100 Best Canadian History Books of All Time (Updated for 2026)

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1

Champlain's Dream

David Hackett Fischer

5.0

In this sweeping, enthralling biography, acclaimed historian David Hackett Fischer brings to life the remarkable Samuel de Champlain -- soldier, spy, master mariner, explorer, cartographer, artist, and Father of New France.

Born on France's Atlantic coast, Champlain grew to manhood in a country riven by religious warfare. The historical record is unclear on whether Champlain was baptized Protestant

2

The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America

Thomas King, Lorne Cardinal, et al

4.9

WINNER of the 2014 RBC Taylor Prize

The Inconvenient Indian is at once a “history” and the complete subversion of a history—in short, a critical and personal meditation that the remarkable Thomas King has conducted over the past 50 years about what it means to be “Indian” in North America.

Rich with dark and light, pain and magic, this book distills the insights gleaned from that meditation, weaving

3

Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Indigenous Life

James Daschuk

4.8

This new edition of Clearing the Plains has a foreword by Pulitzer Prize-winning author, Elizabeth A. Fenn, and explanations of the book's influence by leading Canadian historians. Called "one of the most important books of the twenty-first century" by the Literary Review of Canada, it was named a "Book of the Year" by The Globe and Mail, Quill & Quire, the Writers' Trust, and won the Sir John A.

Recommended by Christian W. McMillen.

Christian W. McMillen

The book shows how early capitalist trade and then sequestration on reservations, led to horrific mortality among native populations, due to infectious diseases that came over with European traders and colonizers. [source]

4

Vimy

Pierre Berton

4.8

One chill Easter dawn in 1917, a blizzard blowing in their faces, the four divisions of the Canadian Corps in France went over the top of a muddy scarp known as Vimy Ridge. Within hours, they held in their grasp what had eluded both British and French armies in over two years of fighting: they had seized the best-defended German bastion on the Western Front.

How could an army of civilians from a na

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5

Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City

Tanya Talaga

4.7

In 1966, twelve-year-old Chanie Wenjack froze to death on the railway tracks after running away from residential school. An inquest was called and four recommendations were made to prevent another tragedy. None of those recommendations were applied.

More than a quarter of a century later, from 2000 to 2011, seven Indigenous high school students died in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The seven were hundreds

6

Three Day Road

Joseph Boyden

4.7

Set in Canada and the battlefields of France and Belgium, Three-Day Road is a mesmerizing novel told through the eyes of Niskaaa Canadian Oji-Cree woman living off the land who is the last of a line of healers and divinersaand her nephew Xavier. At the urging of his friend Elijah, a Cree boy raised in reserve schools, Xavier joins the war effort. Shipped off to Europe when they are nineteen, the b

Recommended by Wade Davis.

Wade Davis

Joseph is a friend of mine and l love this book. The other novel that could have been on the list is Sebastian Faulks’s Birdsong, which is a beautiful book, but because Sebastian has quite properly got a lot of attention, I thought it would be nice to choose something else. [source]

7

Klondike: The Last Great Gold Rush, 1896-1899

Pierre Berton

4.7

With the building of the railroad and the settlement of the plains, the North West was opening up. The Klondike stampede was a wild interlude in the epic story of western development, and here are its dramatic tales of hardship, heroism, and villainy. We meet Soapy Smith, dictator of Skagway; Swiftwater Bill Gates, who bathed in champagne; Silent Sam Bonnifield, who lost and won back a hotel in a

8

Nation Maker: Sir John A. Macdonald: His Life, Our Times

Richard J. Gwyn

4.7

#1 NATIONAL BESTSELLER

An exciting story, passionately told and rich in detail, this major biography is the second volume of the bestselling, award-winning John A: The Man Who Made Us, by well-known journalist and highly respected author Richard Gwyn.

John A. Macdonald, Canada's first and most important prime minister, is the man who made Confederation happen, who built this country over the next qu

9

Death or Victory: The Battle for Quebec and the Birth of Empire. Dan Snow

Dan Snow

4.6

Perched atop a tall promontory and surrounded on three sides by the treacherous St. Lawrence River, Quebec City forms an almost impregnable natural fortress. But in 1759, with the Seven Years War raging around the globe, the capital city of New France came under attack. With the irascible British general James Wolfe in command, a force of more than 100 ships carrying nearly 9,000 men navigated the

Recommended by Peter Snow.

Peter Snow

This is an account of the Battle of Quebec in 1759 and the key role in the victory there of Britain’s General Wolfe who managed to secure Canada for the British Empire. France and Britain were in global rivalry with each other and the British didn’t want to lose North America to their enemies. Quebec was the French Canadian capital and it had to be seized by the British. Dan describes the daring attack by Wolfe’s army in brilliant detail. [source]

10

At the Sharp End: Canadians Fighting the Great War, 1914-1916, Volume 1

Tim Cook

4.6

At the Sharp End covers the harrowing early battles of World War One, when tens of thousands, then hundreds of thousands, died, before the generals and soldiers found ways to break the terrible stalemate of the front. It provides both an intimate look at the Canadian men in the trenches and an authoritative account of the slow evolution in tactics, weapons, and advancement. Featuring never-before-

11

The Invasion of Canada: 1812-1813

Pierre Berton

4.6

To America's leaders in 1812, an invasion of Canada seemed to be "a mere matter of marching," as Thomas Jefferson confidently predicted. How could a nation of 8 million fail to subdue a struggling colony of 300,000? Yet, when the campaign of 1812 ended, the only Americans left on Canadian soil were prisoners of war. Three American armies had been forced to surrender, and the British were in contro

