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The Beaverton Presents Glorious and/or Free: The True History of Canada
A hilarious tour through Canada's history, from the nation's most trusted news source: The Beaverton.
The Beaverton has quickly become the funniest--and most biting--source of Canadian satire. Its headlines have been misinforming Canadians across the country (and world), while also providing some of the most insightful social commentary found anywhere. Now, in its first book, The Beaverton looks back over Canada's past to tell the story of how we became the ridiculous nation we are today.
Through the lens of the venerable Beaverton, one of the country's oldest and proudest newspapers, the editors share the headlines and news stories that defined the times. From the earliest days of independence ("Paternity Test Confirms John A. Actual Father of Confederation") to war heritage ("Vimy Ridge: Canada Becomes a Nation After Killing Germans for Britain on French Soil") and right up to the 21st century ("Peter McKay sends Make-Up, High Heels to Oppressed Women in Afghanistan")--this is history like you've never seen it.
Part mock-history, part fake-scrapbook, Glorious and/or Free is a hilarious and entertaining stab at our national myths and legends. And, like all great satire, it's funny because it's true.
The Beaverton has quickly become the funniest--and most biting--source of Canadian satire. Its headlines have been misinforming Canadians across the country (and world), while also providing some of the most insightful social commentary found anywhere. Now, in its first book, The Beaverton looks back over Canada's past to tell the story of how we became the ridiculous nation we are today.
Through the lens of the venerable Beaverton, one of the country's oldest and proudest newspapers, the editors share the headlines and news stories that defined the times. From the earliest days of independence ("Paternity Test Confirms John A. Actual Father of Confederation") to war heritage ("Vimy Ridge: Canada Becomes a Nation After Killing Germans for Britain on French Soil") and right up to the 21st century ("Peter McKay sends Make-Up, High Heels to Oppressed Women in Afghanistan")--this is history like you've never seen it.
Part mock-history, part fake-scrapbook, Glorious and/or Free is a hilarious and entertaining stab at our national myths and legends. And, like all great satire, it's funny because it's true.
208 pages, Paperback
First published October 31, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
November 1, 2017
Funny and biting book about Canadian history.
As someone who loves history, I like some of the lesser known material (ie Rene Levesque's smoking problem, Champlain's 12-year-old wife) as well as the more known stories. They also don't cower away from difficult issues like residential schools, racism etc and really hit the nail on the head.
There's even a choose your own adventure novel contained within the book! Visually, it's pretty well done, but could have had a few more images to make it more newspaper-y.
Love the bonus chapter that looks into the future.
As someone who loves history, I like some of the lesser known material (ie Rene Levesque's smoking problem, Champlain's 12-year-old wife) as well as the more known stories. They also don't cower away from difficult issues like residential schools, racism etc and really hit the nail on the head.
There's even a choose your own adventure novel contained within the book! Visually, it's pretty well done, but could have had a few more images to make it more newspaper-y.
Love the bonus chapter that looks into the future.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 17, 2017
Hysterical
November 1, 2017
This is a wonderful book filled with a combination of sharp wit and dark satire about Canada's strange history. I have never met either author, but I bet their wives are attractive and as successful as they are.
April 16, 2025
Not enough Diefenbunker jokes, but pretty solid otherwise.
February 8, 2018
Lots of fun, but you'd better be with people who don't mind having you read "just one more " aloud!
December 29, 2017
You have to know your stuff before you can skewer it. Bravo.
January 6, 2018
The Beaverton Presents Glorious and/or Free: The True History of Canada, by Luke Gordon Field, is a… Hmm, what would you call this incredibly fun, insanely satirical, poke at Canada’s proud (?) history?
If you’re a Canadian, buy this book.
If you’re a teacher, buy enough for the whole class, and make it your Canadian History curriculum, because using Glorious and/or Free, along with Google, as a guide, your students will not only learn about Canada’s history, but have great fun and lively debates about it in the process.
The Beaverton, Canada’s answer to ‘fake news’ has outdone itself with this…er…ah…book.
It is both hilarious, and sad. Truthful, and outright lies. But! It all rings true! Does that make any sense whatsoever? Of course not! This IS The Beaverton we’re talking about. Just go out and buy the dang book! I promise you, you will not regret it! Or…is that ‘fake news’ too???
It’s not. Trust me :).
Review by Daniel L Little – January 6 2018 - www.daniellittle.com
If you’re a Canadian, buy this book.
If you’re a teacher, buy enough for the whole class, and make it your Canadian History curriculum, because using Glorious and/or Free, along with Google, as a guide, your students will not only learn about Canada’s history, but have great fun and lively debates about it in the process.
The Beaverton, Canada’s answer to ‘fake news’ has outdone itself with this…er…ah…book.
It is both hilarious, and sad. Truthful, and outright lies. But! It all rings true! Does that make any sense whatsoever? Of course not! This IS The Beaverton we’re talking about. Just go out and buy the dang book! I promise you, you will not regret it! Or…is that ‘fake news’ too???
It’s not. Trust me :).
Review by Daniel L Little – January 6 2018 - www.daniellittle.com
November 18, 2018
3.5 stars. The Beaverton (and The Onion, for that matter) tend to be at their funniest when writing headlines and photo captions. It's harder to maintain the level of humour when writing full articles, and the book suffers a bit for it. Still, an entertaining read that forced me to brush up on my Canadian history to make sure I fully understood all the jokes.
March 27, 2019
The entries in here were just like Beaverton articles - headlines that make you chuckle, and then articles that aren't quite as funny as the headline, but short enough that you don't really notice. Overall a short, fun read if you're interested in Canadian history.
October 8, 2021
Fitfully amusing take on Canadian history. It takes the same approach that the Beaverton website does to the news, but it's hard to sustain the interest over a book. This is probably best as a book dipped into a couple of stories at a time, rather than read end-to-end as I did.
December 29, 2024
By and large a lot of good articles that play directly off of actual events with enough info that the actual events are connectable and the right dose of exaggeration or change for humour sake. Terry Fox was BRILLIANT as was the Flag contest.
January 9, 2018
I found the book interesting and some of the articles funny
January 17, 2019
#DNF
I kept flipping forwars looking for the bit where it gets funny. Maybe I'm just not Canadian enough to get the jokes. More likely the format just isn't conducive to humour.
I kept flipping forwars looking for the bit where it gets funny. Maybe I'm just not Canadian enough to get the jokes. More likely the format just isn't conducive to humour.
May 20, 2019
Funny!
August 16, 2019
brilliant
January 13, 2020
Blew air out of my nose every second page at least. Plenty of snarky takes on Canadian history and culture, recommended read for sure!
February 3, 2026
It has its moments.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews