Sean Mills

Scott Rutherford

Karen Dubinsky

Even though they are aware of the Third World in relation to their daily lives, most Canadians know little about the historical foundations and complex nature of their country's entanglements with non-Western societies. Canada and the Third World provides a long overdue introduction to Canada's historical relationship with the Third World. The book critically explores this relationship by asking four central questions: how can we understand the historical roots of Canada's relations with the Third World? How have Canadians, individuals and institutions alike, practiced and imagined development? How can we integrate Canada into global histories of empire, decolonization, and development? And how should we understand the relationship between issues such as poverty, racism, gender equality, and community development in the First and Third World alike?

Overlapping Histories

Canada and the Third World

International adoptions are both high-profile and controversial, with the celebrity adoptions and critically acclaimed movies such as Casa de los babys of recent years increasing media coverage and influencing public opinion. Neither celebrating nor condemning cross-cultural adoption, Karen Dubinsky considers the political symbolism of children in her examination of adoption and migration controversies in North America, Cuba, and Guatemala. Babies Without Borders tells the interrelated stories of Cuban children caught in Operation Peter Pan, adopted Black and Native American children who became icons in the Sixties, and Guatemalan children whose 'disappearance' today in transnational adoption networks echoes their fate during the country's brutal civil war. Drawing from extensive research as well as from her critical observations as an adoptive parent, Karen Dubinsky aims to move adoption debates beyond the current dichotomy of 'imperialist kidnap' versus 'humanitarian rescue.' Integrating the personal with the scholarly, Babies Without Borders exposes what happens when children bear the weight of adult political conflicts.

Adoption and Migration across the Americas

Babies without Borders

Why do men rape women? This is a question for which there are many political, psychological, and sociological answers, but few historical ones. Improper Advances is one of the first books to explore the history of sexual violence in any country. A study of women, men, and sexual crime in rural and northern Ontario, it expands the terms of current debates about sexuality and sexual violence. Karen Dubinsky relies on criminal case files, a revealing but largely untapped source for social historians, to retell individual stories of sexual danger—crimes such as rape, abortion, seduction, murder, and infanticide. Her research supports many feminist analyses of sexual violence: that crimes are expressions of power, that courts are prejudiced by the victim's background, and that most assaults occur within the victims' homes and communities. Dubinsky distinguishes herself from most feminist scholars, however, by refusing to view women solely as victims and sex as a tool of oppression. She finds that these women actively sought and took pleasure in sexuality, but they distinguished between wanted and unwanted sexual encounters and attempted to punish coercive sex despite obstacles in the court system and the community. Confronting a number of key theoretical and historiographic controversies, including recent debates over sexuality in feminist theory and politics, she challenges current thinking on the history of women, gender, and sexuality.

Rape and Heterosexual Conflict in Ontario, 1880-1929

Improper Advances

Xenia Reloba de la Cruz

Maria Carida Cumana

For more than thirty years, musician Carlos Varela has been a guide to the heart, soul, and sound of Havana. One of the best known singer-songwriters to emerge out of the Cuban nueva trova movement, Varela has toured in North America, the Caribbean, Latin America, and Europe. In North America, Varela is “Cuba’s Bob Dylan.” In Cuba, he is the voice of the generation that came of age in the 1990s and for whom his songs are their generation’s anthems. My Havana is a lyrical exploration of Varela’s life and work, and of the vibrant musical, literary, and cinematic culture of his generation. Popular both among Cubans on the island and in the diaspora, Varela is legendary for the intense political honesty of lyrics. He is one of the most important musicians in the Cuban scene today. In My Havana, writers living in Canada, Cuba, the United States, and Great Britain use Varela’s life and music to explore the history and cultural politics of contemporary Cuba. The book also contains an extended interview with Varela and English translations of the lyrics to all his recorded songs, most of which are appearing in print for the very first time.

The Musical City of Carlos Varela

My Havana

Adele Perry

Henry Yu

In some ways, Canadian history has always been international, comparative, and wide-ranging. However, in recent years the importance of the ties between Canadian and transnational history have become increasingly clear. Within and Without the Nation brings scholars from a range of disciplines together to examine Canada’s past in new ways through the lens of transnational scholarship. Moving beyond well-known comparisons with Britain and the United States, the fifteen essays in this collection connect Canada with Latin America, the Caribbean, and the wider Pacific world, as well as with other parts of the British Empire. Examining themes such as the dispossession of indigenous peoples, the influence of nationalism and national identity, and the impact of global migration, Within and Without the Nation is a text which will help readers rethink what constitutes Canadian history.

Canadian History as Transnational History

Within and Without the Nation

A lively and wide-ranging work on the history of the North American honeymoon, and, of necessity, the tourist industry at Niagara Falls. Dubinsky charts the growth of Niagara Falls as a tourist destination from the 1850s to the 1960s and explains how it acquired its reputation as the "Honeymoon Capital of the World." Ultimately, the author asks: Of all the ways to promote a waterfall, why honeymoons? Winner of the 2000 Albert B. Corey prize from the Canadian Historical Association and the American Historical Association for the best book in Canadian-American history.

Honeymooning and Tourism at Niagara Falls

The Second Greatest Disappointment

Maria Caridad Cumaná

For more than thirty years, musician Carlos Varela has been a guide to the heart, soul, and sound of Havana. My Havana is a lyrical exploration of Varela's life and work, and of the vibrant musical, literary, and cinematic culture of his generation.

Karen Dubinsky

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