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pp. xxxiv, (1), 438, “In this collection of essays, A. A. den Otter explores the meaning of the concepts ‘civilizing’ and ‘wilderness’ within an 1850s Euro-British North American context. At the time, den Otter argues, these concepts meant something quite different than they do today. Through careful readings and researches of a variety of lesser known individuals and events, den Otter teases out the striking dichotomy between ‘civilizing’ and ‘wilderness,’ leading readers to a new understanding of the relationship between newcomers and Native peoples, and the very lands they inhabited. Historians and non-specialists with an interest in western Canadian native, settler, and environmental-economic history will be deeply rewarded by reading Civilizing the Wilderness.”