Originally the land of the Maliseet, Mi'kmaq, and Passamaquoddy, New Brunswick has a colourful and significant history. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the province was settled by marsh workers and farmers from northwestern France and thousands of Loyalist refugees from a newly independent United States. After a golden age of lumbering, shipbuilding, and overseas trade in the nineteenth century, its economy declined and adjustment to the new continental economy was slow and trying. In the 1960s, premier Louis Robichaud's Equal Opportunity program granted French-speaking Acadians, long second-class citizens in the province, cultural recognition. Today, New Brunswick remains the only officially bilingual province in Canada.
A lively narrative drawn entirely from published sources, New Brunswick: An Illustrated History is for general readers interested in the development of the province. Over one hundred historical photographs document this changing province, from its beginnings to present day.