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Scarce Heard Amid the Guns tears the curtain of myth away, providing a rare, visceral inner perspective of the various Canadian peacekeeping missions. In the Service of Peace simple words that adorn the obverse of every United Nations medal, yet behind this eloquence lurks violence and an unheralded heroism invisible to an often misunderstood quarter of Canadas military history. The Canadian contribution to peacekeeping is enormous but ensnared in a lethal mythology that has seen it abandoned to popular folklore. From the early and intrinsic Canadian contribution to the U.N.

This collection of essays explores how fighting in the rugged, hostile lands of Afghanistan is no easy task. Afghanistan has long been considered the graveyard of empires. Throughout their history, Afghans have endured the ravages of foreign invaders, from marauding hordes and imperial armies to global superpowers, while demonstrating a fierce independence and strong resistance to outside occupiers. Those who have ventured into Afghanistan with notions of controlling its people have soon discovered that fighting in that rugged, hostile land is no easy task.

2013 Information Book Awards — Long-listed Harriet Tubman encouraged enslaved Africans to make the break for freedom and reinforced the potential of black freedom and independence. Born in the United States and enslaved as a child, Harriet Tubman (circa 1820-1913) is one of the best-known figures connected to the Underground Railroad. Through her knowledge and outdoor survival skills, honed through her unpaid labour in the fields and through the later connections she made in the abolitionist community, Tubman was well poised to command her followers.

The Chinese have become a vibrant part of Toronto’s multiculturalism, with no less than seven Chinatowns created since 1984. Short-listed for the 2013 Speaker’s Book Award and for the 2012 Heritage Toronto Award The modest beginnings of the Chinese in Toronto and the development of Chinatown is largely due to the completion of the CPR in 1885. No longer requiring the services of the Chinese labourers, a hostile British Columbia sent them eastward in search of employment and a more welcoming place. In 1894 Toronto’s Chinese population numbered fifty.

Canadians line the overpasses of the Highway of Heroes to show their support, grief, and pride in our fallen champions. The first four Canadian soldiers killed in Afghanistan were repatriated at Canadas largest military base in 2002. The fallen soldiers were driven down the 172-kilometre stretch of highway between Trenton and Toronto, and pedestrians lined the overpasses, hoping to make a connection with the grieving families. The support these people show isnt political; its not a movement for or against Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.

For fifty years, the pulp mill near Pictou in northern Nova Scotia has buoyed the local economy and found support from governments at all levels. But it has also pulped millions of acres of forests, spewed millions of tonnes of noxious emissions into the air, consumed quadrillions of litres of fresh water and then pumped them out again as toxic effluent into nearby Boat Harbour, and eventually into the Northumberland Strait.

In 1921, prominent lawyer and Nova Scotia Black leader James R. Johnston’s vision of a place welcoming of Black children came to reality. In an era of segregation and overt racism that saw most orphanages refuse to take in Black children, the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children fulfilled an important role. But despite its good intentions, today the Home is mostly known for a troubling past. Former residents launched a class action lawsuit alleging sexual and physical abuse suffered at the Home over a period of several decades.

The Nova Scotia Black Experience Through the Centuries is a comprehensive account of the African Nova Scotian struggle to build a vital community in the face of racial discrimination. Originally published in two volumes as Beneath the Clouds of the Promised Land, this illustrated edition has been extensively updated and includes a new chapter tracing the experiences of Nova Scotia's black community into the twenty-first century.

Black Loyalists is an attempt to present hard data about the lives of Nova Scotia Black Loyalists before they escaped slavery in early South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida, and after they settled in Nova Scotia—to bring back into our awareness the context for some very brave and enterprising men and women who survived the chaos of the American Revolution, people who found a way to pass through the heart, ironically, of a War for Liberty, to liberty and human dignity.

Eco-Innovators profiles some of the region's most innovative and forward-thinking leaders in sustainability. These entrepreneurs and educators, activists and agitators, farmers and fishers have all made measurable contributions both in their respective fields of interest and in motivating others to make change. In the book, we meet Kim Thompson, a strawbale builder and consultant, who has recently brought her building experience to a renovation of an older house in downtown Halifax.