Canadian History
Take a deep dive into these narratives exploring the tragedies and triumphs of Canadian history.
Clearing the Plains : disease, politics of starvation and the loss of aboriginal life
Daschuk, James W., (James William), 1961- author
2014
The company : the rise and fall of the Hudson's Bay empire
Bown, Stephen R., author
2020
The story of the Hudson's Bay Company, dramatic and adventurous and complex, is the story of modern Canada's creation. And yet it hasn't been told in a book for over thirty years, and never in such depth and vivid detail as in Stephen R. Bown's exciting new telling. The Company started out small in 1670, trading practical manufactured goods for furs with the Indigenous inhabitants of inland subarctic Canada. Controlled by a handful of English aristocrats, it expanded into a powerful political force that ruled the lives of many thousands of people--from the lowlands south and west of Hudson Bay, to the tundra, the great plains, the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific northwest. It transformed the culture and economy of many Indigenous groups and ended up as the most important political and economic force in northern and western North America.
Crosses in the sky : Jean de Brébeuf and the destruction of Huronia
Bourrie, Mark, 1957- author
2024
A biography of Jesuit missionary Jean de Brébeuf and a history of the colonization of Huronia, the home of the Huron-Wendat nation. This is the story of how and why the Jesuits came to "New France," what happened when they arrived, and how these early encounters have shaped settler relationships with Indigenous people to this day. This deeply researched narrative considers not only the missionary's fate, but the ongoing tragedy of his colonial legacy and is an essential addition to - and expansion of - Canadian history.
Dominion : the railway and the rise of Canada
Bown, Stephen R., author
2023
In the late 19th century, an idea emerged to connect the disparate British colonies into a single entity that would stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific. With over 3,000 kilometers of track, much of it driven through wildly inhospitable terrain, the CPR would be the longest railway in the world, but it came at a terrible price. Stephen Bown again widens our view of the past to include the adventures and hardships of explorers and surveyors, the resistance of Indigenous peoples, and the terrific and horrific work of many thousands of labourers.
Don't tell the Newfoundlanders : the true story of Newfoundland's confederation with Canada
Malone, Greg
2012
A great and noble scheme : the tragic story of the expulsion of the French Acadians from their American Homeland
Faragher, John Mack, 1945-
2006
The hanging of Angelique : the untold story of Canadian slavery and the burning of old Montreal
Cooper, Afua, author
2006
A history of Canada in ten maps : epic stories of charting a mysterious land
Shoalts, Adam, 1986- author
2017
The inconvenient Indian : a curious account of native people in North America
King, Thomas, 1943-
2012
The madman and the butcher : the sensational wars of Sam Hughes and General Arthur Currie
Cook, Tim, 1971-
2010
Sir Arthur Currie achieved international fame as Canadian Corps commander during the Great War. But wars were not won without lives lost. Who was to blame for Canada's 60,000 dead? Sir Sam Hughes, Canada's war minister during the first two and a half years of the conflict, was an expert on the war. He attacked Currie's reputation in the war's aftermath, accusing him of being a butcher, a callous murderer of his own men.
The making of the October Crisis : Canada's long nightmare of terrorism at the hands of the FLQ
Jenish, D'Arcy, 1952- author
2018
Montcalm & Wolfe : two men who forever changed the course of Canadian history
Carrier, Roch, 1937-, author
2014
The Northwest is our mother : the story of Louis Riel's people, the Métis nation
Teillet, Jean, author
2019
A perfect hell : the forgotten story of the Canadian commandos of the Second World War
Nadler, John.
2005
Pierre Berton's War of 1812 : being a compendium of The invasion of Canada and Flames across the border.
Berton, Pierre, 1920-2004
2011
War brides : the stories of the women who left everything behind to follow the men they loved
Jarratt, Melynda
2009
When the Irish invaded Canada : the incredible true story of the Civil War veterans who fought for Ireland's freedom
Klein, Christopher, author
2019