P.B. Waite - Canada 1874-1896: Arduous Destiny

The Canadian Centenary Series

Half a century has elapsed since Canada and Its Provinces, the first large-scale co-operative history of Canada, was published. During that time, new historical materials have been made available in archives and libraries; new research has been carried out, and its results published; new interpretations have been advanced and tested. In these same years Canada itself has greatly grown and changed. These facts, together with the centenary of Confederation, justify the publication of a new co-operative history of Canada.

The form chosen for this enterprise was that of a series of volumes. The series was planned by the editors, but each volume will be designed and executed by a single author. The general theme of the work is the development of those regional communities which have for the past century made up the Canadian nation; and the series will be composed of a number of volumes sufficiently large to permit adequate treatment of all the phases of the theme in the light of modern knowledge.

The Centenary History, then, was planned as a series to have a certain common character and to follow a common method but to be written by individual authors, specialists in their fields. As a whole, it will be a work of specialized knowledge, the great advantage of scholarly co-operation, and at the same time each volume will have the unity and distinctive character of individual authorship. It was agreed that a general narrative treatment was necessary and that each author should deal in a balanced way with economic, political, and social history. The result, it is hoped, will be an interpretative, varied, and comprehensive account, at once useful to the student and interesting to the general reader.

The difficulties of organizing and executing such a series are apparent: the overlapping of separate narratives, the risk of omissions, the imposition of divisions which are relevant to some themes but not to others. Not so apparent, but quite as troublesome, are the problems of scale, perspective, and scope, problems which perplex the writer of a one-volume history and are magnified in a series. It is by deliberate choice that certain parts of the history are told twice, in different volumes from different points of view, in the belief that the benefits gained outweigh the unavoidable disadvantages.

In this volume Professor Waite reveals a gift for presenting history upon its own terms, history with its own shape and attitudes, and with its own lively personalities. The mode suits the period. In the years 18741896 the great experiment of Confederation, so long conceived, so hastily undertaken, was put to the test. It was freighted with enterprises whose scale was to daunt even some of the most robust minds of the time. The testing was, as Edward Blake felt and Professor Waite confirms, arduous indeed. Out of it were to come results not altogether foreseen, a Canada with a character not wholly intended by the makers of Confederation. This complex story Professor Waite tells with its many subtleties, and evokes colours and mutations not before perceived.