Capitalism, Colonialism, and Crises: The Remaking of Modern Canada 1960–2025
A New History for the Twenty-First Century Volume Three
by Bryan D. Palmer
This new history of Canada offers readers a bold retelling of our past, the legacy of Indigenous dispossession and the means in which we created a wealthy and resource-rich but very unequal first-world country.
In this third volume, Bryan Palmer continues his sweeping new history of Canada, interweaving the latest research in labour, political, economic and social history. This book covers the profound economic and social changes Canadians have navigated since 1960, including Quebec nationalism, student and labour protests, Indigenous land battles, and the feminist, LGBTQ+ and environmental movements. It concludes with a reflection on the post-Trump global order and Canadian society today.
Canada experienced extraordinary growth and reform in this period along with increased opportunities that became possible for many. But these developments took place along with the continuing dispossession of Indigenous peoples and deepening inequality and social injustice for the majority of Canadians, particularly after the 1990s. Yet in the various anticapitalist and anticolonial resistance movements of this era, Palmer points to a possible path forward to a better society and future.
Building on the work of scholars who have produced a vast academic literature on a wide range of topics in Canadian history, Capitalism, Colonialism, and Crises: The Remaking of Modern Canada 1960–2025 concludes a compelling new history of Canada that reflects the knowledge and values of twenty-first-century Canadians.
About the Author
BRYAN D. PALMER is Professor Emeritus and former Canada Research Chair, Canadian Studies, Trent University, Peterborough, Canada. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, former editor of Labour/Le Travail, and has published extensively on the history of labour and the revolutionary left. Among his many books are Canada’s 1960s and the co-authored Toronto's Poor: A Rebellious History. In the fall of 2024, Colonialism and Capitalism: Canada's Origins 1500–1890 was published, followed by Capitalism and Colonialism: The Making of Modern Canada 1890—1960 in the spring of 2025. He lives in Warkworth, Ontario.
Reviews
"Bryan D. Palmer has done something no else has done, not even Bryan Palmer. He has written a serious, sustained, and accessible account of colonialism and capitalism. It is a history of Canada that is also the story of creative resistance on the part of Indigenous Peoples, workers, Québécois, and others.
"Like the juggler who has three bowling balls and a chainsaw in the air while riding a bicycle, Palmer keeps his themes, subjects, and dramatis personae moving, yet always visible for the reader, never dropping them and explaining change over time. Reading these books, like watching a juggler, I was in awe. You will be too."
“An historian with a deeply penetrating view of Canada's past, present, and future, Bryan Palmer's The Remaking of Modern Canada deftly weaves a tale of epic scale across a range of events, themes, issues, and difficult questions. The book challenges Canadians' preconceived notions of themselves, and recasts understandings of why Canada exists as it does today. Canadians will be well served by reading this timely and provocative contribution, one that powerfully bridges sometimes disparate historical, material, ideological, and intellectual dynamics into a cohesive whole.”
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