Review: Dispersed Relations
| Author | Edward P. Kohn |
| Published date | 01 September 2008 |
| Date | 01 September 2008 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070200806300325 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
| International Journal | Summer 2008 | 781 |
| Reviews |
DISPERSED RELATIONS
Americans and Canadians in Upper North America
Reginald C. Stuart
Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. 404pp, US$60.00
cloth (ISBN 978-0801887857)
The events of 9/11, the war in Afghanistan, and the American invasion of
Iraq resulted in a deterioration of Canadian-American relations to a level not
seen in decades. Editorials in the Canadian press blamed American foreign
policy for the terrorist attacks, a sentiment echoed by Prime Minister Jean
Chrétien on the first anniversary of the attacks. In Afghanistan in April 2002,
an American plane mistakenly killed four Canadian troops in a tragic
friendly-fire incident. Following the American invasion of Iraq in March
2003, regular protest marches in Montreal ended at the American consulate,
and Americans visiting Canada with their ubiquitous post-9/11 flag decals
did so at their own risk. Meanwhile, the official Ottawa-Washington relation-
ship cooled to a frosty level not seen since the Kennedy-Diefenbaker es-
trangement.
In
Dispersed Relations: Americans and Canadians in Upper North
America
, Reginald Stuart, professor of history and political and Canadian
studies at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, offers a timely re-
minder to policymakers on both sides of the border of the wealth of com-
monalities shared by the two countries. Stuart, well-known to historians of
Canadian-American relations for his award-winning book
United States Ex-
pansionism and North America, 1775-1871
, attempts to summarize shared
Canadian and American characteristics and interests in the cultural, society,
economic, and political realms. A thematic division such as this means some
repetition, since such a topic as “tourism and travel” is neither purely “eco-
nomic” nor “social.” Yet Stuart offers a comprehensive overview of almost
everything North American, from split-run magazines and NAFTA to “open
skies” and Peter Jennings.
For students of North American “borderlands” or “transnational” history,
much of the ground Stuart covers will seem familiar, and
Dispersed Rela-
tions
offers little new research. Instead it seems more like a primer for those
unfamiliar with the past 25 years of work that treats the 49th parallel as a
mere political construct—of which Stuart’s previous book is an excellent ex-
ample. Even general readers will probably not be very surprised to learn that
Americans and (mainly) English-Canadians, sharing a language, history, and
To continue reading
Request your trial