Kategoria BISAC: History >> Canada - General

Short-listed for the 2000 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Non-Fiction

Norman "Red" Ryan was a notorious bank robber, safecracker, and killer. He escaped from Kingston Penitentiary twice - first by force, and then years later by gulling the credulous into believing that he was "reformed." The dupes of Ryan's second emancipation included the prison's Roman Catholic chaplain, several nationally prominent citizens, the country's largest newspaper, and, ultimately, R.B. Bennett, the prime minister of Canada, who made the mistake of arranging a "political parole" for...

Ninety Fathoms Down is the first collection of Canadian stories about the Great Lakes, the inland seas that shaped the development of Ontario. This fascinating book explains the history of the Canadian side of the Great Lakes by telling the stories of people whose lives took dramatic turns on the vast lakes. In these pages you will meet people like Paul Ragueneau, the Jesuit priest who tried to save thousands of starving Hurons in 1650; the seventeenth-century dreamer Rene-Robert Cavalier de La Salle, whose luck always let him down; and Lt. Miller Worsley, who takes revenge on the...

The contributors use a holistic approach comprising the four elements -- earth, water, air, and fire -- to address the diverse themes and variations in First Nations communities across Canada.

Annie Leake Tuttle was born in Nova Scotia in 1839 and died there in 1934, yet her search for education and self-support took her far afield. During her life she filled important positions from Newfoundland to British Columbia, as an educator of teachers and as the matron of a Methodist rescue home for Chinese immigrant women who had worked as prostitutes. Her autobiography paints a vivid picture of the joys and hardships of growing up on a pioneer farm and documents her spiritual and educational quests and conquests. In addition, readers see the independence and strength of character...

Where else can that well-known phrase be better applied than to a study of the Finns in Sudbury? Rock defines the physical reality of the Sudbury setting: rugged hills, mines, farms and forests set in the Precambrian Shield. Hard defines the human setting: Finnish immigrants having to contend with the problems and stresses of relocating to a new culture, with livelihoods that required great endurance as well as a tolerance for hazardous conditions.

Since 1883 Finnish immigrants in Sudbury, men and women alike, have striven to improve their lot through the options available to them....

"When we were children we made our own fun" is a frequent comment from those who were children in pre-television times. But what games, activities and amusements did children enjoy prior to the mid-1950s?

Recollections of older Canadians, selections from writings by Canadian authors and letters written to the children's pages of agricultural publications indicate that for most children play was then, as now, an essential part of childhood. Through play, youngsters developed the physical, mental and emotional skills that helped them cope with life and taught them to get along with...

Down the Ottawa and up the St. Lawrence. The author of "The Rideau" and "The Timiskawa Navigators" shows us how to cruise these two waterways in a safe, enjoyable and seamanlike fashion. The ice may still be on the water when Doug starts us off with the planning and preparation phases. He has us studying the charts, laying off distances, figuring our time lines, making our lists and checking our gear. Then he takes along the rivers, telling of their histories, what to see and do and what to watch for. He describes the great ships plying the Seaway, and what they mean to us in our little...

"I remember them as though they had happened yesterday."

So writes author-naturalist Charles Sauriol in reference to his many memorable experiences within Toronto's Don River Valley. From Scout outings in 1920 to pioneer cottaging, train excursions, maple syrup making, beekeeping and countless other activities, the author's long association with the Don makes for fascinating reading in this sequel to his earlier book, Remembering the Don.

Tales of the Don provides for Toronto residents and visitors alike a picture window through which they may see...

Growing Up in the Oil Patch chronicles the adventures and achievements of some of the most colourful, ambitious people of their time: statesmen, scoundrels, visionaries and developers. Participants all in the growing oil patch

The author presents a highly readable, informative and entertaining account of the early years in the development of Canada's gas and oil industry. Based upon five years of research, interviews, and his fortuitous discovery of a rare, historically important scribbler, John Schmidt traces the paths of two enterprising American-born drillers, "Frosty"...

Heraldry is now. Heraldry is fun. And most of all, heraldry is Canadian "A Canadian Heraldic Primer" dispels, once and for all, the myth that coats of arms are boring, snobbish, mediaeval holdovers that have no relevance today.

Using cartoons, humour, and not a little irreverence (in which is concealed a surprising amount of information), Kevin Greaves explains the history behind heraldry’s unique conventions and language, and explores its creative possibilities. He shows heraldry as part of the fabric of Canada’s past, present, and future, and illustrates how this lively...

The triumph of individuals over geographic obstacles in the age of Canadian expansionism.

Mike Filey s "The Way We Were" column in the Toronto Sun continues to be one of the paper s most popular features. In Toronto Sketches Filey brings together some of the best of his columns.

Each column looks at Toronto as it was, and contributes to our understanding of how Toronto became what it is. Illustrated with photographs of the city s people and places of the past, Toronto Sketches is a nostalgic journey for the long-time Torontonian, and a voyage of discovery for the newcomer.

When a child-abuse scandal is uncovered at an unlicenced daycare in small-town Saskatchewan, it polarizes the community. Frann Harris, a rookie court reporter assigned to the trial the longest in Saskatchewan history starts to wonder if the scope of the alleged crimes is dwarfed by something even more startling: a botched police investigation and inappropriate courtroom procedures.

Harris narrative alternates between the stories of child sexual abuse and whimsical recollections of her own childhood, using the odd touch of humour. Because the unfamiliar courtroom jargon sounds like a...

A report in 1833 by a committee of three respected Kingston colonials called for the construction of a limestone penitentiary on Hatter's Bay to the west of the town. Their report contained these words of advice for its future governors: ..". shall] be a place by every means not cruel and not affecting the health of the offender, but] shall be rendered so irksome and so terrible that during his lifetime he may dread nothing so much as a repetition of the punishment..." The obvious contradiction within this historical mandate of Canada's Big House has bedevilled the entire history of the...