John Reid was born in Scotland and grew up in the north of England.
He has also lectured internationally, and in 2008 held the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute Visiting Lectureship in India.
[3] According to Geoffrey Plank, for most of the 20th century, historians debated the meaning of the period between 1690 and 1713 by concentrating on relations between the various colonial inhabitants of the Maritime region and the New Englanders.
Reid's work breaks out of that frame of reference by emphasizing imperial influences and the persistent power of Aboriginal peoples.
[4] In particular, Reid's work has been pivotal in re-conceptualizing the area now known as the Maritime Provinces and northern New England as a single region.