Review by Choice Review
The US threat to Canada's survival has been a consistent theme for more than two centuries. Never was this more true than in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, when British North Americans feared that the victorious North might reunite the nation with a foreign war that could swallow Canada whole. Instead, the only real military attempt came from the Fenians, an Irish American brotherhood that sought Ireland's freedom by threatening Britain's colonial possessions in North America. The thought of invasion helped push the British colonies to Confederation in 1867, and, as Senior demonstrates in this brief, clear military account, the Fenians had, in fact, the potential to be a major force. But squabbling, disorganization, and ineffective command on the Fenian side more than matched that in Canada, where the militia was largely ill-trained and ill-equipped and the British garrison was small. There were skirmishes that produced a few dead on both sides enough to create martyrs among the Irish and to cause the erection of statues in Canada but the Fenian "invasions" dwindled to nothing by 1870. For Canadiana or comprehensive military history collections.-J. L. Granatstein, York University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
