Long ago, when Canada still lacked a distinctive flag of its own, but instead used what we called the Red British ensign, and the country lacked a national anthem, high school students like myself refused to stand for 'God Save the Queen'. But, nevertheless, England had its pull on many of us. I lived in England when Time Magazine carried a story about Canada having finally chosen its own flag, the now famous red Maple Leaf on a white background with two red stripes on either side. What struck me at the time is that no British newspaper of importance carried a story about this to me highly important event. But then, the British take little notice of Canada, a nation they see as rather boring, and sometimes even still refer to its citizens as colonials, something they ceased to be long ago.

It took Canada until 1980 for Parliament to officially proclaim 'O Canada' as our national anthem although we had always sung it. Now, 'God Save the Queen' is seldom heard, usually only as a short intro to what we call the viceregal anthem played for our Governor General and the various lieutenant-governors. It can be said that we take our association with Britain and the Royals rather for granted, yet often tout this association as one point that differentiates us from our American cousins. In 1982 we instituted a new constitution, and Britain gave up all rights to any remaining constitutional and legislative authority over Canada, although in theory Canada had been an independent country since 1867.

Hence, it peaks one's interest when an American author writes about this American fascination with the Royals. The Eagle & The Crown is a very revealing book by academic Frank Prochaska, who has spent many years living and working in England. He understands his countrymen and -women rather well, and so has written provocatively on the subject of the strange enchantment that captivates Americans when it comes to 'our' Royals. He delved deep into the history of Britain and the USA to offer up his take on the whys and wherefores of that relationship. Yet, he does not touch on that almost masochistic affection Americans have for Britain in general, which is often returned with deep scorn as I discovered during my years of living there. Long before George W. Bush made Americans unpopular abroad, the British displayed a strong dislike towards Americans, and as a Canadian, sounding so much like them to British ears, always had to stress my Canadian credentials to be served politely in pubs and stores. It always struck me rather as being very odd because where would Britain be had the Americans not come into both WWI and WWII to save their backsides—to put it crudely? Yet, Americans, Prochoska included, keep heading across the Atlantic to the 'mother country'. I definitely call that masochism.

Most Canadians do not think of the American system of government being in any way related to monarchial traditions. After all, the United States is a republic and does not have a parliamentary system as we do. Ah, that's where most of us are wrong. When the founding fathers of the USA laid the foundation for their new nation, they drew heavily on the very system from which they fought so hard to separate. They were, as Prochaska rightly points out, Englishmen by birth or ancestry and knew no other form of government.

The irony that strikes this reviewer, and obviously also caught the author's attention, is that despite the vilification of George III at the time of the Revolution, the king possessed no real powers. It was Parliament, or Whitehall, as we often say here when we refer historically to the British Parliament, that made the decisions that so infuriated the American colonies and eventually drew them into a revolt against the mother country. George III was only a convenient whipping boy for those who organized the Revolution.

While Prochaska reveals many little titbits of information about individual inclinations of American presidents and Americans in general, and also about the Royals, he never loses sight of the analytical nature of his study. There is much about the manner in which American presidents are inaugurated that imitates royal institutions. The Senate and Congress have been set up along the line of the Upper and Lower houses of Parliament, and it has been said that "the American system of government is an elective monarchy with a king who rules . . . but does not reign." At the same time, the British system has been described as, "a republic with a hereditary life president who . . . reigns but does not rule."

The fondness of Americans for England and its rulers came to full bloom during Queen Victoria's reign. Americans took her to their bosom, and later were enthralled with her son Edward, Prince of Wales, when he came to visit the United States in 1860. This was the first tour of North America by an heir to the British throne and began in Canada. His genial good humor and confident bonhomie made the tour a great success. As part of that tour, though not mentioned in the book, he inaugurated the Victoria Bridge in Montreal, across the St. Lawrence River, and laid the cornerstone of Parliament Hill in Ottawa which became Canada's capital following Confederation, turning it into a fulfledged state in 1867. After watching Blondin traverse Niagara Falls by high wire, Edward traveled to the US and stayed for three days with President James Buchanan at the White House. As Prochoska reports in The Eagle & The Crown, Edward set precedence for future Royals when he accompanied Buchanan to Mount Vernon to lay a wreath on the tomb of George Washington. Vast crowds greeted him everywhere. Edward met Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Oliver Wendell Holmes. Prayers were said for the Royal family in Trinity Church, New York, for the first time since 1776. As one can see, it took less than 100 years for Americans to embrace their former 'oppressors.'

Many of the wealthy Americans hoped that Edward might choose one of their daughters as a bride. Of course, that did not come to pass. It would take another Edward for that to happen. When Queen Victoria died, flags were at half-mast in the US, something that seems incongruous in a republic that had chosen to separate itself from the 'mother country' and its monarchic system, yet spoke of the close relationship between the two countries, which is frequently referred to as a "special relationship", a term, by the way, Canadians and Americans frequently use when referring to each other's countries.

Edward remained popular even as King Edward VII. When he died in 1910, his second son, George, became George V. His elder brother had died unexpectedly from pneumonia only weeks after an engagement to Mary of Teck. The rather conservative George would eventually marry her. George V was not as popular in the US as his father, but his son Edward, later Edward VIII, greatly excited the American public's imagination. He, of course, ended up marrying an American, Wallis Simpson, for whom he gave up his throne.

Americans had little chance to get to know George VI because of WWII starting within a year of his accession, but they certainly took his daughter, Princess Elizabeth, to their heart. And many Americans, as they had done when her predecessors were crowned, traveled to London for her coronation in June of 1953.

These days Americans are less taken by the Royals than in the 1950s, but they still follow them in the same way they do other public figures, giving them the status of movie stars. No doubt, many young American girls still dream of meeting Prince William or the young Harry, though one doubts their adoration will ever reach the fever pitch that greeted Princess Diana, the Princess of Wales. Her marriage to the current king-in-waiting, Prince Charles, captured American imaginations as much as any princess could. Her acrimonious divorce from Charles never lessened her popularity in the US, and her sudden, sad death, certainly was mourned by the American public as much as it was in Britain.

So, just why do Americans take to the British so much? There is a sense of still belonging to the 'mother country', even after centuries of separation, and even after many generations of non-British immigrants mixing into the American melting pot. This, not withstanding, my own experience has been that once English becomes the mother tongue, the pull towards Britain becomes strong simply because of the shared literature that is, without question, the greatest heritage any country can bestow upon its descendants.

"For all the nation's experimentation and diversity, and despite the waning influence of a specifically British culture, there remains a residual, time-honored attachment to the monarchy in the 'monarcho-republic'," concludes Prochoska in his book, "which continues to shape the way many Americans view themselves and the world. Every parent believes in the hereditary principle."