Prejudice and Pride: Canadian Intellectuals Confront the United States, 1891-1945
© 2010
As a country with enormous economic, military, and cultural power, the United States can seem an overwhelming neighbour - one that demands consideration by politicians, thinkers, and cultural figures. Prejudice and Pride examines and compares how English and French Canadian intellectuals viewed American society from 1891 to 1945.
Based on over five hundred texts drawn largely from the era's periodical literature, the study reveals that English and French Canadian intellectuals shared common preoccupations with the United States, though the English tended to emphasize political issues and the French cultural issues. Damien-Claude Belanger's in-depth analysis of anti-American sentiment during this era divides Canadian thinkers less along language lines and more according to their political stance as right-wing, left-wing, or centrist. Significantly, the era's discourse regarding American life and the Canadian-American relationship was less an expression of nationalism or a reaction to US policy than it was about the expression of wider attitudes concerning modernity.
Product Details
- World Rights
- Page Count: 320 pages
- Dimensions: 6.5in x 1.0in x 9.3in
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Reviews
'Prejudice & Pride is a noteworthy addition to Canadian historiography. Bélanger has done an important service by pointing to the centrality of modernity as an intellectual conception and organizing principle of Canadian intellectual debates concerning United States. This book will appeal to a broad scholarly audience.'
Daniel Macfarlane
H-Canada, August 12, 2011
‘The book should be a required reading not only for students of the intellectual dimensions of imperialism and continentalism, but for all well-schooled readers with an interest inlate nineteenth and early twentieth-century Canadian history.’
Christopher Pennington
Canadian Historical review; vol93:02:2012‘Bélanger offers a refreshingly different lens to the history of Canadian nationalism… He skillfully examines one of the most critical components of Canadian social and political thought, and his book will undoubtedly be indispensable, both for the study of Canadian-American relations and Canadian intellectual history.’
Bruce Tucker
American Studies Journal; vol 52:02:2013
'Prejudice and Pride is an excellent, original work that delves instructively into both English and French Canadian anti-Americanism. Damien-Claude Bélanger's unique comprehension of authors writing in both official languages presents readers with an honest portrait of a variety of intellectual trends. Well-focused and solidly argued, Prejudice and Pride will appeal to anyone interested in Canadian-American relations.'
Louis Balthazar, Department of Political Science, Université Laval -
Author Information
Damien-Claude Bélanger is an assistant professor in the Department of History at the University of Ottawa. -
Table of contents
Acknowledgements i Introduction 1 1. Canadian-American Relations: An Intellectual History 20 2. American Politics and Philosophy 70 3. Religion and Culture in the United States 115 4. Race and Gender in the United States 143 5. The Perils of Prosperity and the Search for Order 170 6. Canadian Identity and America 188 7. Twin Perils: Annexation and Americanization 215 8. Canadian-American Relations and American Foreign Policy 240 9. Canadian-American Trade, Unionism, and Migration 273 Conclusion 308 Corpus 324 Serials Examined 384 Secondary Sources 390
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Prizes
Ottawa Book Award - Short-listed in 2012 -
Subjects and Courses