BOOK REVIEWS

Spirits of Our Whaling enhanced the power of chiefs. The Ancestors: Revitalizing cultural importance of whaling makes it a central theme that runs through these Makah and two books. The people of this area, who Nuu-chah-nulth Traditions along with a few neighbours were the Charlotte Coté only active whalers along the entire British Columbia and Washington Vancouver: ubc Press, 2010. xx, coastline, are generally known as the 273 pp. $24.95 paper. Nuu-chah-nulth (in British Columbia) and Makah (in Washington). A third closely related group, the Ditidaht The Whaling People of the West (and their linguistic relatives the Pacheedaht) are at the southern end Coast of Vancouver Island and of the Nuu-chah-nulth distribution. Cape Flattery One of the books under review refers Eugene Arima and to the “Makah and Nuu-chah-nulth” Alan Hoover throughout, subsuming the Ditidaht in the latter, whereas the other attempts Victoria: Royal British Columbia to avoid the awkward nomenclature by Museum, 2011. 271 pp. $19.95 paper. referring to these related groups as “the Whaling People.” Alan D. McMillan Charlotte Coté, an associate Simon Fraser University professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Washington, haling played a prominent writes from the perspective of a Nuu- Wrole in the traditional cultures chah-nulth person, a member of the of the people who live along western Tseshaht First Nation in Port Alberni. Vancouver Island and around Cape Using this insider perspective along Flattery on the Olympic Peninsula. As with the anthropological literature, well as its importance in the economy, she documents the central role of whaling featured prominently in whaling in their cultures and traces the spiritual, ceremonial, and artistic continuity of whaling traditions into traditions, and whaling success the present. Archaeological evidence bc studies, no. 74, Summer 12 123 124 bc studies from the Tseshaht origin village in their whaling heritage. As a former Barkley Sound and the major Makah head of the mwc stated regarding the site of Ozette is used to show the importance of whaling to their identity: antiquity and dietary importance “It’s who we are” (206). However, legal of whaling. Even after traditional setbacks and government regulations practices were suppressed through have frustrated further whaling plans. government policies of assimilation The Nuu-chah-nulth watched these and whale stocks were depleted through events with interest and incorporated commercial hunting, the Nuu-chah- provisions for future whaling into their nulth and Makah continued to see treaty negotiations. whaling as central to their identity. Coté also dedicates a chapter to Although whaling had ceased, ties to restoring healthy communities today. “the whaling ancestors,” Coté argues, Traditional foods, including whale were “maintained through songs, meat and blubber, can play a key role. In dances, ceremonies, and religious and addition to their cultural significance, artistic expressions” (68). The work such foods provide health benefits to of the late Art Thompson, a noted communities suffering from high levels Ditidaht artist and Coté’s brother- of diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. in-law, is used to show the role of art in The Whaling People, by Eugene transmitting traditions. Two dominant Arima and Alan Hoover, is an updated images in Nuu-chah-nulth art, past and edition of Arima’s 1983 book The West present, are Thunderbird and Whale, Coast (Nootka) People, from the same attesting to the cultural importance publisher. Although much remains accorded whaling. the same, this version, with a new A key event in Coté’s book is the co-author, incorporates such recent successful Makah hunt of a grey whale developments as the Maa-nulth treaty in 1999. Unlike the Nuu-chah-nulth, the signed by five Nuu-chah-nulth nations Makah have an 1855 treaty protecting and the legal decision in the Nuu-chah- their right to whale. After commercial nulth fisheries case (Ahousaht et al.). whaling ceased, grey whale populations As in the earlier edition, much of the rebounded to sustainable levels. A text is taken up with stories and other resumption of whaling was seen as a oral traditions drawn from ethnographic way to reinvigorate cultural traditions sources, particularly Edward Sapir and and reaffirm identity. A Makah Philip Drucker, to present information Whaling Commission (mwc) was from a Nuu-chah-nulth perspective. formed from the families traditionally Once again, drawings by Nuu-chah- known as whalers. Coté documents the nulth artist Tim Paul, some recycled exhaustive efforts to gain national and from the previous edition and some international clearance for this hunt new here, enliven the pages. Numerous and the bitter battles that followed as photographs also enhance the text. opponents questioned Makah cultural The organization is almost identical to and treaty rights, occasionally raising the first edition. Four chapters present racist stereotypes. The hunt required ethnographic information, including lengthy preparation, including training, the economic base, social organization, spiritual cleansing, and consultation and the spirit realm, while one (“The with elders. Its aftermath was a joyous Long Past of the Whaling People”) event in the Makah community of Neah provides a sense of history, from the Bay as they celebrated the survival of time before Europeans to recent events. Book Reviews 125

Although much of the historic arrival four years later as “first contact” information is valuable, the treatment (103). Finally, placing precise group of Nuu-chah-nulth and Makah life boundaries on maps may be inadvisable prior to European arrival is inadequate, as such territories are contested. In The showing little knowledge of recent Whaling People, the Tseshaht are denied archaeological research. The discussion, all their traditional territory along which is little changed from the Alberni Inlet and the Somass River, first edition, is largely restricted to where their community is located today. a summary of the archaeological Both books are “good reads,” sequence at Yuquot in Nootka Sound. intended for a general audience. Both Differences in excavated materials are attractive, well-illustrated, and to the south, with implications for reasonably priced. Numerous stories cultural change or movements of and myths (Arima and Hoover) or people, are ignored. Nor is there any accounts of personal experience (Coté) discussion of Ozette, despite the unique add interest to the text. These volumes insights into late pre-contact Makah should do much to bring the fascinating life offered by its excellent preservation cultures of these whaling people to of organic materials. Unlike Coté, these wider public attention. authors seem unaware of archaeological information relevant to whaling practices and antiquity, particularly from sites in Barkley Sound, despite the These Mysterious People: whaling theme of the book. Shaping History and A few errors and problems are Archaeology in a Northwest evident. British Columbia entered Confederation in 1871, not 1868 as stated Coast Community (181). The Ahousaht are mistakenly Susan Roy placed in Effingham Inlet in Barkley Montreal and Kingston: McGill- Sound (20), when a now-extinct group with a similar name was meant. The Queen’s University Press, 2010. 