A Concise History of Canada

A new edition of Margaret Conrad's lucid account of the diverse, complex, and often contested nation-state of Canada.

Margaret Conrad (Author)

9781108736374, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 11 August 2022

556 pages
21.5 x 13.9 x 3.2 cm, 0.71 kg

'A concise but masterful overview of the nation's past by one of Canada's most respected historians. Margaret Conrad pulls the big themes out of a complex history of a country whose identity has always been contested.' Greg Marquis, Department of History and Politics, University of New Brunswick Saint John

Margaret Conrad's history of Canada explains what makes up this diverse, complex, and often contested nation-state. Beginning in Canada's deep past with the arrival of its Indigenous peoples, she traces its history through the conquest by Europeans, the American Revolutionary War, and Confederation in the nineteenth century to its prosperous present. This impressive second edition has expanded by 20 percent, including revised chapters and an insightful analysis of the fraught relationship between Justin Trudeau and Donald Trump. As a social historian, Conrad emphasizes the relationships between Indigenous peoples and settlers, French and English, Catholic and Protestant, men and women, rich and poor. It is this grounded approach that drives the narrative and makes for compelling reading. Despite its successes and its popularity as a destination for immigrants from across the world, Canada remains a cautious and contested country. This thorough yet concise new edition explains why.

Introduction: a cautious country
1. Since time immemorial
2. Natives and newcomers, 1000–1661
3. New France, 1661–1744
4. The struggle for a continent, 1744–1763
5. A revolutionary age, 1763–1815
6. The great northwest, 1763–1849
7. Transatlantic communities, 1815–1849
8. Coming together, 1849–1885
9. Making progress, 1885–1914
10. Hanging on, 1914–1945
11. Liberalism ascendant, 1945–1984
12. Anxious times, 1984–2015
13. Where are We Now?

Subject Areas: Social & cultural history [HBTB], History of the Americas [HBJK]