How Different It Was: Canadians at the Time of Confederation

An enthralling exploration of the lifestyles, ideas, habits, organizations, customs, fears, and aspirations of Canadians in the age of Confederation.

Too often we think of Victorian Canada as dull and tedious. We imagine our ancestors as sepia-tinged, dour, uptight, excruciatingly respectable figures sitting stiffly in over-decorated parlours. In How Different It Was, Michael J. Goodspeed changes all that, bringing to life the tumult and upheaval of ordinary and unconventional Canadians in an extraordinary time. He examines their ideas, habits, customs, fears, hopes, and institutions, in a vibrant casting of Canadian history as has never been told before.

At a time when Canada was just beginning to take shape as a nation, marked by political manoeuvring and power struggles, but also by stories that still resonate today about the lives of the men and women from every region off the young country. How Different It Was reveals the real struggles, values, and the mindset of a generation different in so many ways from our own.