240 authors name “a tribe of whalers just pp. $29.95 paper. 116 east of Cape Flattery” ( ), apparently Madeline Knickerbocker without realizing that the transcription refers to Ozette (a spelling they use Simon Fraser University elsewhere) on the open coast directly south of Cape Flattery. They accept n the summer of 1968, my without comment the claim that Chief grandmother would sometimes Mokwina of Nootka Sound “ate a slave takeI my young aunt and uncle to each month” (165), despite considerable the northern bank of the outflow of uncertainty regarding the presence or the Fraser River to dig for “Indian extent of cannibalism. Similarly, they treasure” at the Marpole Midden. state that, in 1592, Juan de Fuca was “the My aunt, then a pre-teen, remembers first European to visit the territory of these sunny afternoons as leisurely, the Whaling People” (160), when there educational outings, and, like many is little evidence for an initial encounter of the other pot-hunting groups of until Spanish ships reached western white, middle-class children and Vancouver Island in 1774. Coté also parents sifting through the soil in the errs on this point, describing Cook’s area, my family members certainly 126 bc studies did not know the site as ćəsna:m, an remains. Beginning in this period, ancient Musqueam village, nor did Musqueam peoples increasingly used they connect the items they found archaeology to establish unifying with the contemporary Musqueam symbols, foster a sense of historical people living in Vancouver. This non- consciousness, and facilitate legal recognition of ongoing Musqueam victories, thus promoting Musqueam connections to local territories through nationalism. material culture is precisely the type of Though this narrative is well disconnect that Susan Roy explores in executed, it supports a pre-existing These Mysterious People. understanding in the field that early Roy’s book, coming out of her PhD colonial archaeology and anthropology dissertation, is a strong contribution produced knowledge about colonized to the field of Aboriginal history. peoples in ways that dispossessed Roy successfully engages with older them and distanced them from that and more recent historiography and knowledge. Roy’s most innovative theory, and through applying this to contributions, then, come from her sustained analysis of ćəsna:m, she is her focused analysis of instances of able to offer new and significant insights Aboriginal action that contested and into colonial archaeology. Like Douglas complicated this process. In Chapter 3, Cole’s book Captured Heritage: The she argues that a Musqueam-curated Scramble for Northwest Coast Artifacts, display of objects during the 1913 which is partly a springboard for some Royal Commission on Indian Affairs of her themes, Roy’s work is positioned demonstrated their historic ties to their at the intersection of local Native- territory; though the members of the newcomer history, cultural history, Royal Commission may not have been and the history of archaeology and wholly able to decipher the symbolism, anthropology. More than Cole’s work, these “ethnographic” objects, including however, Roy’s is consciously political, two house posts and the qeysca:m stone, as she succeeds in demonstrating how represented Musqueam declarations archaeological excavation at ćəsna:m of their community’s land claims and worked in the colonial paradigm to fishing rights. Chapter 4 focuses on distance twentieth-century Musqueam the ways Coast Salish reburials in the people from their traditional territory. 1910s and 1920s, while initiated by civic To make this case, her research requests to free up more urban land, focuses on three eras: (1) Harlan I. demonstrated Aboriginal willingness Smith’s mining of the site for skeletal to participate in local development remains in the 1890s as part of the Jesup only if this could be reconciled with North Pacific Expedition initiated their ongoing care for the remains of by the American Museum of Natural their ancestors. Roy argues that, while History; (2) the extensive excavations the exhumations and reburials were by Charles Hill-Tout for the Art, interpreted by the contemporary press Historical, and Scientific Association through the lens of the “Vanishing of Vancouver in the 1920s and 1930s; and Indian” trope, Coast Salish participants (3) ubc professor Charles E. Borden’s reaffirmed their respect for ancestral salvage archaeology projects during remains, which symbolically represents the 1950s and 1960s, which was the first their historic connection to their to draw links between contemporary territories. Musqueam peoples and excavated Book Reviews 127

The strength of Roy’s politics The Elusive West and the Contest influences the textual presentation for Empire, 1713-1763 of her arguments. Her decision to Paul W. Mapp present the complexity of the ə ə ə h n’q min’ m’ language unitalicized, Chapel Hill, NC: University of and with diacritics instead of spelled North Carolina Press, 2011. 455 pp. out phonetically, visually asserts its $52.00 cloth. significance and disrupts the normal assimilation of Aboriginal words into Barry Gough the English alphabet. Roy’s consistent Victoria, BC use of hən’q’əmin’əm’ words can also be seen as part of the growing project to f I understand the author’s indigenize historiography. Iintentions, the aim of this work is Through its analysis of the shifting to explain how the west – that is, the meanings of Musqueam archaeology in continental interior of North America and around Vancouver, Roy’s excellent south of Hudson Bay, beyond the book will encourage readers to rethink Great Lakes, and the area east of the their understandings of colonial Continental Divide north of New excavations and land appropriation Orleans – was a place of contested and to recognize and incorporate concern by three rival powers: Great the historical presence of Aboriginal Britain, France, and Spain. The end peoples and places into narratives that date at issue, 1763, is marked in the previously excluded them. The ongoing author’s estimation by the Treaty of relevance of Roy’s arguments is clear: Paris, by which France ceded captured public hostility towards Aboriginal North American territories