Book Review: Canada: Nationalism in Canada
| Author | M. S. Donnelly |
| Published date | 01 March 1967 |
| Date | 01 March 1967 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070206702200128 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REviEws
115
plut6t
que
par
un
Canadien
franCais.
M.
Ramsay
Cook
ne
dissimule
pas
que
les
anglophones
ont
port6
atteinte
au
bon
fonctionnement
du
systbme
fMdfral,
par
exemple
en
restreignant
ou
en
abolissant
les
droits
des
minoritLs
frangaises hors
du
Quebec.
II
conclut que
"the
original,
imaginative
concept
of
Confederation"
must
be
"reshaped
to
meet
the
needs
of
today's Canada"
(p.
189).
Cette
tache
est
urgente.
VoilA
cent
ans,
Cartier
r~sumait
la
situation
en
disant
que
les
Canadiens pouvaient
opter
entre
"obtain[ing]
British
North
American
Confederation
or
be
absorbed
in
an
American Confederation"
(p.
46).
Le
choix
pour
le
Canada
est
encore
aujourd'hui
de
sauver
la
Confeddration
ou
d'etre
submerge,
englouti
par
le
dynanisme
des
Estats-Unis.
Le
llvre
de
M.
Ramsay
Cook
a
le
grand
m6rite
de
stimuler
le
r~flexion
sur
un
probllme
dont
l'issue
intsresse
non
seulement
les
Canadiens,
mais
aussi
leurs
nombreux
arms
dans
le monde.
I1
est
urgent
de
traduire
en
action
politique
les
grands
thimes
qu'il soumet
A
la
meditation
de
ses
lecteurs.
Pans
CLAUDE
JULIEN
NATIONALISM
IN
CANADA.
Edited
by
Peter
Russell.
1966.
(New
York:
Toronto:
McGraw-Hill.
xx,
377pp.
Clothbound
$6.95.
Paperback
$4.95)
A
probable
first
reaction
to
the
title
of
this
book
is
one of doubt
that
the
subject
could
possibly
justify
twenty-two
different essays
on
different
aspects
of
the
topic.
Is
not
Canada
the
country
that
only
recently
adopted
its
own
distinctive
flag,
that
still has
to
go
to
the
British
Parliament
to
amend
parts
of
its
constitution,
that
frets
over
insignia
on
mail
boxes,
that
appointed
a
Royal Commission
to
find
out
if
it
had
a
culture
and
so
on
This doubt
is
soon dispelled
when
one
finds,
instead
of
the
enthusiastic lamentations
so
characteristic
of
the
country,
constructive,
perceptive,
subtle
essays
that
almost
seem
to
improve
in
quality
as
one
goes
on.
The
reader
is
welcomed
by
Frank
Underhill
in
his
typically
witty
and caustic
fashion.
The
book
then
proceeds
by
section-the
land,
the
people,
the
federation,
policy
culture,
new
perspectives,
ideology-
sub-titles
that
obviously
owe
their
origin
to
the interests
of
those
willing
to
contribute.
Carl
Berger
begins
with
"The
True
North
Strong
and
Free"
and
in
a
masterful
piece of
research
and
writing traces
the
origins
and
in-
fluence
of
the
doctrine
that
the
northern
environment
produces
"a
race
of
men
with
bodies
enduring
as
iron
and
minds
as
highly
tempered
as steel"
Berger's
conclusion
is
interesting
and,
perhaps,
strikes
a
dominant
note
in
the
book:
"If Canadian
Nationalism
is
to
be
under-
stood,
its
meaning
must
be
sought
and apprehended
not
simply
in
the
sphere
of
political
decisions,
but
also
in
myths,
legends,
and
symbols.
For
while
some
might
think
that
Canadians
have happily
been
immune
to
the
wilder
manifestations
of
the
nationalist
impulse
and
rhetoric,
it
seems
that
they
too
have
their
utopian
dreamers,
and
that
they
are
not totally
innocent
of
a
tradition
of
racism and
a
falsified
but
glorious
past,
tendencies
which
have
always
been
the invariable
by-products
of
nationalism.
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