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Canada 1957-1967: The Years of Uncertainty and Innovation
Volume XIX of the Canadian Centenary Series
Now available as e-books for the first time, the Canadian Centenary Series is a comprehensive nineteen-volume history of the peoples and lands which form Canada. Although the series is designed as a unified whole so that no part of the story is left untold, each volume is complete in itself.
In the tenth decade of Canada’s Confederation, the expansive and unifying post-war boom gave way to rapid change and conflicting choices. These were the years of John Diefenbaker and Lester Pearson, years when Canada’s culture, economy, and politics took new directions and the foundations of Canada’s political and social realities were laid. J.L. Granatstein explores these crucial ten years through an assessment and analysis of people, issues, and trends. Beginning with a survey of the country in 1957, poised to grasp Diefenbaker’s grand “Vision,” the author vividly describes how the Progressive Conservative promise won the nation -- and later could not be fulfilled. In these critical years Canada joined NORAD and scrapped the Avro Arrow jet fighter; the Diefenbaker Cabinet tore itself apart over the nuclear arms question. Cultural growth and change are here portrayed as central to the nation’s history in the author’s examination of the Canada Council’s formation and its impact on the nation’s artistic and intellectual life.
Politics mirrored public feelings in the mid-1960s, as governments federal and provincial addressed new kinds of problems. Unification of the armed forces, medicare, and bilingualism in the public services, especially in the context of the growing political and cultural ferment in Quebec, proved divisive as well as innovative.
Utilizing government records, the private papers of important figures, and interviews with individuals at the centre of events, J.L. Granatstein offers the reader a thoughtful but exhilarating account of this turbulent period when Canada almost lost its way en route to the Centennial of Confederation. First published in 1986, Professor Granatstein’s important contribution to the Canadian Centenary Series is available here as an e-book for the first time.
Now available as e-books for the first time, the Canadian Centenary Series is a comprehensive nineteen-volume history of the peoples and lands which form Canada. Although the series is designed as a unified whole so that no part of the story is left untold, each volume is complete in itself.
In the tenth decade of Canada’s Confederation, the expansive and unifying post-war boom gave way to rapid change and conflicting choices. These were the years of John Diefenbaker and Lester Pearson, years when Canada’s culture, economy, and politics took new directions and the foundations of Canada’s political and social realities were laid. J.L. Granatstein explores these crucial ten years through an assessment and analysis of people, issues, and trends. Beginning with a survey of the country in 1957, poised to grasp Diefenbaker’s grand “Vision,” the author vividly describes how the Progressive Conservative promise won the nation -- and later could not be fulfilled. In these critical years Canada joined NORAD and scrapped the Avro Arrow jet fighter; the Diefenbaker Cabinet tore itself apart over the nuclear arms question. Cultural growth and change are here portrayed as central to the nation’s history in the author’s examination of the Canada Council’s formation and its impact on the nation’s artistic and intellectual life.
Politics mirrored public feelings in the mid-1960s, as governments federal and provincial addressed new kinds of problems. Unification of the armed forces, medicare, and bilingualism in the public services, especially in the context of the growing political and cultural ferment in Quebec, proved divisive as well as innovative.
Utilizing government records, the private papers of important figures, and interviews with individuals at the centre of events, J.L. Granatstein offers the reader a thoughtful but exhilarating account of this turbulent period when Canada almost lost its way en route to the Centennial of Confederation. First published in 1986, Professor Granatstein’s important contribution to the Canadian Centenary Series is available here as an e-book for the first time.
375 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1986
About the author
J.L. Granatstein
77 books19 followersJack Lawrence Granatstein is a Canadian historian who specializes in Canadian political and military history. Granatstein received a graduation diploma from Royal Military College Saint-Jean in 1959, his Bachelor of Arts degree from the Royal Military College of Canada in 1961, his Master of Arts degree from the University of Toronto in 1962, and his Doctor of Philosophy degree from Duke University in 1966.
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November 1, 2020And with that -- I've now finished all 19 volumes of "The Centenary Series", a publishing project McLelland and Stewart began to mark Canada's Centennial. I decided to read -- and buy hardcover editions of -- the series as my sesquicentennial project -- back in 2017. But with other reading and with some difficulty in tracking down the original editions, it took a little while. A very satisfying accomplishment nonetheless.
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