12

The Book of Negroes

Lawrence Hill

4.6

Based on a true story, "The Book of Negroes" tells the story of Aminata, a young girl abducted from her village in Mali aged 11 in 1755, and who, after a deathly journey on a slave ship where she witnesses the brutal repression of a slave revolt, is sold to a plantation owner in South Carolina, who rapes her. She is brought to New York, where she escapes her owner, and finds herself helping the Br

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13

The Arctic Grail: The Quest for the Northwest Passage and the North Pole, 1818-1909

Pierre Berton

4.5

Covering the entire period of exploration from the expedition of William Edward Perry in 1818 to that of Robert Peary in a single volume, Pierre Berton has written a revisionist history of the search for the Northwest passage and the North Pole. 26 illustrations.

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14

Erebus: The Story of a Ship

Michael Palin

4.5

In his major new work, Michael Palin – former Monty Python stalwart and much-loved television globe-trotter – brings to life the world and voyages of HMS Erebus, from its construction in the naval dockyards of Pembroke, to the part it played in Ross’s Antarctic expedition of 1839–43, to its abandonment during Franklin’s ill-fated Arctic expedition, and to its final rediscovery on the seabed in Que

15

John A: The Man Who Made Us (The Life and Times of John A. Macdonald - Volume One: 1815-1867)

Richard Gwyn

4.5

The first full-scale biography of Canada’s first prime minister in half a century by one of our best-known and most highly regarded political writers.

The first volume of Richard Gwyn’s definitive biography of John A. Macdonald follows his life from his birth in Scotland in 1815 to his emigration with his family to Kingston, Ontario, to his days as a young, rising lawyer, to his tragedy-ridden firs

16

Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography

Chester Brown

4.5

"It has the thoroughness of a history book yet reads with the personalized vision of a novel." -Time

Chester Brown reinvents the comic-book medium to create the critically acclaimed historical biography Louis Riel, winning the Harvey Awards for best writing and best graphic novel for his compelling, meticulous, and dispassionate retelling of the charismatic, and perhaps insane, nineteenth-century

17

The Last Spike: The Great Railway, 1881-1885

Pierre Berton

4.5

In the four years between 1881 and 1885, Canada was forged into one nation by the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The Last Spike reconstructs the incredible story of how some 2,000 miles of steel crossed the continent in just five years — exactly half the time stipulated in the contract. Pierre Berton recreates the adventures that were part of this vast undertaking: the railway on the br

18

Shock Troops: Canadians Fighting the Great War 1917-1918 Volume 2

Tim Cook

4.5

Shock Troops follows the Canadian fighting forces during the titanic battles of Vimy Ridge, Hill 70, Passchendaele, and the Hundred Days campaign. Through the eyes of the soldiers who fought and died in the trenches on the Western Front, and based on newly uncovered Canadian, British, and German archival sources, Cook builds on Volume I of his national bestseller, At the Sharp End. The Canadian fi

19

Just Watch Me: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau: 1968-2000

John English

4.5

This magnificent second volume, written with exclusive access to Trudeau’s private papers and letters, completes what the Globe and Mail called “the most illuminating Trudeau portrait yet written” — sweeping us from sixties’ Trudeaumania to his final days when he debated his faith.

His life is one of Canada’s most engrossing stories. John English reveals how for Trudeau style was as important as su

20

Hark! A Vagrant (Hark! A Vagrant, #1)

Kate Beaton

4.5

Hark! A Vagrant is an uproarious romp through history and literature seen through the sharp, contemporary lens of New Yorker cartoonist and comics-sensation Kate Beaton. No era or tome emerges unscathbed as Beaton rightly skewers the Western world's revolutionaries, leaders, sycophants, and suffragists while equally honing her wit on the hapless heroes, heroines, and villains of the best-loved fic

21

Flames Across the Border: 1813-1814

Pierre Berton

4.5

The Canada–U.S. border was in flames as the War of 1812 continued. York's parliament buildings were on fire, Niagara-on-the-Lake burned to the ground and Buffalo lay in ashes. Even the American capital of Washington, far to the south, was put to the torch. The War of 1812 had become one of the nineteenth century's bloodiest struggles.

Flames Across the Border is a compelling evocation of war at its

22

The Civil War of 1812: American Citizens, British Subjects, Irish Rebels, & Indian Allies

Alan Taylor

4.4

In this deeply researched and clearly written book, the Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Alan Taylor tells the riveting story of a war that redefined North America. During the early nineteenth century, Britons and Americans renewed their struggle over the legacy of the American Revolution. Soldiers, immigrants, settlers, and Indians fought in a northern borderland to determine the fate of a contin

23

And No Birds Sang

Farley Mowat, Charles Martin Smith

4.4

In July 1942, Farley Mowat was an eager young infantryman bound for Europe and impatient for combat. This powerful, true account of the action he saw, fighting desperately to push the Nazis out of Italy, evokes the terrible reality of war with an honesty and clarity fiction can only imitate. In scene after unforgettable scene, he describes the agony and antic humor of the soldier's existence: the

24

Secret Path

Gord Downie, Jeff Lemire

4.4

Secret Path is a ten song album by Gord Downie with a graphic novel by illustrator Jeff Lemire that tells the story of Chanie “Charlie” Wenjack, a twelve-year-old boy who died in flight from the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School fifty years ago.

