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For many years following Confederation, Canada remained an absurd country: with its vast West still free of agricultural settlers, John A. Macdonald's vision of a great nation bound together by a transcontinental railway and a nationalist economic policy remained an unfulfilled dream. On the other side of the Atlantic, the present-day Ukraine was vastly overpopulated with "redundant" peasants. Their increasingly precarious existence triggered emigration: more than 170 000 of them sailed for Canada. Life in the promised land was hard. Many Canadians seemed to think that the only good immigrants were British; some went so far as to suggest that the Ukrainian newcomers were less than human. But...
Pathogens for War explores how Canada and its allies have attempted to deal with the threat of germ warfare, one of the most fearful weapons of mass destruction, since the Second World War. In addressing this subject, distinguished historian Donald Avery investigates the relationship between bioweapons, poison gas, and nuclear devices, as well as the connection between bioattacks and natural disease pandemics. Avery emphasizes the crucially important activities of Canadian biodefence scientists – beginning with Nobel Laureate Frederick Banting – at both the national level and through cooperative projects within the framework of an elaborate alliance system. Delving into history through a rich collection of declassified documents, Pathogens for War also devotes several chapters to the contemporary challenges of bioterrorism and disease pandemics from both national and international perspectives. As such, readers will not only learn about Canada’s secret involvement with biological warfare, but will also gain new insights into current debates about the peril of bioweapons – one of today’s greatest threats to world peace.
`A coherent and lively tale that traces in considerable detail the evolution of Canadian immigration policy.' Christopher G. Anderson, Journal of Canadian Studies `A thorough account of Canada's immigration policies ... Any reader interested in immigration to Canada now has a one-stop source for its history.' Douglas Fisher, Ottawa Sun `A closely textured, well-conceived narrative ... an ambitious work that is tremendously reader-friendly.' Barbara Lorenzkowski, Social History `Masterful and meticulously documented.' J.D. Blackwell, Choice `A rich resource for scholars of Canadian immigration.' John Harles, Canadian Journal of Political Science
Cultures, Communities, and Conflict offers provocative, cutting-edge perspectives on the history of English-Canadian universities and war in the twentieth century. The contributors explore how universities contributed not only to Canadian war efforts, but to forging multiple understandings of intellectualism, academia, and community within an evolving Canadian nation. Contributing to the social, intellectual, and academic history of universities, the collection provides rich approaches to integral issues at the intersection of higher education and wartime, including academic freedom, gender, peace and activism on campus, and the challenges of ethnic diversity. The contributors place the historical university in several contexts, not the least of which is the university’s substantial power to construct and transform intellectual discourse and promote efforts for change both on- and off-campus. With its diverse research methodologies and its strong thematic structure, Cultures, Communities, and Conflict provides an energetic basis for new understandings of universities as historical partners in Canadian community and state formation.
Historical Distillates examines the history of the Chemistry Department at the University of Toronto from its beginnings in 1843, when it was housed in simple quarters in the Parliament Buildings on Front Street and had just one faculty member. During the founding era (1843-1920) three British gentlemen professors guided the department through four homes; between 1920 and 1960 three Canadian heads built a highly influential department. Since 1960 eight chairmen have effectively managed a growing and diverse department while it ventured into exciting new fields and emerging sub-disciplines. New colleges and a Nobel Prize have been highlights of the past two decades. With the completion of recent renovations and additions (such as the Davenport Research Building and Garden), with its distinguished faculty, top-rate staff, and excellent students, and with its dazzling array of equipment to support research, the department's future indeed looks bright.
In this authoritative work, Seiler and Seiler argues that the establishment and development of moviegoing and movie exhibition in Prairie Canada is best understood in the context of changing late-nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century social, economic, and technological developments. From the first entrepreneurs who attempted to lure customers in to movie exhibition halls, to the digital revolution and its impact on moviegoing, Reel Time highlights the pivotal role of amusement venues in shaping the leisure activities of working- and middle-class people across North America.
People, Politics, and Purpose brings the historian’s myriad tools to bear on Canadians, from prime ministers to lumberjacks to Indigenous leaders. Drawing on the rich details of biography – the what – the contributors also address the larger questions – the so what – that drive history. These stories are not simply about the lives of individuals but critical reflections on subjects who are directly involved in, and affected by, politics. By illuminating the roles of historical actors, this lively collection offers insights into Canada’s place in the world and stimulates fresh thinking about political history.
Starting eight million years ago, Understanding Africa provides an accurate and detailed account of the natural, political and social forces that have created the Africa we know of today and which have shaped the continent’s destiny through the ages
Families, Lovers, and their Letters takes us into the passionate hearts and minds of ordinary people caught in the heartbreak of transatlantic migration. It examines the experiences of Italian migrants to Canada and their loved ones left behind in Italy following the Second World War, when the largest migration of Italians to Canada took place. In a micro-analysis of 400 private letters, including three collections that incorporate letters from both sides of the Atlantic, Sonia Cancian provides new evidence on the bidirectional flow of communication during migration. She analyzes how kinship networks functioned as a means of support and control through the flow of news, objects, and persons; how gender roles in productive and reproductive spheres were reinforced as a means of coping with separation; and how the emotional impact of both temporary and permanent separation was expressed during the migration process. Cancian also examines the love letter as a specific form of epistolary exchange, a first in Italian immigrant historiography, revealing the powerful effect that romantic love had on the migration experience.
Dirk Hoerder shows us that it is not shining railroad tracks or statesmen in Ottawa that make up the story of Canada but rather individual stories of life and labour - Caribbean women who care for children born in Canada, lonely prairie homesteaders, miners in Alberta and British Columbia, women labouring in factories, Chinese and Japanese immigrants carving out new lives in the face of hostility. Hoerder examines these individual experiences in Creating Societies, the first systematic overview of the total Canadian immigrant experience. Using letters, travel accounts, diaries, memoirs, and reminiscences, he brings the immigrant's experiences to life. Their writings, often recorded for grandchildren, neighbours, and sometimes a larger public, show how immigrant lives were entwined with the emerging Canadian society. Hoerder presents an important new picture of the emerging Canadian identity, dispelling the Canadian myth of a dichotomy between national unity and ethnic diversity and emphasizing the long-standing interaction between the members of a different ethnic groups.