A Very Short Introduction to Canadian History

Summary

Greg Marchildon interviews Donald Wright on his history of Canada, the only book on Canada included in Oxford University Press’s Very Short Introduction series which boasts 650 books. Wright describes the reasoning behind his thematic organization of his book into six short and highly thematic chapters. The six themes – beginnings, dispossessions, nationalisms, rights, borders and norths – reflect the view that there can never be one history or one narrative of Canada. The second aspect of Wright’s approach is to weave in the stories of individual Canadians to bring to life the historical narrative within each of the six themes.

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Greg Marchildon

Gregory P. Marchildon is the Ontario Research Chair in Health Policy and System Design with the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.

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