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Description
Pierre Trudeau and most of his contemporaries at home and abroad are now dead. This book offers reflections on Canadian foreign, trade, and defence policies from interviews conducted more than three decades ago with key policy makers, diplomats, and military officers in the Trudeau government and of that era.
The interviews are informative and revealingly frank. There is much on the enormous difficulties in dealing with the United States, Europe, NATO, the Soviet Union, and Communist China in an era dominated by the Cold War. There are also personal insights into Trudeau himself – a man of great “esprit,” who initially seemed destined to change Canadian policy in a dramatic fashion. Over time, however, this was not to be, and his government policies reverted towards the norm.
A unique resource, Trudeau’s World adds immeasurably to our understanding of the Trudeau era. It also has much to tell us about Canada and the world from 1968 to 1984.
Contributor Notes
Robert Bothwell is a professor of history at the University of Toronto. He was the director of the International Relations Program there from 1995 to 2011. He is a noted and much-published specialist in Canadian political and foreign policy history. He is the author of Alliance and Illusion: Canada and the World, 1945-84.
J.L. Granatstein is a Distinguished Research Professor of History Emeritus at York University. He was director and CEO of the Canadian War Museum and has served on government commissions. He has published extensively in Canadian military, political, and foreign policy history for more than fifty years. He is the author, most recently, of The Weight of Command: Voices of Canada’s Second World War Generals and Those Who Knew Them.
Editorial Reviews
This monograph will be well-received by scholars and graduate students alike in history and political science. It will also be a useful source for undergraduate students in Canadian foreign policy courses. The interviews fuse together large themes in the history of Canadian international affairs while they also remind us that their work stands the test of time.
— Left History, Vol. 22, No. 1
Readers can be thankful for the efforts of Bothwell and Granatstein. The editors devoted substantial time, energy, and resources to organize and interview such a large and important group of policymakers, diplomats, and military officials connected with the Trudeau government... Trudeau's World is a model oral history project that will surely serve as a valuable resource for students and scholars of Canadian policy during the post-1968 Cold War era.
Trudeau's World does three things very well: 1) It examines the complex and multi-layered workings of the government; 2) it focuses on and attempts to give clarity to several issues of the period that had foreign policy or military dimensions; and 3) it provides insider glimpses of that attractive but inscrutable figure, Trudeau... The book's strength comes from the interviews with people who worked with [Trudeau].
— Manitoba History, No. 90