Chanie, misnamed Charlie by his teachers, was a young boy who died on October 22, 1966, walking the railroad tracks, trying to escape from the Ceci

25

The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland

Jim DeFede

4.4

26

21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act: Helping Canadians Make Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples a Reality

Bob Joseph

4.4

Based on a viral article, 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act is the essential guide to understanding the legal document and its repercussion on generations of Indigenous Peoples, written by a leading cultural sensitivity trainer.

Since its creation in 1876, the Indian Act has shaped, controlled, and constrained the lives and opportunities of Indigenous Peoples, and is at the root of ma

27

I Am Not a Number

Dr. Jenny Kay Dupuis, Kathy Kacer, Gillian Newland

4.3

When eight-year-old Irene is removed from her First Nations family to live in a residential school she is confused, frightened, and terribly homesick. She tries to remember who she is and where she came from, despite the efforts of the nuns who are in charge at the school and who tell her that she is not to use her own name but instead use the number they have assigned to her. When she goes home f

28

Indian Horse

Richard Wagamese

4.3

Saul Indian Horse has hit bottom. His last binge almost killed him, and now he’s a reluctant resident in a treatment centre for alcoholics, surrounded by people he’s sure will never understand him. But Saul wants peace, and he grudgingly comes to see that he’ll find it only through telling his story. With him, readers embark on a journey back through the life he’s led as a northern Ojibway, with a

29

Step Aside, Pops (Hark! A Vagrant, #2)

Kate Beaton

4.3

The sequel to the hit comic collection Hark! a Vagrant, which appeared on best of lists from Time, NPR and USA Today; spent five months on the New York Times bestseller list; and won Harvey, Ignatz, and Doug Wright awards.

Cartoonist Kate Beaton returns with all-new sidesplitting comics that showcase her irreverent love of history, pop culture, and literature. Collected from her wildly popular webs

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30

The Orenda

Joseph Boyden

4.3

In the remote winter landscape a brutal massacre and the kidnapping of a young Iroquois girl violently re-ignites a deep rift between two tribes. The girl’s captor, Bird, is one of the Huron Nation’s great warriors and statesmen. Years have passed since the murder of his family, and yet they are never far from his mind. In the girl, Snow Falls, he recognizes the ghost of his lost daughter, but as

31

Canadian History for Dummies

Will Ferguson

4.3

A wild ride through Canadian history, fully revised and updated! This new edition of Canadian History For Dummies takes readers on a thrilling ride through Canadian history, from indigenous native cultures and early French and British settlements through Paul Martin's shaky minority government. This timely update features all the latest, up-to-the-minute findings in historical and archeological re

32

The Great Depression: 1929-1939

Pierre Berton

4.3

Over 1.5 million Canadians were on relief, one in five was a public dependant, and 70,000 young men travelled like hoboes. Ordinary citizens were rioting in the streets, but their demonstrations met with indifference, and dissidents were jailed. Canada emerged from the Great Depression a different nation.

The most searing decade in Canada's history began with the stock market crash of 1929 and ende

33

Freedom Is a Constant Struggle

Angela Y. Davis, Frank Barat, Cornel West

4.3

In these newly collected essays, interviews, and speeches, world-renowned activist and scholar Angela Y. Davis illuminates the connections between struggles against state violence and oppression throughout history and around the world.

Reflecting on the importance of black feminism, intersectionality, and prison abolitionism for today's struggles, Davis discusses the legacies of previous liberation

34

A Great and Noble Scheme: The Tragic Story of the Expulsion of the French Acadians from Their American Homeland

John Mack Faragher

4.3

In 1755, New England troops embarked on a "great and noble scheme" to expel 18,000 French-speaking Acadians ("the neutral French") from Nova Scotia, killing thousands, separating innumerable families, and driving many into forests where they waged a desperate guerrilla resistance. The right of neutrality; to live in peace from the imperial wars waged between France and England; had been one of the

35

Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754 - 1766

Fred Anderson

4.3

In this vivid and compelling narrative, the Seven Years' War–long seen as a mere backdrop to the American Revolution–takes on a whole new significance. Relating the history of the war as it developed, Anderson shows how the complex array of forces brought into conflict helped both to create Britain’s empire and to sow the seeds of its eventual dissolution.

Beginning with a skirmish in the Pennsylva

36

The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative

Thomas King

4.3

"Stories are wondrous things. And they are dangerous." In The Truth About Stories, Native novelist and scholar Thomas King explores how stories shape who we are and how we understand and interact with other people. From creation stories to personal experiences, historical anecdotes to social injustices, racist propaganda to works of contemporary Native literature, King probes Native culture's deep

37

They Called Me Number One: Secrets and Survival at an Indian Residential School

Bev Sellars

4.3

Xat'sull Chief Bev Sellars spent her childhood in a church-run residential school whose aim it was to "civilize" Native children through Christian teachings, forced separation from family and culture, and discipline. In addition, beginning at the age of five, Sellars was isolated for two years at Coqualeetza Indian Tuberculosis Hospital in Sardis, British Columbia, nearly six hours' drive from hom

38

The Promise of Canada: 150 Years--Building a Great Country One Idea at a Time

Charlotte Gray

4.3

What does it mean to be a Canadian? What great ideas have changed our country? An award-winning writer casts her eye over 150 years of Canadian history.

