The Canadian Frontier, 1534-1760

by W.J. Eccles

This account of the French era in Canada is the most original treatment of the subject in over a century. The analysis and ideas in the first edition helped create a whole new school of thought about Canadian history. Over 50,000 copies have been used in classrooms in Canada and the United States in the decade since its publication. In this revised edition, the author updates the bibliography and adds new ideas advanced in the 1970s that will make more valuable still this acclaimed general history of New France.

Genres: History, Canada, Nonfiction, 17th Century

238 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1983

About the author

William John Eccles, commonly known as W.J. Eccles, was a historian of Canada.

Born in England, Eccles's family immigrated to Canada in the 1920s. He studied at McGill University under historian Edward Robert Adair and at the Sorbonne in Paris. In 1953, he joined the faculty at the University of Manitoba. Four years later, he joined the faculty at the University of Alberta. Then in 1963, he was appointed to a professorship at the University of Toronto. He retired from the University of Toronto in 1983.

In 1979, the Royal Society of Canada awarded him the J. B. Tyrrell Historical Medal for his contributions to the history of Canada. [wikipedia]

Reviews

[David Nichols · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is in many respects a solid narrative history of French Canada, covering the first abortive coastal outposts, the slow and unsteady growth of Quebec's missions and settlements in the seventeenth century, and the emergence of a stable but militarily embattled province in the eighteenth century. Eccles's book is graced with some entertaining anecdotes and good maps, but it is badly marred by the author's determination to praise the Quebecois at every opportunity, and by his portrayal of Canada's Indians as uncouth barbarians living in drunken squalor. This view of the frontier as merely a character-building experience for sturdy white pioneers was dated in the 1950s; it is inexcusable in a book published (or rather re-issued and updated) in the 1980s.

[Glen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually read a 1st edition of this book, published in 1969, so I have not seen the revisions, but I found the book to be a very helpful account of the earliest years of the Canadian experience, with its focus on French colonization and relations with aboriginal peoples. Of special interest to me was the contention that, unlike English settlers, whose interest was in converting land into fields for agriculture, the early French settlers had comparatively modest designs on native land, focused as they were primarily on the fur trade. The other contention that I found of interest was the author's claim that something profound was lost when French-speaking peoples were essentially cut off from the rest of Canada by the ascendancy of British interests and control. He concludes the volume with the words of an aged voyageur as reported to Alexander Ross in 1825 on the shores of Lake Winnipeg, words that celebrate the freedom and joy experienced by those who lived out of canoes on the water and over portages. Eccles claims that the supremacy of the shopkeeper and farmer over that of the trader and adventurer came with a price, and while Quebec is not named as the location where that price was and continues to be exacted, the implication is clear.

[Jordan Maloney · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lot of information, but written in a dated style. There are definitely more palatable ways of learning about this time period.

[Jeanne Palermo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent for an understanding of the French exploration, settlement and economy in the New World. It's a good balance for those of us who only learn the English side of history and especially for those of us who have French roots in the New World.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dry but interesting.