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Clearing the Plains

Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Indigenous Life

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Clearing the Plains

Written by: James Daschuk, Elizabeth A. Fenn - foreword, Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair
Narrated by: J.D. Nicholsen
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About this listen

Revealing how Canada’s first Prime Minister used a policy of starvation against Indigenous people to clear the way for settlement, the multiple award-winning Clearing the Plains sparked widespread debate about genocide in Canada.

In arresting, but harrowing, prose, James Daschuk examines the roles that Old World diseases, climate, and, most disturbingly, Canadian politics—the politics of ethnocide—played in the deaths and subjugation of thousands of Indigenous people in the realization of Sir John A. Macdonald’s “National Dream.”

It was a dream that came at great expense: the present disparity in health and economic well-being between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations, and the lingering racism and misunderstanding that permeates the national consciousness to this day.

This new edition of Clearing the Plains has a foreword by Pulitzer Prize winning author, Elizabeth Fenn, an opening by Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair, and explanations of the book’s influence by leading Canadian historians. Called “one of the most important books of the twenty-first century” by the Literary Review of Canada, it was named a “Book of the Year” by The Globe and Mail, Quill & Quire, the Writers’ Trust, and won the Sir John A. Macdonald Prize, among many others.

©2013 University of Regina Press (P)2022 University of Regina Press
Canada Social Sciences United States Dream
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What the critics say

“A tour de force that dismantles and destroys the view that Canada has a special claim to humanity in its treatment of indigenous peoples…This is fearless, evidence-driven history at its finest.”—Elizabeth A. Fenn, author of Pox Americana

“Required reading for all Canadians.”—Candace Savage, author of A Geography of Blood

“Clearly written, deeply researched, and properly contextualized history. ..Essential reading for everyone interested in the history of indigenous North America.”—J. R. McNeill, author of Mosquito Empires

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must read for all canadians

must read for all Canadians. performance could have been better by not listing and reading all footnotes.

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Great book.

Important information. This story needs to be heard. The end note mentions are tedious though.

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