Is Canada just a footnote to American history, the pleasant but boring “neighbour to the north”? Americans seem to think so and many Canadians buy into the story. Now a leading U.S. historian and strategic thinker, Eliot Cohen, argues an entirely different narrative. In a new book out this week, Cohen says the distinctive way that Americans wage war originated not in their bloody Civil War or even in the world wars, but “in a protracted contest with our most enduring and effective enemy of all: Canada.”