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The Penguin History of Canada
Canada is in many ways a country of limits, a paradox for a place that enjoys virtually unlimited space. Most of that space is uninhabited, and much of it is uninhabitable. It is a country with a huge north but with most of its population in the south, hugging the U.S. border. An uneasy and difficult country, Canada has nevertheless defied the odds: it remains, in the 21st century, a haven of peace and a beacon of prosperity. Erudite yet accessible and marked by narrative flair, The Penguin History of Canada paints an expansive portrait of a dynamic and complex country.
612 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 24, 2006
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627 people want to read
About the author
Robert Bothwell
36 books12 followersRobert Bothwell is a professor of Canadian history, and the foremost scholar on Canadian Cold War participation, as well as a frequently published author.
Bothwell completed his BA at the University of Toronto and his PhD at Harvard University. He is currently Director of the University of Toronto's International Relations program at Trinity College, where he is a fellow, and a professor of Canadian political and diplomatic history. Bothwell holds the May Gluskin Chair in Canadian History. His research interests include modern Canadian history and political, diplomatic and military history. Bothwell is an expert on Canada-U.S. relations.
Bothwell completed his BA at the University of Toronto and his PhD at Harvard University. He is currently Director of the University of Toronto's International Relations program at Trinity College, where he is a fellow, and a professor of Canadian political and diplomatic history. Bothwell holds the May Gluskin Chair in Canadian History. His research interests include modern Canadian history and political, diplomatic and military history. Bothwell is an expert on Canada-U.S. relations.
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August 4, 2025
The new and the old combine in striking and unforgettable ways in Canada – a nation with a storied past and a revered set of cultural traditions, and also a country that forever seems to be renewing itself, setting forth on a bold new path. And Robert Bothwell captures well the paradoxes and the promise of Canadian life in his 2006 book The New Penguin History of Canada.
Bothwell, a professor of history at the University of Toronto, begins this study with a striking observation: that “Canada, it’s been said, has been the victim of too much geography.” Looking at the way both population and prosperity are “unevenly distributed” across the country that is the second largest on Earth in land area, Bothwell suggests that “Fortunately, there aren’t too many people and there’s enough prosperity to go around. Perhaps only its sparse population has saved Canada from becoming a political impossibility” (p. 3).
The early chapters of The New Penguin History of Canada deal with topics that one might expect to see – the original First Nations settlers of Canada; French pioneers like Cartier and Champlain; and the Anglo-French conflict that ultimately led to the Seven Years’ War or “French and Indian War.” Traditionalists reading Bothwell’s commentary on the critical Battle of the Plains of Abraham – an engagement in which both commanders, Montcalm for the French and Wolfe for the British, were fatally wounded – may be appalled to learn that Bothwell finds the generalship of both men decidedly lacking, no matter how many sentimental paintings of the dying generals may have once adorned the parlours of middle-class homes in Montreal and Toronto.
As an American friend of Canada, I was particularly struck by the chapters dealing with the American Revolution. U.S. readers might take particular interest in the way Bothwell ties the revolution to something that most Americans have probably never heard of – the Quebec Act of 1774. This act of the British Parliament granted French civil-law traditions to the defeated Québécois, and recognized the Québécois people’s rights to speak the French language and practice the Roman Catholic faith. The act did much to mollify Québécois sensibilities, and to reconcile them to their new lives as citizens of a British dominion.
But this politically astute show of Great Britain’s magnanimity toward the defeated erstwhile enemy from the Seven Years’ War had unforeseen side effects, in terms of its impact on the people of thirteen British North American colonies from New Hampshire to Georgia. “The timing of the Quebec Act, in 1774, was accidental, but it didn’t seem that way to the fearful and resentful colonists”, as it served “to reawaken colonial fears of Catholic aggression” (pp.100-01).
U.S. readers might note that it is for this reason that an oft-overlooked clause in the American Declaration of Independence exists – the one in which Thomas Jefferson charges King George III with “abolishing the Free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies.” The “neighbouring Province” is, of course, Quebec, and the “Arbitrary government” that threatens to introduce “absolute rule” into the colonies is any in which the Catholic religion and French civil law are permitted. It does not set the American revolutionaries’ thinking in the best possible light; but it may provide, for U.S. readers, a helpful insight into how aspects of the American Revolution can be seen on the other side of the U.S./Canadian border.
Bothwell reminds the reader that the peace process that followed the American Revolution had vitally important consequences for Canada, as surely as it did for the new United States of America. “Crucial to the peace treaty was British recognition of American independence. Next in importance was the Americans’ acceptance that they could not drive the British entirely from North America. There would be two English-speaking nations occupying the continent – the United States and Great Britain, and eventually Canada” (p. 109).
Bothwell provides effective sketches of a wide range of important figures from Canadian history – people like John A. Macdonald, who oversaw the process of Confederation by which Canada had its beginnings as a modern nation, and who served as Canada’s first prime minister. Bothwell describes Macdonald as a “sinuous” and “accommodating” man who abundantly possessed qualities of “charm and consideration for others”, and says of Macdonald that while he “frequently drank too much”, Macdonald nonetheless “accepted that there must be room in politics for larger ideas” (p. 200). He was, in short, a man of sufficient flexibility of mind to guide Canada toward Confederation in 1867.
