Parallel Destinies: Canadian-American Relations West of the Rockies

by John M. Findlay (Editor), Kenneth S. Coates (Editor)

Essays consider both the nineteenth century, when the international border had limited power to restrict the movement of Native peoples, financial capital, or settlers' racist attitudes, and the strengthened boundary of the twentieth century, with its disputes over salmon runs, free trade, and World War II defence. Essays also explore the ways in which Canada and the United States have defined and preserved wilderness, the 1840s dispute over the Oregon Country, and U.S. attitudes that have provoked anti-Americanism in Canada. The U.S.-Canadian border has meant different things to different people, and those meanings have changed over time. The situation today is the result of the evolution in cross-border integration that took place in the past; each side of this borderlands region remains, in part, the creation of the other. Contributors are Carl Abbott, Ken Coates, Michael Fellman, John Findlay, John Lutz, Daniel P. Marshall, Jeremy Mouat, Galen Roger Perras, Chad Reimer, Joseph E. Taylor III, Patricia K. Wood, and Donald Worster.

Hardcover

First published August 28, 2002

Reviews

[Harold Rhenisch]

This is a dated but useful book that explores Canadian political and socio-political developments in the Pacific Northwest from the viewpoint of the region rather than from the national Canadian or American narratives they are too often aligned with. That is invaluable, and admirable. The essays are not all of equal quality and one is pure guesswork. I bought the book for the essay on the Fraser War of 1858 and was not disappointed. It was worth the price of the book alone.