Canada and the United States: Ambivalent Allies

Preface to the Fourth Edition

xiii Preface to the Fourth Edition Nation-states have no friends, only interests. Historians are much luckier; this fourth edition of Canada and the United States: Ambivalent Allies is the work of two friends of thirty-five years. But many others in addition to the two men credited on the cover participated in the creation of this and previous versions. Lester Langley conceived the United States and the Americas series and decided that Canada was sufficiently of the Americas to merit a place in it. Nancy Grayson, Jon Davies, and the staff of the University of Georgia Press remain supportive , patient, gentle, and, when necessary, firm with the authors. Student research assistants tracked down material; colleagues too numerous to cite individually offered insight and guidance. Andrea Ramsey helped prepare the index. In 1992, cartographer Bill Mills drew the maps for the first edition the old-fashioned way with pen and ink; in 2007, Jillian Dowding, assistant director of the U.S. Institute at Calgary, created the tables on binational trade with Microsoft Excel. We thank purchasers of the first, second, and third editions for buying enough copies to give us the opportunity to create a fourth edition . The broad theses of Ambivalent Allies stand the tests of critical assessment and of time. But although its central arguments remain unchanged , the fourth edition of Ambivalent Allies is virtually a new book, from the Introduction to the Epilogue and the Bibliographical Essay. We rewrote and retitled chapter 1 to reflect new scholarly arguments about the origins of U.S.-Canadian differences that de-emphasize the role of the American Revolution in establishing these differences. Chapter 2 fully incorporates the “New Western History” and cuttingedge scholarship on binational migration. Chapter 3 integrates new arguments about international transmission of progressive reform ideas. In chapters 4 and 5, which discuss the period from 1919 to 1947, we have found a place for new scholarship but have compressed what were three chapters in earlier editions. Chapters 7 through 10 were xiv Preface to the Fourth Edition chapters 8 through 11 in the third edition. Chapter 8 benefits from Stephen Randall’s primary research in the Jimmy Carter presidential library , but we significantly rewrote all four chapters to bring them up to date with new historical literature. The authors owe particular appreciation to the archivists at the presidential libraries for the creative searches in their files. A fresh concluding chapter, “Playing by New American Rules, 2001–2007,” describes the dramatic changes in the U.S.-Canadian relationship during George W. Bush’s presidency and sets them into their transformed international context. Reviewers and readers were kind enough to bring mistakes of fact and interpretation in the first three editions of Ambivalent Allies to our attention. We offer our appreciation in anticipation that they will do the same with this fourth edition. Our concluding profound thanks belong to our fellow scholars Janet Ewald and Annie Katzenberg, our partners not in research but in life. John Herd Thompson, Durham, North Carolina, USA Stephen J. Randall, Calgary, Alberta, Canada October 2007 Canada and the United States This page intentionally left blank ...