Arming and Disarming: A History of Gun Control in Canada
R. Blake Brown

In this sweeping, immersive book, R. Blake Brown outlines efforts to regulate the use of guns by young people, punish the misuse of arms, impose licensing regimes, and create firearm registries. Brown also challenges many popular assumptions about Canadian history, suggesting that gun ownership was far from universal during much of the colonial period and that many nineteenth century lawyers, including John A. Macdonald, believed in a limited right to bear arms. Arming and Disarming provides a careful exploration of how social, economic, cultural, legal, and constitutional concerns shaped gun legislation and its implementation, as well as how these factors defined Canada's historical and contemporary 'gun culture.'

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Don’t Tell the Newfoundlanders: The True Story of Newfoundland’s Confederation With Canada
Greg Malone

The true story, drawn from official documents and hours of personal interviews, of how Newfoundland and Labrador joined Confederation and became Canada's tenth province in 1949. A rich cast of characters--hailing from Britain, America, Canada and Newfoundland--battle it out for the prize of the resource-rich, financially solvent, militarily strategic island. The twists and turns are as dramatic as any spy novel and extremely surprising, since the "official" version of Newfoundland history has held for over fifty years almost without question. Don't Tell the Newfoundlanders will change all that.

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Hard Time: Reforming the Penitentiary in Nineteenth-Century Canada
Ted McCoy

Tracing the rise and evolution of Canadian penitentiaries in the nineteenth century, Hard Time examines the concepts of criminality and rehabilitation, the role of labour in penal regimes, and the problem of violence. Linking the lives of prisoners to the political economy and to movements for social change, McCoy depicts a history of oppression in which prisoners paid dearly for the reciprocal failures of the institution and of the reform vision. Revealing a deeply problematic institution entrenched in the landscape of Western society, McCoy redraws the boundaries within which we understand the penitentiary's influence.

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Speaking Up: A History of Language Politics in Canada and Quebec
Marcel Martel & Martin Pâquet

Language issues have always been subject to debate in Canada. From the Conquest to the Quiet Revolution to the crisis of Regulation 17 to the various judgments of the Supreme Court, these often virulent debates have mobilized citizens in the street, the media, or the courts. The state has responded with commissions of inquiry, legislation and legal action, and even police surveillance of citizens. Speaking Up captures the complex and fascinating history of the relationship between language and politics in Canada and Quebec from 1539 to the present. Nuanced and unbiased yet empathetic, the book reveals that the language issue has been at the heart of this country's political life for centuries.

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Making Medicare: New Perspectives on the History of Medicine in Canada
edited by Gregory P. Marchildon

The Canadian health care system is so indisputably tied to our national identity that its founder, Tommy Douglas, was voted the greatest Canadian of all time in a CBC television contest. However, very little has been written to date on how Medicare as we know it was developed and implemented. This collection fills a serious gap in the existing literature by providing a comprehensive policy history of Medicare in Canada. Making Medicare includes essays by key individuals and features explorations of the experiments that predated the federal government's decision to implement the Saskatchewan health care model, from Newfoundland's cottage hospital system to Bennettcare in British Columbia. It will appeal to anyone interested in the history and legacy of one of Canada's most visible and centrally important institutions.

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