THE ARCHAIC OF THE FAR NORTHEAST
Orono, Maine: University of Maine Press, 2005.
Edited by David Sanger and M.A.P. Renouf.

Recently, a large amount of archaeological information has been discovered that has finally begun to provide information on the peoples, and their social patterns, that lived in the area of what are now Maine, Newfoundland, Labrador and Quebec from 6,000 BC to 1,000 BC.

The Archaic of The Far NorthEast presents a collection of individual articles, each pertaining to a particular area within the far northeast region and shows that this region has a lengthy and rich archaeological heritage throughout the archaic period.

Dr. Stephen Hornsby, Director of the Canadian-American Center here at UMaine, assisted in securing the necessary funds for the initial symposium that led to the book, as well as assisting in publication costs through a grant from the Government of Canada’s Canadian Studies Grant Program.

New England and the Maritime Provinces
Connections and Comparisons
Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2005
Edited by Stephen J. Hornsby and John G. Reid

British Atlantic, American Frontier.
Lebanon, New Hampshire: University Press of New England, 2005.
Stephen J. Hornsby

Reflecting the growing scholarly interest in transnational and comparative approaches to studying the past, British Atlantic, American Frontier offers a geographical perspective on the development of British America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It covers in detail not only the American eastern seaboard, but also eastern Canada and the West Indies, as well as the trans-Atlantic links to western Europe and West Africa. At one level, the book synthesizes much of the current historical and geographical scholarship on these regions; at another level, it offers a provocative interpretation of British America, aruging that profound and long-standing differences existed between the American eastern seaboard and the Atlantic regions of eastern Canada and the West Indies. These differences ultimately led to the breakup of British American, the creation of the United States, and the reconfiguration of the British Empire.

British Atlantic, American Frontier is illustrated with more than one hundred photographs, maps, and historical illustrations.

The History of Canada.
Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2001.
Scott See

This beautifully written narrative history the book addresses the needs of non-Canadians by providing relevant background information about the country’s history, geography, political system and culture. The text is also comprehensive enough to appeal to a Canadian audience. It is part of Greenwood Publishing’s History of Modern Nations series. There are about 35 books in the series. In the last year, histories of Argentina, China, France, Iran, Ireland and Turkey have also been published.

The book offers an account of Canadian history from the earliest contact of the Native peoples and the Europeans to contemporary issues of regional, cultural and ethnic diversity, as well as Canada’s participation in world affairs. It also includes short biographies of notable people in Canadian history, a list of all the Prime Ministers of Canada, a timeline of important events and a bibliographic essay of recommended books and web sites.

In the years between Confederation and the Great Depression nearly 500,000 Maritimers--mostly young--left the area to find work in central and western Canada and the United States.  Why they left and how their departure affected the region's economy have long been subjects of historical debate.  However, until now a major component of that "exodus" has been ignored:  the substantial number of emigrants who were single women.

Obligation and Opportunity addresses that oversight.  Crafted from a weave of census data, oral interviews, diaries, letters, written recollections, and other primary and secondary materials, this book examines the lives of the tens of thousands of single Maritime women who went to work in Boston, Massachusetts between 1870 and 1930.  It opens a window into the worlds of single female migrants--the rural family life they left, the urban environment they entered in Boston, and the various work cultures they found in their different occupations.  Throughout the book personal anecdotes enliven the text while statistical evidence gives substance to its conclusions.

 Beattie examines the experiences of these Maritime women within the changing socioeconomic conditions of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century North America.  Her focus on single women casts new light on several historical issues:  how rural families responded to economic change, how gendered attitudes influenced choices for young women, how first-generation emigrants eased the way for those who followed, and how, over time, changes in both family behavior and gender expectations transformed the nature of female out-migration.  Thus, Obligation and Opportunity offers useful insights not only to historians of the Maritimes and Boston, but to scholars and others interested in family history, women's studies, labor history, and migration research.