History of Canada Since Confederation

Background

• Wright, Donald. Canada: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2020.
• Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000.
• Gough, Barry M. Historical Dictionary of Canada. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2010.
• Owram, Doug. Canadian History 2, Confederation to the Present. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994.

Academic journal articles

Start with Omni, and limit search results to "Articles." If your search results are too overwhelming, try one of these subject-specific databases:

• America: History & Life
  • An index of articles from over 2000 international journals, books & dissertations on the history of Canada & the United States. Many of the full text links lead to content in JSTOR.
• Canadian Periodical Index
  • Indexes a wide range of Canadian academic journals and popular magazines.
• JSTOR
  • The previous two databases are efficient ways to search for your topic; however you can also search the entire full text of many journals directly.

Journals

In addition to searching the article indexes above, sometimes you can find topic ideas by browsing through the issues of some journals:

• Acadiensis: Journal of the History of the Atlantic Region (v.1- 1971-)
• Canadian Historical Review (v.1- 1920-)
• Canadian Journal of History (v.1- 1966-)
• Journal of Canadian Studies (v.1- 1966-)

Videos

• National Film Board of Canada
  • Includes documentaries, dramas, and historical films.
• Curio.ca
  • Streaming audio and video content from CBC and Radio-Canada, with access to thousands of programs and documentaries with English and French-language content.

Primary Sources

Published books

As first-hand accounts from the time period involved, primary sources are often publisher or re-published as a book/ebook. Each database below that contains primary sources has different search functionalities and "quirks," and finding items on a topic can be challenging even for a seasoned research librarian. Please contact the history librarian if you need assistance in find primary sources.

• Omni
  • To search primary sources that the library has collected, in addition to your search topic, add one of the following words in the subject field.
    • correspondence; diaries; early works to 1800; interviews; pamphlets; personal narratives; sources.
• Internet Archive
  • Many books that have come out of copyright (pre-1923) have been digitized by libraries and archives and placed into the Internet Archive. Pay attention to what search field you are using (defaults just to the record, not the full text).

Government documents

Many federal and provincial government departments and libraries have digitized their documents.

• Canadian Government Publications Portal
  • Collected at the Internet Archive
• Canadian Parliamentary Historical Resources
  • Digitized versions of the debates and journals of the Senate and the House of Commons, 1867-1990s.

Original documents

When a primary source is an actual original document such as a diary, etc., you need to consult the item itself. While this could often lead you to the physical archives that owns the document, many libraries and archives have digitized some of their collections and made them available, either for free, or through a database that the Library subscribes to.

• Canadiana: Héritage
  • Digitized archival collections from across Canada.
  • Sample title: Canadian Presbyterian Magazine.
• Canadian National Digital Heritage Index
  • This is a database that searches over 1500 archival collections from other Canadian institutions (some overlap with Héritage, but much unique content).

Sample sites (possibly covered in the databases listed above)

• Canada Year Book (CYB) Historical Collection
  • Provides information related to Canada's first 100 years from 1867 to 1967. Some resources include historical text, charts, tables, and maps.
• Canadian Letters and Images Project
  • Descriptions of the Canadian war experience as told through the letters and images of Canadians themselves.
• Canadian Pamphlets and Broadsides
  • Provides access to the pre-1930 Canadian pamphlet and broadside holdings of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto.
• Democracy at War: Canadian Newspapers and the Second World War
  • A collection of over 144,000 Canadian newspaper articles during the Second World War by the Hamilton Spectator.

Newspaper articles

• Canadian Newspaper archives (Library subscription)
  • Calgary Herald (1883-2010)
  • Globe and Mail (1844 to three years ago)
  • Montreal Gazette (1785-2010)
  • Ottawa Citizen (1845-2010) 
  • Toronto Star (1894 to four years ago)
  • Vancouver Sun (1912-2010)
  • Windsor Star (1893-2010) 
• Indigenous Newspapers in North America
  • 200 years of indigenous print journalism from the US and Canada.
• Our Ontario Newspapers
  • Digitized copies of smaller Ontario newspapers, great source of local history.
  • Sample paper: Ontario Observer (1857-1873)