Peace History Society

The winner for 2023-2024: Donald W. Maxwell, Unguarded Border: American Emigres in Canada during the Vietnam War (Rutgers University Press, 2023).

Donald W. Maxwell’s Unguarded Border: American Emigres in Canada during the Vietnam War explores the difficult choice of young men facing the draft during the Vietnam War to find refuge in Canada. Maxwell provides a fresh, transnational perspective by exploring the issue from both sides of the border. A social history of who emigrated and why, Maxwell raises important questions about citizenship and national identity in a period of social and political turmoil. He shows the challenges and successes of young Americans who rejected militarism and compulsory military service, some of whom made permanent new lives in Canada, and others who faced loneliness and returned to the United States even before amnesty programs became available. These stories are integrated with those of Canadians who opposed the war and generally welcomed the Americans, with support groups forming in many cities and the Canadian government providing legal residency. This book adds new and essential details to the history of the anti-war movement and conscientious objection of the 1960s and 1970s. Maxwell also ably demonstrates how the Canadian government, by disregarding the draft status of American men entering the country, represented public opinion in opposing the war in Vietnam without antagonizing the United States. Maxwell’s study is a welcome addition to the field of peace history.

Prize Committee: Michaelle Tusan (Chair), Roger Peace, Wendy Chmielewski

Donald W. Maxwell winner of the Scott Bills Memorial Prize, with Gail Presbey, PHS President.

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