North America without Borders? Integrating Canada, the United States, and Mexico ed. by Stephen J. Randall, Herman Konrad, Sheldon Silverman (review)

REVIEWS 307 enforcing national integration continue to haveweight. AndMichael Pretes, basing hisargument squarely on theproposition that'national institutions and systems ...have taken thegreatest holdontheminds ofborder residents' (309), asserts thatalthough 'Alaska andtheYukon areinmany ways asingle region ... different federal systems imposed fromtheoutside, andthe d•erent commoditiesfound inside, have led to different structures and poScy responses, which inturnhave ledtodifferent patterns ofdevelopment anddependency' (325). Taken as a whole, then, the book tendsto challengeand subvertthe notions thatit beganbyprojecting. Thisisin somemeasure recognized - as Konradhimselfputs it, 'the borderlandsbetweenCanadaand the United States largelyremainopento interpretation, andsubject to debate'(x) -but itsbearingon the claimthatborderlands unity and integration are what count generally doesn't gettheattention it deserves. • SMITH University ofBrit• Columbia North America without Borders? Integrating Carguta, theUnited States, andMexico. Editedby STEPHEN J. RANDALL, HERMAN KONRAD, and SHELDON SILVERMAN. Calgary: University ofCalgary Press 1992.Pp.x, 328.$24.95 Thisvolume containstwenty-seven of the seventypaperswhich were presented atthe'Facing NorthYFadng South' conference, agathering heldat theUniversity ofCalgary, withfinancial helpfromseveral external donors, in May 1991.The proceedings werelargely focused onthetrilateral negotiations which,somemonthslater, were to issuein a 'North American Free Trade .iaea' - N,•FTA. Contributions came chieflyfromhistorians, political scientists, andanthropologists, together witha feweconomists; somediplomats and off•zials alsotookpart, and one historian wrotealmostentirelywithina framework of 'borderlines and borderlands' that he seems to have obtained fromgeography. In moments of stress, someparticipants tookrefugein networks of abstraction that I foundall but impenetrable; others,however, wrote straightforwardly andvigorously. Participants weredrawnnotonlyfromCanada, bothanglophone and francophone, butfromtheUnited States andMexico. Thesenior editortells usthathe hadbeenanxious to avoiddomination by economists, and he certainly succeeded; whether hewenttoofarwillbea matter ofopinion, but readers shouldrecognize that the published collection doesnot fully represent thespectrum ofscholarly workandanalysis withrespect to NAFTA. There isalso a problem in thata fewcontributors, most obviously theman fromthe CLC,seemto haveinterpretedtheir assignments in narrowly partisan andideological terms. Nevertheless, virtually anyCanadian historian ors:x'ial sdentist canfindstimulating matterin these pages. $08 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW The papers differgreatly asto levelandapproach. Some arelarge and perhapsratheremptyexercises in abstraction, wherethe multiplication of abstract nouns serves asa replacement forconcrete knowledge andspeci• analysis. Somepapersreport ongoingresearch. SylviaOstry provides a helpful survey oftheinternational background toN.•^. Some ofthepaper• aredescriptive, oftensomewhat superficial butnonetheless revealing forthose scholars who are not expertsin all aspects of the subject. The numerous paperson Mexicoare especially interesting to any Canadianscholar who wantsto knowmoreaboutMexican political economy. To suchpeople the volumecancertainly be recommended withenthusiasm, eventhoughthe utility of eachchapterwill vary asbetweenone reader and another.I, for instance,wasimpressed by the accounts of the maqu//adora zonesandof recentinternalreformwithinMexico;I wasdisappointed tofind thatsolittle was saidaboutthe debt crisisof the 1980s,and I thought the several immigration papers could havebeenmoreinsightful. It mustalsobesaid that theseveral papers whichfocus ontheprocess ofnegotiation, thevarious ends and means thatmightbeembodied in N.•FT^, andthelikelihoodof success or failure,havein general beenovertaken byevents: since N•,•r.•hasnowbeen devised, andhastakendefiniteform,suchspeculations havelitfie to tellus. In general thebookisa credittotheeditors of theUniversity ofCalgary Press.However,there are someminor slips,both in the writingsof the anglophones and,rathermorefrequenfiy, in theworksof the francophones and allophones. It is alsoquiteeasyto find sentences, usuallyfocusing on abstract nouns,ofwhichthemeanings areobscure atbest.Onecontributor is twice awardedan officeshehasnever held, and whichindeed doesnot exist, whileon oneoccasion theuniversity agency to whichshebelongs islabelled incorrecfiy. The SSHRCC: suffers the samefate.A morecarefulcopy-editing, therefore, wouldhavebeenappropriate. Nevertheless, these litfieglitches do not detract fromthegeneral utilityof thevolume.Somereaders willregret that the volumeofferssolitfieby wayof generalconclusions or reflections. Otherswillbe gladthattheeditors haveleftthedrawingofsuchconclusions to thereadersthemselves. Stillotherswillbe gratefulfor thelargeamount of informationthathasbeen'packaged' for theirstudy. IANM.DRUMMOND University ofToronto Canadian-Caribbean Relations: Aspects ff a Relationship. EditedbyBRL• DOUOL• r•NNVSON. Sydney: Centrefor International Studies 1990.Pp. viii,380 For at least two centuries, Canadians and their antecedent British North Americans havepr•x:eeded tander thebelief thattheyhaveshared a 'special' relationship withtheCaribbean. Trade,a common legacy of European colonialism ,immigration, tourism,aid, and a sharedambivalence towards the ...