Yankee Go Home?: Canadians and Anti-Americanism

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HarperCollins, 1996 - History - 317 pages
Whether it is resentment over trade barriers, fear of cultural domination, disapproval of U.S. foreign policy, or merely old-fashioned jealousy of a more powerful neighbour, Canadians have made excellent anti-Americans. Yankee Go Home? traces the winding course of this feeling over two centuries - from the United Empire Loyalists who fled north to escape unbridled republicanism, through the early twentieth century when the barons of business were determined to keep out U.S. competition, to the post-war period when Canadian nationalists took up the cry. Granatstein maintains that what began as a justifiable fear of invasion eventually became a tool of the economic and political elites bent on preserving their power. At first, anti-Americanism was largely the Tory way of keeping pro-British attitudes uppermost in the minds of Canadians. Later, with the right wing embracing the free-trade deal, it became the most important weapon of the nationalist left. Today, anti-Americanism is weaker than ever before. And what of the future? Will we inevitably become more "American" in spite of ourselves? Can we even agree on what being "Canadian" means?

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Contents

Blind Hatred? The Loyalist Inheritance
12
Under Which Flag? The Free Trade Follies of 1891 and 1911
39
The Critical Years 191449
67
Copyright

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About the author (1996)

Scholar and author Jack Lawrence Granatstein was born in Toronto in 1939. Considered an authority on 20th century Canadian national history (particularly foreign and defense policies), Canadian-American relations, the military, public service, and politics, Granatstein regularly comments on historical questions and public affairs in the media. He is a graduate of both Le College Militaire Royal de St. Jean (1959) and the Royal Military College in Kingston (1961). Granatstein also received a master's degree from the University of Toronto in 1962 and a Ph.D. from Duke University in 1966. He served in the Canadian Army from 1956 to 1966. Afterward, Granatstein joined the History Department at York University in Toronto, where he is now Distinguished Research Professor of History Granatstein's scholarly and popular books are many. They include The Politics of Survival: The Conservative Party of Canada 1939-45 (published in 1967), Peacekeeping: International Challenge and Canadian Response (1968), and Canada's War: The Politics of the Mackenzie King Government 1939-45 (1975). Among his more recent works are the Dictionary of Canadian Military History (1992), The Generals: The Canadian Army's Senior Commanders in the Second World War (1993, 1995), The Good Fight: Canadians and World War II (1995), and Who Killed Canadian History (1998). Granatstein was awarded the Tyrrell Medal for Canadian History in 1992 and the Medal for Biography from the University of British Columbia in 1993. He was granted honorary degrees from Memorial University and the University of Calgary.

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