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Chargement... A History of Canada in Ten Maps: Epic Stories of Charting a Mysterious Land (2017)par Adam Shoalts
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Inscrivez-vous à LibraryThing pour découvrir si vous aimerez ce livre Actuellement, il n'y a pas de discussions au sujet de ce livre. I love exploring and this was a great read to see how early explorers made Canada what it is! ( ) Shoalts' book is the story of the explorers who braved the most incredible dangers and hardships to travel through the early Canadian wilderness and document what they saw in their journals and maps. Some of the names such as Champlain, Cartier and David Thompson are well known. Not so much are Samuel Hearne and Peter Pond. The opening chapter is about the Vikings and their many voyages to the west that eventually led them to set up a colony in Newfoundland. This is followed by the incredible trips of Champlain followed by the rise and fall of New France. After covering the attempts by the USA to take British North American at the end of a gun, Shoalts tells us of the incredible trek by Samuel Hearne up the Coppermine River. Following chapters cover Alexander Mackenzie's trips up the Mackenzie River to the Arctic Ocean followed by his voyage to the Pacific Ocean making him the first white man to cross North America about eight years before the more famous Lewis and Clarke did it. He follows this with chapters that tell the story of David Thompson, the effect on Canada's borders of the War of !812 and the disastrous expeditions of John Franklin. Each chapter is centered on a map that was made in the period being describe copies of which are included for the reader to decipher. This is an extremely readable account of the early explorers expeditions. It is also a major tribute to the contributions of the Indigenous people who traveled with these explorers often saving them from starvation and freezing to death. Most of these men were successful because they recognized the extraordinary knowledge the Indigenous were willing to share and took their advice and learned the native languages. One exception was John Franklin who looked down on the natives as savages and he and his men paid with their lives. Who would have thought that a history of Canada told through its geography and cartography would be so compelling. The history of Canada is told from the Vikings to Sir John Franklin with each chapter concentrating on a particular map and its history. Well known explorers such as Jacques Cartier, Samuel de Champlain, Samuel Hearne and David Thompson inhabit the stories. The hardships these men faced, their collaboration with indigenous peoples, the physical exertion, starvation and other deprivations in order to map the country is fascinating. A favourite would have to be Champlain whose leadership, intelligence, map making skills and willingness to work with indigenous peoples allowed for major inroads into the Canadian interior. I read the e-book version which really limited my ability to reference the maps in the annexes. aucune critique | ajouter une critique
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Winner of the 2018 Louise de Kiriline Lawrence Award for Nonfiction Envisioning the mysterious land that would eventually be called "Canada" through the eyes of the explorers who first set foot on these shores, A History of Canada in Ten Maps brings our stories to life. Every map tells a story, and every map has a purpose: inviting us to go somewhere we've never been. It is an account of what we know, but also a trace of what we long for. Like a story, a map is never completely objective. It records special interests and agendas. It leaves important things unsaid even as it purports to lay things out clearly and indisputably. We can know our history by our maps. That is what A History of Canada in Ten Maps will do. This book chronicles not just the centuries of Canada's existence; it conjures the world as it appeared to those who were called upon to map it. What would the new world look like to Jacques Cartier, who could see no farther than the treeline? What would the north have looked like to Martin Frobisher, confronting a sea of ice but imagining that Cathay lay just beyond? What would the vastness of the country look like to a surveyor or railroad engineer (or an investor in Great Britain)? And what rival claims to the land were left off all these maps? Historical maps may tell only part of the story, but they also tell us volumes about what we didn't know, and hint at what we may have preferred go unrecorded. A History of Canada in Ten Maps will tell the story of the creators of these maps, and also recount how they used the maps for their own ends. It is a book that will surprise readers, and reveal the Canada we never knew was hidden. It will bring to life the characters and the disputes that forged our history, by showing us what the world looked like before it entered the history books. Combining storytelling, cartography, geography, and of course history, this book will show us Canada in a way we've never seen it before. Aucune description trouvée dans une bibliothèque |
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Google Books — Chargement... GenresClassification décimale de Melvil (CDD)911.71History and Geography Geography and Travel Historical geography North America CanadaClassification de la Bibliothèque du CongrèsÉvaluationMoyenne:
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