Capitalism and Colonialism: The Making of Modern Canada 1890–1960: A New History for the Twenty-First Century Volume Two

by Bryan D. Palmer

This second volume of Bryan Palmer’s history of Canada covers 1890 to 1960. Weaving together themes that include business, labour, politics, and social history, this account brings the experiences of Indigenous peoples into the centre of the narrative.



Canada experienced extraordinary growth during these decades, notably after the Second World War when many Canadians quickly became far better off Yet vast inequalities persisted, Indigenous peoples experienced ongoing and often worsening deprivation, and ordinary people saw little or no real improvement in their lives. These realities set the stage for the interplay of reform, resistance and reaction that followed after 1960. Palmer examines the continuing role of capitalism and colonialism in structuring Canada in the period between 1890 and 1960 from capital’s conflicts and fragile ententes with labour, to the struggles of Indigenous Peoples and francophone Canada, and the changing role of Canadian capital internationally.



Relying on the work of scholars who have produced a vast academic literature on a wide range of topics in Canadian history, Bryan Palmer offers a new history of Canada which reflects the knowledge and values of 21st-century Canadians.

Genres: History

432 pages, Hardcover

Published September 2, 2025

Reviews

[ReadingMeister · Rating 3 out of 5]

Palmer writes a must-read study of Canadian political economy and social relations from where he left off in his previous volume in 1890. It is the general history book for Canada that has all agents, actors and their environment as the movers of history (from the "Great Men" to the marginalized populations including Indigenous nations) at the forefront. The book is well written and provides insightful information on the structures that shaped Canada during this period. However, Palmer keeps to the extremely outdated these of "Québec-as-colonized" paying little attention to the colonization against Indigenous people by Québec in this period. The little attention he does provide he fails to analysis. His framework of the Québecois (which he anachronistically called as such) are on par with the First Nations, Métis and Inuit. He stated at the start of the work that he doesn't fully agree with the settler-colonial framework (but not because he disagrees with the notion of colonialism or even settlers) and the absence of that framework is painfully shown in his treatment of the "Québecois". It is telling that he primarily relies on citations from the previous century for his insights into that sphere. Aside from that, Palmer only at a handful of times investigates the situation of women workers when there were plenty of opportunities to investigate more, such as the functioning of the domestic economy itself instead of only being talked about when women are in "masculine" industries. The rest of the book is insightful and thoughtfully analyzed, as mentioned before (save for those two horrible exceptions). These were present in the previous volume but not to the same haunting degree which makes this one inferior to the previous.

[Daniel Macgregor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely addition to the trilogy. Author does a great job of covering a the entirety of Canadian history based around the pillars of capitalism and colonialism. Also contains great number of foot notes for further reference on specific topics. May be steep for anyone not familiar with Canadian history already however.