A Few Acres of Snow Vol. 1 : Documents in Canadian History, 1577-1867

For a generation or more there have been few books that brought together in accessible form the raw materials of Canadian history. In many minds the impression has taken root that those materials are uninteresting. This collection demonstrates the contrary and that these raw materials provide extraordinarily engaging and informative insights into the richness of Canadian history.

This new edition of the first volume of Thorner's two-volume anthology of documents in Canadian history, A Few Acres of Snow, presents many new documentary sources on pre-Confederation Canadian history, combined with the most compelling passages from the first edition. Each chapter offers a group of source materials on particular themes or events, beginning with reports of First Nation contacts published in the Jesuit Relations and ending with the drive to Confederation. Documents bring vividly before the reader the experience of the Acadian Expulsion, the Siege of Quebec, Irish immigration during the famine years, life in the Ontario backwoods in the early nineteenth century, and the British Columbia gold rush. Included are document groupings that focus on the history of Canada's various regions; on social, cultural, political and intellectual history; on the experiences of women, of Native peoples, of immigrants and labour.

Special Combined Price: "A Few Acres of Snow": Documents in Pre-Confederation Canadian History, second edition may be ordered together with "A Country Nourished on Self-Doubt": Documents in Post-Confederation Canadian History, second edition at a special discounted price. In order to secure the package price, the following ISBN must be used when ordering: 978-1-55402-132-1.

Thor Frohn-Nielsen teaches in the Department of History at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

Thomas Thorner is a member of the Department of History at Kwantlen University College.