| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 110.1

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 110.1 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

John G. Reidet al., The "Conquest" of Acadia, 1710: Imperial, Colonial, and Aboriginal Constructions. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 2004. Pp. xxiii, 297. Cloth $60.00, paper $29.95.
The British conquest of Acadia in 1710 is not an event that figures largely in standard histories of Canada. Historically, it has not been considered significant either for Acadia (today's Nova Scotia) or for Canada as a whole, being regarded as simply a stepping stone to the decisive 1760 conquest, when Canada became part of the British Empire. The authors of the nine studies that make up this book think otherwise: they see the 1710 conquest as engendering changes that gained both force and significance over time, entailing long-term consequences not only for Acadia/Nova Scotia but eventually for all of Canada. They argue that to be better understood and evaluated, these changes must first of all be examined in three different contexts: as events in the short term, as turning points, and finally in the long term. And that is only setting the stage for what becomes an odyssey in search of ultimate historical truths.	1
Acting on the principle that a single narrative cannot adequately depict the complexity of the situation that existed in early eighteenth-century Acadia, the book's six authors have selected nine approaches to the multilayered history of the fall of Port Royal in 1710. The first chapter, designed to serve as a benchmark, draws on official imperial and colonial documentation for its version of events. As John G. Reid describes it, the British takeover was not well organized and was marked by inaction and a laissez-faire attitude. In the midst of imperial rivalries and administrative ineptitude, private commercial ventures expanded rapidly, mostly from New England. As analyzed by Reid and by Elizabeth Mancke in the second chapter, the result was that Acadia devolved into being neither entirely a colony nor entirely a commercial outpost.	. . .

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