Canada and the United States: Ambivalent Allies (United States and the Americas Series) - Softcover

John Herd Thompson; Stephen J. Randall

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0820331139 ISBN 13: 9780820331133

Publisher: University of Georgia Press, 2008

Synopsis

An ""impartial and authoritative"" survey of Canadian-American relations - now in a new, completely updated edition.The United States and Canada have the world's largest trading relationship and the longest shared border. Spanning the period from the American Revolution to post-9/11 debates over shared security, ""Canada and the United States"" offers a current, thoughtful assessment of relations between the two countries. Distilling a mass of detail concerning cultural, economic, and political developments of mutual importance over more than two centuries, this survey enables readers to grasp quickly the essence of the shared experience of these two countries.This edition of ""Canada and the United States"" has been extensively rewritten and updated throughout to reflect new scholarly arguments, emphases, and discoveries. In addition, there is new material on such topics as energy, the environment, cultural and economic integration, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, border security, missile defense, and the second Bush administration.

About this title

Review:

Refreshingly sensitive to Canadian misperceptions of the United States as well as to the perennial American ignorance of Canada.

--New York Times Book Review

Informative and entertaining . . . Recount[s] with considerable verve the saga of Canadian-American relations over more than two centuries.

--Times Literary Supplement

An important book that promises to become the standard in the field . . . The reader is rewarded with a fair and insightful historical perspective of the complex North American relationship.

--Journal of American History

This timely volume constitutes a major addition to the growing library of scholarly works on Canadian-American relations. Given the growing importance of this multidimensional relationship even for the United States, one wonders why major studies of this unique bond remain relatively rare. . . . In sum, this important and useful volume, enriched by impressive footnoting and an exceptionally thorough bibliographic essay, deserves careful study and wide circulation. It should be on the reading list of all general courses dealing with Canadian-U.S. relations and it should be acquired by every North American high school, college, and university library. Perhaps most important, every Canadian or U.S. policymaker whose responsibilities include some aspect of Canadian-U.S. relations should know its contents well; this work is probably the best single-volume treatment of the subject to date.

--Perspectives on Political Science

A profoundly important book. At a time when there has been much romanticization of master-slave relations, Gross dissects hundreds of antebellum legal cases in which the presumed attributes of blacks, whites, and those 'in between' were litigated. What emerges is a pattern of assumptions whose power was sanctioned by law and whose legacy we battle still. A brilliant work of scholarship.

--Canadian Journal of Political Science

A book that will, for years, be the benchmark against which future studies of Canadian-American relations will have to be measured.

--Contemporary Sociology

A very solid piece of scholarship, written in a graceful, engaging manner that will appeal to a broad audience of readers.

--American Review of Canadian Studies

A comprehensive, lively, and opinionated history of Canadian-American relations. The skillful weaving of social and cultural issues and concerns into their story, especially in the latter half of the book, and the placement of United States policy towards Canada with the other states in the hemisphere, are valuable contributions to the analysis of the relationship. . . . The book merits a wide readership by students, scholars, and others in both Canada and the United States.

--Canadian Historical Review

About the Author:

Lester D. Langley, Research Professor of History at the University of Georgia, is the author or editor of a number of books on the history of United States foreign relations, including Central America: The Real Stakes, The United States and the Caribbean in the Twentieth Century (Georgia) and MexAmerica: Two Countries, One Future. He is general editor of the University of Georgia Press series of books The United States and the Americas.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Georgia Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0820331139
• ISBN 13: 9780820331133
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 4
• Number of pages: 424