Stephanie Pettigrew [This essay first appeared at UnwrittenHistories on August 21, 2018, and is re-posted here through collaboration with editors Andrea Eidinger and Stephanie Pettigrew.] French Canadian history has always been locked in a struggle to define its history and separate it from its nationalism. Even when discussing the origins of French settlers in New… Continue Reading
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[This is the third essay of the Borealia series on Cartography and Empire–on the many ways maps were employed in the contested imperial spaces of early modern North America.] Lauren Beck The Geographic Names Board of Canada (GNBC) provides scholars with a database of place names that allows users to look up the location of a place name,… Continue Reading
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Çà et là, l’historiographie a rappelé le rôle singulier de la cartographie pratiquée dans un contexte colonial : offrir des connaissances géographiques aux dirigeants qui souhaitent asseoir leur emprise sur un territoire étranger. Les cartographes deviennent ainsi des agents bâtisseurs d’empire, déployant leur savoir-faire technique au profit d’un pouvoir impérial et d’un souverain lui-même très limité dans ses déplacements.
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Peter H. Russell’s Canada’s Odyssey is a sweeping reconsideration of the foundations of Canada’s constitutional order that has garnered considerable attention and praise. This essay is the first in a three-part series assessing the book’s significance. Elizabeth Mancke Upon first inspection of Canada’s Odyssey: A Country Based on Incomplete Conquests, I recoiled. The main title… Continue Reading
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Bradley Miller The Supreme Court declined this month to radically change the way that Canada works. In R v Comeau, lawyers for a New Brunswick man ticketed for bringing too many bottles of beer into the province from Quebec urged the justices to use the history of the Canadian federation to improve its future, at… Continue Reading
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This essay is the second in a three-part series on Confederation that provides critical historical context for Canada’s sesquicentennial anniversary. The first essay was posted on 26 June. The third essay will be posted on 30 June. E.A. Heaman July 1 marks 150 years since Canadian Confederation. So what? Confederation is political history, a field… Continue Reading
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Ruma Chopra How does Canada’s more open, even welcoming policy towards Syrian refugees fit with other refugees, black loyalists and Maroons who entered the Maritimes over 200 years ago when the colonies were peripheral regions within a larger British Empire? Part of the difference between earlier exiles and those of our own time is sheer… Continue Reading
