Name: Clearing the Plains New Edition
Rating: 3 (1 reviews)
ISBN: 9780889776227

James Daschuk

Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Indigenous Life

Clearing the Plains New Edition

James William Daschuk

In arresting, but harrowing, prose, James Daschuk examines the roles that Old World diseases, climate, and, most disturbingly, Canadian politics--the politics of ethnocide--played in the deaths and subjugation of thousands of aboriginal people in the realization of Sir John A. Macdonald's "National Dream." It was a dream that came at great expense: the present disparity in health and economic well-being between First Nations and non-Native populations, and the lingering racism and misunderstanding that permeates the national consciousness to this day. "Clearing the Plains is a tour de force that dismantles and destroys the view that Canada has a special claim to humanity in its treatment of indigenous peoples. Daschuk shows how infectious disease and state-supported starvation combined to create a creeping, relentless catastrophe that persists to the present day. The prose is gripping, the analysis is incisive, and the narrative is so chilling that it leaves its reader stunned and disturbed. For days after reading it, I was unable to shake a profound sense of sorrow. This is fearless, evidence-driven history at its finest." -Elizabeth A. Fenn, author of Pox Americana "Required reading for all Canadians." -Candace Savage, author of A Geography of Blood "Clearly written, deeply researched, and properly contextualized history...Essential reading for everyone interested in the history of indigenous North America." -J.R. McNeill, author of Mosquito Empires

Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life

Clearing the Plains

Patrick Book

This is a tough one! The information contained in this book is vital and an important, under-acknowledged part of Canada’s history. But it was also written largely as a doctoral dissertation and reads like one. If you have any aversion to dry, fact-only, prose-free writing this will be tough (though if that’s the case you can actually read just the introduction and conclusion sections and come away with a pretty good understanding of the larger content).

Clearing the Plains New Edition Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Indigenous Life

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