Rethinking the Great White North - Race, Nature, and the Historical Geographies of Whiteness in Canada (Paperback)

Canada's claim to a distinct national identity is bound to the
idea of a Great White North. Images of snow, wilderness, and emptiness
in our most cherished narratives seem innocent, yet this path-breaking
volume shows they contain the seeds of contemporary racism.

Rethinking the Great White North moves the idea of
whiteness to the centre of debates about Canadian history, geography,
and identity. Informed by critical race theory and the insight that
racism is geographical as well as historical and cultural, scholars
from multiple disciplines explore how notions of race, whiteness, and
nature helped shape the nation, from travel writing to treaty making,
from scientific research to park planning, and within small towns,
cities, and tourist centres. Four themes -- identity and knowledge,
city spaces, Arctic journeys, and Native land -- serve as entry points
to trace how Canada's identity as a white country was built on
historical geographies of nature.

This insightful collection not only reassesses Canadian history and
identity, it offers a vocabulary for thinking about whiteness, nature,
and nation as Canada enters into new debates about the North and the
nature of multiculturalism.

Andrew Baldwin is a lecturer in human geography at
Durham University. Laura Cameron is an associate
professor of geography at Queen's University and Canada Research
Chair in Historical Geographies of Nature. Audrey
Kobayashi is a professor of geography and Queen's
Research Chair at Queen's University.

Contributors: Luis L.M. Aguiar, Kay Anderson,
Stephen Bocking, Emilie Cameron, Jessica Dempsey, Brian Egan, Bruce
Erickson, Kevin Gould, Roger Keil, Phillip Gordon Mackintosh, Claire
Major, Tina I.L. Marten, Tyler McCreary, Richard Milligan, Sherene H.
Razack, Catriona Sandilands, Juanita Sundberg, and Jocelyn Thorpe.