Dimitry Anastakis

Some Good, Some Average

Another collection of Canadian history essays edited by Dimitry Anastakis and P.E. Bryden. In my opinion "The Sixties: Passion, Politics, and Style" was better because the periodization allowed for a tighter focus. Federalism is one of those fuzzy terms which can stand for just about anything you want it to be, and therefore the tendency for tangentalization is very high.

That said, there are still some good essays in here. The introduction actually does a good job with its definition of "federalism" -- as a nation-building ideology "propogating competing narratives of Canada's past to create imagined communities." In my opinion, the first essay titled "One Version of History" by R. Blake Brown is the best one of the lot. It describes the failure of the Supreme Court of Canada to fully appreciate the nuance of the BNA Act choosing instead to adopt a teleological method of historical analysis that sees constitutionalism as part of a Canadian tradition of evolutionary democracy, all in the attempt to challenge Quebec's right to unilateral secession.

Michael Behiel's essay "Canada and International Instruments of Human Rights" is an interesting analysis of the constant tension between federal and provincial power and the prickly issue of human rights. Trudeau of course figures prominently here in the discussion as does Quebec's "Quiet Revolution."

A couple of the latter essays focus on the automobile manufacturing industry and the "cooperative federalism" which helped to bring about the Auto Pact in 1965, requiring all parties to find common ground for the benefit of all.

In the last essay, Anastakis includes a deeply personal account of his experiences with the late Canadian historian John T. Saywell and chronicles his long academic career in the greater context of Canadian historiography overall.

Overall, I found at least half of the essays worth reading for sure. Even at that, I'm still recommending this collection especially for anyone who wants more background information on constitutional issues and that curious Canadian experiment we call "federalism."… (plus d'informations)

Great Collection of Essays

This group of essays edited by Dimitry Anastakis is proof that the writing of Canadian history is alive and well. It would be impossible for any collection, a short 190 page one at that, to capture the totality of the revolutionary epoch of the 1960s, even such periodization is problematic as Anastakis admits to in the introduction. But each essay addresses a particular issue in the postwar liberal consensus with academic rigor. I can't go through with a close analysis of each essay (you'll have to buy the book and read for yourself) but I will highlight the ones I felt had the most significance.

The first is Kristy A. Holmes essay "Negotiating Citizenship" which explores Trudeau's grand social experiments into bilingualism, multiculturalism, and feminism incorporated into the motto "Reason over Passion." Holmes problematizes the gendered notions of liberal citizenship through its universalizing tendencies and individualistic masculinity.

De Gaulle's "Vivre Le Quebec" speech is given a close contextual analysis by Olivier Courteaux who argues that de Gaulle's vision of a commonwealth of francophonie nations was too utopian and neglected the divergent paths that say Quebec and France had taken in the past 200+ years.

Finally, Krys Verrall's essay "Art and Urban Renewal" compares slum clearances in the U.S. with Canada with close attention to the racialized aspects in Africville in Halifax as they were in Harlem in New York. I could go on, but the other essays on automobiles and masculinity, social control over drug use, the legacy of the Quiet Revolution, and suburbanization are all prominently featured as well.

Ultimately, the over-arching theme is the ambiguous legacy of the 1960s. A time of great contradiction, and as Anastakis' fellow Trent Professor Bryan Palmer argues, great irony. We may never fully explore what the 1960s meant to Canadians, but this book is a good start.… (plus d'informations)