George Grant. Lament for a Nation : the Defeat of Canadian Nationalism. New York, McClelland & Stewart, 1965.

George Grant’s Lament for a Nation is a foundational text in Canadian political philosophy and political science that pronounces the end of Canada as a sovereign, distinct nation. Writing in the wake of the 1963 collapse of Prime Minister John Diefenbaker’s Progressive Conservative government, Grant argues that Canada’s elite and Liberal establishment inevitably succumbed to the economic, cultural, and military hegemony of American continentalism. Far from a mere political critique, the essay provides a profound philosophical analysis of how modern technology and liberal capitalism impose a universal, homogenizing culture that eradicates local traditions and national sovereignty. Representing a classic defense of "Red Tory" organic conservatism, Grant views the absorption of Canada into the American empire not as a deliberate choice, but as an unavoidable consequence of the modern drive for technological progress. Paradoxically, while conceived as a tragic eulogy for a dying nation, the book became a powerful catalyst for the resurgence of Canadian economic and cultural nationalism in the late 1960s and 1970s.