The authors argue that despite a shared continent and heritage, ambivalence has always characterized relations between the two countries - an ambivalence stemming from differences that Americans underestimate and that Canadians overstate. Thompson and Randall begin with the century in which Canada was a pawn in the relations between the United States and Great Britain. They consider the years until World War II, during which Canada and the United States erected many of the bilateral institutions and mechanisms that govern their relationship in the twentieth century. The authors then explore the World War and Cold War alliance based on economic interest and shared anti-Communist that made Canada part of a "new American empire." The years from 1960 until 1984 most merit their subtitle, Ambivalent Allies, as it was then that this continental consensus fragmented. In 1984 the relationship was restored as Canada's Conservative government embraced the United States with an ardour that stunned a Canadian body politic nurtured on the milk of anti-Americanism. The authors consider the economic and social dimensions of the relationship, from Canadian responses to the increasing weight of the U.S. cultural presence, to the archaic stereotypes through which Canadians and Americans understand each other. They conclude that while Canadians have been obsessed with the United States, Canada has been a matter of consuming disinterest to the United States public and to most of its leaders. Despite the oft-repeated platitudes about a "special relationship" between the two countries, the authors maintain that what is striking is the extent to which U.S. policy toward Canada conforms to U.S. policy toward the rest of the world. For its part, Canada's preoccupation with the United States has shaped Canadian national policies. Any apparent contemporary trend toward consensus and convergence between the United States and Canada, they conclude, must be viewed through the lens of two centuries of ambiguity and ambivalence.

Product Description: The first complete biography of Alfonso López Michelsen, one of the main figures in the political and intellectual life of Colombia over the past 50 years, this book discusses the challenges and the social, economical, and security changes that have occurred in the country during the last part of the 20th century and the start of the present one...read more

Through market excesses and shortages, complicated by periodic anxiety over the exhaustion of fossil fuel sources, balancing the international quest for oil with reduction of dependence on foreign oil has been a persistent but elusive goal for U.S. governments. United States Foreign Oil Policy since World War I offers a comprehensive analysis of the evolution of American global oil policy from the administration of Woodrow Wilson to George W. Bush's current regime.Stephen Randall demonstrates that U.S. foreign oil policy since World War I has been consistently based on ensuring an adequate supply of oil and oil products at reasonable prices to meet the industrial and military needs of American society. The result has been an ongoing search for energy security that has taken the United States into regions of the world where its national security interests would not otherwise have been at stake, even at the height of the Cold War.

The Caribbean Basin: An International History provides a study of the entire Caribbean region, including Central America and the Caribbean coast of northern South America. It also offers analysis of: * the role of international intervention * the complex interaction among major world powers in the area * conflicts over colonial possessions and trade routes * Soviet-American confrontation in the Cold War years. Integrating the recent political, social and economic history of the Caribbean with its miltary and diplomatic past, this book charts the region's emergence from colonialism during the course of the twentieth century.

Product Description: Strategically located at the gateway to the South American continent, Colombia has long been one of the key players in the United States' relations with its Latin American neighbours. In this book, the sixth volume to appear in The United States and the Americas series, Stephen J...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: 1985 1st McGill-queen's. ISBN 0-7735-0449-4. Octavo, 328pp., hardcover. Fine.