Dirk Hoerder shows us that it is not shining railroad tracks or statesmen in Ottawa that make up the story of Canada but rather individual stories of life and labour - Caribbean women who care for children born in Canada, lonely prairie homesteaders, miners in Alberta and British Columbia, women labouring in factories, Chinese and Japanese immigrants carving out new lives in the face of hostility. Hoerder examines these individual experiences in Creating Societies, the first systematic overview of the total Canadian immigrant experience. Using letters, travel accounts, diaries, memoirs, and reminiscences, he brings the immigrant's experiences to life. Their writings, often recorded for grandchildren, neighbours, and sometimes a larger public, show how immigrant lives were entwined with the emerging Canadian society. Hoerder presents an important new picture of the emerging Canadian identity, dispelling the Canadian myth of a dichotomy between national unity and ethnic diversity and emphasizing the long-standing interaction between the members of a different ethnic groups.

Born in Germany, Dr. Dirk Hoerder was a professor in the department of history at the University of Bremen. After receiving a Master of Arts in History and Political Sciences from the University of Minnesota, he completed a PhD in Modern and Medieval History and English Language and Literature from Free University of Berlin. He was President of the Association for Canadian Studies until 2005, after serving as Vice-President for several years. He now teaches at Arizona State University.

Dirk Hoerder's profile page

"a new view of Canadian history. The inclusion of British Isles groups among the immigrants and some attention to First Nations people are among the appealing features of this work." Jean Burnet, Professor Emeritus, York University.
"a mature, robust book which presents a multitude of interesting, individual perspectives on the immigrant experience ... a bracing reminder of the importance of the individual at the centre of historical study ... no Canadian historian has to date attempted such an ambitious view of immigration as an individualized process in a fully pan-Canadian perspective ... Hoerder handles the details very deftly, giving us a fresh view of the social construction of identities from the ground up, while, at the same time, we are always made aware of the bigger picture." Anthony Rasporich, Department of History, University of Calgary.

"a new view of Canadian history. The inclusion of British Isles groups among the immigrants and some attention to First Nations people are among the appealing features of this work." Jean Burnet, Professor Emeritus, York University. "a mature, robust book which presents a multitude of interesting, individual perspectives on the immigrant experience ... a bracing reminder of the importance of the individual at the centre of historical study ... no Canadian historian has to date attempted such an ambitious view of immigration as an individualized process in a fully pan-Canadian perspective ... Hoerder handles the details very deftly, giving us a fresh view of the social construction of identities from the ground up, while, at the same time, we are always made aware of the bigger picture." Anthony Rasporich, Department of History, University of Calgary.