Gerald M. Craig's history, first published fifty years ago, is still considered one of the best depictions of Upper Canada ever written. Beginning in the early 1770s, Craig evocatively recounts the region's development from a "few scattered pioneer settlements" to an advanced society in the early 1840s. In these years, Ontario as we know it was forged, from education, transportation, and government to relations with the newly independent United States of America. Ontario's formative years were marked by growth and change, as well as political upheaval. In the late 1770s, the fertile land of what would become Upper Canada was sparsely settled. As some forty thousand British Loyalists left revolutionary America and moved north and west, many came to this region, bringing with them a wide range of expectations, knowledge, and skills-not to mention a new range of problems. Land was purchased from the Mississaugas and other First Nations groups and allocated to the Loyalists to build homes and farms, paving the way for future land conflict. As Craig recounts, British officials began to organize a government that could accommodate the newcomers, as well as French- and English-speakers. This entailed, among other things, addressing the overall constitutional issue of Canada. A legislative council, legislative assembly, and governor were installed, modelled on the British parliamentary system-a structure that would undergo significant change over the next sixty years. In vivid detail Craig retells the landmark events of the time, including the abolishment of slavery, establishment of a bilingual nation, the Family Compact, the War of 1812, and the Rebellions of 1837. At the end of his history is the formation of the Province of Canada in 1841-the country's final incarnation before Confederation. This wide-ranging account addresses the growth and conflict, both internal and external, seen in the sixty years following the influx of the Loyalists and explores the politics and society during this period of remarkably rapid change. This edition is updated and features a new introduction by historian Jeffrey L. McNairn.

Upper Canada: The Formative Years, 1784-1841

History

Craig, Gerald M.

McNairn, Jeffrey L.

Americas

Oxford University Press

The United States and Canada (The American Foreign Policy Library, 14)

Harvard University Press

The United States and Canada

Politics & Social Sciences

Politics & Government

Gerald M. Craig's history, first published fifty years ago, is still considered one of the best depictions of Upper Canada ever written. Beginning in the early 1770s, Craig evocatively recounts the region's development from a "few scattered pioneer settlements" to an advanced society in the early 1840s. In these years, Ontario as we know it was forged, from education, transportation, and government to relations with the newly independent United States of America. Ontario's formative years were marked by growth and change, as well as political upheaval. In the late 1770s, the fertile land of what would become Upper Canada was sparsely settled. As some forty thousand British Loyalists left revolutionary America and moved north and west, many came to this region, bringing with them a wide range of expectations, knowledge, and skills-not to mention a new range of problems. Land was purchased from the Mississaugas and other First Nations groups and allocated to the Loyalists to build homes and farms, paving the way for future land conflict. As Craig recounts, British officials began to organize a government that could accommodate the newcomers, as well as French- and English-speakers. This entailed, among other things, addressing the overall constitutional issue of Canada. A legislative council, legislative assembly, and governor were installed, modelled on the British parliamentary system-a structure that would undergo significant change over the next sixty years. In vivid detail Craig retells the landmark events of the time, including the abolishment of slavery, establishment of a bilingual nation, the Family Compact, the War of 1812, and the Rebellions of 1837. At the end of his history is the formation of the Province of Canada in 1841-the country's final incarnation before Confederation.This wide-ranging account addresses the growth and conflict, both internal and external, seen in the sixty years following the influx of the Loyalists and explores the politics and society during this period of remarkably rapid change. This edition is updated and features a new introduction by historian Jeffrey L. McNairn.

Upper Canada (Oxford)

MCCLELLAND STEWART

In his famous 1839 call to reform, John George Lambton, Earl of Durham, recommended that Upper and Lower Canada be accorded responsible government by uniting the two provinces under a single legislative assembly - a union which would also bring about the assimilation of the French-Canadians. The Report has been criticized ever since - from British imperialists who found it dangerously liberal to French Canadians who despised Durham for his presumed racism. This new edition of Gerald Craig's abridgement retains his 1963 introduction and adds essays that debate Durham's political assumptions and goals, re-examine the philosophical and historical context in which the Report was created, and review the Report's reception and influence. Janet Ajzenstat reconsiders the report in the context of nineteenth-century debates about the relation between culture and political institutions, arguing that Durham should be seen as a progressive universalist opposed to the divisions of race and creed who wanted to give more freedom to French- and English-Canadians alike. Guy Laforest re-examines the report in terms of British liberal imperialism and twentieth-century English-Canadian perspectives to argue that Durham was a one-sided sociologist and the first in long line who used liberalism for imperialist purposes.

Lord Durham's Report: Text Abridged by Gerald M. Craig (Volume 208) (Carleton Contemporary Series)

Ajzenstat, Janet

Laforest, Guy

Carleton University Press

In his famous 1839 call to reform, John George Lambton, Earl of Durham, recommended that Upper and Lower Canada be accorded responsible government by uniting the two provinces under a single legislative assembly - a union which would also bring about the assimilation of the French-Canadians. The Report has been criticized ever since - from British imperialists who found it dangerously liberal to French Canadians who despised Durham for his presumed racism. This new edition of Gerald Craig's abridgement retains his 1963 introduction and adds essays that debate Durham's political assumptions and goals, re-examine the philosophical and historical context in which the Report was created, and review the Report's reception and influence. Janet Ajzenstat reconsiders the report in the context of nineteenth-century debates about the relation between culture and political institutions, arguing that Durham should be seen as a progressive universalist opposed to the divisions of race and creed who wanted to give more freedom to French- and English-Canadians alike. Guy Laforest re-examines the report in terms of British liberal imperialism and twentieth-century English-Canadian perspectives to argue that Durham was a one-sided sociologist and the first in long line who used liberalism for imperialist purposes.

McGill-Queen's University Press

The purpose of this valuable abridged edition of the Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) by Lord Durham is to make the enduring features of the Report available to the student and the general reader. The editor provides the context of the report in his introduction.

Lord Durham's Report (Carleton Library Series) (Volume 1)

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