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The Coasts of Canada: A History

by Lesley Choyce

In The Coasts of Canada, Nova Scotia author, television host, and teacher Lesley Choyce puts a slightly different focus on Canada’s history by concentrating on the country’s three coasts. Much of the country’s history occurred close to the edges, giving Choyce plenty of material to work with – perhaps too much.

Cabot, Vancouver, and Franklin are all presented here, as are a host of fishermen, entrepreneurs, and pirates. The latter group offer plenty of interesting and little-known facts for the reader’s attention. Who knew, for example, that a patch of Edinburgh Castle was declared to be part of Nova Scotia in the 17th century so that absentee landlords could fulfill their requirement of setting foot on the colony without the inconvenience of actually going there?

The book is entertaining and acts as a good primer for readers with little background in Canadian history. But the sheer size of the topic forces Choyce to give only brief outlines of pivotal events and personalities. This broad-brush approach also leads to a few errors. They are mostly small, but annoying to the knowledgable reader. For instance, it was James Ross, not John, who first visited the North Pole.

There are more detailed, equally readable books available on the specific areas covered here, and one wishes that Choyce had inserted more of his own personality into the text, as he does in the book’s first and last chapter, both of which are written in the first person.

 

Reviewer: John Wilson

Publisher: Penguin Books Canada

DETAILS

Price: $37.95

Page Count: 310 pp

Format: Cloth

ISBN: 0-86492-360-0

Issue Date: 2003-1

Categories: History