to victorious treaty sovereignty, land claims, and Great Britain. By this time both Spain more specific proposals like Squamish and France were conniving to keep chief Ian Campbell’s 2010 controversial Britain out of Louisiana. This subject suggestion that Stanley Park be renamed had attracted the attention of many Xwayxway Park demonstrates that the historians. In The Elusive West, of recognition of Aboriginal history is an particular interest to the author are the issue that remains fraught with political plundering expedition of Commodore and racial tension. Anson of the Royal Navy to the Pacific, the energetic and iconoclastic remarks by Arthur Dobbs concerning the plausibility of a navigable passage to the Pacific Ocean from Hudson Bay, and the novel arguments of Henry Ellis, presumably a compatriot of Dobbs, who felt much the same way about a Northwest Passage. Eschewing most possibilities that Native evidence could be of value to European explorers, a view contrary to much current thinking on the subject, we are told that internecine rivalry and warfare damaged geographical 128 bc studies intelligence and made it unreliable. We This work consists of a number of are also told that tribes did not make bilateral studies – what France thought long journeys, a puzzling observation about Britain and vice versa; what considering how Chipewyans travelled France thought about Spain and vice to Hudson Bay and back. There is a versa; what Britain thought about Spain notable absence of concern for economic and vice versa. As can be imagined, motives in this work, and hardly a this is a bewildering scenario for any mention of the fur trade, which was reader to have to deal with. The flow of powerful in its influence south of narrative is marred by the constant shifts the forty-ninth parallel before 1763. of the endless round of possibilities. Had the author looked at the work of Long footnotes provide bibliographical W.J. Eccles in any detail he would insights punctuated by the author’s have discovered that the link between preferences. There is an unease in the the St. Lawrence and Louisiana under treatment of sources and in the giving of the French flag was predicated on judgments, which are not of the greatest economic and military matters in sobriety. Perhaps because of such a conjoint relationship. There seems little wide cast of characters, the difficulty of concern for military figures here, which giving balance to the three powers leads is strange, for army officers played in the end to no definitive conclusions important roles in reconnaissance – as except to say that the west was elusive, well as dreaming about what the west even if the contending powers had their might afford to the nation and empire eyes on that west for the future. that could control it. Robert Rogers and Antoine Bougainville are mentioned, but are exceptions to the general rule. Pioneers of the Pacific Coast: Canadian connections and influences A Chronicle of Sea Rovers and are sadly missing. An attempt is made to draw on French, Spanish, and Fur Hunters British rivalry for the Falkland Islands/ Agnes C. Laut Malvinas in the 1760s, and here the author’s research stops short of using my Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2011. book, The Falkland Islands/Malvinas: 144 pp. $14.95 paper. The Contest for Empire in the South Chad Reimer Atlantic (1992), and instead relies on the partisan Julius Goebel’s 1927 work. Chilliwack, BC And I would have thought that one work cited, Warren Cook’s Floodtide ntil the later decades of the of Empire, all about Spanish activities Upast century, historical writing in the Pacific Northwest (and worries was by men, about men, and for men. about foreign encroachments), would Narratives of the past made room for have revealed more about Spanish a queen, and the odd Laura Secord defensive measures than does the or Florence Nightingale, but the all- author. Of primary sources there are important realms of war, politics, and many references; but, truly sad to say, commerce were strictly masculine. there is inexcusably (for a scholarly Rarer still were women who became press) no bibliography for this work, published historians, even while literary which runs at great length to 455 pages. fiction and journalism began opening their doors to them. It is in this light Book Reviews 129 that we can gain an appreciation of the the tortuous valleys and rivers of the life and work of Agnes Laut. Rocky Mountains to the mouth of the Between 1914 and 1916, Laut Columbia River. And so ends this act, contributed three titles to the thirty- “the period of discovery on the Pacific two-volume Chronicles of Canada coast” (114). series. Pioneers of the Pacific Coast The book’s final chapter is a hasty appeared as the series’ twenty-third sketch of the reign of the Hudson’s volume and is here republished Bay Company west of the Rockies. The by TouchWood Editions, with an Company’s “feudal” hold on the region introduction by Rosemary Neering. ends with the Fraser gold rush and the While most of the Chronicles’ establishment of British Columbia as authors were established academic a colony. And with that, “the pioneer historians, Laut was chosen because of days of the Pacific became a thing of her ability to appeal to a more popular the past” (131). readership. Born in 1871, Laut grew up On its own terms – those set by its in the fledgling province of Manitoba publisher in 1915 – Pioneers of the Pacific and became one of the first female Coast does succeed. Laut’s writing is journalists on the Prairies. Her writing smooth and mostly effective, its florid or subsequently made it into publications overblown sections more apparent to us from Harper’s to Saturday Night, and than to its contemporary readers. Laut’s while she relocated to the United States, treatment of the region’s first peoples she kept up an interest in the history of might make us wince, but they were western Canada – particularly stories of liberal by the standards of the time. its pioneer founders. But what is the value of the book for Pioneers of the Pacific Coast was us, today? In scholarly terms the book a product of this interest. As with adds little to our understanding of these other “pioneer history” of its time, it familiar events and characters. Nor does chronicles the stories of Great Men Laut’s retelling of these breathe new life accomplishing Great Deeds. First up into them. Indeed, a book about Laut is Francis Drake, who brazenly defies herself – her fascinating, peripatetic the gunships and arrogant presumption life, her struggles as a female writer in of Spain to be the first to sail up the far the early twentieth century – would west coast of North America. More have been a far more interesting read than a century later, Vitus Bering is seen and would have given us much greater venturing into a hostile North Pacific, historical insights. only to be undone by the weakness of his own men. But in this English drama, it is the British – in the steadfast guise of James Cook and George Vancouver – who close the curtain on this first act, the initial “exploration of the Northwest Coast” (70). The second act brings British invasion from the east: Alexander Mackenzie, the first to cross the continent by land; Simon Fraser, risking all in a reckless descent of the Fraser River; and David Thompson, doggedly tracing 130 bc studies

