UBC Press Canada and the British World: Culture, Migration, and Identity

In the decades following the Second World War, a revolutionary change took place in the Canadian national identity. The English-Canadian majority entered this period identifying themselves as British and emerged from it with a new, independent sense of themselves as purely Canadian. Assured of their unique place in the world, Canadians can now reflect on the legacies and lessons of their British colonial past. Canada and the British World surveys Canada's national history through a British lens. In a series of essays focusing on the social, cultural, and intellectual aspects of Canadian identity over more than a century, the complex and evolving relationship between Canada and the larger British World is revealed. Examining the transition from the strong belief of nineteenth-century Canadians in the British character of their country to the realities of modern multicultural Canada, this book eschews nostalgia in its endeavour to understand the dynamic and complicated society in which Canadians did and do live. Candid and ambitious, Canada and the British World is recommended reading for historians and scholars of colonialism and nationalism, as well as anyone interested in what it really means to be Canadian.