Description:
"This is the story of a geographically large country in North America with a federal form of government," begins James M. McPherson, and after several pages describing how two separate regions clash with each other in an unstable union, the reason for the vagueness becomes clear: he could be talking about either the United States before the Civil War or Canada today, with its French-speaking minority in Québec fitting uncomfortably into a larger fold. "There are striking parallels in the experiences of these two North American nations," writes acclaimed Civil War historian McPherson (Battle Cry of Freedom) as he tries to apply his specific knowledge of that conflict to Canada's modern predicament. The Civil War, he elaborates, pitted the South's sense of its own ethnic nationalism against the North's more universalist idea of civic nationalism; McPherson sees these same forces at work in modern Canada: "Many southern whites believed as strongly in their ethnic difference from Yankees as the Québecois believe in their ethnic differences from English Canadians." And while he does not believe Canada is in immediate danger of plunging into war, he warns that "deep seated tensions remain." Is Blood Thicker Than Water? is a slim but learned volume that will interest readers who believe the past has much to teach the present. --John J. Miller
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