A Century of Parks Canada, 1911–2011
edited by Claire Elizabeth Campbell

When Canada created a Dominion Parks Branch in 1911, it became the first country in the world to establish an agency devoted to managing its national parks. Over the past century this agency, now Parks Canada, has been at the centre of important debates about the place of nature in Canadian nationhood, and relationships between Canadas diverse ecosystems and its communities. Today, Parks Canada manages over forty parks and reserves totalling over 200,000 square kilometres and featuring a dazzling variety of landscapes, and is recognized as a global leader in the environmental challenges of protected places. Its history is a rich repository of experience, of lessons learned - critical for making informed decisions about how to sustain the environmental and social health of our national parks.'

Buy from Chapters

Read our review

Polar Imperative:
A History of Arctic Sovereignty in North America
Shelagh D. Grant

Based on Shelagh Grant’s thirty years of groundbreaking archival research on Arctic sovereignty and her reputation as a leading historian in the field, Polar Imperative: A History of Arctic Sovereignty in North America is a definitive overview of the many attempts by many countries to claim sovereign rights over the polar regions of North America. Unlike numerous other books on the subject, this authoritative volume covers Alaska and Greenland as well as Canada, balancing the implications of major changes in climate, science and technology, and international law against the competing ambitions of those countries seeking sovereign rule of the Arctic.

Of particular importance is Grant’s use of archival documents to reveal previously unpublished details surrounding Britain’s 1880 transfer of the Arctic islands to Canada, and the identity of those who firmly secured Canadian title to the archipelago in 1925. By comparing the actions of various governments over two millennia, she concludes that Arctic sovereignty has historically depended less on legal interpretation or military might than on the ice cover that restricted access to adjacent waters, and the speed with which countries have acted to assert sovereign authority.

Buy from Chapters

Read our review

Half Moon:
Henry Hudson and the Voyage That Redrew the Map of the New World
Douglas Hunter

Four centuries ago, Henry Hudson discovered the majestic river that now bears his name. Douglas Hunter's Half Moon is the first book-length history of the 1609 adventure that would ultimately reshape the New World and lead to the birth of a global capital—New York City. This swiftly moving tale re-creates the bubbling mixture of espionage, economics, and politics that drove men to the edges of the known world—and beyond.

In a feat of forensic cartography, Hunter offers a fresh perspective on the daring Hudson's motivation and objectives—and even on where he went. Half Moon is a rich narrative of adventure, filled with international intrigue, business drama, and the thrill of discovery.

Buy from Chapters

James Fitzjames:
The Mystery Man of the Franklin Expedition
William Battersby

James Fitzjames was a hero of the early nineteenth-century Royal Navy. A charismatic man with a wicked sense of humour, he pursued his naval career with wily determination. When he joined the Franklin Expedition at the age of 32 he thought he would make his name. But instead the expedition completely disappeared and he never returned. Its fate is one of history's last great unsolved mysteries, as were the origins and background of James Fitzjames -- until now.

Fitzjames packed a great deal into his thirty-two years. He had sailed an iron paddle steamer down the River Euphrates and fought with spectacular bravery in wars in Syria and China. But Fitzjames was not what he seemed. He concealed several secrets, including the scandal of his birth, the source of his influence and his plans for after the Franklin Expedition.

Buy from Chapters

The Travel Journals of Tappan Adney:
1887-1890
Adney Tappan (Author), Ted Behne (Editor)

In 1887, at the age of just 18, intellectually and artistically gifted American Tappan Adney embarked on his first trip to New Brunswick. He had plans to enrol at Columbia University in the fall, primed for a meteoric rise in academia -- but fate intervened. He fell under the spell of the New Brunswick wilderness and the local Maliseet people.

Adney recorded his wilderness adventures in his journals through evocative sketches and memorable prose, including the detail of a caribou hunt decades before their extinction in this area of the country. Tappan Adney's writings, illustrations, and photographs were published in Harper's Magazine. His models of aboriginal canoes, now in many museum collections, helped save the birchbark canoe from oblivion.

Buy from Chapters