“Our country owes its success not to some imagined tribal singularity but to the fact that, although its thirty-five million citizens do not look, speak or pray alike, we have learned to share this land and for the most part live in neighbourly sym

39

The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650 - 1815

Richard White

4.3

An acclaimed book and widely acknowledged classic, The Middle Ground steps outside the simple stories of Indian-white relations – stories of conquest and assimilation and stories of cultural persistence. It is, instead, about a search for accommodation and common meaning. It tells how Europeans and Indians met, regarding each other as alien, as other, as virtually nonhuman, and how between 1650 an

Recommended by Colin Calloway.

Colin Calloway

Richard White complicates understandings of Indian and white relations by looking at how Indians and Europeans constructed a complex world that was new to all the participants. [source]

40

Canada: A Portrait in Letters, 1800-2000

Charlotte Gray

4.3

In this rich and diverse collection of two centuries of letters, renowned biographer Charlotte Gray gives us the inside story on how we came to be who we are.

As the expression of one person’s thoughts, ideas, and emotions, a letter offers a unique and privileged look at a moment in history. Whether written to a close friend or an entire nation, a letter speaks volumes about the writer and his or h

41

Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present

Robyn Maynard

4.3

Delving behind Canada's veneer of multiculturalism and tolerance, Policing Black Lives traces the violent realities of anti-blackness from the slave ships to prisons, classrooms and beyond. Robyn Maynard provides readers with the first comprehensive account of nearly four hundred years of state-sanctioned surveillance, criminalization and punishment of Black lives in Canada.

While highlighting the

42

A History of Canada in Ten Maps: Epic Stories of Charting a Mysterious Land

Adam Shoalts

4.3

Winner of the 2018 Louise de Kiriline Lawrence Award for Nonfiction

Envisioning the mysterious land that would eventually be called "Canada" through the eyes of the explorers who first set foot on these shores, A History of Canada in Ten Maps brings our stories to life.

Every map tells a story, and every map has a purpose: inviting us to go somewhere we've never been. It is an account of what we

43

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill (The Last Lion, #1-3)

William Manchester, Paul Reid

4.3

Universally acclaimed for their compelling narrative, their fresh insights, and their objective renderings of Winston Churchill's life, The Last Lion trilogy presents a revelatory and unparalleled portrait of this brilliant, flawed, and dynamic adventurer, aristocrat, soldier, and statesman.

Born at the end of the 19th century when Imperial Britain still stood at the splendid pinnacle of her power

Recommended by Ryan Holiday and Chris Young.

Ryan Holiday

Author

After the Caro series, I started William Manchester’s equally epic three volume set on Winston Churchill (Visions of Glory, Alone, Defender of the Realm) which Robert Greene gave me as a wedding present last year. Like all truly great long reads, you learn not just about the subject but every intersecting one: the history of British peerage, the Victorian era, the British Empire, Colonialism, modern warfare, international relations, evil, the nature of genius, the effects of absent parents. The book is masterfully written about a masterful man—Churchill was a soldier, a writer, a politician, a statesman, a strategist and a true great man of history. Each book in the series is equally distinct and interesting. The first is Churchill as a young, ambitious man. The second is his time in the political wilderness, when his ego has driven him from power and into writing and thinking. The third is his time back on the world’s stage, in what was perhaps the finest hour of any empire in any era. The last book is probably the best. It features the famous bulldog version of Churchill: rescuing the troops at Dunkirk, persevering through the Blitz, vowing to fight on the landing grounds and the beaches and in the streets, whatever the cost may be. The sheer determination of this man, to take an entire country on your back and defy a horde which had overrun the European continent in a matter of months…it’s almost breathtaking to think about. [source]

Chris Young

A great series of books. [source]

44

Citizen of the World: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Volume One: 1919-1968

John English

4.2

One of the most important, exciting biographies of our time: the definitive, major two-volume biography of Pierre Elliott Trudeau – written with unprecedented, complete access to Trudeau’s enormous cache of private letters and papers.

Bestselling biographer John English gets behind the public record and existing glancing portraits of Trudeau to reveal the real man and the multiple influences that s

45

The Madman and the Butcher: the Sensational Wars of Sam Hughes and General Arthur Currie

Tim Cook

4.2

Based on newly uncovered sources, The Madman and the Butcher is a powerful double biography of Sam Hughes and Arthur Currie and the story of one of the most shocking and highly publicized libel trials in Canadian history. Sir Arthur Currie achieved international fame as Canadian Corps commander during the Great War. He was recognized as a brilliant general, morally brave, and with a keen eye for s

46

Up Ghost River: A Chief's Journey Through the Turbulent Waters of Native History

Edmund Metatawabin, Alexandra Shimo

4.2

A powerful, raw yet eloquent memoir from a residential school survivor and former First Nations Chief, Up Ghost River is a necessary step toward our collective healing.

In the 1950s, 7-year-old Edmund Metatawabin was separated from his family and placed in one of Canada’s worst residential schools. St. Anne’s, in northern Ontario, is an institution now notorious for the range of punishments that st

47

All Our Relations: Finding the Path Forward

Tanya Talaga

4.2

In this vital and incisive work, bestselling and award-winning author Tanya Talaga explores the alarming rise of youth suicide in Indigenous communities in Canada and beyond. From Northern Ontario to Nunavut, Norway, Brazil, Australia, and the United States, the Indigenous experience in colonized nations is startlingly similar and deeply disturbing. It is an experience marked by the violent separa

48

Company of Adventurers

Peter C. Newman

4.2

"They were Caesars of the wilderness..." Newman chronicals the epic adventures of eccentric knights, unscrupulous financiers, and Shrewd Scottish traders - all in the service of the world's mightiest commercial empire, The Hudson's Bay Company.