Part of how Canada first made itself known to the larger world was through Canadian soldiers’ participation in the First World War. Bothwell salutes the valour of Canadian Expeditionary Force troops who distinguished themselves in bloody battles like Vimy Ridge and Passchendaele. But Canadian readers may finish these passages from The New Penguin History of Canada with a lingering contempt for the British officer who commanded these brave Canadians – Sir Douglas Haig, whose career in field command Bothwell mercilessly anatomizes by pointing out that Haig “oversaw the disastrous Battle of the Somme in 1916, the equally disastrous Flanders offensive in 1917, and the near-defeat of the British army at Amiens in 1918. His conduct of the war was measured in literally millions of British dead and wounded, including over 200,000 Canadians (56,000 dead, 150,000 wounded)” (p. 300). Rarely in the annals of military history have such good soldiers been so poorly led – and yet Canadian soldiers still persistently followed the path forward to victory, in spite of their commander’s manifold failings.
Moving forward into the modern era, I was particularly interested in a chapter titled “Affluence and Its Discontents, 1960-1980.” Bothwell begins the chapter by acknowledging Canadians’ increased prosperity during those years, but then suggests that “Canadians reacted to prosperity in the 1960’s not by coming together but by coming apart” (p. 402). Instances of that “coming apart” include not only the generational conflict that roiled many nations during the 1960’s, but also the Québécois separatist movement that Bothwell charts quite thoroughly in a later chapter titled “Two Nationalisms.”
That theme of Quebec separatism is revisited in a later chapter titled “A New Millennium and a New World.” Along with remarking on other trends in 21st-century Canada – for example, the country’s increasingly multicultural population, and the government’s official embrace of multiculturalism as a philosophy – Bothwell focuses on the Quebec “sovereignty” vote of October 1995. The vote against sovereignty, as Bothwell accurately remarks, was “hair-raisingly close” (p. 507). And Bothwell captures quite well the factors that were on the minds of many Canadians at the time of the Meech Lake and Charlottetown constitutional accords, as well as the Quebec sovereignty vote:
[I]f Canada was divisible, then so was Quebec. In any case, Canadians generally had an interest in an issue that could drastically and negatively affect the stability of their currency, not to mention trade, transportation, and communications, as well as the viability and continuing legitimacy of their existing political institutions. To take one example: if the separatists had won in 1995, who or what would have been empowered to negotiate with them? (p. 509)
Indeed, at least some of the ongoing conversation in contemporary Quebec seems to involve recognition of an important reality: Quebec is not only francophone and anglophone, but also allophone (meaning people whose first language is something other than French or English). What if the First Nations people of northern Quebec responded to a Québécois declaration of sovereignty by saying that they wanted to secede from Quebec – to rejoin Canada, or to establish an independent Indigenous nation? The possibilities seem dizzyingly chaotic.
The New Penguin History of Canada ends with Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper’s victory in the 2006 federal election. Bothwell remarks on the seeming irony of a tradition-oriented Tory leader taking power at a time when Canada’s increasingly multicultural population might have “harboured within itself a recalibration of the nature of Canada, if not an outright modification of what it meant to be Canadian” (p. 536).
Much history has, of course, transpired since Harper’s victory in the 2006 election, with two straight Liberal Party prime ministers (Justin Trudeau and Mark Carney) following Harper's Tory government; and there were, for me, some omissions of important details that would have further enhanced this fine historical study. (Nothing about hockey? Really?) Yet Bothwell’s book provides a very fine introduction to the life and history of a great nation.
Bothwell, a professor of history at the University of Toronto, begins this study with a striking observation: that “Canada, it’s been said, has been the victim of too much geography.” Looking at the way both population and prosperity are “unevenly distributed” across the country that is the second largest on Earth in land area, Bothwell suggests that “Fortunately, there aren’t too many people and there’s enough prosperity to go around. Perhaps only its sparse population has saved Canada from becoming a political impossibility” (p. 3).
The early chapters of The New Penguin History of Canada deal with topics that one might expect to see – the original First Nations settlers of Canada; French pioneers like Cartier and Champlain; and the Anglo-French conflict that ultimately led to the Seven Years’ War or “French and Indian War.” Traditionalists reading Bothwell’s commentary on the critical Battle of the Plains of Abraham – an engagement in which both commanders, Montcalm for the French and Wolfe for the British, were fatally wounded – may be appalled to learn that Bothwell finds the generalship of both men decidedly lacking, no matter how many sentimental paintings of the dying generals may have once adorned the parlours of middle-class homes in Montreal and Toronto.
As an American friend of Canada, I was particularly struck by the chapters dealing with the American Revolution. U.S. readers might take particular interest in the way Bothwell ties the revolution to something that most Americans have probably never heard of – the Quebec Act of 1774. This act of the British Parliament granted French civil-law traditions to the defeated Québécois, and recognized the Québécois people’s rights to speak the French language and practice the Roman Catholic faith. The act did much to mollify Québécois sensibilities, and to reconcile them to their new lives as citizens of a British dominion.
But this politically astute show of Great Britain’s magnanimity toward the defeated erstwhile enemy from the Seven Years’ War had unforeseen side effects, in terms of its impact on the people of thirteen British North American colonies from New Hampshire to Georgia. “The timing of the Quebec Act, in 1774, was accidental, but it didn’t seem that way to the fearful and resentful colonists”, as it served “to reawaken colonial fears of Catholic aggression” (pp.100-01).
U.S. readers might note that it is for this reason that an oft-overlooked clause in the American Declaration of Independence exists – the one in which Thomas Jefferson charges King George III with “abolishing the Free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies.” The “neighbouring Province” is, of course, Quebec, and the “Arbitrary government” that threatens to introduce “absolute rule” into the colonies is any in which the Catholic religion and French civil law are permitted. It does not set the American revolutionaries’ thinking in the best possible light; but it may provide, for U.S. readers, a helpful insight into how aspects of the American Revolution can be seen on the other side of the U.S./Canadian border.
