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Review: The Penguin History of Canada

THE PENGUIN HISTORY OF CANADA Robert Bothwell Toronto: Penguin Canada, 2006. 596pp, $39.00 cloth (ISBN 978-0140149982)To write a history of your own country is to accept the challenge of familiarity, not just your own but that of your readers. They will come to it with clear expectations and look to see how well the author meets them. If a new national history is expected to provide fresh insight-there is little point in simply repeating what has been said already-then the narrative must be sufficiently familiar for them to orient themselves by the customary landmarks, the notable events, and figures that are inculcated from childhood.But what of the non-Canadian readers who lack that intimate knowledge? For them it is necessary to set aside the web of associations with place and memory, to treat them as visitors for whom nothing can be assumed. This reviewer is not qualified to judge how well Robert Bothwell fulfils the requirements of his compatriots, but as an Australian historian who has attempted a similar history of his own country I am full of admiration for his achievement. He has produced a clear and well-marked narrative; he pauses on the way to offer commentary that is lucid and persuasive; his assessments are fair-minded, punctuated periodically with a mordant wit; and he establishes the central themes that characterize Canada's history.Several of them are introduced in the opening paragraph: "Canada, it's been said, has been the victim of too much geography" (3). The constraints of geography are more prominent in Canadian histories than Australian ones, though they are just as stark in my large, arid, and thinly populated continent. Climatic extremes and vast distances are powerful forces in Bothwell's history, but their effects are offset by economic success. Like other settler societies, Canada sought additional numbers to assist the process of development, but Bothwell observes that the limited population allowed a high standard of living: "Fortunately, there are aren't too many people and there's enough prosperity to go around." This in turn leads to a further insight that is surely distinctive to his country: "Perhaps only its sparse population has saved Canada from being a political impossibility" (3).An Australian reader is struck by the advantages enjoyed by Canada in the process of colonization, and by the slow progress of the early settlements. All settler societies rely on links to the imperial homeland and from the beginning Canada had successful export industries, fishing and furs, as well as the transport system of the Great Lakes. The movement of people, goods, investment, and technology across the Atlantic was far easier than to the southwest Pacific (though Bothwell exaggerates the difference: it took four weeks of sailing to Canada in 1820 but it took something like four months to Australia, not nine or 10). Despite this greater proximity, the number of French settlers remained small and the total European population after 150 years of settlement-100,000-was reached in Australia within 50 years of its foundation.One reason was surely the protracted and intense conflict for control of North America. The three chapters of this history that span the 18th century are entitled "The wars for America," parts one, two, and three. Another was Native American resistance to dispossession, which Bothwell indicates was substantial and sustained, but possibly treats too cursorily. …