McNaught's book should be titled The Penguin Political History of Canada: apart from a final chapter on Canada's cultural development it concentrates almost exclusively on people, parties, wars, constitutional changes and such-like. This produces a rather unsatisfying overall effect, but on the plus side the old-fashioned chronological narrative does make for easy reading. I felt it needed following up with an economic and social history, but the Penguin History wouldn't be a bad choice if you're primarily interested in politics.

March 1992

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