The shared land border between Canada and the United States closed to non-essential traffic on March 21, 2020, the first long-term closure of the Canada-United States border since the War of 1812. This historic event – just one among many of recent months – causes us to reflect on the vital exchange of people, culture, commerce, and ideas that we tend to take for granted. Lake Ontario seems much wider these days, and we hope to resume our close collaboration with colleagues – and to re-connect with family and friends – again soon.
This July 1st, we’re celebrating this Canada Day with exciting recent titles featuring exceptional, and sometimes surprising, Canadian content and connections. Please remember, our free shipping offers include orders to Canada!
Medievalism in English Canadian Literature: From Richardson to Atwood
What is Canadian medievalism? Medievalism in Canada derives from deep roots in French and English nationhood and proximity to the prolific medievalist re-creations of the United States. Canadian medievalism deals with these traditions in intricate ways and has developed original and distinctive features of its own. Medievalism in English Canadian Literature: From Richardson to Atwood is the first, full-length investigation into Canadian literary medievalism as a discrete phenomenon.
Liberated Africans and the Abolition of the Slave Trade, 1807-1896
This deeply comparative essay collection interrogates the development of the world’s first international courts of humanitarian justice and the subsequent “liberation” of nearly two hundred thousand Africans in the nineteenth century. This groundbreaking study is the outcome of a conference held at York University in Toronto that brought together scholars from around the world. Discover the website that helped inspire the event – http://liberatedafricans.org – that retraces the lives of over 250,000 people emancipated under global campaigns to abolish slavery, as well as officials, captains, and crews.
The Bear: Culture, Nature, Heritage
Can you hear the distinctive flute refrain of Hinterland Who’s Who? Essays in The Bear: Culture, Nature, Heritage investigate the cultural significance of this charismatic animal in far more detail than possible in a quick commercial break. The essays collected here provide a rich selection of views on the human/bear relationships, including the connection between bears and native peoples, and how contemporary society lives alongside these animals.
Musical Journeys: Performing Migration in Twentieth-Century Music
The displacement of European musics and musicians is a defining feature of twentieth-century music history. Musical Journeys uses vignettes of migratory moments in the works of Hanns Eisler in Paris, Mátyás Seiber in London, and István Anhalt in Montréal to investigate concepts of identity construction and musical aesthetics in the light of migratory experiences. Author Florian Scheding looks closely at the “heterotopian soundscape for piano” of Anhalt’s Fantasia and you can listen to Glenn Gould’s 1967 recording here:
Two Weather Diaries from Northern England, 1779-1807: The Journals of John Chipchase and Elihu Robinson
The journal of John Chipchase, schoolmaster of Stockton-upon-Tees, recently came to light for the very first time in the Library of Concordia University in Montréal and is one of the eponymous Two Weather Diaries from Northern England, 1779-1807: The Journals of John Chipchase and Elihu Robinson. Editor Robert Tittler, Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at Concordia University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, reveals how he and librarians first became aware of the fascinating journal in the Preface to this book from Surtees Society.
Gained Ground: Perspectives on Canadian and Comparative North American Studies
Gained Ground: Perspectives on Canadian and Comparative North American Studies provides an incredibly timely comparative study of the cultural productions of Canada and the United States. The illustrious contributors tackle literature, film, opera, and even theme parks in their investigation of the two countries’ national imaginaries. The essays in this book engage in the rigorous and richly rewarding work of comparative studies, breaking the boundaries of convenient binaries and offering unexpected and insightful pairings.
The Power of Anti-Slavery Poetry