Rethinking the Great White North: Race, Nature, and the Historical Geographies of Whiteness in Canada - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0774820144 ISBN 13: 9780774820141

Publisher: UBC Press, 2012

Synopsis

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 meaning of the nation.

About this title

Book Description:

A path-breaking exploration of racism in Canada and its deep-rooted ties to notions of nature and the North.

From the Inside Flap:

Canadian national identity is bound to the idea of a Great White
North. Images of snow, wilderness, and emptiness seem innocent, yet
this path-breaking book reveals they contain the seeds of racism.
Informed by the insight that racism is geographical as well as
historical and cultural, the contributors trace how notions of race,
whiteness, and nature helped construct a white country, in travel
writing and treaty making, scientific research and park planning, and
in towns, cities, and tourist centres. Rethinking the Great White
North offers a new vocabulary for contemporary debates on
Canada's role in the North and the meaning of the nation.

About this edition

• Publisher: UBC Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0774820144
• ISBN 13: 9780774820141
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 356
• Editor: Baldwin Andrew, Cameron Laura, Kobayashi Audrey