Towards a Transnational Political History of North America: The View from Canada

This article voices three “heresies” against the nationalist, centralist, and anti-American biases of traditional political history in English Canada, in hopes of opening the way to a more transnational understanding of the Canadian and North American past: Canada’s history is an American history, i...

Descripción completa

Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Robert MacDougall
Formato: article
Lenguaje:EN
FR
PT
Publicado: Centre de Recherches sur les Mondes Américains 2010
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://doaj.org/article/b27a7af41644494f8207e0e3b69cc6c3
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
Descripción
Sumario:This article voices three “heresies” against the nationalist, centralist, and anti-American biases of traditional political history in English Canada, in hopes of opening the way to a more transnational understanding of the Canadian and North American past: Canada’s history is an American history, in constant dialogue with the history of the United States; Canada’s Confederation in 1867 was not an an act of national unification, but a compact between autonomous regions, as French-Canadian historians have long maintained; Canadian federalism is not failing, and in fact represents a remarkably flexible and successful form of government, well suited to Canada’s geography and cultural diversity. Only by rejecting the “narcissism of small differences” and the “solipsism of American exceptionalism” can we foster a truly transnational North American history.