Review: Canada: Canada and the Age of Conflict
| Published date | 01 December 1979 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070207903400415 |
| Author | H. Blair Neatby |
| Date | 01 December 1979 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
REVIEws
729
CANADA
CANADA
AND
THE
AGE
OF
CONFLICT
A
History
of
Canadian
External
Policies
Volume
I:
1867-1921
C.P. Stacey
Toronto:
Macmillan,
1977,
41opp,
$19.95
It
is
now
almost
thirty
years
since
Glazebrook
completed
his
History
of
Canadian
External Relations
and
since
that
time
a
mass
of
public
records
and
private
papers
has
become
accessible.
The
author
has
used
the
many
articles
and monographs
which have
appeared
since
195o
and
has
also
done
extensive
original
research.
His
narrative
from
the
Imperial
War
Cabinet
of
1917
to
the
Treaty
of
Versailles
in
i919,
for
example,
is
the
fullest
and
most
detailed
study
we
have
on
the
evolution
of
Canadian
status.
The
detailed
treatment
of
this
topic
does,
however,
raise
questions
about
the
organization
of
what
is
planned
as
a
two-volume
study.
Chron-
ologically,
1921
is
almost the
halfway
mark
between
Confederation
and
the present,
but
in
terms
of
the
range
and
significance
of
external
pol-
icies
as
well
as
the
volume
of
records
and
papers, the
next
half-century
is
a
much
richer period.
Either
the
author
will
have
to
be
more
selective
or
more
summary,
or
he
will
be
writing
a
multi-volume
study. Both
students
and general
readers,
for whom
the
book
was
written,
would
have
been
better
served
if
this
first
volume
had
been
shorter.
In
our
day,
however,
it
is
not
easy
to write
a concise
history
of
Cana-
dian
external
policies.
The author
recognizes
that
a
narrow
political
emphasis
is
inadequate
and
that
Canadian
government
policies
must
be
placed
in
a
complex
international
context
and
must
also
be
related
to
a
host
of
domestic
factors,
including
economic,
regional,
social,
and
ethnic
conditions.
The
problem,
however,
goes
deeper
than
this.
A
general
history
must
be
more
than
a
survey
of
past
policies;
it
must
impose
some
unity and structure.
In other
words,
it
must
have
a
unifying
theme.
When
Glazebrook
was
writing
his
study
there
was
a
general
consensus
that
the
appropriate
theme
was
'colony
to
nation,' and
the
selection
and
interpretation
of
events
was
determined
by
this
theme.
Today
there
is
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