This book, at only 350 pages, attempts to cover 4 centuries of Canadian military history; thus, detail is heavily sacrificed. This is not necessarily a problem, if you're looking for an overview or introduction to the highlights of the topic. This book is very good at supplying this overview.

Having said that, the average armchair historian may find the lack of detail frustrating, especially in areas where lots has already been written, e.g., the War of 1812 and both World Wars. This is balanced by an overarching view of the whole of Canadian history, linking themes and observing the evolution over the course of several hundred years. For me, the interwar years were the most interesting because I've normally focussed on detailed histories of certain events in my past readings. The post-WWII chapters are especially interesting and informative, and contain the most insightful analyses in the book.

There are several pages of good pictures. It's always nice to put a face to the people involved. However, the maps are generally not detailed enough to be useful, mostly overviews of the general lines of advance of the army, for instance.

So why only three stars? The title of the book may be misleading - perhaps it should be "A History of the Military of Canada" instead. Much more coverage is given to military organisation, conscription debates, etc. than are given to actual operations. I feel there should have been a better balance between these two broad areas. Even as an overview book, it could have stood to be 50-100 pages longer to flesh out the operational side. This aspect dropped my ranking for the book.

In summary, this is a very good book if you are looking for an overview of the subject. It lacks detail, as expected for its length, but this is compensated for by drawing together themes from widely separated events. The major drawback is its emphasis on the organisational side to the expense of the operational.

A Military History Of Canada: From Champlain To Kosovo clearly debunks the myth that Canada is the peaceable kingdom of an unmilitary peoples. In fact, Canada and Canadians have been "shaped, divided, and transformed" by war, that war has been one of the great and primal influences in Canadian history from its native peoples before the coming of the Europeans down to the present day. Desmond Morton has a knack for writing solid history with the flair of a dramatist as he surveys the role of the military in native society, how the French and English colonies were focused on war and revolved around military societies, how the young nation faced its most decisive moments of growth when it had to quell internal rebellion, and when it sent soldiers off to fight overseas in two World Wars and a host of United Nations "police actions" and "peacekeeper" missions. A Military History Of Canada is comprehensive, informative, and an essential addition to any military studies or Canadian history collection.

For a one-volume history of Canada, I'd recommend Roger Riendeau's "A Brief History of Canada" instead. Desmond Morton seems to be attempting to tell the history of Canada as a single narrative, but it's simply too long and multifaceted to be coherent. I found the colorful writing and light tone (e.g. introducing some historical figure by describing him as a "short, stout Scotsman") more annoying than engaging -- I was looking for facts and explanations, not amusing details. Finally, the book doesn't so much end as trail off.

I don't want to say that it's a bad book (Desmond Morton is a well-known and respected historian, and there were several glowing blurbs on the book cover), but it wasn't what I was looking for. Perhaps it might be more interesting for teenagers.

Morton is tackling a tough task for sure, attempting to cover the entire history of a complex nation in only 350 (or so) pages. However, this does not forgive some very significant oversights. Morton dedicates an extraordinarily large portion of his work to discussing Canadian politics and politicians. While politics represents a very significant part of any country's history, it is only part of the story. I was disappointed to find little more than an occasional paragraph dedicated to non-political events: social movements, trade issues, non-political figures, etc.

In addition, I think Morton tries to tackle too much in such a short text. At times, I felt that I was merely reading a chronology of events rather than an engaging, well-woven narrative. The back cover touts Morton's abilities as a "storyteller" - I found few "stories" but a lot of straightforward "this is what happened, then this is what happened next, etc."

Although I was mostly disappointed, this book does convey a tremendous amount of knowledge about Canada - I know much more about the great nation to the north than I did before I read the book. But, I'd have a hard time recommending this book to other "weekend historians" such as myself.

This is not a book of theory of free trade. It is a history of FTA and NAFTA between USA and Canada and is a set of some 15 speeches delivered by different key personnel in making it happen. Also has details of different beauracratic problems encountered in achieving this.
It is also bundled with some empirical data of before and after the agreement and also touches the trade with Mexico.