Canada in the European Age, 1453-1919, New Edition

By R.T. Naylor

By stressing the interconnections between the grand events of the conquest and the subjegation of the globe by European empire builders and the less dramatic events in Canada, this book provides a reinterpretration of Canadian social, economic, and political history.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0773530916
• ISBN13: 9780773530911
• Release Date: July 2006
• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press
• Length: 648 Pages
• Weight: 1.49 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.8" x 5.7" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Cynicism at Its Best (and Worst)

Naylor's work is immensely informative and even, given the dryness and density of the material covered, engaging. His book weaves seamlessly together the many strands of Canadian, Anglo-American, and world economic history; although, on matters about which the author lacks expertise, a certain dismissive glibness is to be detected. There is an underlying cynicism throughout the book, a skepticism vis-a-vis economic orthodoxy (and orthodox economists), which is expressed wittily. This cynicism is well-received from the pen of an author so erudite, yet it fails to provide context to that Anglo-American capitalist system to which Canada belonged. With brilliant sarcasm, Naylor describes this system as invariably corrupt, haphazard, cruel, and ruthless, yet he does not explain how, or even seem to recognize that, this same system engendered those countries which are still to this day more likely to know peace, order, and good government, as well as unparalleled and unprecedented prosperity, than most other jurisdictions. Reducing the past to chrematistics is appealing in its neat cynicism but also an exercise in deduction and perhaps at times delusion. This book is a quasi-Marxist economic history and suffers from the shortcomings inherent to such an enterprise. Taken on its own terms, it is a compelling read.