49

Mohawk Saint: Catherine Tekakwitha and the Jesuits

Allan Greer

4.2

On October 21, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI canonized Saint Kateri Tekakwitha as the first Native North American saint. Mohawk Saint is a work of history that situates her remarkable life in its seventeenth century setting, a time of wars, epidemics, and cultural transformations for the Indian peoples of the northeast. The daughter of a Algonquin mother and an Iroquois father, Catherine/Saint Kateri Te

Recommended by Simon Yarrow.

Simon Yarrow

It’s a short book and a real page-turner. [source]

50

Gold Diggers: Striking it Rich in the Klondike

Charlotte Gray

4.2

Between 1896 and 1899, thousands of people lured by gold braved a grueling journey into the remote wilderness of North America. Within two years, Dawson City, in the Canadian Yukon, grew from a mining camp of four hundred to a raucous town of over thirty thousand people. The stampede to the Klondike was the last great gold rush in history.

Scurvy, dysentery, frostbite, and starvation stalked all wh

51

Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda

Roméo Dallaire, Samantha Power

4.2

On the 10th anniversary of when UN peacekeepers landed in Rwanda, Random House Canada proudly publishes the unforgettable 1st-hand account of the genocide by the leader of the mission. Digging deep into shattering memories, Dallaire has written a powerful story of betrayal, naïveté, racism & international politics. His message is simple, undeniable: Never again.

When Lt-Gen. Roméo Dallaire was cal

52

Who Killed Canadian History?

J.L. Granatstein

4.2

In the 1960s, A.B. Hodgetts in his groundbreaking "What Culture? What Heritage?" bemoaned the loss of our history. Some 30 years later, in this brilliant and impassioned new evaluation, J.L. Granatstein points to an even more appalling situation in both the educational system and in our daily lives. As he argues so articulately, Canada is one of the few nations in the Western world not to teach it

53

The Story of Canada

Janet Lunn

4.2

54

Elijah of Buxton

Christopher Paul Curtis

4.2

Newbery Medalist and CSK Award winner Christopher Paul Curtis's debut middle-grade/young-YA novel for Scholastic features his trademark humor, compelling storytelling, and unique narrative voice.
Eleven-year-old Elijah is the first child born into freedom in Buxton, Canada, a settlement of runaway slaves just over the border from Detroit. He's best known in his hometown as the boy who made a memora

55

The National Dream: The Great Railway, 1871-1881

Pierre Berton

4.1

In 1871, a tiny nation, just four years old — it's population well below the 4 million mark — determined that it would build the world's longest railroad across empty country, much of it unexplored. This decision — bold to the point of recklessness — was to change the lives of every man, woman and child in Canada and alter the shape of the nation.

Using primary sources — diaries, letters, unpublish

56

Death So Noble: Memory, Meaning, and the First World War

Jonathan Franklin William Vance

4.1

This text examines the myriad ways in which Canadians remembered and celebrated their participation in the Great War. Collectively these memories offered explanations and consolations to Canadians and instilled in them the hope that a new sense of national identity could be born out of war.

57

Blood and Daring: How Canada Fought the American Civil War and Forged a Nation

John Boyko

4.1

Blood and Daring will change our views not just of Canada's relationship with the United States, but of the Civil War, Confederation and Canada itself.

In Blood and Daring, lauded historian John Boyko makes a compelling argument that Confederation occurred when and as it did largely because of the pressures of the Civil War. Many readers will be shocked by Canada's deep connection to the war--Cana

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58

Wenjack

Joseph Boyden

4.1

Shortlisted for the 2017OLSN Northern Lit Award

An Ojibwe boy runs away from a North Ontario Indian School, not realizing just how far away home is. Along the way he's followed by Manitous, spirits of the forest who comment on his plight, cajoling, taunting, and ultimately offering him a type of comfort on his difficult journey back to the place he was so brutally removed from.

Written by Scotiabank

59

Vimy: The Battle and the Legend

Tim Cook

4.1

A bold new telling of the defining battle of the Great War, and how it came to signify and solidify Canada's national identity Why does Vimy matter? How did a four-day battle at the midpoint of the Great War, a clash that had little strategic impact on the larger Allied war effort, become elevated to a national symbol of Canadian identity?

Tim Cook, Canada's foremost military historian and a Charl

60

The Penguin History of Canada

Robert Bothwell

4.1

Canada is in many ways a country of limits, a paradox for a place that enjoys virtually unlimited space. Most of that space is uninhabited, and much of it is uninhabitable. It is a country with a huge north but with most of its population in the south, hugging the U.S. border. An uneasy and difficult country, Canada has nevertheless defied the odds: it remains, in the 21st century, a haven of peac

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61

Fatal Passage: The Story of John Rae, the Arctic Hero Time Forgot

Ken McGoogan

4.1

John Rae's accomplishments, surpassing all nineteenth-century Arctic explorers, were worthy of honors and international fame. No explorer even approached Rae's prolific record: 1,776 miles surveyed of uncharted territory; 6,555 miles hiked on snowshoes; and 6,700 miles navigated in small boats. Yet, he was denied fair recognition of his discoveries because he dared to utter the truth about the fat

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62

The Last Lion: Winston Spencer Churchill: Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965 (The Last Lion, #3)

William Manchester, Paul Reid

4.1

Spanning the years of 1940-1965, The Last Lion picks up shortly after Winston Churchill became Prime Minister—when his tiny island nation stood alone against the overwhelming might of Nazi Germany. The Churchill conjured up by William Manchester and Paul Reid is a man of indomitable courage, lightning fast intellect, and an irresistible will to action.

