teaching resources | Example syllabi
"Canadian-U.S. Borderland Connections -- Identity, Security, and Contact"
HISTORY 3993-TOPICS IN CANADIAN HISTORY,
SOCIETY, POLITICS AND CULTURE
Fall Semester, 2010
Instructor Brandon Dimmel
Course Description:
“North America runs more naturally north and south than east and west
as specified by national boundaries and…modern communication and efficient
transportation help to blur distinctions between regional neighbours. While people living near the border pay allegiance in their respective sovereign authorities in Washington, D.C. and Ottawa, they sometimes have more in common with their neighbours across the border than with their fellow citizens.” (see: Victor Konrad and Lauren McKinsey. Borderlands Reflections: The United States and Canada (Orono: Borderlands, 1989), iii.
This course explores the history of the U.S.-Canada border from the Revolutionary War until today, examining specific examples of how conceptions of the boundary have been constructed and shaped over time. Through the discussion of theoretical and historical interpretations of the border, the course will present an overview of the historical themes and cultural tensions arising between the U.S. and Canada along the border. Students will learn about the history of the border region at the local and national level, as well as various interdisciplinary approaches to studying the border. It will encourage students to share their own feelings about the border, including thoughts on security, immigration, and its role in
shaping regional and national identities.
Required Readings:
Permeable Border: the Great Lakes Basin as Transnational Region, 1650-1990 (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2005) by John J. Bukowczyk et al.
Parallel Destinies : Canadian-American Relations West of the Rockies
(Seattle: Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest in association with University of Washington Press, 2002) edited by John M. Findlay and Ken S. Coates.
The Border: Canada, the U.S., and Dispatches from the 49th Parallel (Toronto: Anchor Canada, 2004) by James Laxer.
Recommended:
Walking the Line (Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre, 1989), by Marian
Botsford.
The Borderlands of the American and Canadian Wests: Essays on the Regional
History of the 49th Parallel (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2006) edited by Sterling Evans.
SCHEDULE OF READING ASSIGNMENTS AND LECTURES
Week 1: Sept. 7 - Introduction
o Expectations, Readings, Grading, Syllabus
o Introduction to the study of Canadian-American borderlands. State of the
field. Discussion of perceptions of the border and The Other
o Reading: Laxer, Chapter 1; Findlay/Coates, Preface
Week 2: Sept. 14 – The Border’s Beginnings
o Migration of Loyalists to Upper Canada, Maritimes
o Drawing of the border, Treaty of Paris 1783
o The interaction of early settlers along the border, with specific focus on the St.Croix Valley between New Brunswick, Maine.
o Introduction to regional and national tensions, regional reactions to the
War of 1812
o Reading: Bukowczyk, Chapters 1-2
Week 3: Sept. 21 – Laying the Western Boundary
o Origins of the Oregon Dispute
o Reacting to the Gold Rush, establishment of British Columbia
o Conceiving a border on the edge of an empire
Reading: Laxer, Chapter 3; Findlay/Coates, Chapter 9
*Essay topic list distributed
Week 4: Sept. 8 – An Uncertain Future
o The end of mercantilism in Canada
o The rise and fall of reciprocity
o The causes of Confederation: Fenians, political stalemate, economic and
military weakness in the face of Manifest Destiny
Reading: Bukowczyk, Chapter 3
Week 5: Oct. 5 – Establishing an Identity
o Similarities and differences: Continentalism, Imperialism, and Nationalism
o The construction of a Canadian culture: British, American, a little of
both, or neither?
o Consolidation: Laying the CPR
o The concept of Canada as a borderland
o Responses to the Borderlands Project – an oversimplification?
Reading: Bukowczyk, Chapter 6; Findlay/Coates, Chapter 5
*Essay Proposals Due
Week 6: Oct. 12 – Ethnicity, Race, and the Border
o American vs. Canadian conceptions of race, melting pot vs. mosaic
o How did immigrants feel about the border?
o Proving one’s citizenship and finding one’s place in a borderland
Reading: Laxer, Chapter 4; Findlay/Coates, Chapter 4
*Tentative Grades Handed Out
Week 7: Oct. 19 – The Emergence of Border Security
o The evolution of border security: reasons for its emergence, and its
opponents
o Impact of the National Policy, McKinley Tariff
o You go through free: Who benefitted from stiffer security?
o Diverging viewpoints: exploring apprehensions about the border in the
U.S.,Canada
Reading: Bukowczyk, Chapter 5; Findlay/Coates, Introduction
Week 8: Oct. 26 – MIDTERM EXAM
Week 9: Nov. 2 – Flaunting the Law
o A short history of smuggling, rum-running
o Local versus federal attitudes towards excise duties and the Customs man
o Not just booze: the Customs officer as moral arbiter
Reading: Laxer, Chapters 5, 6
Week 10: Nov. 9 – Anglo-Canadian Immigration up to the First World War
o Reasons for migration from Canada to the United States
o How Americans felt about Canadian immigrants, and where the latter found
their place in society south of the border
o Canada as a ‘sieve’ for European immigrants
Reading: Bukowczyk, Chapter 4
Week 11: Nov. 16 – The Great War’s Impact on the International Boundary
o The challenges of border communities split by war, isolationism
o Where to fit national identity in international communities
o The border targeted: sabotage along the boundary
o The dawn of a new security age
Reading: Handout to be provided
*Major Paper Due in class
Week 12: Nov. 23 – “Children of a Common Mother”: The Interwar Years and
WWII
o The emergence of an economic, military and political friendship
o The great paradox: celebrating an allegiance while barring the passageway
o Canada’s post-WWI identity: Colony to Nation – to Colony?
Reading: Findlay/Coates, Chapter 7
Week 13: Nov. 30 – Cascadia
o Examining the border after the Second World War
o The case for Cascadia and attitudes towards the border pre-9/11
o Comparing the U.S.-Canadian boundary with European borders
o The impact of regionalism, globalization and American culture on national
identities
Reading: Laxer, Chapters 8, 9; Findlay/Coates, Chapter 11
Week 14: Dec. 7 – Impressions of a Post-9/11 Border; Review
o A line in the sand: the war against the unknown
o Turning inwards: can the ‘international community’ survive the border
chokepoint?
o Reflecting on a century of change
o Review
Reading: Laxer, Chapter 11, 12; Findlay/Coates, Chapter 8
FINAL EXAM DATE – Tuesday, December 21, 6:00 p.m.
Useful Websites
Canada Border Services Agency
http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/menu-eng.html
U.S. Customs and Border Protection
http://www.cbp.gov/
Border City Medicine: Windsor’s History of Innovative Health Practice
http://hih.uwindsor.ca/wordpress/index.php/2009/10/07/border-city-medicine-toward-a-
history-of-health-practice-in-windsor/
The Walkerville Times
http://www.walkervilletimes.com/bordercities.htm
DRIC
http://www.partnershipborderstudy.com/
PM Opens New Crossing – The Saint Croix Courier, Jan. 12, 2010.
http://stcroixcourier.ca/fullnews.php?view=122
Peace Arch International Park
http://www.peacearchpark.org/
Sample Essay Topics (More will be distributed later in the semester)
How has the border been interpreted by immigrants, people who often have
little conception of the differences between an American and a Canadian?
What were the major causes for the migration of Ontarians into the American
Midwest during the late nineteenth century? Or, alternatively, the migration of Quebecers and Maritimers to New England?
Has Canadian economic policy helped or hindered that country’s attempt to
establish a national identity?
How has heightened border security affected attitudes towards the border in
Canada and/or the U.S.? How has it affected life in border communities?