Robert Bothwell Libros

A Traveller's History of Canada gives a comprehensive survey of the country's past from the earliest times right through to the present. It begins with the first immigrants to arrive well over 15,000 years ago who traveled across a land bridge from Siberia to Alaska. These native cultures saw a succession of Westerners from the early, mainly unsuccessful Viking settlements, to the British and French in later centuries attempting to make life possible on what could be an inhospitable landscape. The European powers brought with them not only a thirst for land but also their own quarrels, which resulted in battles and skirmishes with each other, and with America after its independence. The battles continued into the twentieth century - but only on the cultural and language front between the French and English. The impact of the two world wars and its relationship with its brash neighbor, the U.S., are thoroughly discussed. The book is brought fully up to date with a profile of modern Canada, its successes, present difficulties and a prognosis for the new millennium.

Canada is in many ways a country of limits, a paradox for a place that enjoys virtually unlimited space. Most of that space is uninhabited, and much of it is uninhabitable. It is a country with a huge north but with most of its population in the south, hugging the U.S. border. An uneasy and difficult country, Canada has nevertheless defied the odds: it remains, in the 21st century, a haven of peace and a beacon of prosperity. Erudite yet accessible and marked by narrative flair, The Penguin History of Canada paints an expansive portrait of a dynamic and complex country.

Relations between Canada and Quebec have never been easy. Beginning with the Conquest and working through the many political permutations before Confederation and since, there has always been conflict between the two governments and, in particular, between two points of view. The rebellions of 1837-8, conscription, the Quiet Revolution, language laws, the FLQ crisis and endless constitutional wrangles such as Meech Lake are just a sampling of the issues that have divided the nation. The cast of characters has been fascinating, Pierre Trudeau, Brian Mulroney, Robert Bourassa, and Rene Levesque have all played centre stage. In the wake of a razor-thin majority for federalist forces in the referendum of 1995, the issue of separation continues to be complicated by the division of the huge national debt, the possibility of further territorial partition within a separate Quebec, the rights of First Nations people, and the spectre of separatist movements in Eastern Europe in recent years.