Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to search

History Pre-confederation (to 1867)

A Legacy of Exploitation

Early Capitalism in the Red River Colony, 1763–1821

by (author) Susan Dianne Brophy

Publisher
UBC Press
Initial publish date
May 2022
Category
Pre-Confederation (to 1867), Native American, Indigenous Studies, Prairie Provinces (AB, MB, SK)
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780774866354
    Publish Date
    May 2022
    List Price
    $89.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780774866385
    Publish Date
    May 2022
    List Price
    $34.99
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780774866361
    Publish Date
    Feb 2023
    List Price
    $34.95

Add it to your shelf

Where to buy it

Description

It is unlikely that buyers of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s “iconic multistripe” point blanket these days reflect on the historically exploitative relationship between the company and Indigenous producers. This critical re-evaluation of the company’s first planned settlement at Red River uncovers that history. As a settler-colonialist project par excellence, the Red River Colony was designed to undercut Indigenous peoples’ troublesome” autonomy and better control their labour. Susan Dianne Brophy upends standard historical portrayals by foregrounding Indigenous peoples’ autonomy as a driving force of change.

 

A Legacy of Exploitation offers a comprehensive account of legal, economic, and geopolitical relations to show how autonomy can become distorted as complicity in processes of dispossession. Ultimately, this book challenges enduring yet misleading national fantasies about Canada as a nation of bold adventurers.

About the author

Awards

  • Winner, Clio Prize (The Prairies), Canadian Historical Association

Contributor Notes

Susan Dianne Brophy is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Sociology and Legal Studies at St. Jerome’s University (federated with the University of Waterloo). She has published in journals including Constellations, European Journal of Political Theory, Labour/Le travail, Law and Critique, and Settler Colonial Studies.

Editorial Reviews

In providing this “fundamental rethink” of Marxist analysis, the author has cleared a path that other scholars will surely follow. This is an important book.

The Western Historical Quarterly