Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life

摘要

Many Americans-liberal ones, at least-think of Canada as a kinder, gentler version of the United States. This book will undermine that myth. The theme of Clearing the Plains is the long drawn-out demographic disaster that befell the native inhabitants of the Canadian Plains over the past seven hundred years. The emphasis on decline is clearly revealed in several of the chapter titles: Chapter 2: "Dislocation and Disease"; Chapter 3: "Trade and Disease"; Chapter 4: "Despair and Death"; Chapter 5: "Erosion of Health"; Chapter 7: "Treaties, Famine, and Epidemic"; and Chapter 9: "The Nadir of Indigenous Health." Though this book's bias is indisputable, it is backed up by meticulous and exhaustive research in primary and contemporary sources.