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HIST 225: History of Canada, 1867 to the Present (Rev. C7) Report a Broken Link

History 225: History of Canada 1867 to the Present is a three-credit, junior-level course offered by Athabasca University. This course introduces major themes in the political, social, and economic history of Canada from Confederation in 1867 to the recent past. History 225 introduces the major events in Canada’s post-Confederation history and portrays the lives of various groups of Canadians throughout this period. Issues of race, gender, and social class receive considerable attention since these categories played an important role in determining the life chances of individuals. Although this course presents numerous facts, it also pays close attention to the debates among historians about how to weave the facts together.

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Strikwerda, Eric. 2015. History 225: History of Canada 1867 to the Present. Athabasca, AB: Athabasca University. [video]

Required Readings

Unit 1

Inventing Canada, 1867–1914
Smith, Keith D. 2009. “ ‘A Splendid Spirit of Competition’: Churches, Police Forces, and the Department of Indian Affairs.” Chapter 3 in Liberalism, Surveillance, and Resistance: Indigenous Communities in Western Canada, 1877–1927, 51–91. Edmonton: Athabasca University Press.

Click on Chapter 3 (on the left)
Riel, Louis. 1885. “Final Trial Statement & Subsequent Renounciation of Louis Riel: Final Statement of Louis Riel at his Trial in Regina Friday, July 31, 1885.” Regina, SK.
Royal, Joseph. 1886. “Speech of Mr. J. Royal, M.P., on the Execution of Louis Riel, House of Commons, March 12th, 1886.” Ottawa: MacLean, Roger and Company.

Unit 2

Economy and Society in the Industrial Age, 1867–1914
Barman, Jean. 2008. “Writing Women into the History of the North American Wests, One Woman at a Time.” Chapter 5 of One Step Over the Line: Toward a History of Women in the North American Wests, edited by Elizabeth Jameson and Sheila McManus, 99–127. Edmonton: Athabasca University Press.
Sarah-Jane (Saje) Mathieu. 2001. “North of the Colour Line: Sleeping Car Porters and the Battle Against Jim Crow on Canadian Rails, 1880–1920.” Labour/Le Travail 47 (Spring): 9–41.
Canada. 1885. An Act to Restrict and Regulate Chinese Immigration into Canada, 48 & 49 Victoria, c. 71 (July 20).

Unit 3

Booms, Busts, and Wars, 1914–1945
Co-operative Commonwealth Federation. 1933. Co-operative Commonwealth Federation Programme, Adopted at First National Convention Held at Regina, Sask., July, 1993 (The Regina Manifesto). Ottawa, ON: Progressive Printers.
Baillargeon, Denyse. 1992. “ ‘If You Had No Money, You Had No Trouble, Did You?’: Montréal Working-Class Housewives During the Great Depression.” Women's History Review 1 (2): 217–237.
Comacchio, Cynthia. 1997. “Dancing to Perdition: Adolescence and Leisure in Interwar English Canada.” Journal of Canadian Studies 32 (3): 5–35.

Unit 4

Reinventing Canada, 1945–1975
Front de libération du Québec. 1978. “Manifesto of the Front de libération du Québec” (1970).  In Marcel Rioux, Quebec in Question, translated by James Boake, 163–168. Toronto: James Lorimer and Company.
Kinsman, Gary. 1995. “ ‘Character Weaknesses’ and ‘Fruit Machines’: Towards an Analysis of the Anti-Homosexual Security Campaign in the Canadian Civil Service.” Labour/Le Travail 35 (Spring): 133–161.
Sangster, Joan. 1999. “Criminalizing the Colonized: Ontario Native Women Confront the Criminal Justice System, 1920–60.” Canadian Historical Review 80 (1): 32–60.

Martel, Marcel. 2009. “ ‘They Smell Bad, Have Diseases, and Are Lazy’: RCMP Officers Reporting on Hippies in the Late Sixties.” Canadian Historical Review 90 (2): 215–245.

Unit 5

Post-Modern Canada, 1976–2018
Prentice, Susan. 2009. “High Stakes: The ‘Investable’ Child and the Economic Reframing of Childcare.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture & Society 34 (3): 687–710.
Canada. 1982. “Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.” Part I of Constitution Act, Schedule B to the Canada Act 1982, 1982, c. 11 (U.K.).
Melnyk, George. 2011. “Canada and Afghanistan: Peacemaking as Counter-Insurgency Warfare: A Study in Political Rhetoric.” Peace Research 43 (1): 5–29, 112.