Creating Postwar Canada: Community, Diversity, and Dissent, 1945-75

Postwar Canada was far more complex than the well-worn stereotypes of Cold War conformity and 1960s rebellion suggest. Various parts of the country experienced nationalist awakenings; a baby boom was accompanied by increased immigration and an expanding labour force; women were demanding access to birth control; and Canada was rethinking its relationship with the United States.

Creating Postwar Canada: Community, Diversity, and Dissent showcases new research on this period, exploring postwar Canada's diverse symbols and battlegrounds. Contributors to the first half of the collection consider evolving definitions of the nation in Quebec, Acadian New Brunswick, and English Canada. They examine the ways in which Canada was reimagined to include both the Canadian North and landscapes structured by trade and commerce. The essays that make up the latter half of the anthology analyze debates on shopping hours, professional striptease, the "provider" role of fathers, interracial adoption, sexuality on campus, and illegal drug use, issues that shaped how the country defined itself in sociocultural and political terms.

This collection sheds light on an underexamined era in Canadian history. It also contributes to the historiography of nationalism, gender and the family, consumer cultures, and countercultures.