Lament for a Nation? The Importance of Canadian Thought and Experience
Americans have not always paid close attention to the thought, politics, and experience of their northern neighbors. The reverse is not true. Indeed, Canadians have sometimes neglected their own history of ideas and letters while paying attention to that of Americans. This reader brings together writings by key Canadian philosophers, notable Jewish Canadians writers, and contemporary journalists to ask what lessons can be learned—by Americans, Canadians, or anyone else—from recent Canadian experience. The guiding question that the readings ask is what role the idea of the nation has played in the past half-century. George P. Grant’s Lament for a Nation, published in 1965, set a tone of skepticism about the future of Canadian nationalism, while others, like Charles Taylor, have expressed guarded optimism. Canadian Jews wrote, and continue to write, incisively on this topic, often taking their own community as a barometer of the health of the nation. The shocking spread of anti-Semitism in Canadian society raises new fears about its future.
This reader was developed by Dr. Josh Tolle and Eliana Rosenberg.