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Canadian History: Post Confederation
The winner crosses the finish line at a 1915 “sports day” organized by the Vancouver Police Department. Photo by Stuart
Thomson, City of Vancouver Archives 99-1073.
Canadian History: Post-Confederation was written by John Douglas Belshaw. This book is a part of the BC Open Textbook
project. This book is the second in a two part collection by this author; also see Canadian History: Pre-Confederation.
In October 2012, the BC Ministry of Advanced Education announced its support for the creation of open textbooks for
the 40 highest-enrolled first- and second-year subject areas in the province’s public post-secondary system.
Open textbooks are open educational resources (OER); they are instructional resources created and shared in ways
so that more people have access to them. This is a different model than traditionally copyrighted materials. OER are
defined as “teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an
intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others” (Hewlett Foundation).
BC Open Textbooks are licensed using a Creative Commons license, and are offered in various e-book formats free of
charge or as printed books that are available at cost.
For more information about this project, please contact opentext@bccampus.ca. If you are an instructor using this
book for a course, please let us know.
Thomson, City of Vancouver Archives 99-1073.
Canadian History: Post-Confederation was written by John Douglas Belshaw. This book is a part of the BC Open Textbook
project. This book is the second in a two part collection by this author; also see Canadian History: Pre-Confederation.
In October 2012, the BC Ministry of Advanced Education announced its support for the creation of open textbooks for
the 40 highest-enrolled first- and second-year subject areas in the province’s public post-secondary system.
Open textbooks are open educational resources (OER); they are instructional resources created and shared in ways
so that more people have access to them. This is a different model than traditionally copyrighted materials. OER are
defined as “teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an
intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others” (Hewlett Foundation).
BC Open Textbooks are licensed using a Creative Commons license, and are offered in various e-book formats free of
charge or as printed books that are available at cost.
For more information about this project, please contact opentext@bccampus.ca. If you are an instructor using this
book for a course, please let us know.
875 pages, ebook
Published January 1, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
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April 23, 2020I read ‘Ch.8. The Economy since 1920’, so I will forgo rating the whole textbook…
--If I have to read a textbook, then please let it be a free open access electronic textbook! Search for it here: https://open.bccampus.ca/
--The dozen topics were all concise and readable overviews:
1) Staples Model (Fisheries, Fur Trade, Wheat): just a bit of history, does not introduce the theories on Staples-led growth and Staples trap (see #12)…
2) Capital Markets: useful intro to a crucial topic, the birth of capital markets in late 19th century:
--brokerage houses/stock market merging pan-Canadian corporations, banks, life insurance firms and the managerial middle class, trust companies
3) Economic Cycles: useful point of State being hands-off with the recession after WWI and the seeming vindication of the Roaring 20’s; sets up future tragedies…
4) The Great Depression: commodity market crash + the Dust Bowl?! Good bit on the protests and Vancouver…
5) The New Economy: urbanization but staples still central.
6) Shipping Industry: the end of wooden ships.
7) Ocean Fisheries: the end of fish.
8) Oil/Gas & the New West: black gold, OPEC, West vs. Ottawa.
9) Postwar Economy: suburbanization and mass consumerism. For more on the global plan (and especially its structural failings and how it unraveled), see Varoufakis: And the Weak Suffer What They Must? Europe's Crisis and America's Economic Future
10) Postwar Settlement: great bit on the class compromise by the author of Harnessing Labour Confrontation: Shaping the Postwar Settlement in Canada, 1943-1950.
11) Atlantic Provinces: periphery and structural trap.
12) Economic Nationalism: dependency on the US? “Foreign ownership”? A polemic rebuttal: Escape from the Staple Trap: Canadian Political Economy after Left Nationalism
13) Boom Years, Bust Years: province-building from 1950s-70s
14) New World Economic Order: Oil Shock + Neoliberalism. Harperism: How Stephen Harper and His Think Tank Colleagues Have Transformed Canada introduced me to Neoliberalism, and of course Harvey’s A Brief History of Neoliberalism and aforementioned Varoufakis.
15) Post-Industrial: nah, let’s go with Post-Capitalism.
--If I have to read a textbook, then please let it be a free open access electronic textbook! Search for it here: https://open.bccampus.ca/
--The dozen topics were all concise and readable overviews:
1) Staples Model (Fisheries, Fur Trade, Wheat): just a bit of history, does not introduce the theories on Staples-led growth and Staples trap (see #12)…
2) Capital Markets: useful intro to a crucial topic, the birth of capital markets in late 19th century:
--brokerage houses/stock market merging pan-Canadian corporations, banks, life insurance firms and the managerial middle class, trust companies
3) Economic Cycles: useful point of State being hands-off with the recession after WWI and the seeming vindication of the Roaring 20’s; sets up future tragedies…
4) The Great Depression: commodity market crash + the Dust Bowl?! Good bit on the protests and Vancouver…
5) The New Economy: urbanization but staples still central.
6) Shipping Industry: the end of wooden ships.
7) Ocean Fisheries: the end of fish.
8) Oil/Gas & the New West: black gold, OPEC, West vs. Ottawa.
9) Postwar Economy: suburbanization and mass consumerism. For more on the global plan (and especially its structural failings and how it unraveled), see Varoufakis: And the Weak Suffer What They Must? Europe's Crisis and America's Economic Future
10) Postwar Settlement: great bit on the class compromise by the author of Harnessing Labour Confrontation: Shaping the Postwar Settlement in Canada, 1943-1950.
11) Atlantic Provinces: periphery and structural trap.
12) Economic Nationalism: dependency on the US? “Foreign ownership”? A polemic rebuttal: Escape from the Staple Trap: Canadian Political Economy after Left Nationalism
13) Boom Years, Bust Years: province-building from 1950s-70s
14) New World Economic Order: Oil Shock + Neoliberalism. Harperism: How Stephen Harper and His Think Tank Colleagues Have Transformed Canada introduced me to Neoliberalism, and of course Harvey’s A Brief History of Neoliberalism and aforementioned Varoufakis.
15) Post-Industrial: nah, let’s go with Post-Capitalism.
November 28, 2020
This was my textbook for HIST2301 at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario. As far as textbooks go, it was great. My problem was more in how the professor used the textbook - usually he would just give us all the information from the textbook during the next lecture, so it often felt useless. All-in-all though, good textbook, and I appreciate that it's free and openly available. I think it encourages people to learn about their country's history.
Want to Read
April 25, 2020
December 31, 2020
I’m not going to go into detail because OMG my brain.
Textbooks are always a kick in the butt, but I have enjoyed all my reads for the up coming semester.
Anyone who has the dedication to write or contribute too or edit a textbook is a hero.
Textbooks are always a kick in the butt, but I have enjoyed all my reads for the up coming semester.
Anyone who has the dedication to write or contribute too or edit a textbook is a hero.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews