Between Two “Consumer Revolutions”: Groceries and Other Foodstuff Purchases at Lower Canadian Country Stores, 1809–67

An analysis of the account books of five different Lower Canadian country general stores between 1809 and 1867 shows that ordinary households had access, and purchased, an increasingly wide range of groceries and other foodstuffs over the period. As in Upper Canada, grocery purchases were “routine – part of many families’ culture,” and some commodities may even have been mass consumed. Foodstuffs supplied by global trade networks coexisted with products of domestic manufactures. Foodstuff consumption also displayed characteristics associated with the “consumer revolution” of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as well as others usually deemed to have been part of the “mass consumption societies” of the twentieth century.

Blood Brothers: Moral Emotion, the Afro-Asian-Canadian Bloc, and South Africa’s Expulsion from the Commonwealth, 1960–1

During the 1961 Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ meeting, Canada’s prime minister, John Diefenbaker, joined with his non-white partners to form an ‘Afro-Asian-Canadian bloc’ that, for all intents and purposes, expelled South Africa from the association. Drawing on American, Australian, British, Canadian, and South African documents, this article argues that Diefenbaker did so in a bid to preserve the Commonwealth to bridge global racial divides and avert a potential “race war” in the making. The Commonwealth could thus retain its integrity as an institution responsive to global South concerns and chaperon them during a transitional phase to statehood. In so doing, newly independent peoples would be rendered culturally familiar and predictable, embedding them within the liberal international order. Consequently, this study offers insight into Canadian attitudes towards African decolonization and what the Commonwealth meant to Canada beyond its strategic imperative. By examining Ottawa’s approach to apartheid from 1960 to 1961 through the intersection of race and “moral emotion,” it advances a fresh approach to conceptualizing Canadian international history.

Distort, Deflect, Deny: Appraising European Colonialism at Empire’s End, 1956–63

With an emphasis on the British Empire Commonwealth, this article explores how English-speaking Canadians understood European colonialism – its historical purpose, legacies, and demise – and the anti-colonial nationalism that ranged against it in the years bracketing the United Nations’ adoption of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples in 1960. An extensive survey of opinion in the mainstream English-language press, supplemented by the perspectives of intellectuals, diplomats, and parliamentarians, suggests that empire apologism, contempt for anti-colonial nationalism, and the misrepresentation of colonial liberation struggles were pervasive. Building on recent scholarship that explores how race thinking shaped Canada’s international relations, and drawing from cultural theorist Kuan-Hsing Chen’s concept of “deimperialization,” the author argues that the preponderance of these phenomena evinced and abetted a failure to come to terms with colonialism’s deleterious imprint on the Third World.

Le fonctionnalisme en pratique : la diplomatie canadienne face à l’affaire de Koje-do durant la guerre de Corée

Cet article analyse la diplomatie déployée par le gouvernement canadien face à Washington par rapport au déploiement des troupes canadiennes par le Commandement des Nations Unies au camp pour prisonniers de guerre de Koje-do durant la guerre de Corée (1950-1953). Alors que cette décision est jugée strictement militaire par les officiers américains, les officiels à Ottawa soutiennent plutôt qu’ils auraient dû être consultés préalablement en raison des enjeux politiques soulevés à Koje-do. L’approche fonctionnaliste employée par le ministère des Affaires extérieures, l’ambassade canadienne à Washington et le haut-commissaire canadien à Londres vise à influencer la politique américaine concernant la consultation des Canadiens sur les questions d’ordre politique. Critiquée dans l’historiographie, la position d’Ottawa s’inscrit dans un contexte où le principe de consultation interalliée tel que pratiqué par les Américains soulève des questionnements chez les autorités politiques canadiennes. D’ailleurs, cet incident est suivi d’un débat plus large au sein des alliés concernant la consultation des hautes autorités militaires américaines sur les questions jugées politiques. Cette étude vise ainsi à lever le voile sur la manière dont les autorités gouvernementales canadiennes ont réagi face à l’équilibre complexe entre les décisions militaires et les considérations politiques au cours du conflit coréen.

The Romance of Canada: Nationalism and Canadian Historiography

This is a short overview history of the relationship between Canadian historians and Canadian nationalism. It maps the historiography of Canadian nationalism against its significant manifestations in Canadian society and developments in nationalism scholarship internationally. Three conjunctures when the fate of the nation loomed large in Canadian historiography are featured. Evidence from the Canadian Historical Review (chr) is highlighted throughout, and, for each conjuncture, relevant articles from the chr are provided for further reading. In reflecting on this history, this article considers Canadian historians’ accomplishments and failures in understanding Canadian nationalism as well as the contemporary politics and praxis of their relationship with nation.