Book - Strange Days: Amazing Stories From Canada's Wildest Decade

I found this book under a book review in Canadian History Magazine and decided it looked like a good read. I find a lot of great books on Canadian history from their magazine and website.

Strange Days: Amazing Stories From Canada's Wildest Decade is a collection of true stories from the 1920's.

The 1920s were one of the wildest decades in Canada’s history, a time of frivolous fads, shocking crimes, and political and social changes that definitively yanked the country out of the 19th century and into the modern age. In Strange Days, Ted Ferguson revisits dozens of stories that could only have happened in the ’20s — tales of serial killers, athletes, con men, crackpots, prime ministers, bathing beauties, and more — all of them nearly too amazing to believe and too entertaining to be forgotten.

I found this a very entertaining book. Each story is only five or six pages long and covers a wide range of happenings. Each set of stories is grouped by year. Only one or two of the stories I had heard of before.

Interestingly enough Teena had read it back in August and recommended it to me. I never got around to reading it then and forgot about it. When I picked up the book and showed her my great find, Teena reminded me about that. Oops!

I'm glad I got around to it as it is an excellent read!

Book - The Astonishing General: The Life and Legacy of Sir Isaac Brock

I guess you could call me a buff when it comes to the War of 1812.

I have read many, many books on the war and now try to focus on individual battles or the personalities involved. With the 200th anniversary of the war fast approaching, many new books are being made available.

When I saw a new book on one of the great heroes of the war, Sir Isaac Brock, I had to read it.

The Astonishing General: The Life and Legacy of Sir Isaac Brock is about "Major General Sir Isaac Brock (1769 - 13 October 1812). It tells of his life, his career and legacy, particularly in the Canadas, and of the context within which he lived. One of the most enduring legacies of the War of 1812 on both the United States and Canadian sides was the creation of heroes and heroines. The earliest of those heroic individuals was Isaac Brock who in some ways was the most unlikely of heroes. For one thing, he was admired by his American foes almost as much as by his own people. Even more striking is how a British general whose military role in that two-and-a-half-year war lasted less than five months became the best known hero and one revered far and wide. Wesley B. Turner finds this outcome astonishing and approaches the subject from that point of view."

I have had problems finding a decent book on Isaac Brock and this book filled that need well. It told me things of the man and the Battle of Queenston Heights, where Brock lost his life, that I did not know before.

I found the writing of that battle plus Brock's meeting with Tecumseh and the taking of Detroit a little dry. When Tecumseh met Brock and they discussed the upcoming campaign to take Fort Detroit, Tecumseh, considered "the Wellington of the Indians", was frustrated with the British officers he had to deal with up to that point. He considered them meek and womanlike but was so impressed with Brock that he presented Brock to the hundreds of his warriors gathered and declared loudly, ""This is a man!" I thought Turner could have been more profound in his writing of this meeting.

Also I was disappointed in the description of Brock's involvement in the Battle of Alkmaar in Holland. The author dedicated just a paragraph to this battle where Brock was wounded in the throat by a spent musket ball. Later Brock wrote of the incident, "I got knocked down shortly after the enemy began to retreat, but never quitted [sic] the field, and returned to my duty in less than half an hour." I thought this battle could have been expanded on.

That being said, it is an excellent book of the life of the General. I particularly enjoyed the last chapter, "The making of a hero: reflections on Brock", where the author puts together the reasons that even though Brock was killed while leading a failed charge on the heights in a battle early in a war which continued for another 3 years, he was considered the savior of Upper Canada. It was very interesting.

I also liked how the author included some of his speeches to the legislature and a list of Brock's possessions at the time of his death. Brock loved to entertain and it shows in the amount of alcohol he had amassed even though he drank very little.

One final point of interest I discovered in the book was that Brock never sat for a portrait of himself, so all paintings of the general come from descriptions of those who had met him. I knew this of Tecumseh but not of Brock. This doubly makes paintings and drawings of Brock's meeting with Tecumseh quite fanciful.

I found this an interesting book and would recommend it to anyone interested in the War of 1812.

Book - Endgame 1758: The Promise, the Glory, and the Despair of Louisbourg's Last Decade

Next week Teena and I are off to Cape Breton for a drive around the island.

One of the stops we are making will be at the Fortress of Louisbourg. I thought if I was going to visit the fortress, I should know about its history. So I picked up Endgame 1758: The Promise, the Glory, and the Despair of Louisburg's Last Decade by A. J. B. Johnston. Mr Johnston is a historian with Parks Canada and an acclaimed expert on Nova Scotia, Cape Breton and Louisbourg.

"Endgame is the last stage of a chess match when few pieces are left on the board and a decisive move is to be expected. The penultimate move in the conquest of New France was the 1758 siege of the fortified seaport of Louisbourg on Cape Breton. Both British and French strategists saw that port as the key to France's Canadian colony. The author points out that the French government committed more munitions, ships, and men to Louisburg's defence than were allocated to Quebec City's protection in 1759 (151–6). After the loss of Louisbourg, Quebec was open to attack, and the seizure of that town brought about the capitulation of New France in 1760."

I found this to be a very interesting read. Not only does it tell the story of the history of the last decade of Louisbourg but does so by showing it in the context of the battle for North America. The 1958 siege was no small affair. The British invasion force contained 157 ships and 11,000 soldiers. 4,000 soldiers protected the fortress along with a number of ships in the harbour.

The book is good and the events from 1458 to 1758 are well laid out. The old maps and paintings from that era is a nice touch, although I would have liked to have seen a few more modern maps diagramming the siege as it advanced and some of the larger skirmishes. Even though I am glad the British won, I felt sorry throughout the book for the civilians and soldiers of the fort having to endure daily and nightly bombardments for close to 2 months.

James Wolfe name became well-known during this siege. Wolfe, of course, went on to defeat the French in Quebec on the Plains of Abraham.

This is an interesting, well-written book on a crucial period of time and major event that shaped Canada and North America to what it is today.

The Canadian Century, moving out of America's shadow

The Canadian Century, moving out of America's shadow is an inter-institute effort by Brian Lee Crowley (MacDonald-Laurier Institute for Public Policy), Jason Clemens (Pacific Research Institute), and Niels Veldhuis (Fraser Institute).

For years Canada has lived in the shadow of the United States. No more. As the authors argue, while the United States was busy precipitating a global economic disaster, Canada was on a path that could lead it into an era of unprecedented prosperity. It won't be easy. We must be prepared to follow through on reforms enacted and complete the work already begun. If so, Canada will become the country that Laurier foretold, a land of work for all who want it, of opportunity, investment, innovation and prosperity. Laurier said that the twentieth century belonged to Canada. He was absolutely right; he was merely off by 100 years.

I usually do not read books on economics but this one intrigued me. It is just new to the bookshelves so the information and arguments are all relevant to today. I know the U.S. has been in the doldrums for some time but wondered what the authors thought our advantage was.

I have never been much for free trade, the GST or HST but the book explains these well, and I now have a better understanding of their importance. The book focuses on what Canada has done well in the past 20 years, what we did poorly before that and what we need to do.

I do like and agree with the quote from Allan Gotlieb, who was Canada's former ambassador to the U.S on how we must deal with the U.S. "For any initiative to succeed, it must meet a number of conditions. It must be bold, it must come from Canada and be espoused at the highest level. It also must be comprehensive so as to allow trade-offs and broad constituencies to come into play. It must address the the U>S> agenda as well as ours"

The book is easy to understand and an interesting look at our country today. Definitely worth a read.