Roads to Confederation

Roads to Confederation
Author: Jacqueline D. Krikorian
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 395
Release: 2017-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 148752188X

Roads to Confederation: The Making of Canada, 1867 Volume 1 includes material on the competing visions of the nature of the 1867 project, on the ideas underpinning the British North America Act, 1867, and on some of the peoples and communities Confederation scholars have traditionally ignored.

We Have Not a Government

We Have Not a Government
Author: George William Van Cleve
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 411
Release: 2019-04-05
Genre: History
ISBN: 022664152X

In 1783, as the Revolutionary War came to a close, Alexander Hamilton resigned in disgust from the Continental Congress after it refused to consider a fundamental reform of the Articles of Confederation. Just four years later, that same government collapsed, and Congress grudgingly agreed to support the 1787 Philadelphia Constitutional Convention, which altered the Articles beyond recognition. What occurred during this remarkably brief interval to cause the Confederation to lose public confidence and inspire Americans to replace it with a dramatically more flexible and powerful government? We Have Not a Government is the story of this contentious moment in American history. In George William Van Cleve’s book, we encounter a sharply divided America. The Confederation faced massive war debts with virtually no authority to compel its members to pay them. It experienced punishing trade restrictions and strong resistance to American territorial expansion from powerful European governments. Bitter sectional divisions that deadlocked the Continental Congress arose from exploding western settlement. And a deep, long-lasting recession led to sharp controversies and social unrest across the country amid roiling debates over greatly increased taxes, debt relief, and paper money. Van Cleve shows how these remarkable stresses transformed the Confederation into a stalemate government and eventually led previously conflicting states, sections, and interest groups to advocate for a union powerful enough to govern a continental empire. Touching on the stories of a wide-ranging cast of characters—including John Adams, Patrick Henry, Daniel Shays, George Washington, and Thayendanegea—Van Cleve makes clear that it was the Confederation’s failures that created a political crisis and led to the 1787 Constitution. Clearly argued and superbly written, We Have Not a Government is a must-read history of this crucial period in our nation’s early life.

Globalizing Confederation

Globalizing Confederation
Author: Jacqueline Krikorian
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2017-11-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 1487515049

Globalizing Confederation brings together original research from 17 scholars to provide an international perspective on Canada’s Confederation in 1867. In seeking to ascertain how others understood, constructed or considered the changes taking place in British North America, Globalizing Confederation unpacks a range of viewpoints, including those from foreign governments, British colonies, and Indigenous peoples. Exploring perspectives from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, France, Latin America, New Zealand, and the Vatican, among others, as well as considering the impact of Confederation on the rights of Indigenous peoples during this period, the contributors to this collection present how Canada’s Confederation captured the imaginations of people around the world in the 1860s. Globalizing Confederation reveals how some viewed the 1867 changes to Canada as part of a reorganization of the British Empire, while others contextualized it in the literature on colonization more broadly, while still others framed the event as part of a re-alignment or power shift among the Spanish, French and British empires. While many people showed interest in the Confederation debates, others, such as South Africa and the West Indies, expressed little interest in the establishment of Canada until it had profound effects on their corners of the global political landscape.

Canada's Odyssey

Canada's Odyssey
Author: Peter H. Russell
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 544
Release: 2017-05-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 1487514484

150 years after Confederation, Canada is known around the world for its social diversity and its commitment to principles of multiculturalism. But the road to contemporary Canada is a winding one, a story of division and conflict as well as union and accommodation. In Canada’s Odyssey, renowned scholar Peter H. Russell provides an expansive, accessible account of Canadian history from the pre-Confederation period to the present day. By focusing on what he calls the "three pillars" of English Canada, French Canada, and Aboriginal Canada, Russell advances an important view of our country as one founded on and informed by "incomplete conquests." It is the very incompleteness of these conquests that have made Canada what it is today, not just a multicultural society but a multinational one. Featuring the scope and vivid characterizations of an epic novel, Canada’s Odyssey is a magisterial work by an astute observer of Canadian politics and history, a perfect book to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Confederation.