The Last Lion brilliantly recounts how Church

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63

Frozen in Time: The Fate of the Franklin Expedition

Owen Beattie

4.1

The international bestseller revealing the fate of the doomed Franklin Expedition—now with a new afterword on the discovery of Erebus and Terror, and a new section of color photos.

64

Reasoning Otherwise: Leftists and the People's Enlightenment in Canada, 1890-1920

Ian McKay

4.1

In "Reasoning Otherwise," author Ian McKay returns to the concepts and methods of ?reconnaissance? first outlined in "Rebels, Reds, Radicals" to examine the people and events that led to the rise of the left in Canada from 1890 to 1920. "Reasoning Otherwise" highlights how a new way of looking at the world based on theories of evolution transformed struggles around class, religion, gender, and rac

65

The Sky Is Falling (The Guests of War Trilogy, #1)

Kit Pearson

4.1

It is the summer of 1940, and all of England fears an invasion by Hitler’s army. Norah lies in bed listening to the anxious voices of her parents downstairs. Then Norah is told that she and her brother, Gavin, are being sent to Canada. The voyage across the ocean is exciting, but at the end of it Norah is miserable. The rich woman who takes them in prefers Gavin to her, the children at school taun

66

Two Generals

Scott Chantler

4.1

A beautifully illustrated and poignant graphic memoir that tells the story of World War II from an Everyman's perspective.

In March of 1943, Scott Chantler's grandfather, Law Chantler, shipped out across the Atlantic for active service with the Highland Light Infantry of Canada, along with his best friend, Jack, a fellow officer. Not long afterward, they would find themselves making a rocky crossi

67

The Massey Murder: A Maid, Her Master and the Trial that Shocked a Nation

Charlotte Gray

4.1

A scandalous crime, a sensational trial, a surprise verdict—the true story of Carrie Davies, the maid who shot a Massey.

In February 1915, a member of one of Canada’s wealthiest families was shot and killed on the front porch of his home in Toronto as he was returning from work. Carrie Davies, an 18-year-old domestic servant, quickly confessed. But who was the victim here? Charles “Bert” Massey, a

68

This Place: 150 Years Retold

Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm, Sonny Assu, Brandon Mitchell, Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley, Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley, David A. Robertson, Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair, Jen Storm, Richard Van Camp, Katherena Vermette, Chelsea Vowel, Tara Audibert, Kyle Charles, GMB Chomichuk, Natasha Donovan, Scott B. Henderson, Andrew Lodwick, Scott A. Ford, Donovan Yaciuk, Ryan Howe, Alicia Elliott

4.1

Explore the last 150 years through the eyes of Indigenous creators in the graphic novel anthology, This Place: 150 Years Retold. Beautifully illustrated, these stories are an emotional and enlightening journey through magic realism, serial killings, psychic battles, and time travel. See how Indigenous peoples have survived a post-apocalyptic world since Contact.

This is one of the 200 exceptional p

69

Fight to the Finish: Canadians in the Second World War, 1944-1945

Tim Cook

4.1

The magisterial second volume of Tim Cook's definitive account of Canadians fighting in the Second World War.
Historian Tim Cook displays his trademark storytelling ability in the second volume of his masterful account of Canadians in World War II. Cook combines an extraordinary grasp of military strategy with a deep empathy for the soldiers on the ground, at sea and in the air. Whether it's a min

70

Niagara: A History of the Falls

Pierre Berton

4.1

Anthony Trollope's mother wept at the sight of it; Charles Dickens saw God in its rushing waters; and Harriet Beecher Stowe became so "maddened" by its beauty she contemplated flinging herself into the cascade. Few natural wonders have inspired the passions and the imaginations of so many as Niagara Falls, whose sublime beauty and awesome power have made it a magnet for statesmen and stuntmen, poe

71

Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine and Robert Baldwin

John Ralston Saul

4.1

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

72

Many Tender Ties: Women in Fur-Trade Society, 1670–1870

Sylvia Van Kirk

4.1

Beginning with the founding of the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1670, the fur trade dominated the development of the Canadian west. Although detailed accounts of the fur-trade era have appeared, until recently the rich social history has been ignored. In this book, the fur trade is examined not simply as an economic activity but as a social and cultural complex that was to survive for nearly two centur

73

Operation Paperclip: The Secret Intelligence Program that Brought Nazi Scientists to America

Annie Jacobsen

4.1

The explosive story of America’s secret post-WWII science programs, from the author of the New York Times bestseller Area 51

In the chaos following World War II, the U.S. government faced many difficult decisions, including what to do with the Third Reich’s scientific minds. These were the brains behind the Nazis’ once-indomitable war machine. So began Operation Paperclip, a decades-long, covert pr

74

The Education of Augie Merasty: A Residential School Memoir

Joseph A. Merasty, David Carpenter

4.1

This memoir offers a courageous and intimate chronicle of life in a residential school.

Now a retired fisherman and trapper, the author was one of an estimated 150,000 First Nations, Inuit, and Metis children who were taken from their families and sent to government- funded, church-run schools, where they were subjected to a policy of “aggressive assimilation.”

