Trudeau’s World
412 pages, 6 x 9
Hardcover
Release Date:01 Oct 2017
ISBN:9780774836371
PDF
Release Date:01 Oct 2017
ISBN:9780774836395
GO TO CART SAMPLE CHAPTER

Trudeau’s World

Insiders Reflect on Foreign Policy, Trade, and Defence, 1968-84

UBC Press

Pierre Trudeau and most of his contemporaries at home and abroad are now dead. This book offers critical reflections on Canadian foreign, trade, and defence policies from interviews with most of the key policy makers, diplomats, and military officers in the Trudeau government and of that era.

Conducted more than three decades ago, 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 the era dominated by the Cold War. There are also varied personal insights into Trudeau himself, including a lengthy conversation with the authors. That Trudeau was a man of great “esprit,” who seemed destined to change Canadian policy in a dramatic fashion, is commonly voiced throughout the interviews. But he was also a man who embodied contradiction and, over time as his interests fluctuated, many of his foreign policies reverted towards the norm. In the end, patriating the Constitution from the United Kingdom, covered in detail here, remains his legacy in a way that his foreign and defence policies do not.

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.

This book is for scholars interested in Canadian politics and foreign affairs in the Trudeau period and in the Cold War; Canadian politicians; academics and politicians from other countries curious about prominent figures from their own country who are interviewed; amateur political junkies of all kinds; and people working in diplomatic circles and foreign affairs.

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. Thirstan Falconer, St. Jerome's University, Left History, Vol. 22, No. 1
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]. Francis M. Carroll, St. John's College, University of Manitoba, Manitoba History, No. 90
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 is a magnificent trove of information and insights about Pierre Trudeau and his times. Two outstanding historians show the value of their craft as they extract invaluable nuggets from their sources and cause the interviewees to reveal more than they had ever intended. An essential book for all scholars and students of post-1968 Canada. John English, Director, Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History, University of Toronto
The insider interviews conducted by Robert Bothwell and J.L. Granatstein for their 1990 book on Pierre Trudeau and Canadian foreign policy were always what made Pirouette: Pierre Trudeau and Canadian Foreign Policy such an indispensable source on that era. Now, thirty years on, we have a curated collection of those interviews. Engagingly scripted and carefully placed in context, these interviews are a natural companion to Pirouette. But Trudeau’s World also stands on its own as a fascinating and compelling window into Canada — and the world — between 1968 and 1984. Kim Richard Nossal, Centre for International and Defence Policy, Queen’s University

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.

Introduction

I Advisers and Ministers

Hon. Marc Lalonde

Hon. R. Gordon Robertson

Hon. Michael Pitfield

Marshall Crowe

Hon. Gérard Pelletier

Ivan Head

Rt. Hon. Paul Martin

Hon. Mitchell Sharp

Reeves Haggan

Hon. Mark MacGuigan

II Deputy Ministers and Senior Diplomats

A. Edgar Ritchie

Allan Gotlieb

William Barton

Alan Beesley

John Halstead

Gordon Smith

Hon. Gordon Osbaldeston

de Montigny Marchand

Thomas Delworth

III The Defence and Foreign Policy Reviews and After

Hon. Mitchell Sharp

Hon. Léo Cadieux

Hon. Paul Hellyer

Hon. Donald Macdonald

Hon. Otto Lang

Ross Campbell

John F. Anderson

H. Basil Robinson

John Halstead

Michael Shenstone

Rear Admiral Robert Murdoch

Gordon Smith

Hon. Donald Macdonald

Sylvain Cloutier

General Jacques Dextraze

IV Canada and the United States

Ivan Head

Rufus Smith

A. Edgar Ritchie

Emerson Brown

Marshall Crowe

Peter Towe

Hon. Mitchell Sharp

Russell McKinney

Richard Post

Thomas Enders

Robert Duemling

Hon. Donald Macdonald

Allan Gotlieb

Edward Nef

Robert Hunter

Hon. Mark MacGuigan

Paul H. Robinson, Jr.

Richard Smith

V Canada and Europe

Hon. Gérard Pelletier

François Leduc

Max Yalden

Pierre-Marc Siraud

Hon. Léo Cadieux

John Halstead

Jacques Viot

Michel Dupuy

de Montigny Marchand

Jean Béliard

Drs. Heinz Schneppen and Rüdiger von Lukowitz

VI Canada and the Soviet Union

Rt. Hon. Paul Martin

Robert Ford

John Halstead

Peter Roberts

William Hooper

Peter Hancock

Vernon Turner

James (Si) Taylor

Geoffrey Pearson

VII Canada and the Far East

Rt. Hon. Paul Martin

Yao Guang

John Fraser

Maurice Copithorne

Yu Zhan

Yasuhiko Nara

Thomas Delworth

Richard Gorham

Michel Gauvin

VIII Canada, the United Kingdom, and Patriation

Rt. Hon. Paul Martin

Hon. Mark MacGuigan

Sir John Ford

Reeves Haggan

Peter Meekison

Daniel Gagnier

Thomas Wells

Rt. Hon. Lord Pym

Eddie Goldenberg

IX The Peace Initiative

Louis Delvoie

Peter Hancock

Thomas Delworth

de Montigny Marchand

Allan Gotlieb

Geoffrey Pearson

X The Trudeau Conversation

Rt. Hon. Pierre Trudeau

Conclusion; Index

Find what you’re looking for...
Stay Informed

Receive the latest UBC Press news, including events, catalogues, and announcements.


Read past newsletters

Free shipping on online orders over $40

Publishers Represented
UBC Press is the Canadian agent for several international publishers. Visit our Publishers Represented page to learn more.