Your Country, My Country: A Unified History of the United States and Canada by Robert Bothwell (review)

The timing of this book could not be more welcome. The period 2015– 16 witnessed significant change in government in both Canada and the United States. At the start of that time frame, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Barack Obama appeared to put their respective countries on a similar ideological footing. Yet, as that period concludes, with the ascendency of Donald Trump to the presidency, one wonders about the time-honoured (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the North American Aerospace Defence Command, and the North American Free Trade Agreement) and more recent (the Paris Climate Change Agreement) goals in Canadian–American affairs. Indeed, at a time when Canadians and Americans need reminding of their parallel and often intertwined history, there appears an eloquently written account of the events, personalities, and circumstances that point to the evolution in continental partnership and to the coalescence of two remarkably similar North American nations.

For a generation of historians, Robert Bothwell’s work as historian of Canada and of its foreign relations has been synonymous with quality. His most recent book confirms that reputation. An ambitious work, Your Country, My Country takes colonial North America as its point of departure before reaching the early twenty-first century. Similar to Bothwell’s other works on Canadian–American relations, the focus largely remains on the high politics of the two nation’s histories, with less attention paid to social and intellectual movements. His sources are a balanced mixture of primary and secondary sources. The greatest value of his current book is not merely its presentation of a unified history but also the reconception of the continent and national narratives.

Despite its fresh approach to the history of northern North America, however, the book is not without comparisons to previous attempts to bind Canadian and American histories. One is put in mind of John Bartlet Brebner’s North Atlantic Triangle: The Interplay of Canada, the United States, and Great Britain (Yale University Press, 1945). Likewise, the sea change brought about by the onset of the Second World War and subsequent Canadian drift away from Great Britain and toward the United States is reminiscent of early work by J.L. Granatstein, for example, How Britain’s Weakness Forced Canada into the Arms of the United States (University of Toronto Press, 1989). Nonetheless, absorbing two such approaches allows Bothwell to skilfully plot the domestic (often political and economic) changes in each nation that presently makes them such close allies.

Bothwell’s book serves also as a scaffolding from which other unified stories may emerge. Indeed, if ever there was a foundational study to launch a transnational school of Canadian and American history, then this is it. Scholars may now be more likely to produce surveys that take his ideas further. That might mean a more sustained discussion of kindred movements, such as labour unions or of populism, progressivism and social reform, conservation and environmentalism, feminism, sport, and so on–topics that are not sufficiently probed in this book. Another instance where a finer-grained transnational approach would be useful is to address the Metis and the two rebellions led by Louis Riel–the two Wests, in other words. If, indeed, the similarities between Canada and the United States are so great, then an even more complete embrace of borderland studies (which take up the ongoing, daily interactions between Canadians and Americans) is warranted. National politics are important, but there is more to the story than can be found in the formal relations between the two nations.

These points aside, Bothwell’s book is quite an accomplishment and is recommended for audiences interested in a reconsideration of northern North American history. It would be an excellent addition to graduate-student reading lists in transnational history. The progression toward a unified history is mapped by a historian with years of experience in the field and can only lead to richer...