The Canadian Centenary Series is a nineteen-volume history of Canada published between 1963 and 1987 as an extended Canadian Centennial project. The collection resulted from the initiative of two of Canada's leading 20th century historians, W. L. Morton and D. G. Creighton. Morton served as the initial executive editor, and Creighton served as the advisory editor. The editors approached leading Canadian historians to write the individual volumes. The series was published by the Canadian publishing house, McClelland & Stewart.
One of the volumes, Lower Canada, 1791–1840: Social Change and Nationalism by Fernand Ouellette was also published in French and won the Governor General's Award for French language non-fiction. Another volume, Canada 1922–1939: Decades of Discord by John Herd Thompson and Alan Seager, was shortlisted for the 1985 Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction.
Structure of the series
In their general preface to each volume, Morton and Creighton explain that their goal is to have a series of volumes, covering the history of the regional communities which have made up the Canadian nation in its first century. As the general editors of the series, Morton and Creighton planned the general outline and the format. Each volume would be written by a specialist in that particular aspect of Canadian history, but using a common character and common method. Each volume would take a narrative approach, and deal in a balanced way with economic, social and political history.W.L. Morton and Donald Creighton, "The Canadian Centenary Series", in Upper Canada: The Formative Years, 1784–1841 (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1963), pp. ix–x. The editors hoped that this would take advantage of co-operative scholarship, while ensuring that each volume would have the unity and distinctive character of individual authorship. The goal was that each volume would be scholarly and readable, "at once useful to the student and of interest to the general reader." Each volume would be supported by detailed footnotes and a general bibliography.
Developments in the series
The original plan for the series is indicated in the first volume to be published, Upper Canada: The Formative Years, 1784–1841. The editors initially envisaged seventeen volumes, with generic placeholder titles. As each author prepared their volume, the generic titles would be fleshed out. For example, the first volume went from the generic title "The North to 1632"Upper Canada: The Formative Years 1784–1841, at p. v. to Early Voyages and Northern Approaches, 1000–1632.Tryggvi J. Oleson, Early Voyages and Northern Approaches, 1000–1632 (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1963).
As the series developed, there were some changes to the general plan. The projected volume "The North, 1670–1857" by E.E. Rich became The Fur Trade and the Northwest to 1857, while the projected volume "The North, 1870–1965" by Morris Zaslow became two volumes: The Opening of the Canadian North, 1870–1914 and The Northward Expansion of Canada 1914–1967. Similarly, the proposed final volume with the generic title "Epilogue, 1940–1967", with no author initially assigned, was split into two volumes: The Forked Road: Canada, 1939–1957 by Creighton himself, and Canada 1957–1967: The Years of Uncertainty and Innovation by Jack Granatstein.
There were also changes to some of the authors of the volumes. For example, the original plan was that Guy Frégault, a noted Quebec historian, would write two volumes: "New France, 1702–1743" and "New France, 1744–1760". However these two volumes were instead written by Dale Miquelon and George F. G. Stanley, respectively, presumably because Frégault was appointed the Deputy Minister of the Quebec Ministry of Cultural Affairs (1961–1966; 1970–1975).Canadian Encyclopedia: "Guy Frégault". Similarly, P.B. Waite replaced J.T. Saywell for "Canada, 1874–1896";P.B. Waite, Canada 1874–1896: Arduous Destiny (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1971). Robert Craig Brown joined Ramsay Cook in writing "Canada, 1896–1921";Robert Craig Brown and Ramsay Cook, Canada, 1896–1921: A Nation Transformed (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1974). and John Herd Thompson and Alan Seager replaced F.W. Gibson as author of "Canada, 1922–1939".John Herd Thompson and Alan Seager, Canada, 1922–1939: Decades of Discord (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1985).
The original plan was that the series would be completed by the Centennial year, 1967. Most of the pre-Confederation volumes were done by 1967, but of the post-Confederation volumes only Morton met this deadline. John Herd Thompson, himself one of the authors of a post-Confederation volume, jokingly commented that the delays were so lengthy that the series was in danger of becoming the "Canadian Bi-Centenary series".John Herd Thompson, "Integrating Regional Patterns into a National Canadian History", Acadiensis, Vol. 20, No. 1 (Autumn/Automne 1990), pp. 174–184, at p. 177. The final volume to be published, New France, 1701–1744: A Supplement to Europe by Dale Miquelon, did not appear until 1987, although it was the fourth volume in terms of chronology.
The series was not completed by the time of the deaths of the two original editors, Creighton in 1979 and Morton in 1980. Ramsay Cook took over as executive editor in 1983, at the request of Jack McClelland, president of McClelland & Stewart.
Each volume in the series was initially published in hard-bound versions, followed by paperback versions. As of 2025, the entire series is available from Amazon as Kindle editions.Amazon Kindle Store: "Canadian Centenary Series."
