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The Cold War: A World History by Odd Arne Westad

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
AuthorStephen J Randall
Published date01 September 2018
Date01 September 2018
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1177/0020702018794200
Subject MatterBook Reviews
SG-IJXJ-73-03-BR 484..496 490
International Journal 73(3)
post-war diplomacy in Asia and Africa, we are reminded again of how marginal
these remote corners of the world were to Canadian post-war interests. That would
change in the 1970s and 1980s, but none of the papers here track the transform-
ation of the Canadian state under prime ministers Pierre Trudeau and Brian
Mulroney.
The best papers in this collection tackle the least-covered topics: Sean Mills on
race and language in Quebec’s relations with Haiti; Laura Madokoro on race-
thinking and Canadian policy toward the 1951 Convention on Refugees; and
David Webster’s comparative piece on ‘‘Red Indians’’ in Geneva and Papuan
‘‘Headhunters’’ in New York. They deploy theory carefully and documentary evi-
dence extensively.
Dominion of Race is not for the faint of heart. Many chapters deploy a barbed
thicket of jargon intended for fellow professional historians and not for general
readers. Lackenbauer’s chapter on race and gender in the Canadian North is
so loaded down that readers may even suspect him of deliberately ‘‘taking
the mickey.’’
Though many of its chapters move only slightly of‌f-centre, at its disruptive
core Dominion of Race is unquestionably part of the larger global challenge to
the post-war liberal order, both domestic and international. Taken together, as
David Meren does in his fevered conclusion, the collection points to an urgent
need for readers to grasp the intersections of race, gender, and class, and their
‘‘interdependence as systems of privilege and domination.’’ After dismantling these
systems, however, it is much less clear just what these authors think—or hope—will
replace a liberal order with strong roots in Enlightenment notions of individual
liberty, rationalism, and social progress. Brexit and Trump, perhaps?
Odd Arne Westad
The Cold War: A World History
New York: Basic Books, 2017. 710 pp. C$52.00 (paper)
ISBN: 978-0-465-05493-0
Reviewed by: Stephen J Randall (srandall@ucalgary.ca), University of Calgary, Canada
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