Welcome back to our monthly series, “Upcoming Publications in Canadian History,” where I’ve compiled information on all the upcoming releases for the following month in the field of Canadian history from every Canadian academic press, all in one place. This includes releases in both English and French. To see the releases from last month, click here.
***Please note that the cover images and book blurbs are used with permission from the publishers.***
N.B. This list only includes new releases, not rereleases in different formats.
December 5
Michael A. Peterman, Delicious Mirth: The Life and Times of James McCarroll (Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2018)
James McCarroll (1814-1892) was a talented Irish poet, journalist, humorist, musician, and arts critic who left his mark on nineteenth-century Canada by seemingly engaging with anything topical in every medium. Often writing anonymously or under pseudonyms, McCarroll’s best-known nom de plume was “Terry Finnegan,” who wrote weekly comic letters to his “cousin” Thomas D’Arcy McGee, offering advice on political and social matters. Yet, since his death, McCarroll’s contributions to early Canadian writing and culture have largely been forgotten.
Making a case for the recuperation of Canada’s lost Irish voice, Delicious Mirth seeks to gather and contextualize the extant fragments of this outspoken and flamboyant entertainer and commentator. Adept in the rich excesses of the Paddy brogue, McCarroll spoke for his beloved but broken country and sought to bring the Irish legacy of expansive prose and lyric poetry to Canada. Following the fluctuations of his personal hope, ambition, and talent through the years, Michael Peterman maps McCarroll’s responses to the main events of the late nineteenth century such as Irish emigration, the settlement and growth of Upper Canada, the extension of the railway network, little magazine culture, reform politics and responsible government, the spiritualist movement, nascent Canadian theatre, classical and Celtic folk music, the US Civil War, Confederation, and most notably the Fenian movement, in which he became involved. His travels took him to many places, in particular Peterborough, Cobourg, Niagara Falls, Toronto, Buffalo, and New York City.
Revealing a man of immense creative energy and cultural significance who has been lost to Canadian literary historians for over a hundred years, Delicious Mirth shows that McCarroll’s life and works are outstanding achievements and deserve fresh attention today.
Available Formats: Hardcover
Publisher’s Link: https://www.mqup.ca/delicious-mirth-products-9780773554672.php?page_id=73&#!prettyPhoto
Buy it from Amazon.ca: https://www.amazon.ca/Delicious-Mirth-Times-James-McCarroll/dp/077355467X/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1544107658&sr=1-8
December 10
Sandra Semchuk, The Stories Were Not Told: Canada’s First World War Internment Camps (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2018)
From 1914 to 1920, thousands of men who had immigrated to Canada from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire were unjustly imprisoned as “enemy aliens,” some with their families. Most were Ukrainians; almost all were civilians. The Stories Were Not Told presents this largely unrecognized event through photography, cultural theory, and personal testimony, including stories told at last by internees and their descendants. Semchuk describes how lives and society have been shaped by acts of legislated discrimination and how to move toward greater reconciliation, remembrance, and healing. This is necessary reading for anyone seeking to understand the cross-cultural and intergenerational consequences of Canada’s first national internment operations.
Available Formats: Paperback, PDF
Publisher’s Link: http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/titles/916-9781772123784-stories-were-not-told
Buy it from Amazon.ca: https://www.amazon.ca/Stories-Were-Not-Told-Internment/dp/1772123781/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1537452687&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=the+stories+we+were+not+told
December 15
Edward Jones-Imhotep & Tina Adcock, eds. Made Modern: Science and Technology in Canadian History (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2018)
Science and technology have shaped not only economic empires and industrial landscapes, but also the identities, anxieties, and understandings of people living in modern times.