Measure of the Year: Reflections favourite subject matter, wild life on Home, Family, and a Life in general and fish in particular, places him in a special category Fully Lived likely to earn him the devotion Roderick L. Haig-Brown of enthusiasts but the neglect of others. Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2011. 1976 240 pp. $19.95 paper. Since his death in , Haig- Des Kennedy Brown’s legacy as both writer and conservationist has been enshrined Denman Island, BC in a fashion few writers would dare dream of, with a provincial park and s part of its “Classics West a splendid mountain now bearing his Collection” TouchWood Editions name, as does an institute, a provincial hasA released a trade paperback edition literary award, and an annual festival. of Measure of the Year, Roderick Haig- The family homestead on the Campbell Brown’s celebrated collection of River is designated a National Historic seasonal essays, with a foreword by poet Site and hosts an annual writer-in- Brian Brett. First published in 1950 (sans residence program. subtitle) as his eleventh and arguably Although he can’t keep himself best book, it helped consolidate Haig- entirely away from his beloved river Brown’s status as a top-tier Canadian and tideflats in Measure (nor would author with an international readership. one want him to after reading his Haig-Brown occupies a singular brilliantly evocative descriptions of position in the history of Canadian them), this book typically ranges letters. Much of his writing, most much farther afield to encompass famously the Governor General’s reflections on freedom, justice, and Award winning Saltwater Summer, national identity. But primarily it is focuses upon angling, a subject not an engaging description of his family enthusiastically welcomed into the life on the homestead where he and canon. Discussing Haig-Brown’s his wife Ann spent almost their entire outsider status with the literary married life and raised their four “establishment” in Canadian Literature children. The book’s first sentence states in 1976, W.J. Keith wrote: unequivocally: “Marriage and family are immeasurably the most important The main explanation for this 5 neglect lies in the fact that things that can happen to any man” ( ). Haig-Brown works in a slighted Describing himself (and his wife) as “a romantic with minor modern genre. Though he has produced 110 a number of works of fiction trimmings” ( ), Haig-Brown is a aimed at both juvenile and adult profoundly experiential writer. In his readers, his most significant hunting and fishing expeditions, his writing has been in discursive, tasks around the homestead, or his non-fiction prose, and those who presiding as an untrained country devote themselves to this literary magistrate, he demonstrates acute genre are almost invariably observational skills; a prodigious the last to be recognized as talent for describing what he has seen, writers of enduring merit … His heard, smelt, and felt in prose of lucid simplicity; and a deceptively effortless Book Reviews 131 ability to reveal the universal lurking bad of it. Along the way, Hume reminds within the particular. A humanist himself and us not to take for granted as much as a naturalist, he writes those things we hold dear. Some of his with genuine compassion for his precious, fragile icons – our children, fellow creatures but without a whiff long sweet springtimes, dragonflies, of self-congratulation or pomposity; steelhead trout – will convince just rather, gentle irony and charming self- about everybody. Others, like the joys deprecation slide quietly beneath much of the Wet Coast’s rain, may be a harder of what he describes. sell. Some readers could also trip over In his foreword, Brian Brett calls the contradiction of this avowedly Measure “a classic of its time, and a devout nature lover’s driving an suv. book for the future” (4). Although dated Others will be irked by his geography: in its masculine language, the book Hume embraces all of British Columbia remains startlingly contemporary. Its but mostly he talks about the south reflections on conservation, community, coast, and even then, more often than compassionate justice, and the not, just the far southern Gulf Islands, mistreatment of Aboriginal populations with “Saturna … [being the] outermost are, sadly, every bit as relevant today of all Canada’s Gulf Islands” (29). as they were six decades ago. By John I wonder how he would describe Ruskin’s measure, this is not a book of Lasqueti then? the hour but a book of all time. Hume asks us to “take ownership of the hurtful side of our past” (28) – surely a valuable admonition and one A Walk with the Rainy Sisters: that he has certainly followed in his In Praise of British columns with the Vancouver Sun. Yet in Walk with the Rainy Sisters Hume Columbia’s Places mostly depicts First Nations peoples, Stephen Hume for example, who occupy either the past or distant places. These damaged Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Pub- peoples, who have surely felt the sting lishing, 2010. 224 pp. $32.95 cloth. of our “hurtful side” more than most, Howard Stewart have somehow disappeared from the earthly paradise of British Columbia’s University of British Columbia south coast. On many issues, Hume scores ollowing in the footsteps of perfectly, like when describing the Roderick Haig-Brown’s Measure of transformations that come upon west theF Year, Stephen Hume has chosen to coast urbanites in summer or the fact tell many tales, some celebratory and that each of the many islands of the some cautionary, to the rhythm of a strait, from the US border to Discovery passing year. Like Grant Lawrence’s Passage, has its “own mood, ecology recent Adventures in Solitude, this is and culture.” It’s a shame he didn’t dwell another unabashed love story. Hume’s a bit longer on the less travelled ones, ongoing affair is mostly with the like Texada, Cortes, or Lasqueti, with south coast of British Columbia and their unique and powerful personae, so a few more distant places. The affair different from the southern islands. He has been long and eventful; the book missed a chance to compare our summer contemplates both the good and the seasons of modern “transhumance” 132 bc studies with the traditional annual movements The text is comprised of sixteen of people on this coast between their chapters, a glossary, and an index; and winter and summer homes – every year it is copiously illustrated, with over two over untold centuries. Finally, it was hundred maps, figures, tables, and other frustrating to be introduced to a woman graphics. McGillivray starts with the like Melda Buchanan then be told so idea of British Columbia as a “region little about this fascinating character of regions” and then considers physical and her work. processes and environmental hazards All this is to say, of course, that (with an emphasis on climate change, Hume has not written the book that floods, avalanches, and forest fires). I would have written; but he has still Yet the bulk of the book deals with the written a good summer read for those human geography of the province, with of us who share his love of the place and chapters on the Aboriginal and colonial his concerns about its future. past, nineteenth-century immigration and racism, and twentieth-century tourism and urbanization. Befitting the character of British Columbia, eight of Geography of British Columbia: the chapters deal with the province’s People and Landscapes in resource economy and society (forestry, rd fishing, mining, energy, agriculture, Transition 3 ed. water, resource communities, and Brett McGillivray management) in the past and present. This is an admirable textbook, and ubc 2010 328 Vancouver: Press, . pp. I would recommend it to students $55.00 paper. taking courses on the historical and Daniel Clayton contemporary geography of British University of St. Andrews Columbia in the highest terms. It is well-organized, clearly written (with the geographical and technical terminology was intrigued by this textbook and deployed unpacked in the glossary), and I agreed to review it for two reasons: elegantly produced by ubc Press. Each first, because it is more than fifteen years of the chapters provides an overview of since I lived in British Columbia and I the topic in question, alights in detail was keen to discover how the province on recent developments, and has its own had changed in that time; second, reference list (with many useful links because introductory course textbooks to internet sources as well as academic with a regional focus like this one have material). McGillivray displays a wide- not existed in British geography for ranging and thorough knowledge of many years (teaching and associated the province’s current travails, and he texts tend to be hewn by disciplinary traverses a range of complex issues in subfield, and with regional geography an open-minded and sensitive fashion. almost extinct, or by research specialty). I was not entirely convinced by The third edition of Capilano College the “region of regions” idea. British professor Brett McGillivray’s text takes Columbia’s distinctiveness in relation a thematic approach to the geography of to the rest of Canada is asserted more British Columbia and stems, he notes, than it is demonstrated, and thorny from calls from his students for more questions about “Cascadia” (geographic up-to-date information. similarities and differences between Book Reviews 133

British Columbia, Washington, which have been either generated by or and Oregon) are brushed to one exacerbated by the 2008 global economic side. Anyhow, McGillivray takes a downturn and the entanglement of the predominantly thematic approach, and province’s economy with that of its the text excels in its detailed coverage American neighbour. Reliance on what of regional variations in economic, Harold Innis termed “staples” has long environmental, social, political, and made British Columbia acutely sensitive technological dynamics, and in how to continental and global economic various geographical issues (of location, perturbations, and McGillivray is good diffusion, migration, and time-space at showing how many of the problems compression) have influenced (and facing particular sectors and their continue to influence) such dynamics. “fragile settlements” (Chapter 15) flow The intricate and fraught interplay of from unforeseen and uncontrollable geography, history, culture, and politics economic, political (provincial, is particularly pronounced in Chapter 5, federal, and international), and which deals with Aboriginal rights and cultural dynamics – price fluctuations, the treaty process, up to and including changing tastes (British Columbia has the recent Nisga'a, Tsawwassen, and a considerably stronger environmental Maa-nulth agreements. The treaty consciousness than my native United process has seemingly come a long Kingdom), and legislative imperatives. way, and the future seems brighter McGillivray’s discussion of the asbestos than it did in the early 1990s when court mining town of Cassiar (in Chapter judgments on Native land claims, such 10) is a poignant example of how such as McEachern’s famous Delgamuukw dynamics are intertwined. decision, did nothing to rectify centuries These chapters on the province’s of injustice towards Aboriginal people. contemporary economic woes could McGillivray is good at weighing up have been more sharply theorized (for the positive and negative impacts instance, the important work of Roger of the modern treaty process on the Hayter on the forest industry is used economic life of the province (in energy but in a largely descriptive manner), and initiatives, resource industries, and the the last chapter on urbanization would development of Crown lands), although have benefitted from a fuller discussion more might have been done with how a of Vancouver and of David Ley’s work new non-Native readiness to negotiate on the middle class and “millionaire with First Nations might be connected migrants.” But these are just quibbles. to wider international discourses of I learned a huge amount from this reconciliation and democratic protest dexterously and fastidiously assembled (in southern Africa, Southeast Asia, text, and it will surely serve its students’ and now the Arab world). purpose with aplomb. However, when it comes to resource industries and communities, the overriding tone of the text is one of doom and gloom. Economic growth and vitality is concentrated in the southwest (and predominantly urban) corner of the province, and the economic mainstays of the hinterland interior are all beset by major difficulties, a good portion of 134 bc studies

