This seminal collection contains formative articles on Canadian economic history by W.A. Mackintosh, Mel Watkins, and Harold Innis as well as thirteen more current contributions. These essays frame the classic staples thesis in terms of its significance and applications for the field while drawing on newer approaches that both challenge and reinforce aspects of this theory.

Contemporary methodologies include the "cliometric" style of historical analysis, econometrics, labour and regional study, and the changing parameters of government spending and public finance. The juxtaposition of classic theoretical statements with works by "outsiders" such as G.S. Kealey, B.D. Palmer, R.T. Naylor, R.E Ommer, among others, makes this a solid yet innovative record of the progress in economics over the last forty years. Canadian Economic History remains an essential classroom text.