Reviews for The Washington Redskins: The Authorized History

The average rating for The Washington Redskins: The Authorized History based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-04-12 00:00:00 Cynthia Guerruccio In 1957, when just a little tyke, I met my Great-Uncle Clark Gamble for the first time, when my parents went back to balmy (by our Eastern standards!) British Columbia. Uncle Clark was getting old, but he STILL had many stories under his belt... You see, back at the turn of the twentieth century, he had been a bridge builder. A Professional Engineer in the days when qualifying for the suffix P.E. to your name was no mean feat. He designed many of the bridges that now spanned the turbulent rivers of his home province. One of the Makers of Canada! My hat’s off to you still, Uncle Clark, more than fifty years since you left this cynical planet for Glory. A mere rock of granite spinning in space - home now to facetious masses who see tradition as merely an artifact of stupidity. Ten years later, while working for the Greater Victoria Water District, my aunt Wilhelmina said to me quietly one night, “Why don’t you walk over to Uncle Clark’s place, to say goodbye? This is probably the last time you’ll see him!” She was right. And I’m glad I did! Does anyone remember such brave souls now? Dr. Desmond does! And he made a living outta it... I admit, I have a real soft spot for this book. It is one of my go-to reads for cozy winter nights when I feel a need to wrap myself in the warm blanket of a book of history in which the historian feels no pressing need to be contentious! But I have a real beef to air about it. You know, Canada came out on the world stage in 1967 with the Montreal Expo (remember the geodesic dome?) as a shy debutante. And since Canada's political genes originated in Europe, if she were to flirt with socialism she will possibly be forgiven. But when she married her first beau - Pierre Elliott Trudeau - shortly after, she became an acknowledged player on that stage. That’s where my gripe comes in. Poor Desmond, bless him, seems stuck in the pre-flower power sixties in spite of all that! Let’s call them the Stodgy Sixties, for purposes of distinction - for to the kids that’s exactly what they were. But for him, there were still plenty of Bigger Guys around the Global Neighbourhood to be impressed with. Get with the program, Desmond! The world was changing. BIGTIME! “But you know he is, after all, a CANADIAN historian...;And as such his little history will show international GR readers that the word colonialism refers not just to third world countries... Colonialism is still, in so many ways, US.” But why the massive inferiority complex, guys? “Well, we have a small army. We ain’t got no nukes. We most often make peace, not war. We behave like a pretty FRIENDLY world presence.” But all that, at least for me, makes us A-OK! Isn’t that what our TRIGGER-HAPPY world NEEDS? So relax, Canada... To me you’re not so bad after all!

Review # 2 was written on 2012-09-24 00:00:00 Carl Bradeen This book gets a bit of a bad rep, probably because most people read it thinking that it's about a short history of Canada when in fact it's really a short political history of Canada. However it does a good job at covering those details from the early origins of Canada to the fall of Paul Martin in 2006. It's a relatively easy read and I have to say I learned a lot as I didn't have a great understanding of Canadian history despite being an avid fan of history.