Nova Scotia: Shaped by the Sea: A Living History

by Lesley Choyce

Book by Choyce, Lesley

Genres: History, Nonfiction

304 pages, Hardcover

First published June 26, 2011

About the author

Lesley Choyce is a novelist and poet living at Lawrencetown Beach, Nova Scotia. He is the author of more than 80 books for adults, teens and children. He teaches in the English Department and Transition Year Program at Dalhousie University. He is a year-round surfer and founding member of the 1990s spoken word rock band, The SurfPoets. Choyce also runs Pottersfield Press, a small literary publishing house and hosted the national TV show, Off The Page, for many years. His books have been translated into Spanish, French, German and Danish and he has been awarded the Dartmouth Book Award and the Ann Connor Brimer Award.

Lesley Choyce was born in New Jersey in 1951 and moved to Canada in 1978 and became a citizen.

His YA novels concern things like skateboarding, surfing, racism, environmental issues, organ transplants, and rock bands.

Reviews

[Pam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I bought this book hoping to learn more about Nova Scotia. I did get some history, but this book was mostly an editorial commentary by the author, who is more interested in venting his frustrations about mistreatment of minorities and the ecological crisis than simply giving us facts. The writing is generally good, but could've used a good editor to replace the rampant clichés and juvenile sounding finger-pointing.

[Carol P · Rating 1 out of 5]

Am so annoyed I even bought this book years ago and settled in to read it now. What one-sided hogwash about the nasty murderous genocidal English and the noble peaceful French and Mi’kmaq. That scalping was a native custom, encouraged by the French (notably LeLoutre) and that the first scalping were perpetrated on the English first settlers in Dartmouth is beyond doubt. And yet even the capture by the English of “500 scalping knives that were to be distributed to the Mi’kmaq and the Acadia s” is turned against the English by this author who has adopted Nova Scotia as his surfing paradise. That there were thousands of death by disease and atrocities in the 18th century is beyond doubt but it is ahistorical to judge everything by today’s sensibilities. This is not a serious history. It is a one-sided polemic.

[Marieta Grissom · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was amazing. Disclaimer, I am not a Canadian. I was surprised by how much I learned about Nova Scotia's history. I was surprised by all the feuding between the French and the English. I was surprised at the number of loyalists who moved to Nova Scotia after the U.S. Revolution. I was surprised about the history of the Acadians, and how they, as well the Blacks were displaced/deported. I had not heard of privateers, and I had not thought about the Confederation date or how steam affected the sailing business, or how many decisions were made for the Maritime Provinces by people who did not understand their needs. Then, of course, there is the history of Halifax, Louisburg, and Sydney, and so many other places. This book is very comprehensive and definitive.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not for everyone, but if you are interested in taking a trip back in time to Maritime Canada in the 1500s this might be just what you want. Choyce's writing is engaging, never a dry regurgitation of facts as some academics might have given us, and full of insights about the culture and politics of the day. Well worth your time if you are trying to piece together what daily life would have been like before and after Europeans settled in Nova Scotia. Not easy to read for those of us with European ancestry but important to document and understand.

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've lived in NS for 50 years and I learned so much about our history I am shocked. Not that I think our schools offer much history about our home province! But I think I have a much better understanding of the good, bad and ugly of where we've been after reading this. It doesn't read like a text book but provides lots of detail, some anecdotal but most pretty reliable. Thoroughly enjoyed this book.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really really enjoyed this book! Although it was published in the 1990's, so some of the "current" references are out of date, this book is full of interesting history about Nova Scotia. I knew nothing about Nova Scotia and very little about Canada in general. I love how this book approached Nova Scotia as a completely separate place from Canada-with a very rich history of its own. I definitely want to visit it one day soon.

[Ashley Morrison · Rating 2 out of 5]

Excessive editorialising detracted from the interesting historical accounts.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I started this book before we left on our trip to Nova Scotia and Levy read the last half of the book to us as we drove through the trip. It is a good history of Nova Scotia. It is a little repetitive and he could have edited it down to a smaller, better book. However, we enjoyed it and learned a lot from it. I really like to read a history book of the areas we travel to. It makes the trip a lot more enjoyable. The kindle version had a lot of typos, extra letters inserted into words. But the text was always readable despite that.

[Nina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read some of this aloud to my mother and she loved this book! Lots of intriguing facts that we never, ever got in our school history books! Fascinating, and sometimes downright hilarious true and almost unbelievable events; that said, the history is often downright heartbreaking as well!