bout de papier, Vol. 30, No. 4 (2019), p. 35
BY ROBERT BOTHWELL
AND J.L. GRANATSTEIN
UBC PRESS, VANCOUVER, 2017.
412 pp, $45.00
WHAT DO HISTORIANS DO WITH the interviews they conduct with insiders about the conduct of government business?
If you want the succinct story, two of Canada’s most respected historians of Canadian foreign policy, Robert Bothwell and Jack Granatstein, have come up with a fascinating book, full of familiar names from the “DFAIT” and “External” past.
@ Any claim that the French embassy It’s a book of collected interviews that served as the basis of Pirouette, their analysis of Pierre Trudeau’s foreign policy, published in 1990. The interviews are gems, selected from among hours of conversations with ex-ministers, ministerial aides and senior mandarins.
The book begins with a useful introductory explanation on how the interviews were conducted, how they were recorded and what they were about. Its claim that many of the interviews are “superb in content and revealingly frank” is unduly modest. For insiders who know how government works (and sometimes how it doesn’t), this is wonderful material. Outsiders will be fascinated by the diversity of views on many subjects, which must have made it difficult for the authors to pull together coherent strands of thought about some of Canada’s most significant foreign policy debates.
The book defies easy summary because it touches on so many subjects, from foreign policy reviews and the Third Option, to the FLQ crisis and its impact on “External Affairs”. The authors are right to stress the frankness of the interviewees’ opinions. Conducted only a few years after Trudeau’s resignation in 1984, the interviews touching on the strengths, weaknesses and roles of others will strike readers as both amusing and stunningly cogent.
© On the question of the Jews The portions looking at “External’s” many internal issues, from personnel problems, to reorganization, to credibility with the Prime Minister, will resonate strongly today. This book is too important to fly so low under the radar screens. To any currently-serving Foreign Service officer, it’s invaluable reading, if only to prepare for the time when the historians come calling.
Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 30, No. 4 (2019), p. 35. Read the rest of this issue →
