Death in the Peaceable Kingdom is an intelligent, innovative response to the incorrect assumption that Canadian history is dry and uninspiring. Using the "hooks" of murder, execution, assassination, and suicide, Dimitry Anastakis introduces readers to the full scope of post-Confederation Canadian history.
Beginning with the assassination of Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Anastakis recounts the deaths of famous Canadians such as Louis Riel, Tom Thomson, and Pierre Laporte. He also introduces lesser-known events such as the execution of shell-shocked deserter Pte. Harold Carter during the First World War and the suicide of suspected communist Herbert Norman in Cairo during the Cold War. The book concludes with recent Canadian deaths including the suicides of Amanda Todd and Rehtaeh Parsons as a result of cyberbullying.
Complementing the chapters are short vignettes-"Murderous Moments" and "Tragic Tales"-that point to broader themes and issues. The book also contains a number of "Active History" exercises such as activities, assignments, and primary document analyses. A timeline, 24 images, and further reading suggestions are included.
Show moreDeath in the Peaceable Kingdom is an intelligent, innovative response to the incorrect assumption that Canadian history is dry and uninspiring. Using the "hooks" of murder, execution, assassination, and suicide, Dimitry Anastakis introduces readers to the full scope of post-Confederation Canadian history.
Beginning with the assassination of Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Anastakis recounts the deaths of famous Canadians such as Louis Riel, Tom Thomson, and Pierre Laporte. He also introduces lesser-known events such as the execution of shell-shocked deserter Pte. Harold Carter during the First World War and the suicide of suspected communist Herbert Norman in Cairo during the Cold War. The book concludes with recent Canadian deaths including the suicides of Amanda Todd and Rehtaeh Parsons as a result of cyberbullying.
Complementing the chapters are short vignettes-"Murderous Moments" and "Tragic Tales"-that point to broader themes and issues. The book also contains a number of "Active History" exercises such as activities, assignments, and primary document analyses. A timeline, 24 images, and further reading suggestions are included.
Show moreAnastakis breathes new life into Canadian history in this innovative volume. Tragedy, conflict, and death lurk throughout Canada's past in ways that may surprise readers. Through captivating narratives of political assassinations, murders, and suicides, Anastakis finds exciting new ways to think about Canada and its history. This highly readable history will draw students into the dark corners of the past and make connections to primary themes of the development of Canada in the years after Confederation. -- Sean Kheraj, York University Death in the Peaceable Kingdom is an engaging, entertaining, and enlightening book. Learning Canadian history through murder, suicide, and even mass death is gruesome but fun. This is an excellent book for anyone wanting to learn more about Canada's history. -- James Muir, University of Alberta Anastakis aptly uses the conceits of violence and death to reveal the dark underside of Canadian history. Readers will learn about the socioeconomic realities of all classes and ethnicities in post-Confederation Canada. Extremely well done! -- Caroline-Isabelle Caron, Queen's University
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Timeline of Canadian History
Introduction
Part One: Our Violent, Bloody Confederation
1. Thomas D'Arcy McGee, Assassinated, Ottawa, 1868: Terror and
Invasion in Confederation-Era Canada
Murderous Moment: Patrick James Whelan, Executed, Ottawa, 1869
2. Thomas Scott, Executed or Murdered? Fort Garry, Winnipeg, 1870:
The Red River Resistance and the Politics of Westward Expansion
Murderous Moment: Elizabeth Workman, Executed, Sarnia, Ontario,
1873
3. George Brown, Assassinated, Toronto, 1880: Dreams of an Emerging
Canada
4. Louis Riel, Executed, Regina, 1885: Open Rebellion and the Fate
of the Canadian West
Tragic Tales: The Frog Lake Massacre and the Execution of Eight
First Nations Warriors, Fort Battleford, Present-Day Saskatchewan,
1885
Murderous Moment: Killing the French Fact Outside of Quebec—Ending
Separate (French) Schooling in New Brunswick, Manitoba,
Saskatchewan,
Alberta, and Ontario, 1871-1912
Part Two: A Nation Forged in Blood?
Murderous Moment: William C. Hopkinson, Immigration Officer and
Secret Agent, Murdered, Vancouver, 1914
5. Private Harold Carter, Executed, France, 1917: The Tragedy and
Heroism of the First World War, 1914-18
Tragic Tales: Collateral Damages—The Burning of Parliament Hill's
Centre Block (1916) and the Halifax Explosion (1917)
6. Four Rioters Killed by the Canadian Military, Quebec City,
Easter 1918: Conscription and the Politics of the Great War at
Home
7. Michael Sokolowiski and Steven Skezerbanovicz, Murdered,
Winnipeg, 1919: Capital and Labour Collide in Industrializing
Canada
Murderous Moment: Theatre Impresario Ambrose Small, Murdered?
