• IHAF 2015: An Overview from an Early North Americanist

    Maxime Dagenais Last week (15-17 October 2015) was the 68th Congress of the Institut d’histoire de l’Amérique française. For the uninitiated, the Institut d’histoire de l’Amérique française is the largest organization of historians and specialists of French North America. Though centered on Québec, it attracts scholars from all over Canada and abroad, including the United… Continue Reading

  • The Emerging Histories of the Early Modern French Atlantic Conference: An Early Modern Canadianist Perspective

    Mairi Cowan The early modernism of early Canadian history made a good showing last week in Williamsburg, Virginia. There, at the Emerging Histories of the Early Modern French Atlantic conference sponsored by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture, about a hundred scholars gathered to discuss the connections around and across the Atlantic… Continue Reading

  • Betting on the Continental Army’s Canadian Campaign

    Jacqueline Reynoso In mid-January 1776, the paths of two military officers crossed in Hartford, Connecticut. While passing through the city, General Charles Lee encountered the imprisoned British Major, Christopher French. There, during an evening meal, they exchanged competing assessments about the ongoing military struggles of the period. At some point during the evening, they put… Continue Reading

  • Unrest, Violence, and the Search for Social Order in British North America and Canada, 1749-1876

    Elizabeth Mancke From the mid-eighteenth century to the early Confederation era, British North Americans and then Canadians confronted a wide range of phenomena that could engender disorder: imperial wars, rebellions, the arrival of immigrants, epidemics, political unrest, and relations with First Nations. All, directly or indirectly, presented challenges to maintaining social and political order. In… Continue Reading

  • Sources for Loyalist Studies

    Christopher Minty Writing in Liberty’s Exiles, Maya Jasanoff argued that the Loyalist Claims Commission was a useful—perhaps the most useful—source available for scholars working on loyalists. They are indeed useful, offering thousands of biographical snippets of a wide range of individuals. Most scholars have used the claims, in some capacity.[1] But, alongside the claims, there… Continue Reading

  • Evaluating our Assumptions: Rethinking Literacies in Canadian History

    Thomas Peace Sarah Ainse (Oneida), Kahgegagahbowh (Mississauga), Pahtahsega (Mississauga), Shahwahnegezhik (Ojibwe), Kezhegowinninne (Ojibwe), Kahkewaquonaby (Mississauga), Sawatanen (Wendat), Ferrier Vincent (Wendat), Francois Annance (Abenaki), Pierre Paul Ozhunkarine (Abenaki), Nicolas Vincent (Wendat), Thayendanega (Mohawk), Kanonraron (Mohawk), Sahonwagy (Mohawk), Shawundais (Mississauga), Eleazar Williams (Mohawk), Henry Pahtahquahong Chase (Mississauga), and William Apess (Pequot). These are just a handful of… Continue Reading

  • Crossing Borders: Restructuring North American Narratives

    Patrick Lacroix It is encouraging to see that Atlantic history, alongside environmental history, has emerged as a leading line of enquiry. The Atlantic perspective has already done wonders for our collective understanding of the slave trade and the Age of Revolution. Here I hope to recommend a continental perspective as a profitable avenue for assessing Early Canadian and Early… Continue Reading