Bothwell reminds the reader that the peace process that followed the American Revolution had vitally important consequences for Canada, as surely as it did for the new United States of America. “Crucial to the peace treaty was British recognition of American independence. Next in importance was the Americans’ acceptance that they could not drive the British entirely from North America. There would be two English-speaking nations occupying the continent – the United States and Great Britain, and eventually Canada” (p. 109).
Bothwell provides effective sketches of a wide range of important figures from Canadian history – people like John A. Macdonald, who oversaw the process of Confederation by which Canada had its beginnings as a modern nation, and who served as Canada’s first prime minister. Bothwell describes Macdonald as a “sinuous” and “accommodating” man who abundantly possessed qualities of “charm and consideration for others”, and says of Macdonald that while he “frequently drank too much”, Macdonald nonetheless “accepted that there must be room in politics for larger ideas” (p. 200). He was, in short, a man of sufficient flexibility of mind to guide Canada toward Confederation in 1867.
Part of how Canada first made itself known to the larger world was through Canadian soldiers’ participation in the First World War. Bothwell salutes the valour of Canadian Expeditionary Force troops who distinguished themselves in bloody battles like Vimy Ridge and Passchendaele. But Canadian readers may finish these passages from The New Penguin History of Canada with a lingering contempt for the British officer who commanded these brave Canadians – Sir Douglas Haig, whose career in field command Bothwell mercilessly anatomizes by pointing out that Haig “oversaw the disastrous Battle of the Somme in 1916, the equally disastrous Flanders offensive in 1917, and the near-defeat of the British army at Amiens in 1918. His conduct of the war was measured in literally millions of British dead and wounded, including over 200,000 Canadians (56,000 dead, 150,000 wounded)” (p. 300). Rarely in the annals of military history have such good soldiers been so poorly led – and yet Canadian soldiers still persistently followed the path forward to victory, in spite of their commander’s manifold failings.
Moving forward into the modern era, I was particularly interested in a chapter titled “Affluence and Its Discontents, 1960-1980.” Bothwell begins the chapter by acknowledging Canadians’ increased prosperity during those years, but then suggests that “Canadians reacted to prosperity in the 1960’s not by coming together but by coming apart” (p. 402). Instances of that “coming apart” include not only the generational conflict that roiled many nations during the 1960’s, but also the Québécois separatist movement that Bothwell charts quite thoroughly in a later chapter titled “Two Nationalisms.”
That theme of Quebec separatism is revisited in a later chapter titled “A New Millennium and a New World.” Along with remarking on other trends in 21st-century Canada – for example, the country’s increasingly multicultural population, and the government’s official embrace of multiculturalism as a philosophy – Bothwell focuses on the Quebec “sovereignty” vote of October 1995. The vote against sovereignty, as Bothwell accurately remarks, was “hair-raisingly close” (p. 507). And Bothwell captures quite well the factors that were on the minds of many Canadians at the time of the Meech Lake and Charlottetown constitutional accords, as well as the Quebec sovereignty vote:
[I]f Canada was divisible, then so was Quebec. In any case, Canadians generally had an interest in an issue that could drastically and negatively affect the stability of their currency, not to mention trade, transportation, and communications, as well as the viability and continuing legitimacy of their existing political institutions. To take one example: if the separatists had won in 1995, who or what would have been empowered to negotiate with them? (p. 509)
Indeed, at least some of the ongoing conversation in contemporary Quebec seems to involve recognition of an important reality: Quebec is not only francophone and anglophone, but also allophone (meaning people whose first language is something other than French or English). What if the First Nations people of northern Quebec responded to a Québécois declaration of sovereignty by saying that they wanted to secede from Quebec – to rejoin Canada, or to establish an independent Indigenous nation? The possibilities seem dizzyingly chaotic.
The New Penguin History of Canada ends with Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper’s victory in the 2006 federal election. Bothwell remarks on the seeming irony of a tradition-oriented Tory leader taking power at a time when Canada’s increasingly multicultural population might have “harboured within itself a recalibration of the nature of Canada, if not an outright modification of what it meant to be Canadian” (p. 536).
Much history has, of course, transpired since Harper’s victory in the 2006 election, with two straight Liberal Party prime ministers (Justin Trudeau and Mark Carney) following Harper's Tory government; and there were, for me, some omissions of important details that would have further enhanced this fine historical study. (Nothing about hockey? Really?) Yet Bothwell’s book provides a very fine introduction to the life and history of a great nation.
April 23, 2015
My opinion of Robert Bothwell is based off of this one book, so if there are other works that disprove what I am about to say I am more than willing to stand corrected. From what I can see, however, Bothwell is a bit of an anomaly when it comes to historians: he is actually a good writer (shock of shocks) -- too bad he is such a poor historian.
Now I know this man is Harvard educated, has a significant body of work, heads up a department at a well respected Canadian university, and in our Voltaire's Bastards culture of venerating "expertise" these qualifications put him above reproach or criticism, but fuck all that. He deserves criticism.
I came to The New Penguin History of Canada looking for a decent overview to help direct my more in depth future reading. I got what I came for, but because Bothwell's voice was compelling I let my expectations rise, and early on those raised expectations seemed warranted, but by the books end I was deeply disappointed. Now to the point: it is not what Bothwell chooses to discuss but what he omits that most taint his History of Canada.
Yes, he does go on and on about tariffs and Canada's complex economic relationships with first England then the US, and there are times when he drifts away from Canada's boundaries to talk about other leaders and other places, but the former is surely an expected bias of an economic historian, and the latter can be forgiven because those he chooses to talk about have a direct influence at what is happening in Canada.
The problem is that while Bothwell spends his languorous time on these topics he completely fails to address important issues at home, and I mean completely. Not a single mention anywhere of the Japanese Internment. No mention. Not one. But there is plenty of discussion of WWII. There is plenty of discussion about economics during WWII as well, but the removal of property (economics anyone?) and liberty of a significant section of the Canadian population -- the entirely innocent Japanese-Canadians -- is nowhere to be found.
