Daniel Francis argues that in their history classrooms, and through their history textbooks, young Canadians in the early twentieth century were educated to become citizens of empire as much as to become citizens of Canada. Through a study of early twentieth-century English-language textbooks used in Canadian schools, Francis outlines the details of early twentieth-century history curriculums as being largely political, military, and constitutional. Events outlined include early twentieth-century teaching of the Conquest and events on the Plains of Abraham, the American Revolution and migration of Loyalists, the War of 1812, Rebellions of 1837-8, the Durham Report and Lord Durham himself, and Confederation. Students were explicitly educated in the ideology of imperialism through a master narrative of Canadian history that argued the superiority of British government and way of life, and the gradual evolution of Canadian society to playing an equal part in Britain’s imperial enterprise.

The presentation of imperialist themes in English-language textbooks mirrored their importance in larger Canadian society. Francis explores the importance of imperialism through Empire Day celebrations that highlighted Anglo-Saxon superiority and allowed Anglo-Canadians to glorify their membership in the “Master Race.” While Empire Day provided a venue for Canadians to celebrate their British heritage, so too did Official Visits of members of the Royal Family, beginning with the 1860 tour of the Prince of Wales (son of Queen Victoria and later Edward VII) to the 1939 visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, parents of the present Queen.

At the end of his chapter, Francis returns again to his study of English-speaking history textbooks and their treatment of Aboriginal people. These “Textbook Indians” were largely constructed as sinister, vicious and without history or culture to justify Anglo-Canadian hegemony and racism by focusing almost exclusively on what Aboriginal cultures “lacked” in relation to a sense of European superiority. The pervasive theme of European superiority over Aboriginal cultures was present through depictions of war, the treatment of European settlers and Jesuit missionaries, the history of the Métis and the Red River insurrection (1869-1870), The North-West Rebellion (1885), and trial of Louis Riel.

Francis traces Canada’s myth of a cultural mosaic within the racially-charged atmosphere of the first half of the twentieth century and the writings and work of John Murray Gibbon. Imperial enthusiasm dies, Francis claims, between the two world wars leaving Britishness as one “tile” among many in the Canadian cultural mosaic, but its resonance remains present through Canada’s governmental infrastructure and institutions, and in a lasting divide between English and French Canadian understandings of history.