British Columbia’s Magnificent “Man” as a travelling companion and Parks: The First 100 Years a penchant for reciting Kipling in James D. Anderson logging bars – proved to be an excellent guide for the group even in the face of Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Pub- the difficult terrain. By all accounts, lishing, 2011. 264 pp. $24.95 cloth. however, it was Ellison’s twenty- year-old daughter, Myra, who showed J. Keri Cronin the most pluck and determination of Brock University the group, and it was entirely fitting that she was given the honour of placing the Union Jack at the summit of Crown ames D. Anderson’s British Mountain, symbolically marking what Columbia’s Magnificent Parks: The would become a key landmark within FirstJ 100 Years is a tribute to the first Strathcona Provincial Park (Myra Creek century of the provincial park system and Myra Falls are named after her). in British Columbia. This thoroughly The book opens with a discussion of the years following the founding researched and richly illustrated history, 1911 sensitive to ongoing environmental of Strathcona Park in and devotes and cultural issues, joins the growing considerable emphasis to the legislative list of titles chronicling the histories changes that allowed parks like Mount Robson (1913), Garibaldi (1927), and and legacies of “protected” landscapes 1938 within North America. Tweedsmuir ( ), to come into existence. Among the most notable It is apt that both the book’s foreword 1939 (by Stephen Hume) and one of the legislation was a amendment to opening chapters consider in detail the the Forest Act that provided for the 1910 expedition that led to the founding ranking of parks according to uses of British Columbia’s first provincial permitted within their borders. Under park, Strathcona. This tale not only this system, a park that received an “A” status was awarded the “highest degree captures the spirit of adventure that 67 has defined these parks for the past of protection from exploitation” ( ), one hundred years but also emphasizes while activities such as mining could the multitude of perspectives and occur in parks with a “B” status. This personalities characteristic of such discussion also highlights just how ventures. Led by Price Ellison, the much influence private industry had expedition was joined by an eclectic in the shaping of British Columbia’s group of adventurers, including a provincial parks. For example, Hamber Provincial Park (created in the autumn photographer, a number of military 1941 men, Ellison’s daughter, and a chef. of ) had originally been designated Their six-week expedition to the “Class A,” but within four short years interior of Vancouver Island was a that designation had been changed to tremendously difficult trek made even a “B” thanks to pressure by the logging more challenging by rough waters, industry, and the park was drastically treacherous trails, and swarms of reduced in size. insects. The group’s guide, Hugh Subsequent chapters follow Francis Bacon, the self-appointed “Lord park development in the province of Vancouver Island” – an eccentric through specific historical periods character with a little terrier called and trace evolving ways of thinking about the value of these spaces. From Book Reviews 135 marine parks to historic parks, these contemporary First Nations rights and landscapes encompass many different concerns regarding park land in a later terrains and ways of interacting with chapter entitled “Approaching the the environment. This book offers Centennial, 2001 to 2011.” fascinating insight into the shifting and In addition to expanding some diverse goals of BC parks over the years. of the critical discourse around the While today many would see these conception, use, and creation of park parks as an important way of protecting spaces in British Columbia, I would also flora, fauna, and landscapes deemed to like to see some more attention paid to be environmentally significant, this was the images. As mentioned above, this not always the case. For example, in the is a lavishly illustrated book, and yet postwar era, the government focused there is almost no discussion of the much more on providing such amenities images themselves. Photographs are as “picnic areas, lookouts, and roadside texts shaped by social, technological, parks” for visitors in automobiles. environmental, and economic factors. A letter issued to forest rangers in the They are never neutral documents, and, late 1940s underscores a much different as such, I find it troubling when they are perspective on the significance of BC treated as mere illustrations, support provincial parks than exists today: “in material for the written word. The way a province as large and as rugged as BC, a landscape is depicted has far-reaching there is some question as to whether implications for the way it is valued, and wilderness parks are necessary” (83). recognition of this aspect of park history Such glimpses into the history of BC would further strengthen this book. parks serve as an important reminder that these landscapes are not static or timeless entities; rather, they are shaped by dominant cultural ideas that Voices from Two Rivers: themselves are also in flux. Harnessing the Power of the This book is certainly a fitting Peace and Columbia tribute to the past one hundred years of provincial park history. Anderson does Meg Stanley a good job of situating the provincial Vancouver: Douglas and McIntyre, park movement in British Columbia 2010 320 $50 00 alongside the national park movement . pp. Illus. . cloth. (both in Canada and the United States), Jenny Clayton but this is a somewhat uncritical history. University of Victoria For example, while he notes that the lands around Hamber Provincial Park had traditionally been hunting grounds oices from Two Rivers explores for the Beaver, Sikanni, Nahanni, and W.A.C. Bennett’s “Two Rivers” Dog Rib peoples (72), his discussion Vpolicy of hydroelectric development stops at this description. What was on the Peace and Columbia rivers the situation for these First Nations from 1962 to 1985. Clearly written peoples when this park was created? and based on extensive research into Were they still using this land? If so, academic and archival sources, this did the creation of the park change their book is divided into two sections, access to the land? I was very glad to one on each river system, in which see, however, that Anderson discusses chapters focus on the history of the 136 bc studies rivers before dam construction, visions Hydroelectric mega-projects change of power, remaking the rivers, camp ecosystems upstream and downstream. and community, and impacts on local As Stanley shows, the Peace River residents and environments. Integrating dams led to dust storms and a decline an impressive 140 oral history interviews of wildlife at Williston Lake, and they with engineers, builders, First Nations also contributed to a drying trend elders, farmers, and others makes this downstream in the Peace-Athabasca a compassionate and intimate study Delta. Opposition to damming for of the human experience