The Life and Times of Confederation 1864-1867: Politics, Newspapers, and the Union of British North America

THE LAST HISTORY OF CONFEDERATION was R. G. Trotter’s Canadian Federation, published in 1924. Since that time, much work has been done on this seminal period of Canadian history by Canadian historians, and more recently, in important peripheral studies, by American ones. Three notable contributions by Canadians have been D. G. Creighton’s British North America at Confederation for the Rowell-Sirois Report, his John A. Macdonald: The Young Politician (1952), and W. M. Whitelaw’s The Maritimes and Canada before Confederation (1934). This present book begins roughly where Professor Whitelaw’s ended. It is a study of ideas and politics in the province of Canada, 1864-1867. This book is, in several important respects, a shift in emphasis and direction, and represents an entire rewriting on the basis of other perspectives and a good deal of further research.