HIST 3304A: Canada-United States Relations
Fall 2024
Instructor: Professor Norman Hillmer
In an American election year that will do so much to shape our futures, this course examines Canada’s attitudes toward and relationships with the United States from the nineteenth century to the present. Students will gain a knowledge of the major impulses and milestones in the relationship between the two countries; an understanding of the size, shape, and structure of the relationship; a familiarity with the place and importance of the United States in Canadian life; an insight into debates about how to describe the relationship; and the ability to assess and analyse the origins, evolution, meaning, and content of “anti-Americanism.”
Are Canadians anti-American, and what does that term really mean? Aren’t Americans themselves the fiercest critics of the US? Aren’t Canada and the United States more similar than they are different? Is Canada dependent on the United States? If so, what are the implications of that dependence for Canadians’ self-image and independence in North America and the world? Is America dependent on Canada as well, so that interdependence is the best description of the complex relationship between the two countries of the northern part of North America? In the end, is Canada America’s twin, its partner, or its satellite?
We will examine the ways that Canadians have looked at the US (and the fewer times that Americans have talked about Canadians), and we will inquire into the network of ties that have made the Canada-US relationship the closest one between any two countries in the world. And we will spend time discussing and debating the issues arising out of the 2024 presidential contest – issues that the past will help us understand.
You will be trained to research, write, and edit a sophisticated briefing note. The briefing note assignment asks students to develop and defend practical policy options and recommendations in an academic, policy-relevant, historical environment. Briefing notes are frequently used in government, business, and research institutions, and this assignment develops and strengthens research and writing skills as well as providing experience that is relevant to career development. Course briefing notes qualify for the Hanson Prize, a major History Department award for essays in Canadian foreign policy. Members of 3304 are often winners of the Hanson.
A midterm exam will be worth twenty percent of the final grade, with the briefing note and final examination each worth forty percent.
For further information and to send comments about what you would like the course to achieve for your academic interests and goals, please contact Professor Norman Hillmer at norman.hillmer@carleton.ca.