Revealing a little-known part of North American history, this lively guide tells the fascinating tale of the settlement of the St. Lawrence Valley. It also tells of the Montreal and Quebec-based explorers and traders who traveled, mapped, and inhabited a very large part of North America, and "embrothered the peoples" they met, as Jack Kerouac wrote.Connecting everyday life to the events that emerged as historical turning points in the life of a people, this book sheds new light on Quebec's 450-year history--and on the historical forces that lie behind its two recent efforts to gain independence.

Written by two of Quebec's most respected historians, A Short History of Quebec offers a concise yet comprehensive overview of the province from the pre-contact native period to the present-day. John A. Dickinson and Brian Young bring a refreshing perspective to the history of Quebec, focusing on the social and economic development of the region as well as the identity issues of its diverse peoples. This revised fourth edition covers Quebec's recent political history and includes an updated bibliography and chronology and new illustrations. A Canadian classic, A Short History of Quebec now takes into account such issues as the 1995 referendum, recent ideological shifts and societal changes, considers Quebec's place in North America in the light of NAFTA, and offers reflections on the Grard Bouchard-Charles Taylor Commission on Accommodation and Cultural Differences in 2008. Engagingly written, this expanded and updated fourth edition is an ideal place to learn about the dynamic history of Quebec.

Detailed chapters on modern Quebec evaluate the political turmoil of recent years, from constitutional wrangles, to the Oka crisis, to sovereignty discussions, and the debate about cultural accommodation. Quebec remains a "curious and fascinating political space," a beacon of French-language culture in North America, and an extraordinary nation within a nation.

Grasp the unique history of Quebec? Easy. Packing in equal parts fun and facts, History of Quebec For Dummies is an engaging and entertaining guide to the history of Canada's second-largest province, covering the conflicts, cultures, ideas, politics, and social changes that have shaped Quebec as we know it today. "My country isn't a country, it is winter!" sings the poet Gilles Vigneault . . . Indeed, Quebec is winter, snow, cold, and freezing winds. It is also the majestic river Saint-Laurent and its numerous confluences across America. It is vast, dense forests, countless lakes, magnificent landscapes of Saguenay, Charlevoix, Côte-Nord, or Gaspésie. Quebec is also the "old capital" perched on the Cape Diamond facing the sea. It is Montreal, the first French city of North America, the creative and innovative metropolis, junction for different cultures and heart of a nation yearning to belong to the world's history. History of Quebec For Dummies tells Quebec's fascinating story from the early fifteen hundreds to the present, highlighting the culture, language, and traditions of Canada's second-largest province. Serves as the ideal starting place to learn about Quebec Covers the latest, up-to-the-minute findings in historical research Explores the conflicts, cultures, ideas, politics, and social changes in Quebec Lifelong learners and history buffs looking for a fun-yet-factual introduction to the grand scope of Quebec history will find everything they need in History of Quebec For Dummies.

When Winnipeg's Cy Gonick started the magazine Canadian Dimension in 1963 to provide a home for the thinking and analysis of mostly young leftists engaged in Canadian economic, social, cultural, artistic and political issues, he had no grand plan. But Canadian Dimension was welcomed by intellectuals, scholars and students, and it proved enduring. Hundreds of Canada's leading figures of the left have contributed to its pages over the years, writing about every major topic in Canadian public life. This book offers an account of the most important developments in Canadian history from the sixties until today, as seen and interpreted by scholars and writers on the pages of Dimension. Each chapter reviews a major theme, such as Canada's relationship to the U.S., the development of our health care system, the dynamics of Aboriginal-non-Aboriginal relations and the role of Canadian cultural work in shaping Canadian society. Taken together, the book provides a unique and broad perspective on virtually every significant event and development in recent Canadian history. Readers who know the magazine will find this book a compelling summary of how Canada changed in the past five decades, and how the Left saw those changes and challenged them. Readers who discover Canadian Dimension through this book will find a multitude of compelling voices who challenge the dominant neoliberal thinking of mainstream Canadian intellectual life. The twenty-seven contributors, from every part of the country are Greg Albo, Brenda Austin Smith, Chris Bailey, Evan Bowness, Mordecai Briemburg, Elizabeth Comack, Angela Day, Bryan Evans, Alvin Finkel, Peter Graefe, Judy Haiven, Larry Haiven, Trevor Harrison, Henry Heller, David Hugill, Peter Kulchyski, Andrea Levy, James McCorrie, James Naylor, Bryan Palmer, Denis Pilon, Joe Roberts, Stephanie Ross, Arthur Schafer, Frank Tester, John Warnock and Chris Webb.

How can we know where we’re going if we don’t know where we are coming from? This question applies as much to nations as it does to travellers, and it rings especially loudly in the ears of Canadians. Canada: A People’s History doesn’t tell us where we are going, but it shows us where we have come from This richly illustrated book, the first of two volumes, tells the epic story of Canada from its earliest days to the arrival of the industrial age in the 1870s. Here is the story of the people who created this vast nation. The courageous explorers who tracked the vast wilderness; the adventurous settlers, many of them exiles from their homelands; the native peoples, crucial allies in the Europeans’ wars for possession of this land; the visionary politicians, and the shortsighted ones; but most of all the ordinary people who rose to the extraordinary challenge of building Canada. These people are all given voice here, their stories blending with accounts of the major events of the day. This is the story of Canada for the new millennium, one that draws on solid scholarship and presents the human drama and excitement of days gone by, one that makes past times memorable.

Margaret Conrad's history of Canada begins with a challenge to its readers. What is Canada? What makes up this diverse, complex and often contested nation-state? What was its founding moment? And who are its people? Drawing on her many years of experience as a scholar, writer and teacher of Canadian history, Conrad offers astute answers to these difficult questions. Beginning in Canada's deep past with the arrival of its Aboriginal peoples, she traces its history through the conquest by Europeans, the American Revolutionary War and the industrialization of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to its prosperous present. Despite its successes and its popularity as a destination for immigrants from across the world, Canada remains a curiously reluctant player on the international stage. This intelligent, concise and lucid book explains just why that is.