The Coasts of Canada: a History

A book review.

The Coasts of Canada: a History

by Lesley Choyce

published: 2002

ISBN: 0864923600

genre: History

reviewed:2004.04.24

👍🏼 recommended

Ah, Canadian history. This is a book that explores the history of Canada from the perspective of its coasts and their denizens. This is fitting, as Canada has more coastline than any other nation on Earth (even if we Canadians tend to forget the vast expanses of our Artic, where most of that coast exists in endless fjords).

This book does two things well. It assembles a vast portrait of the development of the country by telling countless tales of the individuals who have made up our history. It also gives these tales the context of their times. In doing so, it explains a lot about the way that Canada's three great coastal regions are the way they are, from a cultural standpoint.

However, the book has that same failing that seems to befall every history book I read. And that is the absence of good maps. While the author makes a number of valiant explorations of the country's Arctic (mostly in recounting the tales of those Europeans who were among the first to physically made the journey), the lack of maps to distinguish one passage from another really gets in the way. I found myself referring to my atlas at a number of points. This happened again when dealing with bits of the coastline that had proximity to other political entities (such as the American eastern seaboard). I even had to dig out of a historical website the location of Ft. Louisburg. Having a few detailed maps would have gone a long way in telling some of the stories covered in this book.