Made Modern: Science and Technology in Canadian History explores the complex interconnections between science, technology, and modernity in Canada. It draws together leading scholars from a wide range of fields to enrich our understanding of history inside and outside Canada’s borders. Organized around three key themes – bodies, technologies, and environments – the book’s chapters examine how science and technology have allowed Canadians to imagine and reinvent themselves as modern. Focusing on topics as varied as colonial anthropology, scientific expeditions, electrotherapy, the occult sciences, industrial development, telephony, patents, neuroscience, aviation, space science, and infrastructure, the contributors explore Canadians’ modern engagements with science and technology and situate them within larger national and transnational contexts.
The first major collection of its kind in thirty years, Made Modern explores the place of science and technology in shaping Canadians’ experience of themselves and their place in the modern world.
This book will be of interest to students and scholars of the history of science and technology, Canadian history, and environmental history.
Available formats: Hardcover, PDF
Publisher’s Link: https://www.ubcpress.ca/made-modern
Buy it from Amazon.ca: https://www.amazon.ca/Made-Modern-Science-Technology-Canadian/dp/0774837233/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1544107658&sr=1-1
David Bercuson & Jeff Keshen, Treasuring the Tradition: The Story of the Military Museums (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2018)
The Military Museums in Calgary, Alberta is Western Canada’s only tri-service museum and military education centre. Containing the regimental museums of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI), Lord Strathcona’s Horse (Royal Canadians), The King’s Own Calgary Regiment, and the Calgary Highlanders along with the Naval, Army, and Air Force Museums of Alberta, The Military Museums welcome over 10 000 visitors each year.
This is the story of how The Military Museums came to be. From the unprecedented coming together of individual regimental museums to form the Museum of the Regiments to the extraordinary work of veterans and citizens to create and maintain one of Calgary’s principal cultural, educational, and tourist sites, it is a story of perseverance, cooperation, and community.
With the mantra “Remember, Preserve, and Educate,” The Military Museums, Founders Gallery, and Military Museums Libraries and Archives are dedicated to preserving the memories and traditions of the countless Canadians who proudly served their country through war and conflict.
Treasuring the Tradition: The Story of the Military Museums is a Special Presentation of the University of Calgary Press.
Available Formats: Paperback, PDF, ePub
Publisher’s Link: https://press.ucalgary.ca/books/9781773850580
Buy it from Amazon.ca: https://www.amazon.ca/Treasuring-Tradition-Story-Military-Museums/dp/177385058X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1544108909&sr=1-1&keywords=treasuring+the+tradition
December 17
Aldona Jaworska, Polish War Veterans in Alberta: The Last Four Stories (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2018)
In the aftermath of World War II, more than 4,500 Polish veterans, displaced by war and the Soviet-oriented Polish government, were resettled in Canada as farm workers; 750 of these men were accepted by the province of Alberta. Polish War Veterans in Alberta examines how these former soldiers came to experience their new country and its sometimes-harsh postwar realities. This compelling work of social history is brought to life through the words and stories of four veterans, whose remembrances provide an intimate first-hand look at a moment of Canada’s past that is at risk of being forgotten.
Available formats: Paperback, ePub, PDF
Publisher’s Link: http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/titles/913-9781772123739-polish-war-veterans-in-alberta
Buy it from Amazon.ca: https://www.amazon.ca/Polish-War-Veterans-Alberta-Stories-ebook/dp/B079347NWK/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1544113399&sr=1-1&keywords=polish+war+veterans+in+alberta
December 30
Eugénie Brouillet, Alain-G. Gagnon & Guy Laforest, eds. The Quebec Conference of 1864: Understanding the Emergence of the Canadian Federation (Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2018)
Like all major events in Canadian history, the Quebec Conference of 1864, an important step on Canada’s road to Confederation, deserves to be discussed and better understood. Efforts to revitalize historical memory must take a multidisciplinary and multicultural approach.
