Canadian History for Dummies (For Dummies (History, Biography & Politics)) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "The first Canadians - the very first - arrived in prehistoric times when low sea levels created a temporary land bridge (Beringia) between Asia and..." (more)
Key Phrases: New France, United States, North America (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

We always knew Canadian history could be fun, and Will Ferguson proves it in his second edition of Canadian History for Dummies. Approachable in the extreme, this text is fun because of Ferguson's undisputed gift for unearthing our national quirkiness and for illuminating those parts of our heritage that make us a unique people. At first the academic reader might register surprise at the choice of author for the Canadian history text in this wildly popular series, but this is truly a match made in editorial heaven. With his arrestingly titled Bastards and Boneheads and Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw, Ferguson has made a strong claim to being the light-hearted guardian of our national popular culture, and this book is true to form, with anecdotes, asides, bullets, and a fast-paced style this book makes Canadian history more user-friendly than ever before. Behind it all, however, is serious and comprehensive Canadian history. Ferguson acknowledges the help of Don Smith--one of our truly great academic historians and textbook authors--and his expertise is evident throughout. But, as headings like "Western alienation or that #%@!* Trudeau" (382) and "Pemmican--Delicious and Nutritious" show, this is Ferguson's book, featuring his unparalleled gift at striking just the right note --William Newbigging

Review

Praise for Will Ferguson:

"Eminently readable and entertaining."
--Vancouver Province

"Pierre Berton with attitude."
--Montreal Gazette

"If Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) and P.J. O'Rourke (Holidays in Hell) ever had an extraterrestrial Satanic love-child, it would probably write like Will Ferguson. That is, it would be observant, attitudinal, occasionally offensive and funny."
--Los Angeles Times

"The Brash Young Writer this country has needed for a long time."
--Hamilton Spectator

"Will Ferguson is a talent. He writes refreshingly, provocatively and sometimes eloquently."
--Ottawa Citizen

"Ferguson possesses a crafty eye for detail, not to mention a highly developed understanding of the essential folly in what passes for everyday life."
--Edmonton Journal

"[Ferguson] is the quintessential Canadian. He's as Canadian as toques and five percent beer....A Canadian's Canadian."
--January Magazine

Praise for Why I Hate Canadians:

"An entirely digestible skewering of our national bedrock."
--Toronto Star

"Funny and abrasive...Ferguson does not try to please everyone, a rather un-Canadian approach, and that's just one of the reasons his book is so much fun to read."
--Halifax Daily News

"A wickedly funny book!"
--Fredericton Daily Gleaner

"Aggressively patriotic...Ferguson show his love for Canada the way an older brother shows his love for a younger sibling—with a wedgie."
--Charlottetown Guardian

"...reverent, incisive, and informative...I give it a resounding five out of five maple leafs."
--Kinston Whig-Standard

"A smooth read...Ferguson is both insightful and hilarious."
--Georgia Straight (Vancouver)

Praise for Bastards & Boneheads: Canada's Glorious Leaders Past and Present:

"Ferguson...[gives us] an utterly hilarious tour of our historical contradictions."
--Calgary Straight

"Don't be fooled. Beneath the campy rhetoric lies a serious and impressively researched narrative of the pivotal events in Canadian history."
--National Post

"Ferguson is Canada's myth-buster extraordinaire....His writing is concise, easily digestible, humourous, dramatic, frank, and sometimes shocking."
---New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal

"Lively, knowledgeable, opinionated, disrespectful, debatable and immensely readable."
--Montreal gazette

"A rip-snorting, rib-tickling, white water ride through this country's rich history of outrageous political scandals."
--See Magazine (Edmonton)

"Who says Canadian history isn't fun?"
--Ottawa Citizen --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies; 2 edition (October 4, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470836563
• ISBN-13: 978-0470836569
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #234,716 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cheeky, But Ferguson Stands on Guard in Top-Notch Intro, May 31, 2004

By	Allen Smalling "Constant Reader," (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Canadian History for Dummies (Paperback)

In the Fifties, Marilyn Monroe (supposedly) said she thought Canada was "way up in the mountains somewhere," and I can't say my ignorance was much lighter until I visited sophisticated and efficient Toronto, avant Montreal and tragically beautiful Vancouver--and grabbed Will Ferguson's CANADIAN HISTORY FOR DUMMIES to try to make sense of the land that, during my childhood, was condescendingly referred to as "Our friendly neighbor to the North."

