Description

pp. 252. “The ineffable character of “Britishness” has been used, often enigmatically, to describe Canada’s distinct cultural flavour within North America. This mysterious quality, writes award-winning writer Jonathan Vance, goes back to the early days of Canadian history, and consists of far more than the sum of early migration patterns. It emerges from a long-standing respect for British liberal ideals and an identification with the British empire. Canada’s own unique brand of Britishness evolved over a history of shared military endeavor, as Canadians fought alongside others to defend the ideals that the British Empire was deemed to represent. // To understand Canada’s history of Britishness, Vance looks into the military past of both countries. The fabric of Canadian life in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries owes a great deal to the presence of British military. And this, observes Vance, is a two-way relationship: he reminds us that during the two World Wars, close to a million Canadians travelled to the United Kingdom. In this form of reverse colonialism, Canadians established modest outposts in Britain, and parts of the country were Canadianized. // This new, outside-the-box narrative is Jonathan Vance at his best. Beautifully written, based on original research in the true sense of the word, and illustrated with previously unseen materials, this book reveals a side of Canada often forgotten by historians. “