As Augie Merasty recounts, these schoo

75

The Nine Lives of Charlotte Taylor

Sally Armstrong

4.1

Charlotte Taylor lived in the front row of history. In 1775, at the young age of twenty, she fled her English country house and boarded a ship to Jamaica with her lover, the family’s black butler. Soon after reaching shore, Charlotte’s lover died of yellow fever, leaving her alone and pregnant in Jamaica. In the sixty-six years that followed, she would find refuge with the Mi’kmaq of what is prese

76

Seven Days in Hell: Canada's Battle for Normandy and the Rise of the Black Watch Snipers

David O'Keefe

4.0

Centred around one of Canada’s most storied regiments, Seven Days in Hell tells the epic story of the men from the Black Watch during the bloody battle for Verrières Ridge, a dramatic saga that unfolded just weeks after one of Canada’s greatest military triumphs of the Second World War. O’Keefe takes us on a heart-pounding journey at the sharp end of combat during the infamous Normandy campaign. M

77

As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson

4.0

Across North America, Indigenous acts of resistance have in recent years opposed the removal of federal protections for forests and waterways in Indigenous lands, halted the expansion of tar sands extraction and the pipeline construction at Standing Rock, and demanded justice for murdered and missing Indigenous women. In As We Have Always Done, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson locates Indigenous politi

78

One Day in August: The Remarkable True Story Behind the Greatest Raid of World War II

David O'Keefe

4.0

Magnificent and engrossing, One Day in August reveals in full for the first time the “Ultra Secret” story behind one of WW2’s most controversial mysteries—and one of Canada’s most sorrowful moments.

In a narrative as powerful and moving as it is authoritative, David O’Keefe rewrites history, connecting Canada’s tragedy at Dieppe with an extraordinary and colourful cast of characters—from the young

79

The History of Canada Series: War in the St. Lawrence: The Forgotten U-boat Battles On Canada's Shores

Roger Sarty

4.0

From 1942 to 1944, fifteen German submarines destroyed or severely damaged twenty-seven ships, including three Canadian warships, a U.S. Army troop transport, and the Newfoundland ferry Caribou . More than 250 lives were lost. It was the only battle of the twentieth century to take place within Canada’s boundaries, and the only battle to be fought almost exclusively by Canadian forces under Cana

80

The Acadian Kitchen: Recipes from Then and Now

Alain Bosse

4.0

A detailed culinary history supplemented with sidebars, historical timelines, glossaries and over 120 extraordinary recipes.

The Acadians were French-speaking residents of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, forced to migrate to Louisiana after the 1763 British conquest of French Canada.

Celebrating the evolution of Acadian cooking from its 17th century roots to the Cajun and French Canadian dishes it's

81

Ten Lost Years, 1929-1939: Memories of the Canadians Who Survived the Depression

Barry Broadfoot

4.0

Hundreds of ordinary Canadians tell their own stories in this book. They tell them in their own words, and the impact is astonishing. As page after page of unforgettable stories rolls by, it is easy to see why this book sold 300,000 copies and why a successful stage play that ran for years was based on them.

The stories, and the 52 accompanying photographs, tell of an extraordinary time. One tells

82

Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison

Lois Lenski

4.0

In this classic frontier adventure, Lois Lenski reconstructs the real life story of Mary Jemison, who was captured in a raid as young girl and raised amongst the Seneca Indians. Meticulously researched and illustrated with many detailed drawings, this novel offers an exceptionally vivid and personal portrait of Native American life and customs.

83

Curse of the Narrows: The Halifax Explosion 1917

Laura M. MacDonald

4.0

The events of the horrific Halifax explosion are well documented: on December 6, 1917, the French munitions ship Mont Blanc and the Belgian relief ship Imo collide in the Halifax harbour. Nearly 2,000 people are killed; over 9,000 more are injured. The story of one of the world’s worst non-natural disasters has been told before, but never like this.

In a sweeping narrative, Curse of the Narrows tel

84

The Rise of Wolf 8: Witnessing the Triumph of Yellowstone's Underdog

Rick McIntyre

4.0

Yellowstone National Park was once home to an abundance of wild wolves-but park rangers killed the last of their kind in the 1920s. Decades later, the rangers brought them back, with the first wolves arriving from Canada in 1995.

This is the incredible true story of one of those wolves.

Wolf 8 struggles at first-he is smaller than the other pups, and often bullied-but soon he bonds with an alpha fem

85

Forgiveness

Mark Sakamoto

4.0

The heart-rending true story of two families on either side of the Second World War-and a moving tribute to the nature of forgiveness

When the Second World War broke out, Ralph MacLean traded his quiet yet troubled life on the Magdalene Islands in eastern Canada for the ravages of war overseas. On the other side of the country, Mitsue Sakamoto and her family felt their pleasant life in Vancouver st

86

Roughing It in the Bush

Susanna Moodie, Michael Peterman

4.0

A thorough "Backgrounds" section includes images, a map, contemporary reviews of Roughing It, and letters written by Moodie to her husband during the winter of 1839, at which time he was serving a military appointment in the Victoria District and she and her children were facing life-threatening illnesses.

"Criticism" contains ten essays by leading Canadian scholars and authors, among them Margaret

87

John A. MacDonald: The Young Politician. The Old Chieftain

Estate of Donald Creighton, P.B. Waite

4.0

The Dictionary of Canadian Biography calls this work 'probably the greatest Canadian biography yet published in English.' Donald Creighton's two-volume account of Canada's first Prime Minister was originally published in the 1950s as 'John A. Macdonald: The Young Lion' (1952) and 'John A. Macdonald: The Old Chieftain' (1955). Each of the volumes won a Governor General's Literary Award. Creighton's

88

Obasan

Joy Kogawa

4.0

Winner of the American Book Award

Based on the author's own experiences, this award-winning novel was the first to tell the story of the evacuation, relocation, and dispersal of Canadian citizens of Japanese ancestry during the Second World War.

