The headline in The Cipher Brief shows the usual bit of attitude. “Oh, Canada. The Yanks Are Not Likely to Invade.” But the review itself, while flawed, is thorough and impressive. It comes courtesy of Bill Rapp, who holds a Ph.D. in European History and served more than 35 years as a CIA analyst, diplomat, and senior executive. He can read and he can write.

As Rapp observes, my concerns in Shadows of Tyranny “revolve primarily around two issues: the possibility of an autocratic dictatorship in the United States under Donald Trump; and the inability of so many in this country—as well as his own—to see the dangers this poses to the United States, Western democracies, and Canada in particular.”

Rapp describes Shadows as “well-researched and easily readable.” He notes that, over the years, historians have covered the period thoroughly, and wonders what I could bring “that would be new.” He recalls “having to wade through a pile of academic studies in this very field during his years in graduate school, studies that seemed to exhaust the need for further examinations of the phenomenon of fascist and communist dictatorship. “

Then he springs an insight: “Hence, [my] biographical approach, which at times does deliver a fresh and more personal perspective.” Yes, exactly. That approach is part of my broader campaign, whose mantra is Let’s Make History Exciting Again. I’m confident we can agree that the teaching of history has fallen off precipitously in recent years.

Rapp takes the traditional historian’s position that my approach “obstructs a more complete understanding of the dynamics” of events and chides me for “ignoring the forces in American society” that exposed Joe McCarthy, for example, as a fraud and a pathological liar. Eventually, they did, yes. After he destroyed more than a few lives.

But my book’s biggest shortcoming, according to Rapp, is that it “takes so seriously the prospect of a Trump-led invasion of Canada if he does recapture the Oval Office.” The reviewer not only ignores my admittedly cursory summary of previous American invasions but, more importantly, misses the point I make about invasion by proxy or emulation. Remember the Freedom Convoy that besieged Ottawa in 2022? I describe that as straight-up mimicry of the infamous attack on the American capitol. And note that 40 per cent of convoy funding came from the U.S. Is that not a kind of invasion? More a rhyming, perhaps, than a repetition.

And that brings us to a final point. Rapp correctly observes that I cite “the unfortunate quotation about those who fail to learn from the past being condemned to repeat it.” But, curiously, given the closeness of his reading, he fails to mention that a different quotation, which I also cite, more accurately reflects my book’s stance. It is often attributed to Mark Twain: “History never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme.”

Rapp observes that, in my final chapter, an epilogue, I ask, “Where is our Churchill?” Here I presume to speak, not just as a Canadian, but as a citizen of the world casting about for someone able to lead an effective resistance against the rise of a fascist demagogue in the world’s most powerful country. Since I raised that question, and my book came out, that country has provided an answer. I headlined my take Kamala Harris: Woman of Destiny.