“Happy is the country that has no history,” a proverb states, as history more often than not recounts acts of violence and greed and dishonesty.
Happiness is but a dream for Canada, according to James Daschuk, because the malice that has marked so much of human history happened here, too. In Clearing the Plains he reveals a nightmare from which we have yet to awaken and shines the light of truth on one of the world’s great human tragedies.
Clearing the Plains, first edition, inside dust jacket.
Clearing the Plains should be “required reading for all Canadians,” according to Candace Savage (A Geography of Blood).
Those who haven’t yet read the book may be interested in these shorter pieces, including several well-informed reviews by other Canadian historians (all are available for download here):
- Daschuk, J et al – Treaties and tuberculosis: First Nations People in late 19th-century western Canada (2005)
- Woolford, A – Ethnic cleansing, Canadian style (2013)
- Daschuk, J – Acknowledging patriarch’s failures will help Canada mature as a nation (2015)
- Introduction to a panel discussion of James Daschuk’s Clearing the Plains (2015)
- Daschuk, J – Some reflections of my own on Clearing the Plains (2015)
- Kelm, M-E – Clearing the path to truth (2015)
- Mosby, I – Clearing the Plains and changing the national conversation (2015)
- Neylan, S – Clearing the Plains and teaching the dark side of Canadian history (2015)