Overview

The emergence in the nineteenth century of a new political and territorial entity - Canada - is dramatically portrayed in this book. Through breathtaking cartography it vividly captures the great economic and social events that made possible the successful birth of a huge new country. The Land Transformed reveals how a thinly populated and economically limited group of colonies in 1800 came together to become the Canada of the 1890s. The profound revolution was the transformation of the land: forest and grassland gave way to farmland, native populations were moved onto reservations, railways and telegraph tied together widely separated communities; urban commercial centres grew. At the end of the century Canada was recognizable as one of the world's major countries, stretching across a continent, comfortably at home in the world of railways, factories, and well-developed agriculture. The first part of the volume, 'Extending the Frontier: Settlement to Mid-Century,' describes the growth of the population and the economy in the first half of the century. Maps, graphs, charts, and paintings are used with imagination and clarity to portray the spread of settlement, based on immigration and an accelerated use of resources, the most important of which was land. By the 1850s a dominant agriculture was joined to a productive timber trade as the country's engine of growth. Part II, 'Building a Nation,' covers the country's 'coming of age.' Between the 1850s and the 1890s political union was achieved, conomic growth continued, and a recognizable Canadian society emerged. These same developments left in their wake a declining and dispersed indigenous population. A series of treaties moved Indian populations to reserves of land in a massive rearrangement of native territory that set the stage for continuing cultural conflict. The nineteenth century witnessed the culmination of four centuries of European engagement in North America. Momentous events of the time are captured in this volume, which provides a splendid visual record of the drama of nation building and the roots of the diverse nation we know today.

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9780802034472

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Reviews

'It must be in every library, and it should be in every home.' -- Tom Oleson Winnipeg Free Press '[The reader is likely to return again and again with wonder and gratitude to these gorgeous pages.' -- Royce MacGillivray Globe and Mail 'Students, teachers and researchers will find it to be an immensely valuable and refreshing work of reference.' -- David Oancia Saint John Telegraph-Journal 'It startles us into realizing that man's relation to the land is ever-changing and cumulative.' -- Duncan McDowall Canadian Geographic 'An accessible up-to-date interpretation of our country's history through maps and graphs.' -- Joy Fielding Chatelaine

'It must be in every library, and it should be in every home.' -- Tom Oleson '[The reader] is likely to return again and again with wonder and gratitude to these gorgeous pages.' -- Royce MacGillivray 'Students, teachers and researchers will find it to be an immensely valuable and refreshing work of reference.' -- David Oancia 'It startles us into realizing that man's relation to the land is ever-changing and cumulative.' -- Duncan McDowall 'An accessible up-to-date interpretation of our country's history through maps and graphs.' -- Joy Fielding 'A thing of beauty and a mine of information.' -- James Stewart 'What sets the book in a class of its own is the astonishingly diverse areas that it addresses.' 'An awesome achievement, a cartographic masterpiece in which one can easily get lost.' -- James Adams 'A major publishing event, a cartographic milestone and a new chapter in the exploration of Canadian history and geography.' -- Brian Banks 'The text, the pictures, the diagrams and charts are welcome tools for teachers and should be part of every school library.' -- Al Jantzi 'The sheer complexity of the undertaking, range of topics, depth of scholarship, revelation of detail, and ingenuity of presentation all continue to impress.' -- D.W. Meinig 'A beautifully designed book, this atlas is an essential contribution to North American history.'

'It must be in every library, and it should be in every home.' -- Tom Oleson Winnipeg Free Press '[The reader is likely to return again and again with wonder and gratitude to these gorgeous pages.' -- Royce MacGillivray Globe and Mail 'Students, teachers and researchers will find it to be an immensely valuable and refreshing work of reference.' -- David Oancia Saint John Telegraph-Journal 'It startles us into realizing that man's relation to the land is ever-changing and cumulative.' -- Duncan McDowall Canadian Geographic

Author Information

R. Louis Gentilcore is Professor of Geography at McMaster University in Hamilton. His research interest for many years has been in the historical geography of Canada, with particular emphasis on settlement development in eastern Canada in the nineteenth century.

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