of the dams, environmental reasons was minimal one that is richly illustrated with at first but gained momentum in the photographs of people, landscapes, 1970s and 1980s. I would be interested rivers, and construction sites. Voices to hear more from the voices that from Two Rivers will appeal not only questioned the necessity of the dams to those directly or indirectly affected and why they did so. In relation to the by the projects but also to readers Columbia River dams, Stanley raises interested in the history of the postwar two issues that could be discussed in labour experience and hydroelectric further detail: the arguments presented mega-project construction. Stanley’s to the water comptroller not to flood goal is not to “present the Two Rivers the Arrow Lakes in 1961 (230) and the policy as good or bad” but “to draw out opposition to the Revelstoke Dam by the voices and acknowledge the various the BC Wildlife Federation and other ways in which the Two Rivers policy organizations in 1976 (244). was understood and experienced” (5). To tell the story of dam construction Stanley provides a detailed and power generation on the Peace and examination of the planning, Columbia rivers is a giant project. Meg engineering, technology, and labour Stanley has succeeded in this endeavour involved in choosing dam sites, moving by presenting a narrative that captures earth, clearing reservoirs, excavating the nuances of political, cultural, and assembling underground technological, and social history. This generating stations, and building polished and engaging study will transmission lines. The large workforce provide historians and the general created communities that flourished public with a solid understanding of temporarily – such as Mica Creek with the peak period of dam construction its popular ski hill, swim club, and ice- in the province, the communities that sculpting contest. One might expect, came into being with these projects, from a study sponsored by BC Hydro landscapes that were lost, and older and written for the BC Hydro Power societies that were resettled. Pioneers, that information on negative aspects of dam construction would be minimal. Instead, this book offers a more balanced perspective, paying attention to the individuals and ways of life that were displaced in the process. The last chapter in each section explores how long-term residents dealt with the loss of homes and familiar landscapes and how they preserved what was important to them. Book Reviews 137

Carvings and Commerce: Model sections illustrating nine model poles Totem Poles, 1880-2010 by non-Northwest Coast carvers, eight by non-Native carvers, seven utilitarian Michael D. Hall and Pat objects and object pairs such as salt and Glascock, with contributions pepper shakers in the form of model from Robert Davidson, Kate poles, plus seven model poles that are either reproductions in non-traditional Duncan, Aaron Glass, Aldona media or were carved offshore. The Jonaitis, Christopher W. Smith, final section consists of Christopher and Charlotte Townsend-Gault W. Smith’s useful and informative checklist of 150 model totem carvers, Saskatoon, Mendel Art Gallery. giving their name(s), cultural group, Seattle and London: University “production locale,” birth and death 2011 224 of Washington Press, . pp. dates, and comments. $60 00 . cloth. The book’s purpose is to redress Alan Hoover the dismissal of model totem poles as Royal British Columbia Museum objects made for sale to tourists and with little cultural or aesthetic value. For example, at the Royal British n 2010 the Mendel Art Gallery in Columbia Museum, only one model 194 ISaskatoon held an exhibition of pole is included in an exhibit case Northwest Coast style model totem devoted to presenting a particular poles. This handsome book is the Northwest Coast art style; the rest, a catalogue for that exhibit. The model total of forty-nine, appear in displays poles are presented chronologically devoted to tourist art. However, model in five defined “phases” and, within poles have been included in mainstream each phase, by cultural or tribal group. exhibitions and publications going Information is given for each piece, back to Franz Boas’s 1897 essay “The including artist’s name, birth and Decorative Art of the Indians of the death dates, tribal affiliation, date North Pacific Coast,” which included of manufacture, media, dimensions, nine line drawings based on wood and comments, and collection of origin. argillite Haida model totem poles. Michael Hall and Pat Glascock have The 1967 Arts of the Raven exhibit included essays by academics Aaron included three model poles, two by Glass and Aldona Jonaitis, Kate Henry Hunt and one by Tony Hunt. Duncan, Charlotte Townsend-Gault, In both instances, model poles were and an interview with Haida artist included because they illustrated the Robert Davidson. In addition to continuation of art styles that can be the excellent images of the model traced back to the late eighteenth and poles are black-and-white and colour early nineteenth centuries. Hall and photographs associated with the essays Glascock make available the work of and interview as well as portraits of many less well known and often less nine of the carvers featured in the book. accomplished artists, giving the reader a In a concluding, well-illustrated more complete exposure to an important essay, Hall and Glascock discuss Northwest Coast artefact type. Robert model poles as a commodity produced Davidson, while recognizing that the for consumption by non-Natives. The quality of work of many Haida artists essay is supplemented by four short in the early and mid-twentieth century 138 bc studies was for the most part “a shadow of what change. By the end of the First World Haida art was,” also observes that “their War every town and city in British work was very important because it Columbia had an art society – some documents that time” (31). Similarly, even had an art gallery. All of this had Glass and Jonaitis refer to model poles required time and money. The names as “significant documents of the colonial of the tireless volunteers who helped encounter” (12). build the infrastructure of artistic This book must be seen within the activity in the province have largely context of a significant body of work – been forgotten. Art patrons like Harry most notably Steven C. Brown’s Native Stone, who helped found the Vancouver Visions (1998) – that has, in varying Art Gallery, have, on the other hand, degrees, discussed model totem poles by been celebrated. The book under review, artists other than those who have been Shore, Forest and Beyond: Art from the celebrated in the literature as carriers Audain Collection, shows the extent to of “traditional” Northwest Coast art which the tradition of giving