Forget all you think you know about the Kennedy years. With narrative flair and sparkling storytelling, acclaimed historian John Boyko explores the crucial period when America and its allies were fighting the Cold War's most treacherous battles, Canadians were trading sovereignty for security, and everyone feared a nuclear holocaust.At the centre of this story are three leaders. President John F. Kennedy pledged to pay any price to advance his vision for America's ...

Born in the prairies, from the ravages of the Depression, the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation was a new political party that offered a socialist vision and idealistic belief that Canada could rebuild itself to become better and more fair than ever before. The CCF grew to the point that, by 1943, a national poll found that it was Canada's most popular party. But it's success bred fear among those on the political right, including Big Business, the progressive Conservative Party, and rel...

Blood and Daring will change our views not just of Canada's relationship with the United States, but of the Civil War, Confederation and Canada itself.In Blood and Daring, lauded historian John Boyko makes a compelling argument that Confederation occurred when and as it did largely because of the pressures of the Civil War. Many readers will be shocked by Canada's deep connection to the war--Canadians fought in every major battle, supplied arms to the South, and m...

In Pursuit of Tomorrow is the stunning new biography of an innovator, engineer, explorer, and relentless dreamer.Sandford Fleming directed the building of the intercontinental then the transcontinental railway; reset the world's clocks with the adoption of global time zones; championed an undersea cable linking the British empire and a bias-free cable news network; founded an institute to stir imaginations and forge progress; laid out roads, towns, and waterfronts;...

Forty-five years after the fall of Saigon, John Boyko brings to light the little-known story of Canada's involvement in the American War in Vietnam.Through the lens of six remarkable people, some well-known, others obscure, bestselling historian John Boyko recounts Canada's often-overlooked involvement in that conflict as peacemaker, combatant, and provider of weapons and sanctuary.When Brigadier General Sherwood Lett arrived in Vietnam ove...

To understand Canada one must understand racism, for Canada was born and grew as a racist state. Race riots, segregated schools, racially-based union membership, mass deportations of innocent people, the state sanctioned kidnapping of children, a conscious attempt at cultural genocide and much more have shaped Canada's history. Last Steps to Freedom: The Evolution of Canadian Racism encourages Canadians to look truthfully at their past, admit mistakes, atone for crimes and applaud...

The Hill Times: Best Books of 2017As Sir John A. Macdonald intended, the federal government must be recognized as the nation’s voice.Power. It is the capacity to inspire while encouraging and enabling change, and it matters. When handled in a positive way, power is the key to the state’s ability to strengthen the nation and improve lives. But state power, John Boyko argues forcefully, works best when concentrated on a federal level, as Sir John A. ...

In the late 1920s, Canada’s economy was showing all the signs of a full-fledged depression. Life savings were evaporating, unemployment was up, and exports were dramatically down. Riding on the popularity of his promise to “blast” Canada’s way into world markets — and thus stop the economy’s downward spiral — Richard Bedford Bennett defeated William Lyon Mackenzie King at the polls on July 28, 1930, and assumed the leadership of the country. Over the next five years, however, Bennett’s nam...

Forty-five years after the fall of Saigon, John Boyko brings to light the little-known story of Canada's involvement in the American War in Vietnam.Through the lens of six remarkable people, some well-known, others obscure, bestselling historian John Boyko recounts Canada's often-overlooked involvement in that conflict as peacemaker, combatant, and provider of weapons and sanctuary.When Brigadier General Sherwood Lett arrived in Vietnam ove...