did.

[Steven Tone · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Concise History of Canada by Margaret Conrad is a comprehensive and well-written overview of Canada's history. However, the later chapters focusing on the first decades of the 21st century seem to be influenced by the author's social and political biases, which affects the book's credibility. It's often said that history benefits from the perspective of time, and this book shows why that may be true.

[Stanley Townsend · Rating 4 out of 5]

So much better than the last Canadian History book I read! Enjoyed the emphasis on women’s role. Wish I had an addendum for the period from 2011 to the present.

[Dennis Hogan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished A Concise History of Canada by Margaret Conrad. The title describes well the book. I bought it for background understanding my Canadian ancestors.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first "History of Canada that I have read, and I am really glad I did.

[Erin Strachan · Rating 1 out of 5]

this is not at all concise also quite colonial :( sorry Margaret

[Jiro]

经验式演化联邦，法帝国遗产与魁北克

[CP · Rating 2 out of 5]

It covers grounds, but dry and not too insightful

[Dan Magz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written and thorough. I learned a lot

[James · Rating 2 out of 5]

I need to stop reading history books about things I don't have any prior knowledge in. I simply do not have the mental capacity to process all (or any) of the information. The book's probably good if you already have a basic grasp of Canadian history or are more intelligent than I am.

[Marcel Patulacci · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is exactly what its title pretends it to be: a concise history of Canada.
A general survey of canadian history, without going too much in details. Perfect if you do not know anything about this country, like I did when I opened this book.