A Few Acres Of Snow

A Few Acres of Snow allows readers to experience early Canadian history in the words of those who first explored, created, and documented the nation. Providing coast-to-coast representation and featuring a diverse range of social groups, the editors offer a refreshing look at the major events leading up to and including Confederation. Throughout, they rely on a careful selection of personal, formal, and legal documents to tell the story, including early travel narratives, literary writings by Susanna Moodie and Catherine Parr Trail, government reports on slavery in Canada, official letters on Irish immigration, and newspaper articles and speeches on the creation of the Dominion of Canada in 1867. In this trim new edition, each document is introduced with biographical information about the creator. Brand new chapters discuss the Loyalists in Nova Scotia, the War of 1812, and the Beothuk. Also new is a guide to critically reading and engaging with historical documents.

In 1759, Voltaire in Candide referred to Canada as "quelques arpents de neige." For several centuries, the image prevailed and was the one most frequently used by poets, writers, and illustrators. Canada was perceived and portrayed as a cold, hard, and unforgiving land. this was not a land for the fainthearted. Canada has yieled its wealth only reluctantly, while periodically threatening life itself with its displays of fury. Discovering its beauty and hidden resources requires patience and perseverance. A Few Acres of Snow is a colletion of twenty-two essays that explore, from the geographer's perspective, how poets, artists, and writers have addressed the physical essence of Canada, both landscape and cityscape. "Sense of place" is clearly critical in the works examined in this volume. Included among the book's many subjects are Hugh MacLennan, Gabrielle Roy, Lucius O'Brien, the art of the Inuit, Lawren Harris, Malcolm Lowry, C.W. Jefferys, L.M. Montgomery, Elizabeth Bishop, Marmaduke Matthews, Antonine Mailet, and the poetry of Japanese Canadians.

"Leckie is a gifted writer with the ability to explain complicatedmilitary matters in layperson's terms, while sustaining the dramainvolved in a life-and-death struggle. His portraits of the keyplayers in that struggle . . . are seamlessly interwoven with hisexciting narrative." -Booklist"As always, [Leckie] describes themaneuvers, battles, and results in telling detail with a cinematicstyle, and his portraits . . . are first-rate."-The Dallas MorningNews"Leckie's accounts of battles, important individuals, and therole of Native Americans bring to life the distant drama of theFrench and Indian Wars."-The Daily Reflector With his celebrated sense of drama and eye for colorful detail,acclaimed military historian Robert Leckie charts the long, savageconflict between England and France in their quest for supremacy inpre-Revolutionary America. Packed with sharply etched profiles ofall the major players-including George Washington, Samuel deChamplain, William Pitt, Edward Braddock, Count Frontenac, JamesWolfe, Thomas Gage, and the nobly vanquished Marquis deMontcalm-this panoramic history chronicles the four great colonialwars: the War of the Grand Alliance (King William's War), the Warof the Spanish Succession (Queen Anne's War), the War of theAustrian Succession (King George's War), and the decisive Frenchand Indian War (the Seven Years' War). Leckie not only providesperspective on exactly how the New World came to be such a fiercelycontested prize in Western Civilization, but also shows us exactlywhy we speak English today instead of French-and reminds us howeasily things might have gone the other way.

The twelve essays collected here explore the formative influence Presbyterianism has had on Canadian religious heritage and culture, including education, church/state relations, literature and music.

This expansive book covers seven tumultuous decades of pre-Revolutionary American history.

The second edition of A Country Nourished on Self-Doubt demonstrates thatthe raw materials ofCanada's pastprovide extraordinarily engaging and informative insights into the richness of Canadian history."