By serious design and conscious effort, the authors have utilized a writing format that is easy to follow. They have consciously attempted to maintain what one might characterize as a direct style. In no way demeaning or condescending, the authors are able to deal with all manner of complex historical issues in a straight-forward manner. They have avoided long and tedious sidebars and patterned their tale in such a way as to bring the reader to the heart of various issues via a direct linguistic route. To a large extent, they have respected the 'short' designation in their title.
Chapters melt away as the authors flirt with numerous topics, personalities, and notions.
Additionally, the internal chapter sections focus the reader on selected events, issues and complexities within the overall framework of people interacting with people. In the most complex of historical issues and scenes, there is a feeling of immediacy and even a sense of modern relevance. Additionally, while acknowledging that one cannot avoid the big political issues that mark any sweep of history, the authors have attempted to focus as much as possible on what one might broadly call a social or people orientation. By combining a light and unencumbered writing style with a more personal societal orientation, Dickinson and Young have been able to some extent to challenge Kraditor's separation of history from current events. Via the overall structure of A Short History of Quebec and Canada , the reader is able to bring historical antecedents up to the present.