Description: Sir John Seeley once wrote that the British Empire was acquired in a "fit of absence of mind." Whatever the truth of this comment, it is certainly arguable that the empire was dismantled in such a fit. Canada and the End of Empire deals with the implications to Canada and Canadians of British decolonization and the end of empire - particularly during the period of rapid disengagement during the 1950s and 60s. Contributors not only look at the political and diplomatic pressures behind the dismantling of empire, but they also embrace a broad range of themes, including the changing economic relationship with Great Britain, the role of educational and cultural institutions in maintaining the British connection, the Suez Crisis, the royal tour of 1959, the decision to adopt a new flag in 1964, the efforts to find a formula for repatriating the constitution, the Canadianization of the Royal Canadian Navy, and the attitudes of First Nations to the changed nature of the Anglo-Canadian relationship. Historians in Commonwealth countries tend to look at the end of British rule from a nationalist perspective. This book challenges this view and demonstrates the centrality of imperial history in Canadian historiography. An important addition to the growing canon of empire studies and imperial history, Canada and the End of Empire will be of interest to historians of the Commonwealth, and to scholars and students interested in the relationship between colonialism and nationalism.

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