ISBN:9781770894303

James Laxer undertakes a difficult task in 352 pages. His objective is to tell the reader how the North American continent was sliced and diced among the predominant powers of the 19th century. The picture on the cover indicates the method by which this feat will be advanced—through the lives and political careers of three men—Jefferson Davis, Abraham Lincoln and John A. Macdonald.

Lincoln and Davis feature more as an impetus to discuss how Canada, and consequently, John A. Macdonald, a Canadian politician who rose to the top of the game before there was a Canada to have a political game, viewed events. Specifically, the events that most concerned Canada were how to protect its boarders and how to assert political boundaries that were governable. Macdonald is thrust about on this sea where the debate centers on representation by populist means, confederated means, and federated means. Since Canada is composed of many differing kinds of people at this time and they all have their own identities and who they believe themselves to be, Macdonald is tasked with convincing them otherwise. He does this, mostly, by assuming that Britain is a superior power and that the right to govern others naturally belongs to him and the crown. He likewise notices the U.S. Constitution is a mess because it is decentralized among the states. In that observation he is not alone, and Canada decides to adopt a kind of government with a stronger federalization emphasis because of this example. Not a little of these considerations are brought about because Canada can see that the United States is very eager to manifest their land destiny across the borders of what would not be considered to be US territory. Because the Civil War all ready has the military organized and ready to roll, Canada feels that the time is ripe to start becoming a nation or else miss the boat entirely. If this happens, then the supposition is that large parts of Canada will become US states.

Macdonald is easily the most interesting subject in the book in part because so many other books about Lincoln and Davis have been written. As he grapples with how to advance the political will of a United Canada, he, like those who are commonly written about in the US, silences native populations and disregards their rights and ancestral land claims.

Laxer is also reminding us as the work unfolds that the South in the US considers itself to be a separate people from the North. This identity is what foments the conditions around the Civil War along with attitudes toward slavery ranging from being a necessary evil to a greater good. This is in contrast to the Northern US who have become more industrial, less agrarian, and who, it is noted, have to stay inside during winter. So, the South through cultural identity makes a land grab, the North through cultural identity disallows this while also making additional land grabs, and Canada sets out to make land grabs before the US gets around to making them instead.

As Lincoln has been written about so often, it was easy to spot some scholarly assertions about his life in the narrative that are not widely agreed upon or are else told differently elsewhere. Laxer does not necessarily tell the reader, however, where all his facts are sourced on certain claims so it is hard to know whether Laxer realizes there is disagreement on a subject or else has made up his mind and decided his account is the correct one. Most of these kinds of facts are easy to spot for people who are familiar with American scholarship, but it does make one wonder if the same kind of latitude was assumed with Macdonald. Whether or not this is so, the exposition concerning Macdonald is interesting enough to not make the read irritating. If Laxer is not telling us the full truth, he is at least doing it in a way that makes the journey pleasant.

There are parts, however, that become more tedious, and the end of the work feels rushed where Macdonald's story is concerned. This is due, in part, to the sub-plot of Louis Riel who is hanged because he resists, on behalf of the resident Métis populations, Macdonald's political "improvements". These improvements concern not recognizing existing claims that the Métis people have along with their right to self-govern.

The end of the Jefferson Davis/Lincoln dialog stops with Lincoln's assassination and reconstruction falling apart. The "Lost Cause" new identity/mythos/quasi-religion is then parsed in the context of the "new identity" of the South where it continues to wage war by means of propaganda instead of rifles. This is a logical place for this narrative to conclude although we do get a few pull-quotes later about how Jefferson Davis is not penitent in 1861 for his actions and how his later life seems to keep underlining that stated point.

The short summary of the entire body of the work could be stated as "identity politics when nobody knows their identity", or else they know their identity and the politics are not matching. We find the solution to this quandary varies, in terms of political arrangements, but the constant is "some people are gonna lose their rights and culture in this process because we are better than them". Whether that "better" is because of prosperity, freedom, state's rights, or a federated parliamentary government under a monarchy seems to matter little. The only thing to be negotiated is how much blood these ends are going to require and who gets the bill. For this reason, Laxer's book is worth the sticker price.