Review of H.V. Nelles' A Little History of Canada

A Little History of Canada is an enormous project on a small scale.As the title of the work and the diminutive size of the book seem to establish, H.V. Nelles provides an "interpretive essay" of Canadian history, structured "around a series of from-to transitions."(vi) The book is written for three audiences: first, Canadians looking for a brief introduction to the history of their country; second, tourists and other visitors to Canada who would like an understanding of the country they are visiting; and third, Canada's immigrant population, which, according to Nelles continues at the rate of 200,000 immigrants per year.Nelles admits that it is not his purpose to write a textbook and he tries to reduce the number of names and dates that so often accompany a history text.He offers many broad brush-strokes of history, with each chapter identified by periods of relative stability.What is important in this work are the ideas, not the dates, and although Nelles follows a general chronology throughout the book, he often lunges forward with an idea and then steps back in history to trace out another idea.Nelles opens the work with a metaphor that he uses as a guide for the important ideas of his book: the Transformation Mask.This type of mask, used by the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Coast possesses several layers that portray different images hidden behind one another.The wearer pulls on a set of strings to open the mask and reveal the new identity.Armed with this metaphor, Nelles begins his "Little History."Any study of the history of North America will reveal the intertwined nature of the United States and Canada, and Nelles casually incorporates this throughout his book.In 1663, when France finally decided to invest in its North American possessions, it established a real colony by shipping 800 women from France's orphanages and hospices, giving them a modest dowry and labeling them "Daughters of the King."They were then eligible and appealing spouses for the men in the colony.This effort was successful and laid the groundwork for what is present-day Quebec, which, despite efforts for independence or inclusion depending on the political atmosphere of the time, remains a peculiar province, an island of French Catholic culture in an otherwise Anglodominated nation.The French colonies, dedicated to trapping and fur-trading extended south along the Mississippi River, and those colonists interacted regularly with the American colonists.The American Revolutionary War involved Canada in several ways, not the least of which was the desire of the newly independent government of the United States to absorb the whole of Canadian territory into its nation.Perhaps one of the most commonly misunderstood (or at least underappreciated) histories in the Americas is that of the birth of Canada as a nation.Nelles dedicates the greatest part of his book to the chapter "Dominion Limited" in which he meanders through the birth of Canada as a nation and punctuates it with the American Revolutionary and Civil Wars, and both World Wars.The American Revolutionary and Civil Wars are paramount in the history of the United States, but Nelles includes them in Canada's history as important events that affected the way in which Canadian government functioned, if only as a result of learning from its nearest neighbor.Between

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