Prof. Bryan Palmer Launches New Book Exploring Impact of 1960s Rebellions on the Canadian Identity
Just how rebellious were Canadians in the 1960’s? And what lasting effects did that rebellion have on our sense of self?
These were the questions explored by Canada Research Chair Dr. Bryan Palmer during the March 31 book launch in Toronto for his new book entitled Canada’s 1960s: The Ironies of Identity in a Rebellious Era.The event featured a conversation with Prof. Palmer, who is also chair of Trent’s Canadian Studies Department, with novelist, critic and playwright Rick Salutin. Together they discussed the legacy of 1960s rebellion and political change using archival images and scenes from the NFB documentary “The Battle in Toronto” to explore the significance of that tumultuous era, and its concomitant challenges to sex and gender and ethnicity.
Focusing on the major movements and personalities of the time, as well as the lasting influence of the period, Canada’s 1960s examines the legacy of this rebellious decade’s impact on contemporary notions of Canadian identity. Prof. Palmer demonstrates how after massive postwar immigration, new political movements, and at times violent protest, Canada could no longer be viewed in the old ways. National identity, long rooted in notions of Canada as a white settler Dominion of the North, marked profoundly by its origins as part of the British Empire, had become unsettled. Concerned with how Canadians entered the Sixties relatively secure in their national identities, Prof. Palmer explores the forces that contributed to the post-1970 uncertainty about what it is to be Canadian. Tracing the significance of dissent and upheaval among youth, trade unionists, university students, Native peoples, and Québécois, Prof. Palmer shows how the Sixties ended the entrenched, nineteenth-century notions of Canada. The irony of this rebellious era, however, was that while it promised so much in the way of change, it failed to provide a new understanding of Canadian national identity. A compelling and highly accessible work of interpretive history, Canada’s 1960s is the book of the decade about an era many regard as the most turbulent and significant since the years of the Great Depression and World War II.
