A short history of Canada / Desmond Morton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Morton, Desmond.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Canada--History.

Canada.

History.

Physical Description:

363 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

Third revised edition.

Place of Publication:

Toronto, Ont. : McClelland & Stewart, [1997]

Summary:

Most of us know bits and pieces of our history but would like to be more sure of how it all fits together. The trick is to find a history that is so absorbing you will want to read it from beginning to end. With this new expanded edition of A Short History of Canada -- updated to the 1997 federal election -- readers need look no further.

Desmond Morton, one of Canada's most noted and highly respected historians, shows how the choices Canadians can make at the close of the 20th century, and the prospects that face them in the next, have been shaped by history The governors of New France launched arguments that federalists and separatists still repeat in present-day Quebec. Early fur traders illustrated the economic laws unconsciously followed by modern-day resource development. Canadians trying to understand our current problems of political leadership should take another look at the arts of Sir John A. Macdonald and Mackenzie King.

Morton is keenly aware of such links connecting our present, our past, and our future, and in one compact and engrossing volume he pulls off the remarkable feat of bringing it all together -- from the First Nations before the arrival of the Europeans to the failure of the Charlottetown Accord and Jean Chretien's first term as prime minister. His acute observations on the Diefenbaker era, the effects of the post-war influx of immigrants, the flag debate, the baby boom, the Trudeau years and the constitutional crisis, the Quebec referendum, the rise of Reform and the $40 billion deficit left by Mulroney's Tories all provide an invaluable background to understanding the way Canada works today.

Notes:

Includes index.

ISBN:

0771065175

OCLC:

38854100