Another glaring omission: the Aboriginal people. They are rarely spoken of, and when they are spoken of they are even more rarely named, and then Bothwell is mute when it comes to Canada's disgusting Residential School policy -- another non-event in the Canada of Bothwell's History of Canada. He says nothing. Not even an aside to suggest that the provinces and territories might have done something not so nice at some point somewhen in our history. The omission is despicable.
And there are plenty of other omissions, although the others are much more forgivable and far less disgusting than the omission of Japanese Interment and Indigenous Residential Schools. For instance, not once does Bothwell name a leader of Canada's NDP party (unless one counts his mention of Tommy Douglas before Tommy was NDP). He talks about the party when he has to, especially when they become the official opposition in Parliament, but he never names Ed Broadbent, never names Audrey McLaughlin, never names Alexa McDonough, and since it would have taken only a few extra characters after "the NDP leader" one can only imagine this is his own peronal bias showing through. And there are plenty of other ommissions of this lesser offensiveness.
If you are Canadian and you know of the things Bothwell is omitting, you will probably still enjoy the way Bothwell writes despite his dubious choices; if, however, you are not Canadian and you are looking for a place to start your journey through Canada's past, I don't know that I can recommend Bothwell's History of Canada. His vision is skewed and riddled with holes, and I fear that you will come away thinking Canada is something it is not.
But if you must read this first, make sure you go searching for more depth elsewhere.
Now I know this man is Harvard educated, has a significant body of work, heads up a department at a well respected Canadian university, and in our Voltaire's Bastards culture of venerating "expertise" these qualifications put him above reproach or criticism, but fuck all that. He deserves criticism.
I came to The New Penguin History of Canada looking for a decent overview to help direct my more in depth future reading. I got what I came for, but because Bothwell's voice was compelling I let my expectations rise, and early on those raised expectations seemed warranted, but by the books end I was deeply disappointed. Now to the point: it is not what Bothwell chooses to discuss but what he omits that most taint his History of Canada.
Yes, he does go on and on about tariffs and Canada's complex economic relationships with first England then the US, and there are times when he drifts away from Canada's boundaries to talk about other leaders and other places, but the former is surely an expected bias of an economic historian, and the latter can be forgiven because those he chooses to talk about have a direct influence at what is happening in Canada.
The problem is that while Bothwell spends his languorous time on these topics he completely fails to address important issues at home, and I mean completely. Not a single mention anywhere of the Japanese Internment. No mention. Not one. But there is plenty of discussion of WWII. There is plenty of discussion about economics during WWII as well, but the removal of property (economics anyone?) and liberty of a significant section of the Canadian population -- the entirely innocent Japanese-Canadians -- is nowhere to be found.
Another glaring omission: the Aboriginal people. They are rarely spoken of, and when they are spoken of they are even more rarely named, and then Bothwell is mute when it comes to Canada's disgusting Residential School policy -- another non-event in the Canada of Bothwell's History of Canada. He says nothing. Not even an aside to suggest that the provinces and territories might have done something not so nice at some point somewhen in our history. The omission is despicable.
And there are plenty of other omissions, although the others are much more forgivable and far less disgusting than the omission of Japanese Interment and Indigenous Residential Schools. For instance, not once does Bothwell name a leader of Canada's NDP party (unless one counts his mention of Tommy Douglas before Tommy was NDP). He talks about the party when he has to, especially when they become the official opposition in Parliament, but he never names Ed Broadbent, never names Audrey McLaughlin, never names Alexa McDonough, and since it would have taken only a few extra characters after "the NDP leader" one can only imagine this is his own peronal bias showing through. And there are plenty of other ommissions of this lesser offensiveness.
If you are Canadian and you know of the things Bothwell is omitting, you will probably still enjoy the way Bothwell writes despite his dubious choices; if, however, you are not Canadian and you are looking for a place to start your journey through Canada's past, I don't know that I can recommend Bothwell's History of Canada. His vision is skewed and riddled with holes, and I fear that you will come away thinking Canada is something it is not.
But if you must read this first, make sure you go searching for more depth elsewhere.
October 30, 2020
I felt I should know more Canadian history. Out of the choices on Amazon I chose The Penguin History. I chose well. I very much liked the book, found it engaging reading and just the right weight in information and interpretation. We're all a little bit familiar with the early exploration of Canada, with Vikings in Newfoundland and the French in the St Lawrence River and the voyageurs streaming west in canoes trapping and trading. We're all familiar with the War of 1812. I found the parts of Canadian history I'm least familiar with to be the most interesting. The growth of the railroads and their extension from coast to coast is one of the subjects Bothwell spun out in many pages I enjoyed reading. The same with the move toward Confederation as a nation and their evolving relationship with Great Britain and the United States. There was much I didn't know and much which has made an impression on me. And from those impressions I can dig deeper into the details to find the devils present in the myths or more sweetness, because this is Canada and there's an abundance of good-naturedness here mixed in and combining well with the landscape and natural resources. This is good comprehensive history. Like that renowned bowl of porridge, it was just right.
January 4, 2012
nothing to do with penguins (ongoing joke -- my children repeatedly asked me why I was reading about penguins in Canada). Excellent overview, good place to start...