Where Once They Stood

Where Once They Stood
Author: Raymond Benjamin Blake
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2019
Genre:
ISBN: 9780889776081

"'A masterful examination of Newfoundland-Canada relations from 1869–1949'—Corey Slumkowski, author of Inventing Atlantic Canada: Regionalism and the Maritime Reaction to Newfoundland’s Entry into Canadian Confederation. Coming on the 70th anniversary of Newfoundland joining Confederation, as well as the 150th anniversary of its first rejection of Canada, Where Once They Stood challenges popular notions that those who voted against Confederation in 1869 and for union with Canada in 1948 were uninformed, incompetent, ignorant, and gullible. Raymond B. Blake and Melvin Baker demonstrate that, in fact, voters fully understood the issues at stake in both cases, and in 1948 women too became instrumental in determining the final outcome, voting for Canada, believing it provided the best opportunities for their children. 'Blake and Baker make a persuasive case, turn[ing] the conspiracy on its head and demonstrat[ing] how Newfoundlanders knew what they were doing and expressly acted in their own self-interest when they chose Canada. . . . It is hard to imagine any two other authors who would know more about the subject.' —David MacKenzie, author of Inside the Atlantic Triangle."--

A Companion to U.S. Foreign Relations

A Companion to U.S. Foreign Relations
Author: Christopher R. W. Dietrich
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 1542
Release: 2020-03-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 1119459699

Covers the entire range of the history of U.S. foreign relations from the colonial period to the beginning of the 21st century. A Companion to U.S. Foreign Relations is an authoritative guide to past and present scholarship on the history of American diplomacy and foreign relations from its seventeenth century origins to the modern day. This two-volume reference work presents a collection of historiographical essays by prominent scholars. The essays explore three centuries of America’s global interactions and the ways U.S. foreign policies have been analyzed and interpreted over time. Scholars offer fresh perspectives on the history of U.S. foreign relations; analyze the causes, influences, and consequences of major foreign policy decisions; and address contemporary debates surrounding the practice of American power. The Companion covers a wide variety of methodologies, integrating political, military, economic, social and cultural history to explore the ideas and events that shaped U.S. diplomacy and foreign relations and continue to influence national identity. The essays discuss topics such as the links between U.S. foreign relations and the study of ideology, race, gender, and religion; Native American history, expansion, and imperialism; industrialization and modernization; domestic and international politics; and the United States’ role in decolonization, globalization, and the Cold War. A comprehensive approach to understanding the history, influences, and drivers of U.S. foreign relation, this indispensable resource: Examines significant foreign policy events and their subsequent interpretations Places key figures and policies in their historical, national, and international contexts Provides background on recent and current debates in U.S. foreign policy Explores the historiography and primary sources for each topic Covers the development of diverse themes and methodologies in histories of U.S. foreign policy Offering scholars, teachers, and students unmatched chronological breadth and analytical depth, A Companion to U.S. Foreign Relations: Colonial Era to the Present is an important contribution to scholarship on the history of America’s interactions with the world.

Canada before Confederation: Maps at the Exhibition

Canada before Confederation: Maps at the Exhibition
Author: Chet Van Duzer
Publisher: Vernon Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2018-01-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1622733460

Each of the maps featured in this book was showcased in the exhibition “Canada before Confederation: Early Exploration and Mapping,” which took place in several locations, both in Canada and abroad, in Fall of 2017. The authors provide a scholarly study highlighting the importance and unique features of each of these jewels of cartographic history, with particular attention paid to how they demonstrate the development of Canadian identity at the same time that they reveal Indigenous knowledge of the lands now known as Canada.

Canadians and Their Pasts

Canadians and Their Pasts
Author: Margaret Conrad
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2013-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1442615397

What role does history play in contemporary society? Has the frenetic pace of today's world led people to lose contact with the past? A high-profile team of researchers from across Canada sought to answer these questions by launching an ambitious investigation into how Canadians engage with history in their everyday lives. The results of their survey form the basis of this eye-opening book. Canadians and Their Pasts reports on the findings of interviews with 3,419 Canadians from a variety of cultural and linguistic communities. Along with yielding rich qualitative data, the surveys generated revealing quantitative data that allows for comparisons based on gender, ethnicity, migration histories, region, age, income, and educational background. The book also brings Canada into international conversation with similar studies undertaken earlier in the United States, Australia, and Europe. Canadians and Their Pasts confirms that, for most Canadians, the past is not dead. Rather, it reveals that our histories continue to shape the present in many powerful ways.

Britain and the Origins of Canadian Confederation, 1837-67

Britain and the Origins of Canadian Confederation, 1837-67
Author: Ged Martin
Publisher: UBC Press
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2011-11-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 0774842695

In Britain and the Origins of Canadian Confederation, 1837-1867, Ged Martin offers a sceptical review of claims that Confederation answered all the problems facing the provinces, and examines in detail British perceptions of Canada and ideas about its future. The major British contribution to the coming of Confederation is to be found not in the aftermath of the Quebec conference, where the imperial role was mainly one of bluff and exhortation, but prior to 1864, in a vague consensus among opinion-formers that the provinces would one day unite. Faced with an inescapable need to secure legislation at Westminster for a new political structure, British North American politicians found they could work within the context of a metropolitan preference for intercolonial union.