The Quebec Conference of 1864 expresses a renewed historical interest over the last two decades in both the Quebec-Canada constitutional trajectory and the study of federalism. Contributors from a variety of disciplines argue that a more grounded understanding of the 72 Quebec Resolutions of 1864 is key to interpreting the internal architecture of the contemporary constitutional apparatus in Canada, and a new interpretation is crucial to appraise the progress made over the 150 years since the institution of federalism.
The second volume in a series that began with The Constitutions That Shaped Us: A Historical Anthology of Pre-1867 Canadian Constitutions, this book reveals a society in constant transition, as well as the presence of national projects that live in tension with the Canadian federation.
Available Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, ePub
Publisher’s Link: https://www.mqup.ca/quebec-conference-of-1864–the-products-9780773554818.php?page_id=73&#!prettyPhoto
Buy it from Amazon.ca: https://www.amazon.ca/Quebec-Conference-1864-Understanding-Federation/dp/0773554815/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1544109525&sr=1-1&keywords=the+quebec+conference+of+1864
Better Late than Never
Rod Macleod, Sam Steele: A Biography (Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 2018)
Sam Steele, “the man who tamed the Gold Rush,” had a high-profile public career, yet his private life has been closely protected. Sam Steele: A Biography follows Steele’s rise from farm boy in backwoods Ontario to the much-lauded Major General Sir Samuel Benfield Steele. Drawing on the vast Steele archive at the University of Alberta, this comprehensive biography vividly recounts some of the most significant events of the first fifty years of Canadian Confederation—including the founding of the North-West Mounted Police, the opening of the North through the Klondike, and Canada’s participation in the South African War—from the perspective of a policeman who became a military leader. Impeccably researched and accessibly written, Sam Steele is perfect for anyone interested in Canada’s early decades.
Available Formats: Paperback, ePub, PDF
Publisher’s Link: http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/titles/917-9781772123791-sam-steele
Buy it from Amazon.ca: https://www.amazon.ca/Sam-Steele-Biography-Rod-Macleod/dp/177212379X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1537452738&sr=1-1&keywords=Sam+Steele+a+biography
Philip Girard, Jim Phillips, and R. Blake Brown, A History of Law in Canada, Vol. 1: Beginnings to 1866 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018)
This book is the first of two volumes devoted to the history of law in Canada. This volume begins at a time just prior to European contact and continues to the 1860s, while volume two will start with Confederation and end at approximately 2000. The history of law includes substantive law, legal institutions, legal actors and legal culture. The book assumes that since 1500 there have been three legal systems in Canada – the Indigenous, the French, and the English. At all times, these systems have co-existed and interacted, with the relative power and influence of each being more or less dominant in different periods.
The history of law cannot be treated in isolation, and this book examines law as a dynamic process, shaped by and affecting other histories over the long term. The law guided and was guided by economic developments, was influenced and moulded by the nature and trajectory of political ideas and institutions, and variously exacerbated and mediated by inter-cultural exchange and conflict. These themes are apparent in this examination, and through most areas of law including family law, constitutional, commercial, land settlement and tenure, and criminal.
Available Formats: Hardcover, ePub
Publisher’s Link: https://utorontopress.com/ca/a-history-of-law-in-canada-1500-1866-2
Buy it from Amazon.ca: https://www.amazon.ca/History-Law-Canada-Vol-Beginnings/dp/1487504632/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1537455919&sr=1-5&keywords=History+of+law+in+canada
Jean-Pierre Morin, Solemn Words and Foundational Documents: An Annotated Discussion of Indigenous-Crown Treaties in Canada, 1752-1923 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018)
In Solemn Words and Foundational Documents, Jean-Pierre Morin unpacks the complicated history of Indigenous treaties in Canada. By including the full text of eight significant treaties from across the country—each accompanied by a cast of characters, related sources, discussion questions, and an essay by the author—he teaches readers how to analyze and understand treaties as living documents.