November 25, 2020
This version of Canada`s story moves at a brisk, entertaining pace through the ages of colonization, nation-forming, and the perils of the twentieth-century. Bothwell shows a keen eye for irony, noting, for example, how French Canada`s loyalty to its British conquerors was bolstered when 50 priests from Old France arrived, fleeing the French Revolution to preach devotion for church and king. The choice of narrative details is objective and offers scope for critical humour: ``Pearson signed the North Atlantic treaty, creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Washington on April Fool`s Day, 1949, while the U.S. Marine Band played a selection of popular tunes including ``I`ve Got Plenty of Nothin`.``
The book gives substantial treatment to recent history, with its battles over free trade, NAFTA, the attempted Meech Lake revision of the constitution, the Quebec independence referendum of 1995, and Canada`s role in global issues of genocide or the war on terror. With the hindsight of recent events, Bothwell points out developments which drew little attention when they occurred: ``Pearson and St. Laurent stoutly defended to the sceptical and neutralist Indians the good intentions of the United States, even when it meant that the Americans were arming India`s neighbour Pakistan -- in the interest of anti-communism.``
The book gives substantial treatment to recent history, with its battles over free trade, NAFTA, the attempted Meech Lake revision of the constitution, the Quebec independence referendum of 1995, and Canada`s role in global issues of genocide or the war on terror. With the hindsight of recent events, Bothwell points out developments which drew little attention when they occurred: ``Pearson and St. Laurent stoutly defended to the sceptical and neutralist Indians the good intentions of the United States, even when it meant that the Americans were arming India`s neighbour Pakistan -- in the interest of anti-communism.``
November 6, 2021
One presumes a reader of a history of Canada already knows something about World War II. Yet this book decides to go through the Nazi-Soviet Pact, the invasion of Poland, the fall of Norway, and so forth. Although these impacted Canada like they impacted other nations, they are hardly necessary for a history of the country. This exemplifies the main problem with this book: the desire to pad it with a substantial amount of predigested world history, or with vague impressions, with few specifics or citations.
The best parts of the book are the early parts, when Canada was still fairly isolated and distinct. When Alexander Mackenzie traveled up what became known as the Mackenzie River to the Arctic Ocean in 1789, he opened the door for the North West Company, dominated by the Frobisher brothers and founded as a conglomerate of different companies two years earlier in Montreal to compete with the Hudsons Bay Company. Two years later, however, Mackenzie reached the Pacific, ages before the more famous Lewis and Clark did the same. The Canada Act of 1791, done in the wake of the American and French Revolutions, tried to make Canada a semi-self-governing colony, with two main provinces, an assembly elected every four years, but with a governor over all and lieutenant governors in each province. After a French rebellion by Louis-Joseph Papineau, and an American rebellion, led by William Lyon Mackenzie, a newspaper publisher and gadfly (no relation to the explorer), in 1837-38, the Durham report led to unification of the two Canadas and a true parliamentary government. But the true founding of the federal government was in 1867, where Conservative John A. MacDonald, to be prime minister for decades, led the nation to a federal agreement, to which other provinces were gradually incorporated, and where Britian retreated from most duties outside of foreign relations. He promised British Columbia a transcontiental railway to join, which they soon did, and gradually got most other provinces in. (Newfoundland held out until 1949.)
Trade was always a contentious issue for Canada. The surprising thing is how protectionist such a small, agricultural, and trade-dependent nation could become. Although Canada concluded one of the US's only 3 trade treaties in it's sesquiential history in 1855 (it lapsed in a decade), two years later a panic led a young John MacDonald to increase tariffs, even against their British overlords. The Canadians successfully pled for a need for revenue, which established an important precedent. Later, MacDonald would establish preferential tariffs as a foundation of conservative rule. In 1893, the nominally free-trade Liberals under Wilfred Laurier (he had just run for office under the slogan of "unrestricted reciprocity" with the US) conceded that there should be some protection, paving the way to Laurier's over decade-long prime ministership. (He also subsidized the creation of the Grand Trunk Pacific and the Canadian Northern Railway, which soon went bankrupt, enraging the British investors.) In 1911 Laurier did conclude a free trade agreement with the US, but he was voted out of office for it and it was never signed into law. During the Depression, conservative Prime minister, and noted loud-mouth, RB Bennett, concluded a reciprocity deal with the US in 1935, after which he also promised to institute of a kind of New Deal. He soon lost to Liberal Mackenzie King (grandson of the rebel), who held to more traditional liberal principles, but who carried forward the deal, and who ruled Canada for a generation. It wasn't until 1987 that conservative Brian Mulroney, a bilingual, but English-identifying, Quebec resident, finally negotiated a permanent deal with the US.
More discussion of specific policies, specific politicians, and specific narratives would help. Instead much of this is taken up with vague generalities and narratives left at loose-ends.
The best parts of the book are the early parts, when Canada was still fairly isolated and distinct. When Alexander Mackenzie traveled up what became known as the Mackenzie River to the Arctic Ocean in 1789, he opened the door for the North West Company, dominated by the Frobisher brothers and founded as a conglomerate of different companies two years earlier in Montreal to compete with the Hudsons Bay Company. Two years later, however, Mackenzie reached the Pacific, ages before the more famous Lewis and Clark did the same. The Canada Act of 1791, done in the wake of the American and French Revolutions, tried to make Canada a semi-self-governing colony, with two main provinces, an assembly elected every four years, but with a governor over all and lieutenant governors in each province. After a French rebellion by Louis-Joseph Papineau, and an American rebellion, led by William Lyon Mackenzie, a newspaper publisher and gadfly (no relation to the explorer), in 1837-38, the Durham report led to unification of the two Canadas and a true parliamentary government. But the true founding of the federal government was in 1867, where Conservative John A. MacDonald, to be prime minister for decades, led the nation to a federal agreement, to which other provinces were gradually incorporated, and where Britian retreated from most duties outside of foreign relations. He promised British Columbia a transcontiental railway to join, which they soon did, and gradually got most other provinces in. (Newfoundland held out until 1949.)
