Book Description

Few historians are as qualified as C.P. Stacey to address the questions underlying Canada and the Age of Conflict. This volume completes his authoritative and magisterial general history of Canada's relations with the outside world. The basic theme of the work is that foreign policy, like charity, begins at home. To this end Professor Stacey emphasizes how changing social, economic, and political conditions within Canada have dictated her reactions to external problems. Volume II begins with the diplomatic revolution of 1921, the election of Mackenzie King as Prime Minister, and the appearance of O.D. Skelton; proceeds to cover the twenties, the Bennett interlude, King's return to office, and World War II; and concludes with the ending of the King era and the aftermath of the war. Drawing extensively on new material from archival records and personal papers recently opened to researchers, Stacey strongly portrays the individual makers of Canadian policy and the statesmen abroad with whom they interacted. The overmastering influence of the office of the Prime Minister, and of the men who held that position, is an underlying theme. This volume concerns itself particularly with the personality and policies of the man who dominated the political history of the period – William Lyon Mackenzie King. Elegantly written, wirtty, and comprehensive, the volume represents a distinctive achievement by one of Canada's pre-eminent historians.