Toronto, 1919
8. Tom Thomson, Murdered? Canoe Lake, Ontario, 1917: Art,
Nationalism, and Americanization in the Interwar Period
Murderous Moment: William Lyon Mackenzie King Commits Regicide by
(Mostly) Killing the British Constitutional Connection to
Canada,
1920s
9. Filumena Lassandro, Executed, Edmonton, 1923: Women, the Roaring
Twenties, and the Law
Murderous Moment: Qallanaaq (White Man) Richard Janes, Killed by
Inuit Hunters, Baffin Island, 1920
Murderous Moment: Coalminer William Davis, Killed by Company
Police, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, 1925
10. Peter Markunas, Nick Nargan, and Julian Gryshko, Murdered,
Saskatchewan, 1931: Labour, the Great Depression, Regional
Alienation, and State
Response
Tragic Tales: Two Killed as Police and Mounties Break up the
On-to-Ottawa Trek, Regina, Dominion Day (July 1), 1935
11. Eleven Canadian Soldiers, Murdered by the Nazis, France, 1944:
Canada's War?
Part Three: Postwar Canada—Peaceable, Prosperous, Yet Deadly
Murderous Moment: John Dick, Murdered, Hamilton, 1946
12. Death by Car: 2,921 Canadians Killed in Motor Vehicle
Accidents, 1953: Cars, Consumption, and Postwar Canadian
Society
Murderous Moment: King Car Kills the Street Railway in Canada, ca.
1955
13. Herbert Norman, Suicide, Cairo, Egypt, 1957: Cold War
Diplomacy, Repression, and Relations with the United States
Murderous Moment: Marguerite "Madame le Corbeau" Pitre, Conspirator
in the 1949 Canadian Pacific Flight 108 Bombing, Last Woman
Executed in
Canada, Montreal, 1953
14. Ronald Turpin and Arthur Lucas, Executed, Toronto, 1962: The
Death Penalty, Diefenbaker, Pearson, and Social Change in Postwar
Canada
Tragic Tales: "To Kill the Indian in the Child"—Charlie Wenjack,
Died in 1966 as Did over 3,000 Aboriginal Children in Indian
Residential
Schools, 1870s-1990s
15. Pierre Laporte, Assassinated, Montreal, October 1970: Quebec,
the Quiet Revolution, and the FLQ
Murderous Moment: Victims, Police, Politicians, and Terrorists:
What Happened After the October Crisis?
16. Rochdale College's Cindy Lei Commits Suicide, Toronto, 1975:
The Counterculture and the Sixties Revolutionary Moment in
Canada
Murderous Moment: Paul Joseph Chartier, Killed While Attempting to
Blow up the House of Commons, 1966
17. Three Employees of the Quebec National Assembly, Murdered,
Quebec City, 1984: The Constitutional Wars Turn Deadly
18. "Leap of Faith": Brian Mulroney (and Ronald Reagan) Kill the
National Policy, 1989: Trade Policy and Postwar Economic
Development
Murderous Moment: Shidane Arone, Murdered by Canadian Troops,
Somalia, 1993
19. Fourteen Quebec Women, Murdered, Montreal, December 6, 1989:
Women in Postwar Canada and Violence
Tragic Tales: Tracy Latimer, "Mercy Killing," Saskatchewan,
1993
20. Dudley George, Murdered, Ipperwash, Ontario, 1995: Aboriginal
Rights and Resistance in Postwar Canada
Tragic Tales: Sue Rodriguez, Death by Assisted Suicide, British
Columbia, 1994
21. The 329 People on Air India Flight 182, Murdered over the
Atlantic Ocean, 1985: Challenges to Immigration and
Multiculturalism in an Age of
Terror
Tragic Tales: Amanda Todd and Rehtaeh Parsons, Suicide, 2012 and
2013
Conclusion: Canada, a Nation of Hope
Index
Dimitry Anastakis is the L.R. Wilson and R.J. Currie Chair in Canadian Business History in the Department of History and the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.
Our country's past is many things, but never has it been boring.
And neither is this book.
*Tim Cook, Canada's History*
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