89

Testimony: A Memoir

Robbie Robertson

4.0

The New York Times Bestseller

"High-spirited, hugely enjoyable and generous from start to finish." -New York Times Book Review

"Robust, wry, gritty and wise." --The Wall Street Journal

"Confident and well oiled. At times it has the mythic sweep of an early Terrence Malick movie."--New York Times

On the 40th anniversary of The Band's legendary The Last Waltz concert, Robbie Robertson finall

90

A Fair Country: Telling Truths About Canada

John Ralston Saul

4.0

In this startlingly original vision of Canada, renowned thinker John Ralston Saul argues that Canada is a Métis nation, heavily influenced and shaped by Aboriginal ideas: Egalitarianism, a proper balance between individual and group, and a penchant for negotiation over violence are all Aboriginal values that Canada absorbed. An obstacle to our progress, Saul argues, is that Canada has an increasin

91

Fifteen Days: Stories of Bravery, Friendship, Life and Death from Inside the New Canadian Army

Christie Blatchford

4.0

Long before she made her first trip to Afghanistan as an embedded reporter for The Globe and Mail, Christie Blatchford was already one of Canada’s most respected and eagerly read journalists. Her vivid prose, her unmistakable voice, her ability to connect emotionally with her subjects and readers, her hard-won and hard-nosed skills as a reporter–these had already established her as a household nam

92

Crazy-White-Man (Sha-ga-na-she Wa-du-kee)

Richard Morenus

4.0

93

Marching as to War: Canada's Turbulent Years

Pierre Berton

4.0

“I have called this period Canada’s Turbulent Years – turbulent not only because of the battles we fought on the African veldt, the ravaged meadows of Flanders, the forbidding spine of Italy, and the conical hills of Korea, but turbulent in other ways. These were Canada’s formative years, when she resembled an adolescent, grappling with the problems of puberty, often at odds with her parents, crav

94

The Hungry Year

Connie Brummel Crook

4.0

" 2002 OLA Silverbirch Award Nominee" Twelve-year-old Kate has always had to be more responsible than other girls her age. Since her motheras death and her family's flight to Canada, Kate's father has relied on her to keep house and look after her younger twin brothers. In a new place with poor shelter and no help, Kate must grow up even faster.

It is 1787. After poor crops, with little food to spa

95

The Twenty-Ninth Day: Surviving a Grizzly Attack in the Canadian Tundra

Alex Messenger

4.0

A six-hundred-mile canoe trip in the Canadian wilderness is a seventeen-year-old's dream adventure, but after he is mauled by a grizzly bear, it's all about staying alive.

This true-life wilderness survival epic recounts seventeen-year-old Alex Messenger's near-lethal encounter with a grizzly bear during a canoe trip in the Canadian tundra. The story follows Alex and his five companions as they pad

96

The Necessary War: Canadians Fighting the Second World War, 1939-1943 (Volume One)

Tim Cook

4.0

Tim Cook, Canada’s leading war historian, ventures deep into World War Two in this epic two-volume story of heroism and horror, of loss and longing, sacrifice and endurance.

Written in Cook’s compelling narrative style, this book shows in impressive detail how soldiers, airmen, and sailors fought—the evolving tactics, weapons of war, logistics, and technology. It gauges Canadian effectiveness again

97

Quilts Of Prince Edward Island: The Fabric Of Rural Life

Sherrie Davidson

4.0

Quiltmaking has long been associated with the culture of tiny Prince Edward Island on Canada's east coast. Nearly twenty years ago, Sherrie Davidson launched her Heirloom Quilt Survey, dedicated to preserving the history of quiltmaking on Prince Edward Island. Quilts of Prince Edward Island-The Fabric of Rural Life presents the results of Davidson's work in a lushly illustrated, scrapbook-style vo

98

The Curse of Oak Island: The Story of the World's Longest Treasure Hunt

Randall Sullivan

4.0

In 1795, a teenager discovered a mysterious circular depression in the ground on Oak Island, in Nova Scotia, Canada, and ignited rumors of buried treasure. Early excavators uncovered a clay-lined shaft containing layers of soil interspersed with wooden platforms, but when they reached a depth of ninety feet, water poured into the shaft and made further digging impossible.

Since then the mystery of

99

Decolonizing Research: Indigenous Storywork as Methodology

Jo-Ann Archibald, Jenny Bol Jun Lee-Morgan, et al.

4.0

From Oceania to North America, indigenous peoples have created storytelling traditions of incredible depth and diversity. The term “indigenous storywork” has come to encompass the sheer breadth of ways in which indigenous storytelling serves as a historical record, as a form of teaching and learning, and as an expression of indigenous culture and identity. But such traditions have too often been r

100

Louis Riel and Gabriel Dumont

Joseph Boyden

4.0

Louis Riel is regarded by some as a hero and visionary, by others as a madman and misguided religious zealot. The Métis leader who fought for the rights of his people against an encroaching tide of white settlers helped establish the province of Manitoba before escaping to the United States. Gabriel Dumont was a successful hunter and Métis chief, a man tested by warfare, a pragmatist who differed