Individual volumes Early Voyages and Northern Approaches, 1000–1632 Written by Tryggvi J. Oleson, a Manitoba historian of Icelandic descent, Early Voyages and Northern Approaches was the second volume to be published, in 1963. Oleson examined two different aspects of European exploration of the Canadian Arctic: by the Norse settlers of western Greenland, and later by other Northern European explorers, mainly from England, who were searching for the North-West Passage.
Oleson's primary thesis was that the Thule culture of the High Arctic was a fusion of the Norse culture from Greenland and the indigenous Dorset culture. In support of this thesis, Oleson relied on his interpretation of archaeological evidence, such as the structure of stone shelters in the Eastern Arctic which he saw as similar to Icelandic structures; the development of a sea-culture including whaling from small boats, which he saw as similar to Norse practices; and a body of academic historical research from Icelandic scholars, which was not generally available to Canadian researchers.Graham A. MacDonald, "Tryggvi J. Oleson and the Origins of Thule Culture: A Controversy Revisited", Manitoba History, Number 15, Spring 1988. He also relied on the Norse sagas, which have several descriptions of encounters between Norse and indigenous peoples of the Arctic. This thesis also had the advantage of explaining the gradual disappearance of the Norse settlements on Greenland. In Oleson's view, the Norse did not simply disappear or die out; they fused with the indigenous people of the Dorset culture.
Oleson's theories attracted considerable academic criticism. Several reviews of the book were critical of this thesis, arguing that it went against the archaeological evidence. The prevailing interpretation was that the Thule culture had its origins in Alaska and had moved eastward. Oleson's thesis was that the Thule originated in the eastern Arctic and gradually moved westward. Several reviewers challenged Oleson's interpretation,David B. Quinn, "Review: Early Voyages and Northern Approaches, 1000–1632 by Tryggvi J. Oleson" Canadian Historical Review, Volume 46, Number 1, March 1965.J. H. Parry, "Reviewed Work: Early Voyages and Northern Approaches, 1000–1632 by Tryggvi J. Oleson", Speculum, Vol. 40, No. 3 (Jul., 1965), pp. 533–535. particularly William Taylor, who was one of the leading experts in Arctic archaeology at the National Museum of Canada,William E. Taylor, Jr., "Reviewed Work: Early Voyages and Northern Approaches by Tryggvi J. Oleson", Arctic, Vol. 17, No. 1 (March 1964), pp. 61–62. as well as Wilcomb E. Washburn from the Smithsonian Institution.Wilcomb E. Washburn, "Review: Early Voyages and Northern Approaches, 1000–1632", American Historical Review, Volume 70, Issue 3, April 1965, pp. 802–803. The one contemporary review which was more favourable was from Thomas E. Lee, another archaeologist from the National Museum of Canada, who wrote that he had read Oleson's "tremendous work" six times, cover to cover, and thought it was "...by far the most important and instructive single work to come out of Arctic research in this field in recent times."Thomas E. Lee, “Review,” Culture, 28 (1), 1967. More recently, there has been some favourable re-examination of Oleson's thesis, emphasizing his careful scholarship and reliance on works in Icelandic which were not accessible to most Canadian academics.
The criticism of Oleson's thesis, particularly its sometimes personal tone, appears to have caught the general editors of the Centenary Series by surprise. They were also hampered in responding to the criticism by the untimely death of Oleson shortly after Early Voyages and Northern Approaches was published. In response, when the text was re-issued some five years later, the general editors included extracts from some of the criticisms as a forward, but did not alter Oleson's text at all.
The Beginnings of New France, 1524–1663
The Beginnings of New France was written by Marcel Trudel, a Quebec historian in French, and translated by Patricia Claxton.Marcel Trudel, The Beginnings of New France, 1524–1663 (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1973) (translated by Patricia Claxton). Published in 1973, it was the first volume of the series to appear which dealt with the history of New France.Beginnings of New France, p. x.
Trudel was one of the first specialists in the history of New France prior to the British Conquest, and this volume is a condensation of three of his earlier texts: Les vaines tentatives, 1524–1603; Le comptoir, 1604–1627; La seigneurie des Cent-Associés, 1627–1663. It also drew on data from two of his other books, Le terrier du Saint-Laurent en 1663, which examined the land settlement patterns under the seigneurial system, and La population du Canada en 1663.Beginnings of New France, p. xi. Overall, the thesis of the volume is the difficulties which France had in establishing a colony in North America, particularly compared to the successes of the English and Dutch colonies in the same period.Beginnings of New France, p. 165. Part of the difficulty was in finding an appropriate area of settlement, both in Acadia and in the Saint Lawrence valley, but another part was the economic basis for the colonies. There was a continual tension between the economy based on the fur trade, and the attempts to establish permanent settlements. The initial attempts at colonial settlement relied on a succession of grants of rights to the fur trade to commercial groups, with an added requirement to bring in settlers (habitants). However, the immediate profits from the fur trade always tended to take priority for the commercial groups over the costly, and not profitable, requirement to bring settlers to the new colonies. Even by the end of the period of the book, the numbers of French settlers in New France were very low, compared to the other European colonies.Beginnings of New France, p. 268.