The Books of My Life: The Penguin History of Canada (Bothwell)

 

Robert Bothwell's The Penguin History of Canada (Toronto: Penguin, 2006), is an excellent introduction to Canadian history from French and English colonisation, with a few details on the indigenous history of Canada thrown in, to the election of the American style Tory government with Stephen Harper as prime minister of Canada in 2006. Bothwell's history of Canada is, one presumes, a replacement or perhaps better a supplement to Bothwell's teacher Kenneth McNaught's much revised classic The Penguin History of Canada (London: Penguin, 1988), first published in 1969.

Bothwell's book is largely traditional in form thanks to its emphasis on great men and great events. While Bothwell emphasises the usual suspects in the political and economic history of Canada he does occasionally throw in some useful social history in the form of demographic history and a bit of cultural history, mostly on ebb and flow and complexity of Canadian identity history, into the mix.

Some may like the fact that Bothwell's book, given that it is authored, by a single historian, is a coherent well-written narrative of Canadian history that virtually anyone with an interest in Canadian, English and British settler societies, and comparative history can read unlike the fragmented multi-authored textbooks that dominate introductory university classes these days. Some may be slightly annoyed with Bothwell's periodic editorial comments about Canadian political history and economic history and his editorial comments of the "great men" of Canadian history. Others may appreciate Bothwell's editorial comments given that it allows readers a peek behind the wizard's curtain and into Bothwell's ideological convictions. For those interested in an excellent and relatively recent history of Canada, I highly recommend Bothwell's The Penguin History of Canada which gives us a history of Canada warts and all.