On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s accession to the throne, the Centre of Canadian Studies of the University of Edinburgh hosted its annual conference on the theme "Majesty in Canada". The essays that were presented at that conference reflect the wide-ranging recognitions of the different roles that monarchs and their representatives have played in Canada.The essays examine how Canadians have understood their ties to royalty and how the regal principle...

Recent, unpredictable incidents in diverse locations – Paris, Nice, Ankara, Sinai, California, Manchester and London – reinforce how governments and scholars must look beneath the surface for understanding of the turbulent post-9/11world. In particular, what does ‘expertise’ mean in this new era? This book answers that question? The volume is about a particular kind of expert – a type suffering from ‘bad press’ for a long time – namely, scholars who carry out area-based research. The term ...

Sir Titus Salt built a mill and village in 1853 that continues to be named after him. Already a successful worsted manufacturer in Bradford, his decision to build a huge ‘vertical’ mill commenced a pattern of intertwined fortunes between Salt’s Mill and Saltaire’s residents, one that has continued. It housed all processes from treating raw wool to finishing quality worsted materials, alongside houses and community amenities for his workers. Ownership of Salts Mill initially passed to Salt’...

July 1st 1867 is celebrated as Canada's Confederation - the date that Canada became a country. But 1867 was only the beginning. As the country grew from a small dominion to a vast federation encompassing ten provinces, three territories, and hundreds of First Nations, its leaders repeatedly debated Canada's purpose, and the benefits and drawbacks of the choice to be Canadian. Reconsidering Confederation brings together Canada's leading historians to explore how the provinces, territories, ...

In Louis XIV’s New France, colonial authorities attempted to reproduce French regal authority in novel ways, often by performing typical metropolitan political rituals. When these practices were transposed into the St Lawrence Valley settlements, where a small French population lived alongside a substantial Indigenous presence, they took on new meanings.The colony of Canada replicated many features of the developing French absolutist state. Yet while the king likely knew more about ...

Canada has no better interpreter than prolific writer and thinker John Ralston Saul. Here he argues that Canada did not begin in 1867; indeed, its foundation was laid by two visionary men, Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin. The two leaders of Lower and Upper Canada, respectively, worked together after the 1841 Union to lead a reformist movement for responsible government run by elected citizens instead of a colonial governor.But it was during the "Great Ministry" of 184...

"Though the story of the potato famine has been told before, it's never been as thoroughly reported or as hauntingly told." — New York PostIt started in 1845 and before it was over more than one million men, women, and children would die and another two million would flee the country. Measured in terms of mortality, the Great Irish Potato Famine was the worst disaster in the nineteenth century—it claimed twice as many lives as the American Civil War. A perf...

This lively guide to Quebec history tells the fascinating story of the settlement of the St. Lawrence River Valley over nearly 500 years. But it also tells of the Montreal and Quebec-based explorers and traders who travelled, mapped, and inhabited most of North America, and embrothered the peoples they met. Combining vast research and great story telling, Jacques Lacoursière and Robin Philpot connect everyday life to the events that emerged as historical turning points in the life of a peo...

Everyone knows that Wilfrid Laurier was a great prime minister, an astonishing speaker, and a survivor. But nobody has looked at him as more than a mythological figure for a very long time. André Pratte, chief editorial writer of La Presse, uncovers Laurier's full complexity amid the charged political circumstances of the early 20th century. Laurier tried to unite a country deeply divided in the wake of the First World War, grappling with the thorny questions of minority rights, m...

In December 1943, a top secret contract (E.24/43) was awarded to Miles Aircraft. The contract was to build the world's first supersonic jet capable of 1000mph. The only reliable source of data on supersonic objects came from the Armament Research Dept and their wind tunnel tests on ammunition. From this, Miles developed an exceptionally thin-winged, bullet-shaped aircraft. the research was inexplicably passed to the Americans in 1944. By December 1945, one prototype was vi...

This book surveys the social history of New France. For more than a century, until the British conquest of 1759-60, France held sway over a major portion of the North American continent. In this vast territory several unique colonial societies emerged, societies which in many respects mirrored ancien regime France, but which also incorporated a major Aboriginal component.Whereas earlier works in this field presented pre-conquest Canada as completely white and Catholic, The People o...

In a country this diverse, 'culture' has different meanings. Vance tells a story from the wind-swept Arctic where a stranded Innu woman, fighting to survive, took the time to decorate her clothing with rich designs. A British explorer was amazed at her efforts, but Vance reminds us of the inseparable connection between life and art in Inuit culture (the Innu word for 'breathe' also means 'to make poetry,' and both derive from the word for 'the soul'). No surprise that Aboriginal culture began...