The book begins by examining treaties concluded during the height of colonial competition, when France and Britain each sought to solidify their alliances with Indigenous peoples. It then goes on to tell the stories of treaty negotiations from across the country: the miscommunication of ideas and words from Crown representatives to treaty text; the varying ranges of rights and promises; treaty negotiations for which we have a rich oral history but limited written records; multiple phases of post-Confederation treaty-making; and the unique case of competing treaties with radically different interpretations.
Available Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, ePub
Publisher’s Link: https://utorontopress.com/ca/solemn-words-and-foundational-documents-2
Buy it from Amazon.ca: https://www.amazon.ca/Solemn-Words-Foundational-Documents-Indigenous-Crown/dp/1487594453/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1537455977&sr=1-1&keywords=solemn+words+and+foundational+documents
Michael Dawson, Catherine Gidney & Donald Wright, eds. Symbols of Canada (Toronto: Between the Lines Press, 2018)
From Timbits to totem poles, Canada is boiled down to its syrupy core in symbolic forms that are reproduced not only on t-shirts, television, and tattoos but in classrooms, museums, and courtrooms too. They can be found in every home and in every public space. They come in many forms, from objects—like the red-uniformed Mountie, the maple leaf, and the beaver—to concepts—like public healthcare, peacekeeping, and saying “eh?”.
But where did these symbols come from, what do they mean, and how have their meanings changed over time? Symbols of Canada gives us the real and surprising truth behind the most iconic Canadian symbols revealing their contentious and often contested histories.
With nearly 200 images, this book thoroughly explores Canada’s true self while highlighting the unexpected twists and turns that have marked each symbol’s history.
Available Formats: Paperback
Publisher’s Link: https://btlbooks.com/book/symbols-of-canada?fbclid=IwAR13TtQ_5FI3fd3JdpqVmOzx-KeFp13SMmUlc0QtsSxqe9SHb9HnzZQ2QyA
Buy it from Amazon.ca: https://www.amazon.ca/Symbols-Canada-Michael-Dawson/dp/1771133716/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1544115873&sr=8-1&keywords=symbols+of+canada
Emilie Guilbeault-Cayer, Les Soeurs de la Charité de Saint-Louis en Amérique: 1902-2018 (Québec: Septentrion, 2018)
Débarquées en 1902 en Gaspésie, les Soeurs de la Charité de Saint-Louis quittent leur Bretagne natale pour échapper aux lois antireligieuses sévissant en France. Dans le Québec d’avant la Révolution tranquille, la contribution des soeurs au système scolaire est majeure: écoles de rang, pensionnats, orphelinats, écoles normales… Les soeurs tissent au fil des ans un large réseau d’institutions d’enseignement, de la Beauce à Lévis, en passant par Bellechasse, Portneuf et Québec. Avec l’ouverture d’écoles aux États-Unis et dans l’Ouest canadien, leur réseau d’influence s’étend au-delà des frontières du Québec.
La congrégation traverse les bouleversements sociaux et religieux des années 1960-1970 en diversifiant ses activités, créant de nouvelles oeuvres de charité et de justice sociale. Au même moment, l’essor des missions internationales offre aux Soeurs de la Charité de Saint-Louis une occasion de renouveau, pendant qu’au Québec la congrégation poursuit son oeuvre au service des populations démunies.
Available Formats: Paperback, ePub, PDF
Publisher’s Link: https://www.septentrion.qc.ca/catalogue/soeurs-de-la-charite-de-saint-louis-en-amerique-les
Buy it from Amazon.ca: https://www.amazon.ca/Soeurs-Charit%C3%A9-Saint-Louis-Am%C3%A9rique-1902-2018-ebook/dp/B07JQ929H1/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1544116816&sr=8-2&keywords=soeurs+de+la+charit%C3%A9
That’s all for this month! I hope you enjoyed this blog post. If you did, please consider sharing it on the social media platform of your choice! Are there any books in particular that you are looking forward to? Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments below! And don’t get to check back on Sunday for a brand new Canadian history roundup! See you then!
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