John Boyko

In this book, John Boyko looks at Canada at the time of the US Civil War, with a focus on how the Government and Canadians viewed and played a role in the war. He examines how the US experience with civil war shaped the perspectives of the fathers of confederation as they shaped the Dominion of Canada.

Mr. Boyko uses six "guides" to lead us through this history. John Anderson is an escaped slave who came to Canada via the underground railway. As slavery was a major issue in the US, how Canada dealt with escaped slaves was an important factor in Canada-US relations, with different perspectives from the Union and Confederate sides. William Henry Seward was Secretary of State to President Lincoln with a strong desire to annex Canada. Sarah Emma Edmonds was one of 40,000 Canadians and Maritimers who joined either the Union or Confederate armies. Disguised as a man, she worked as a field nurse and a spy. Jacob Thompson was one of many agitators sent by the Confederate government to raise support in Canada for their side. George Brown, a newspaper editor, entered politics and was a voice for Confederation to save Canada from the failure of the US political system. And, Sir John A. Macdonald led the new Dominion of Canada, including dealing with the aftermath of the US Civil war.

I liked Mr. Boyko's later book on Canada's role in the Vietnam war better than this one. In that book, he used his six guides more robustly and brought varying perspectives to the fore more clearly than in this one. Blood and Daring reads more like a standard history book -- and one with a limited perspective. I didn't find the book as Canadian as I expected...there weren't as many details about what was happening in the various provincial governments as there were about what was happening in the actual war. I bought this book for that Canadian perspective -- it was there, but it could have been stronger.

The Epilogue is very well done and provides lots of the kind of information I was looking for. If only the whole book could have been like that!… (mer)

This is a very interesting and enlightening book. John Boyko looks at Canada's role in the Viet Nam war, and the war's role in Canada. Canada played a diplomatic role early on, trying to avoid a war and discouraging the Americans from further involvement. American draft dodgers and deserters came to Canada, as did Vietnamese refugees. All made lasting contributions to our society and culture. And the war itself shaped Canadian nationalism as we differentiated ourselves from our southern neighbour. These are just a few of the aspects of the war explored by Mr. Boyko.

I liked the broad perspective of the book, the engaging writing style, the use of vignettes. I liked the postscript which brought the stories of people profiled in the book up to date.

The book made me wonder how our current knowledge of other wars or world events may be incomplete. We need more books like this that take a wider, societal lens to such events.… (mer)