The Uses of History in Canadian-American Relations

Abstract

J.L. Granatstein. Canada's War: The Politics of the Mac- kenzie King Government, 1939-1945. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1975. 436 pp. R.D. Cuff and J.L. Granatstein. Canadian -American Re- lations in Wartime: From the Great War to the Cold War. Toronto: Hakkert, 1975. 205 pp. Roger Frank Swanson, ed. Canadian - American Summit Diplomacy 1923-1973: Selected Speeches and Documents. (The Carleton Library No. 81). Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1975. 314 pp. It is salutary to be shown how the symbols and strategies that currently guide policy makers have originated in, and been shaped by, a political culture. The image of counterweights has, for example, been so indelibly printed on Canada's policy community that its government's pursuit of the much-vaunted "third option," to alleviate Canadian dependence on the United States, must be related to factors that are visceral as well as rational. History, therefore, has its practical uses in understanding the contemporary issues of Canadian-American relations. These uses are limited, perhaps justifiably, by the historian's frequent preoccu- pation with the conscious perceptions, motivations and reasoning of political actors. Less justifiable, however, is the historian's occasional failure to base assessments of men and events on clearly defined criteria of judgement.