Dictionary of Canadian Biography - Evaluations

Evaluations

The evaluations by professional historians have been overwhelmingly favourable. Halpenny emphasizes its use of "the insights of historical geography, sociology, anthropology, and literature," and notes that it responds to both the concerns of quantitative historians as well as scholars in the fields of minorities, labor, and women.

Regarding the Maritimes, the Dictionary says little about early Indian leadership, but, says Godfrey, effectively covers French missionaries, and illuminates Acadia's relationship to France and New France. Volumes IX and X deemphasize Acadians and Indians, and focus mostly on politics as contests between elites. The treatment of Maritime economic and intellectual development suggests that the legendary mid-19th-century Golden Age was only a veneer.