Description: Canada is usually seen in the United States as cold, worthy, safe and rather dull, and the United States is seen in Canada as a land of unparalleled opportunity and unparalleled failure, a country of heights and abysses. Exceptional Americans argues that Canadians and Americans resemble each other more than either would care to admit.
Review Quotes: "[Offers] a great deal of insight on the complex history of Canada and the United States, their relations, and the evolution of borderlands. Bothwell unsettles facile assumptions of deep-rooted difference and points to an apparent historical trajectory of increasing convergence between the two nations over time."--Jon Parmenter, Journal of World History
"Bothwell writes of these two nations always clearly and sometimes with wry humor; he is a pleasure to read."--CHOICE"Robert Bothwell's ambitious dual history of the United States and Canada throws familiar episodes and figures into new light."--Nathan M. Greenfield, Times Literary Supplement"Valuable, ambitious, and fascinating...Canadians as well as Americans are both inheritors of what F. Scott Fitzgerald cast as the 'fresh, green breast of the new world' whose discovery was 'the last and greatest of all human dreams.' What its inhabitants have done with it so far, in somewhat different ways while still inhabiting the same essential culture, is Bothwell's fascinating story."--Jeremy Kinsman, Literary Review of Canada" -Jeremy Kinsman, Literary Review of Canada"One could say that reciprocity is still the watchword of North American relations. Mr. Bothwell has produced a page-turner on the subject. Two grateful nations should thank him."--David M. Shribman, Wall Street Journal"Unlike much academic history, [t]his book is one that is actually a pleasure to read."--Asa McKercher, H-Diplo