Can anyone recommend one or two good books on Canadian history?

[Fozzie_DeBear]

I really enjoyed Three Nights in Havana which focuses upon the COld war relationship between Canada/Trudeau and Cuba/Castro

[metal_geek]

Here's another for "Canada: A Peoples History"

I have 2 of the books and the way they are laid out you can pick it up and read for 5 min or 5 hours.... Or just looks at the pictures if you feel like. Best "random" reading material ever.

The Video Series is awsome.

Another Great book, if you want some history is "As Near to Heaven by Sea", it documents the history of Newfoundland from the vikings to today, the connections to europe, United States and Canada. Documents all the stuff that was happening from a third party perspective. If you want a view of "Time lines" for stuff this is a great one.

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/...8644-item.html

[socktape]

Originally Posted by troutman

A History Of The Vikings (Jones), has a section on the movement west: Iceland, Greenland, America.

Something along this line as well in kind of a historical / novel format is Farley Mowat's The Farfarers: Before The Norse.

Excellent read.

[MrMastodonFarm]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1895565618

On February 3, 1880 five members of the hated Donnelly family in Lucan, Ontario, were killed by a mob of drunken vigilantes. The Donnelly Album tells in compelling detail the story of the Donnellys - James, Johannah and their seven sons and one daughter. Arriving from Tipperary, Ireland in the 1840s, the family settled in the boisterous pioneer community near London, Ontario. For the next 30 years, their activities gained wide notoriety in the area. James was convicted of murder but escaped the gallows. The sons grew up to be handsome, reckless, enterprising in business and very dangerous in combat. What is it about The Donnellys that still fascinates people? Were they really as evil as their enemies portrayed them? Why was no one ever convicted of their murders? What happened to the surviving Donnellys? And why do local people still feel strongly, taking sides for or against the family? After 15 years of exhaustive research, lawyer Ray Fazakas has produced the definitive account of the famous feud and its tragic consequences. He has also collected an astonishing treasure trove of old photographs, period drawings, maps and documents, showing the Donnellys, their murderers and the sites and people involved. This unique combination of narrative and illustration recreates an epic tragedy of frontier life

[icarus]

^ Good call MMF

Or the original, famed work on the subject:

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Donnelly.../dp/1895565243

My mom's family is from the area, and in fact her cousin's wife's family supposedly has in its possession the doorknob from the Donnelly farmhouse after it was burnt down.

I've been to Lucan, past the site, and to the new Donnelly grave.

[Devils'Advocate]

I second (or third?) Burton's "National Dream".

It's also good for rolling joints:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-lMOxuciYQ

[Displaced Flames fan]

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone.

I will find plenty to read/watch in this thread. I appeciate it very much.

[RougeUnderoos]

That Donnelly book is a good one.

It's like the Canadian version of the Hatfield's and the McCoy's.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1895565618

When I was a student at Western, kids would go out to the graveyard at night.

[icarus]

^ This grave (below) was so heavily vandalised they have to move the gravesite and put up a new headstone. Not too many people know where the new grave is, but I had a family insider take me to the location. For some reason people leave pennies on the tombstone.


Interestingly, in Lucan it is still taboo to talk about the Black Donnelly's. The locals don't like to discuss it.