Okay, it seems that every time I'm up yonder some key component of the economy is on strike, and the taxes are practically Scandinavian, but somehow it hangs together. Survey after survey show that Canadians enjoy the highest standard of life in the world. Not the most SUV's per capita, necessarily, but taking into account along with the hard goods such intangibles as access to health care, reliable public transit, equitable justice and so on, they're tops. Try the Canadian gov't website (ocanada) and you'll see a wealth of things the Canadian government does for (not to) its citizens--truly, this is not propaganda for the rest of the world so much as Canada's putting her best foot forward without resorting to brag.

Will Ferguson--a born iconoclast if ever I read one--explains what a long strange road it's been. While Canada's past certainly contains mean and genocidal acts against its Native citizens, the image of the French *voyageur* working with the Native is a seminal myth not unlike our cowboy. Why Canada's government came about by evolution, not revolution. (Can the historian find that One Definitive Date at which Canada cut all apron strings with Mother England? Not bloody likely.) How Canada's parliamentary legacy (as opposed to the American winner-take-all electoral system) shaped national politics. Why the linguistic clash of English-versus-French rather than the racial clash of black-versus-white remains Canada's sticking point. (I never saw such a country where the white people have such un-fear of people of color instilled in them. Everyone does indeed get along, at least if they're talking the same language; it's wonderful.)

CANADIAN HISTORY FOR DUMMIES will explain why, pre-Brian Mulroney at least, it was usually the Conservative Party politicans who were more anti-American than the Liberals. How Newfoundland, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia a-l-m-o-s-t wound up as American property. Why it took well into the 20th Century to build the second transcontinental rail line (hint: it had little to do with climate).

Ferguson does not defer. Down here he would be considered merely a contentious baby boomer, but read the blurbs from Canadian officials about this book and you know that, while they admire the research and user-friendly presentation, they've just been slapped with the witch hazel of bluntness. (As we'd expect from the likes of the author of the book BASTARDS AND BONEHEADS, Ferguson calls LBJ a "Redneck" and treats Canadian pols no more respectfully.) His is not a kneejerk liberal presentation, though; while Ferguson mentions that forty-some thousand American young men fled to Canada during the Vietnam war, he also introduces the shocking statistic that ten thousand Canadian young men entered the States -- COMPLETELY without encouragement from their own government -- to enlist as soldiers in the U.S. armed services during that conflict.

Rarely have I read a book that conveyed so much information so enjoyably and so efficiently. CANADIAN HISTORY FOR DUMMIES' bibliography is oriented much more toward websites than books; these days that's probably the way to go. (Of course, Amazon is more than happy to recommend a few kindred books for the bookish!) This book is recommended before or after any trip, for the idly curious, or just for an ignorance-defuser in this age of deflated school curricula.

Oh, by the way did I mention that many Canadian school systems extend high school through Grade 13? Maple Leaf Forever!

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A relatively light, but fun, treatment of history, March 7, 2001

By	Allan MacInnis (Vancouver) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Canadian History for Dummies (Paperback)

Will Ferguson's best known work in Canada is called WHY I HATE CANADIANS -- a title only a Canadian could come up with, since no one else could muster so strong a feeling about the country (by the way, I'm Canadian too). This work is a worthy follow-up, a light, readable, but useful reference, traipsing through Canadian history. Ferguson is more interested in political questions than cultural ones, but it sort of goes with the territory. He does a reasonably good job of making a subject I always found dry and uninvolving (back in my high-school days) very engaging and readable, and, to his credit, gives lots of attention to Native issues (and refrains from too many potshots at Quebec separatists). Ferguson also gives abundant links to cool sites on the internet, to supplement his research. This is, needless to say, very much a populist work, but, well, it IS in the FOR DUMMIES SERIES... I like it. I teach English in Japan, and am using it as a reference, in case I need to quickly explain what an inukshuk is or so forth...

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Badly needed!, August 25, 2004

By	Vincent Poirier "CISSP, http://vfp15.wordpres... (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Canadian History for Dummies (Paperback)

This is a badly needed book. Canadians are woefully ignorant of their own history. It's not just that we've forgotten the embarassing bits like when we interned Japanese-Canadians in WWII (maybe OK) until three years after the war ended (definitely NOT OK!) but we've also forgotten the good bits like constructing the Canadian Pacific Railway, the battle of Vimy, and even why we wear poppies in November (hint: the last two are closely related).

Ferguson also puts French Canadian history in its proper perspective, e.g. by confirming Samuel de Champlain as a true visionary and rightfully condemning Jacques Cartier as a fraudster, and reminding us how really great the Voyageurs were.

He also presents one of the great injustices in Canadian history. We've forgotten that the first man to brew beer in Canada, i.e. Jean Talon, intendant (industry supremo) of New France. Montreal has a street and subway station named after him, but do we have a beer or a holiday named in his honour? We do not and we need to do something about this. Ferguson's started ball the rolling. Thumbs up, waaaaayyyy up.