Trade was always a contentious issue for Canada. The surprising thing is how protectionist such a small, agricultural, and trade-dependent nation could become. Although Canada concluded one of the US's only 3 trade treaties in it's sesquiential history in 1855 (it lapsed in a decade), two years later a panic led a young John MacDonald to increase tariffs, even against their British overlords. The Canadians successfully pled for a need for revenue, which established an important precedent. Later, MacDonald would establish preferential tariffs as a foundation of conservative rule. In 1893, the nominally free-trade Liberals under Wilfred Laurier (he had just run for office under the slogan of "unrestricted reciprocity" with the US) conceded that there should be some protection, paving the way to Laurier's over decade-long prime ministership. (He also subsidized the creation of the Grand Trunk Pacific and the Canadian Northern Railway, which soon went bankrupt, enraging the British investors.) In 1911 Laurier did conclude a free trade agreement with the US, but he was voted out of office for it and it was never signed into law. During the Depression, conservative Prime minister, and noted loud-mouth, RB Bennett, concluded a reciprocity deal with the US in 1935, after which he also promised to institute of a kind of New Deal. He soon lost to Liberal Mackenzie King (grandson of the rebel), who held to more traditional liberal principles, but who carried forward the deal, and who ruled Canada for a generation. It wasn't until 1987 that conservative Brian Mulroney, a bilingual, but English-identifying, Quebec resident, finally negotiated a permanent deal with the US.
More discussion of specific policies, specific politicians, and specific narratives would help. Instead much of this is taken up with vague generalities and narratives left at loose-ends.
April 2, 2017
This book should be more correctly named the Political History of (Central) Canada. Most of it is concerned with political leaders and their actions as well as their relation to Britain and the United States. Most of the material covered is very Ontario and Quebec-centric. The prairie provinces are almost always referred to as "the West" if spoken of at all, and the Maritimes covered even less so.
Also, tariff seems to be the word most mentioned. Apparently Canadian history is all about the tariffs. Who knew?
I picked this up at the library to brush up on the history of our beautiful country but this long diatribe about tariffs and politics wasn't exactly what I had in mind.
Also, tariff seems to be the word most mentioned. Apparently Canadian history is all about the tariffs. Who knew?
I picked this up at the library to brush up on the history of our beautiful country but this long diatribe about tariffs and politics wasn't exactly what I had in mind.
March 11, 2013
I read this hoping to receive a good overview of Canadian history, which this book does very well up until about World War II. It's a fairly enjoyable read (the author is fond of dry humor), but it's not for historical amateurs.
Read
August 7, 2020This is a good economic and political history of Canada. I think Bothwell does a good job with portraits of the major Canadian Leaders in the 20th and 21st Centuries. He describes the major policies introduced and implemented by them and their lasting impact on Canadian society. It does a poor job painting a picture of the socio-cultural impact of economic and political developments in Canada. For instance, there is almost no mention of the residential school system in Canada throughout the book. It is a good start but you will need to read other texts to get a better picture of Canadian society along with this book.
April 11, 2016
I have always seen Canada as a sort of control group experiment paralleling the United States and in some ways more successful and thus an object lesson for open minded Americans. This detailed history of Canada corrected some of my over simplified takes on its history and indeed clarified how recent Canada's quality of life move forward has been. An extremely well written and interesting general history, sometimes a bit flawed but generally first class.
September 23, 2012
Good overview but there were very important aspects of Canadian history lightly acknowledged and the events and people highlighted were invariably from Ontario or Quebec. Worth reading to get the jest of things but the book is missing a portrayal of the personalities and unique events that make history come to life.
May 13, 2018
Thorough yet concise. Enjoyable read and gladly not dry. I wish there was more native perspective shown (but that goes for most books). All in all would recommend to anyone who would like to have a better understanding of Canada and its history. I found it particularly interesting to read about the evolution of the government and its structure.
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May 23, 2011I only read the last section of this for some research that I'm doing, but I would highly recommend this book.
February 6, 2024
An exceptional book which displays Dr. Bothwell's keen insights as well as sharp sense of humour (at one time writing, "English Canadians in the 1950s generally believed that French Canada...lived in a kind of Medieval Catholic trance" p394 and "Rolling the dice with the country's future reminded many Canadians that their prime minister was often unnecessarily self-congratulatory and that he had a shallow understanding of how to direct the country" - referring to Brian Mulroney, p492).
The Canadian project has a complex and colourful story behind it, one which lends more towards conservative economic management and tends less towards political violence than our Southern neighbours. Nonetheless, the unique ways by which our country has risen to meet its challenges - agriculture in a northern environment, financing the intercontinental railways, peacefully binding two ethnic groups, transitioning from a UK towards a US-dominated external environment, and reconciling with Indigenous peoples - is expertly dissected and will make for an inspiring read.
One minor criticism I have: The perception comes across that the author portrays Liberal governments on much more favourable terms than their Tory counterparts, despite (1) his acknowledgement of the extraordinary political luck of Mackenzie-King and unluckiness of his opponents such as Borden and Meighen and (2) the great achievements of and tough decisions taken by many Conservative premiers. A short list that comes to mind: Constructing Canada's transcontinental railways (Macdonald), legislating female suffrage (Borden), ordering conscription in WWI (Borden), free trade with the United States (Mulroney), creating both the GST and income taxes (Mulroney and Borden), and also establishing Canada's modern competition law (Mulroney). All but a few of these subjects are heavily discounted or minimally treated, but nonetheless represent achievements that Conservatives should fell proud to call their own.
