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The Atlantic Region To Confederation: A History
Nearly thirty years ago W.S. MacNutt published the first general history of the Atlantic provinces before Confederation. An outstanding scholarly achievement, that history inspired much of the enormous growth of research and writing on Atlantic Canada in the succeeding decades. Now a new effort is required, to convey the state of our knowledge in the 1990s. Many of the themes important to today's historians, notably those relating to social class, gender, and ethnicity, have been fully developed only since 1970. Important advances have been made in our understanding of regional economic developments and their implications for social, cultural, and political life.
This book is intended to fill the need for an up-to-date overview of emerging regional themes and issues. Each of the sixteen chapters, written by a distinguished scholar, covers a specific chronological period and has been carefully integrated into the whole. The history begins with the evolution of Native cultures and the impact of the arrival of Europeans on those cultures, and continues to the formation of Confederation. The goal has been to provide a synthesis that not only incorporates the most recent scholarship but is accessible to the general reader. The book re-assesses many old themes from a new perspective, and seeks to broaden the focus of regional history to include those groups whom the traditional historiography ignored or marginalized.
491 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 17, 2025
I am not sure how seriously you should take my 4 star rating. I have little to compare this book to. Still, it was an interesting read, well written, and informative.
First published in 1994, it reads as considerably less ideological than I suspect a more current history of Nova Scotia would read but the appearance of objectivity is likely misleading. While a current narrative might be obviously ideological, a book like this, even from 1994 would have any ideological bias hidden by the choices made in what stories to tell snd how to tell them. When reading something like this it is, I think, easy to fall into a belief that "factual" is the equivalent of "objective". That is not to say there was any attempt to mislead, but the narrative history of the Maritime provinces is, in this case, likely told from a somewhat unified point of view - just as any other account would be.
My only real problem with the book is that it does rely on the reader already having some knowledge of the big moments inning history that affected the region. I feel that, without the (somewhat limited) knowledge I already have of, for example, the big picture, roughly accurate battle between the French and English for dominance here, I would be unable yo really grasp some of the more detailed history in the book. In a slightly different way, without some understanding of the foundations behind property law under the British legal system, it might be tough for a reader to understand why land grants in PEI were so different than they were in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
As the book is made up of chapters written by historical experts in that, specific era, there is, I think, a tendency to overestimate how much the reader may already know.
Other than that it was an enjoyable and informative read.
As a note: some readers will, no doubt, take issue with some of the book and its acceptance of certain events related to the European conquests over the Native population. The authors were clearly aware of the issues involved (or ought to have been) but the reader should still consider that the book is more than 30 years old and accepted positions have changed. Not that there is anything that I think would be considered truly offensive to anyone, but the interpretations of history, particularly with regard to the European expansion in North America, have changed.
First published in 1994, it reads as considerably less ideological than I suspect a more current history of Nova Scotia would read but the appearance of objectivity is likely misleading. While a current narrative might be obviously ideological, a book like this, even from 1994 would have any ideological bias hidden by the choices made in what stories to tell snd how to tell them. When reading something like this it is, I think, easy to fall into a belief that "factual" is the equivalent of "objective". That is not to say there was any attempt to mislead, but the narrative history of the Maritime provinces is, in this case, likely told from a somewhat unified point of view - just as any other account would be.
My only real problem with the book is that it does rely on the reader already having some knowledge of the big moments inning history that affected the region. I feel that, without the (somewhat limited) knowledge I already have of, for example, the big picture, roughly accurate battle between the French and English for dominance here, I would be unable yo really grasp some of the more detailed history in the book. In a slightly different way, without some understanding of the foundations behind property law under the British legal system, it might be tough for a reader to understand why land grants in PEI were so different than they were in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
As the book is made up of chapters written by historical experts in that, specific era, there is, I think, a tendency to overestimate how much the reader may already know.
Other than that it was an enjoyable and informative read.
As a note: some readers will, no doubt, take issue with some of the book and its acceptance of certain events related to the European conquests over the Native population. The authors were clearly aware of the issues involved (or ought to have been) but the reader should still consider that the book is more than 30 years old and accepted positions have changed. Not that there is anything that I think would be considered truly offensive to anyone, but the interpretations of history, particularly with regard to the European expansion in North America, have changed.
May 29, 2023
At first, I thought the structure - with one chapter per period (usually a decade), all written by different authors - would annoy me. I thought there would be too many redundances. It turns out that the book is quite harmonious. Each author naturally delves deeper in topics that are closer to their respective interests, and each one has usually been attributed a period where those topics are quite important. Yes, of course, certain topics come up again and again, but usually, there has been an evolution since the last chapter in which they were discussed, and so we still learn something new. In the meantime, the limited chronological scope that each writer had to cover allowed them all to delve deeper. We are "deeper" in history than in a mere textbook. Reading 5-20 pages with my coffee ni the morning, it took me a few months, but I loved it!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews