The White and the Gold: The French Regime in Canada Volume #1, Canadian History Series by Thomas Costain

The White and the Gold: The French Regime in Canada Volume #1, Canadian History Series by Thomas Costain is the first part of a multi-volume narrative history of Canada. This was first published in 1954 and was aimed at the general reader.

I picked this up mainly because narrative political history is something that just isn't done in Canada these days. The narrative starts with the discovery of Canada by first the Vikings then John Cabot. The various voyages of exploration are described. New France and the political machinations both inside the colony and back in the home country take up most of the volume. Conflicts broke out between secular and religious authorities. There's much on the relations with the various native tribes including several military conflicts.

I liked that this did provide a political narrative of new France however there are a few things that deeply troubled me about this work. The first is that there were no notes or bibliography. The author shrugged this off by saying he looked at thousands of sources. I find this hard to believe. The second is that there are some racist comments leveled at the natives in several places. Costain states that the Hurons ruled because their brains were larger than the other natives. In another section the French government is complemented for social policies that led to marriage between whites and avoided relationships with natives. I do understand this was published in the mid-50s but it is still rather jarring and I'm not too sure what to make of it.

Recommended but it does show its age and could probably be easily superseded if anyone had the will..