The Canadian project has a complex and colourful story behind it, one which lends more towards conservative economic management and tends less towards political violence than our Southern neighbours. Nonetheless, the unique ways by which our country has risen to meet its challenges - agriculture in a northern environment, financing the intercontinental railways, peacefully binding two ethnic groups, transitioning from a UK towards a US-dominated external environment, and reconciling with Indigenous peoples - is expertly dissected and will make for an inspiring read.
One minor criticism I have: The perception comes across that the author portrays Liberal governments on much more favourable terms than their Tory counterparts, despite (1) his acknowledgement of the extraordinary political luck of Mackenzie-King and unluckiness of his opponents such as Borden and Meighen and (2) the great achievements of and tough decisions taken by many Conservative premiers. A short list that comes to mind: Constructing Canada's transcontinental railways (Macdonald), legislating female suffrage (Borden), ordering conscription in WWI (Borden), free trade with the United States (Mulroney), creating both the GST and income taxes (Mulroney and Borden), and also establishing Canada's modern competition law (Mulroney). All but a few of these subjects are heavily discounted or minimally treated, but nonetheless represent achievements that Conservatives should fell proud to call their own.
May 22, 2021
Of course it's a history of Canada, but I don't see why it had to be *so* dull.
August 30, 2020
BORING. like that the scottish landlords wanted to replace ppl w sheep tho that was funny :)
February 10, 2025
Good one for sure, easy read and I enjoyed Bothwell's style. People who think Canadian history is boring could read this one. Didn't pull punches about incompetent figures in Canadian history, and I think provided an overall balanced view of events. I personally enjoyed relearning the complicated relationship between Canada and the US over the years, especially given the current situation. There were some topics I would have liked more elaboration or detail, but I get that you gotta keep moving to keep the overall length reasonable. Funny it cuts off at Harper's election -- I would be very interested in reading Bothwell's analysis of 2006-2025 with all that came with the Harper and J. Trudeau governments, COVID etc.
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September 12, 2017As the Roman Lucian said, "An historian's mind should be a mirror - clear, gleaming-bright, accurately centered, displaying the shape of things just as he receives them, free from distortion, false coloring and misrepresentation."
This work is insipid. The author, Robet Bothwell, calls himself an historian. But he is an insufferable apologist to the ultra-sensitive, ignorant, politically correct. As to an expedition in 1604 fixed on the Bay of Fundy he writes: "Remarkably, some Frenchmen (for they were all male) survived the winter." He downplays the recorded chronicles of Indian brutality during Queen Anne's War - "Sometimes the English were massacred, or killed after torture. The torture was spectacularly gruesome, of a kind that by the eighteenth century in Europe was performed behind the walls of fortresses or prisons. There was also cannibalism, which in Europe was regarded with utmost horror and aversion. Many prisoners, probably most, were more kindly treated, and were marched away to Indian settlements and adopted into Indian families. Many were later ransomed, but may others remained with their captors, absorbed into the culture and society that had kidnapped them. Despite a requirement in the eventual peace treaty to secure the return of captives, some never came back." @ p. 67 Having just finished the seminal work by Parkman on the French and English in North America, where incident upon incident - all verified by letters, proclamations and official documents - of Indian atrocities are displayed, it is inexplicable to me that Bothwell could write this garbage without fearing the dead would call him to account.
He uses a cartoon describing collateral damage from a 1759 periodical of British General Wolfe lecturing a pleading couple in a misogynistic fashion!
I'm on page 67 of this 600 page book and am struggling to keep my temper in check. I must confront the question: "Is it worth continuing?"
Update: I cannot continue. This is too much BS for me to tolerate. The massacre at Fort William Henry - validated by both combatants approach two hundred butchered victims after a surrender - he claims to be "some." And this pathetic excuse for an historian denigrates Wolfe and Montcalm.
Bothwell, your obviously liberal agenda is to tear down history. I'm sure you will hear the applause of your sycophantic peers, who you quote for authorities. You are a pathetic armchair historian.
This work is insipid. The author, Robet Bothwell, calls himself an historian. But he is an insufferable apologist to the ultra-sensitive, ignorant, politically correct. As to an expedition in 1604 fixed on the Bay of Fundy he writes: "Remarkably, some Frenchmen (for they were all male) survived the winter." He downplays the recorded chronicles of Indian brutality during Queen Anne's War - "Sometimes the English were massacred, or killed after torture. The torture was spectacularly gruesome, of a kind that by the eighteenth century in Europe was performed behind the walls of fortresses or prisons. There was also cannibalism, which in Europe was regarded with utmost horror and aversion. Many prisoners, probably most, were more kindly treated, and were marched away to Indian settlements and adopted into Indian families. Many were later ransomed, but may others remained with their captors, absorbed into the culture and society that had kidnapped them. Despite a requirement in the eventual peace treaty to secure the return of captives, some never came back." @ p. 67 Having just finished the seminal work by Parkman on the French and English in North America, where incident upon incident - all verified by letters, proclamations and official documents - of Indian atrocities are displayed, it is inexplicable to me that Bothwell could write this garbage without fearing the dead would call him to account.
He uses a cartoon describing collateral damage from a 1759 periodical of British General Wolfe lecturing a pleading couple in a misogynistic fashion!
I'm on page 67 of this 600 page book and am struggling to keep my temper in check. I must confront the question: "Is it worth continuing?"
Update: I cannot continue. This is too much BS for me to tolerate. The massacre at Fort William Henry - validated by both combatants approach two hundred butchered victims after a surrender - he claims to be "some." And this pathetic excuse for an historian denigrates Wolfe and Montcalm.
Bothwell, your obviously liberal agenda is to tear down history. I'm sure you will hear the applause of your sycophantic peers, who you quote for authorities. You are a pathetic armchair historian.
