Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life

"Required reading for all Canadians." -Candace Savage, author of A Geography of Blood

Named a "Book of the Year" by the Globe & Mail,Quill & Quire, the Writers’ Trust, and booksellers across Canadan, Clearing the Plains reveals how Sir John A. Macdonald used a policy of starvation against Aboriginal people in the pursuit of his "National Dream."

"Clearing the Plains is a tour de force that dismantles and destroys the view that Canada has a special claim to humanity in its treatment of indigenous peoples. Daschuk shows how infectious disease and state-supported starvation combined to create a creeping, relentless catastrophe that persists to the present day. The prose is gripping, the analysis is incisive, and the narrative is so chilling that it leaves its reader stunned and disturbed. For days after reading it, I was unable to shake a profound sense of sorrow. This is fearless, evidence-driven history at its finest." -Elizabeth A. Fenn, author of Pox Americana

Clearing the Plains "should make us question what it means to be Canadian." -Globe & Mail