October 4, 2013
I picked this up as prep for a Canada vacation. It's a smooth and easy read, though long. It covers the history of Canada up to 2007 in a straightforward, matter-of-fact fashion. Lots of interesting tidbits that were new to this Yank. Did you know that the Gulf of St. Lawrence used to abound in walruses, until they were hunted to exinction around 1800? That the Iroquois made war on the Hurons, defeating and dispersing them in the 17th century? That a second wave of Americans (after the post-Revolution Loyalists) helped settle southern Ontario, attracted by the offer of free land to whoever would clear and work it, decades before the American Homestead Act? That there were small rebellions in Canada in the 1830s and 1870s, with shots fired and people killed? That the Metis (mixed-race French-Indian folks, trappers and other backwoods sorts) remained an important component of the prairie provinces into the late 1800s? The story gets a little duller in the 20th century, degenerating into a blow-by-blow account of Canadian national politics, Quebec separatism and so forth. (Honestly, guys, you live in the middle of one of the nicest countries in the world and you just want to bust it up to show how special you are. Avez-vous une vie.) The focus is mostly on Ontario and Quebec. The prairies come up seldom, BC and the Maritimes rarely.
January 9, 2014
I truly enjoy history books and I wanted to know more about Canada's history. This is really a very good comprehensive book. It may bog down in areas such as tariff and governmental policy that may make it difficult for some readers but it is worth persevering. It gave me an excellent overall understanding of the issues and people who shaped Canada. I knew a fair amount about the colonial history but not much after early 19th century and this helped to fill that gap. It enlightened me in a deeper way on the particular issue of Quebec and the separatist movement.
One impression is the vastly different experiences compared to American history as well as some parallels. I can also recommend a companion piece--get on youtube and watch the CBC series Canada: History of a People. You can watch in conjunction with the sections of the book while reading or after you have finished the book and will gain more insight in a different medium.
One impression is the vastly different experiences compared to American history as well as some parallels. I can also recommend a companion piece--get on youtube and watch the CBC series Canada: History of a People. You can watch in conjunction with the sections of the book while reading or after you have finished the book and will gain more insight in a different medium.
March 1, 2020
This is a very readable general history of Canada from the arrival of the first European explorers and settlers to the outset of the 21st century. There is nothing too contentious to be found within these pages, and that may leave some with a bored feeling, and most of the action centers around the eastern provinces, especially Ontario and Quebec, but given that it is, after all, a history, that is none too surprising. The role of women in Canadian society hardly gets a mention, and the history and role of the western provinces, particularly British Columbia, deserved fuller treatment, but again, for what it is, it is quite good.
February 6, 2015
The only thing that got me through this book was the fact that I went on a long trip for which I had to pack very light, and this was the only book I took with me. I found it poorly organized and confusing, jumping back and forth in time without warning, sometimes over the course of a paragraph. It was also strikingly white-centric, with the native populations reduced to occasional parenthetical statements (literally in at least one instance). I often had to look up events in other places to get any kind of feel for what was going on. Not really the best intro to Canadian history.
December 16, 2011
Bothwell gives a good general overview of the big events of Canadian history, but the book suffers from too much assumption of knowledge of Canadian culture. No events ever feel weightier than any others, and I had trouble telling what were the big events of Canadian history. The book also exhibits the tendency of one-volume histories of grossly overcovering the modern period--something like 130 pages on the years 1960-2000.
Still, the book has whetted my appetite for further histories of Canada, so I'll be on the lookout for ones with more personality.
Still, the book has whetted my appetite for further histories of Canada, so I'll be on the lookout for ones with more personality.
September 8, 2013
This well-written book provided a good background on the history of Canada. I learned much more than I remember learning in school on this subject and found some surprising tidbits along the way. The only topic that I would've liked to see covered more fully was how the First Nation groups and the Canadian government came to agree upon the various land claim settlements over the past few decades. Outside of that omission I would highly recommend this book to anyone that is interested in knowing more about Canadian history.
October 1, 2017
I'm working on diving back into Canadian history, and this provided a great macro-summary of Canadian history. As my primary interest is politics, I very-much appreciated the focus on the movement of the parties. Of course, there were many major events that had to be skimmed or left our entirely, but that is the nature of a project like this trying to concisely contain the entirety of a nation's history.
March 24, 2018
It is covering the history of Canada up until today so to expect a variety of interesting perspectives was perhaps expecting too much. It is mainly a survey of Canadian domestic politics. There is not much focus on class or Native Americans. Depth into relationships between the US and Canada and GB/France and Canada are rather unbalanced. But again, it is a general survey and certainly would be a good place to start when knowing nothing. I still feel like I did not gain much knowledge though.
June 10, 2020
Well-written and competently conceived, but, considering the span it covers, a tad undercooked for my taste, and back-loaded with Laurentian postwar developments. Decent as an overarching history of the glorious Northern Realm, but works by the likes of Careless, Creighton, Morton, Stacy, Bliss, and (of course) Berton are better executed as regards the earlier eras.
October 20, 2015
Engaging history of Canada, written by a Canadian author. Working for a Canadian company, I realized how ignorant I am of our brethren to the north. This book provides a fair analysis of the country and does not appear to be revisionist history. I now have a much better understanding of Canadian affairs with insight into their history. I highly recommend for as a casual read.
May 14, 2009
I wasn't ready to dig into any aspects of Canadian history too deeply - I just wanted a nice gloss so I can have a frame of reference the next time I accompany Coach Russell to her homeland. This book provided just such a history.
December 14, 2013
For school, I only had to read Chp. 13-16. I learned a bit about Canada throughout those few chapters and I think the author did a great job in trying to make it sound interesting ;) as boring as it may have seemed
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