to the art styles. Carvings and Commerce is a community is still very much alive. compendium of the full range of model As the great-great-grandson of the poles, with excellent photographs and coal baron Robert Dunsmuir, and the available documentation. It is a useful great-grandson of BC premier James reference book for collectors and Dunsmuir, it is not surprising that museum curators and a companion to Michael Audain is committed to public the comprehensive tome by Aldona service. Audain and his wife Yoshiko Jonaitis and Aaron Glass, The Totem Karasawa have not only used the profits Pole: An Intercultural History (2010). from Polygon Homes – a company Audain founded in 1980 – to support contemporary artists by purchasing their work. They have repatriated Shore, Forest and Beyond: Aboriginal works of art. They have Art from the Audain Collection donated artworks to the province’s Grant Arnold and leading institutions. They have funded curatorial courses at our universities. Ian M. Thom, eds. They have created curatorial positions at the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Vancouver: Douglas and McIntyre, National Gallery of Canada. And they Vancouver Art Gallery, 2011. 160 pp. $55 00 have encouraged their wealthy peers to . cloth. follow their example by establishing the Maria Tippett BC Arts Renaissance Fund. Cambridge University The public face of Michael Audain’s commitment to reinforcing the cultural heritage of British Columbia has t the beginning of the twentieth a personal side: that of private art century British Columbia had a collector. “Living with art,” Audain reputationA for being a place where, as writes in a lively essay that accompanies one journalist at Vancouver’s Province illustrations from his collection, “has (16 October 1904) put it, there was been one of the great joys of my life” little support for the province’s “gallant (20). That interest, he tells us, began little band” of artists. Within a few early. Childhood visits to the Cowichan decades, however, all of this would Reserve on Vancouver Island along Book Reviews 139 with his encounter with Mungo Martin Columbia Museum, and Robert Griffin, sparked an early interest in and respect a curator at the museum, traces the for First Nations art and culture. history of the food industry in Victoria A teenage bus trip to Mexico heightened from the founding of Fort Victoria in his fascination for “the social relevance 1843 to the mid-twentieth century. Greg of Mexican art” (27). And while the Evans, historian of Victoria’s brewing paintings of Emily Carr were initially industry, has drawn upon his master’s “the source of uneasy dreams,” by thesis to contribute a concise chapter on the time he reached adulthood they Victoria’s early brewing industry. evoked “intense feelings” (23). Audain The book is the product of eight writes less passionately about the work years of research conducted by Oke of other twentieth- and twenty-first- and Griffin into the histories behind century artists that forms the bulk of his the many food containers in the collection and about which Vancouver rbcm’s Human History collection. Art Gallery curator Ian Thom Ten thematic chapters covering subjects contributes two brief essays. Indeed, such as grocers, bakers, butchers, and Audain admits that photoconceptual public markets comprise most of the art – about which Grant Arnold book, while an appendix provides writes so intelligently in his essay on sixteen pages of colour photographs of photoconceptual art in Vancouver – was labels and containers. initially “intimidating” (24). The book is printed on heavy coated The strength of a good collector paper and illustrated with a fine lies not only in possessing a good selection of photographs. The quality eye but also the ability to purchase of the photographic reproduction is something that, in Audain’s words, excellent, though the captions provided “involves a period of adjustment.” in the appendix are in most cases only As Shore, Forest and Beyond: Art from the rbcm’s inventory numbers. the Audain Collection demonstrates, While the production quality of the Michael Audain has plenty of both. book is outstanding, the text is largely anecdotal rather than analytical. This approach reflects the fact that much of the initial research for the book was centred on tracing the history Feeding the Family: 100 Years of rbcm Food and Drink in Victoria of artefacts in the and not on producing a general history of the Nancy Oke and Robert Griffin food trade. Some statistical notes are with Greg Evans provided in little sidebars, but dates and sources are often omitted. Sources Victoria: Royal British Columbia such as trade and liquor licences, trade Museum, 2011. 192 pp. Illus. and credit indices, customs records, $29.95 paper. and census returns have not been used Christopher J.P. Hanna to provide any quantitative analysis of Victoria’s food industry. Victoria Perhaps because of a scarcity of artefacts, the extensive and important eeding the Family: 100 Years of Food Chinese agricultural hinterland of and Drink in Victoria by Nancy Victoria does not receive sufficient FOke, a volunteer at the Royal British attention, though the importance of 140 bc studies

Chinese peddlers in the retail produce millimetre pistol, the agitated Harrison trade is noted. Chinese involvement in sprayed the interior of the bank with the greenhouse industry is completely gunfire, wounding the manager and overlooked. Anti-Chinese sentiment an accountant. Stepping back into the among European producers is noted, street, he was making his escape using perhaps too briefly. First Nations food a young boy as a human shield when suppliers are noted, but their role as Constable Cecil Paul, a member of the agricultural labourers is not discussed. Vancouver Police Force assigned to the Too much attention is paid to the motorcycle squad, dropped him with generally unsuccessful public markets one shot to the middle of the forehead. in Victoria and not enough to the This scene does not conform to our cooperatives and associations formed to modern image of Commercial Drive process and market local produce. There as a place where progressive politics, are also some curious omissions, such ethnic diversity, and coffee-drenched as the Porter family in the butchering hipness converge. But it is clear from trade and the Todd family in the Jak King’s excellent history of the Drive salmon-packing industry. that, in its origins, the neighbourhood Readers familiar with early Victoria was a much different place than it is will find many errors in both the text today, much more Main Street (and and the photograph captions. In the occasionally Mean Street) than arty latter case, many of the mistakes are bohemia. simply repeated from captions provided The Drive began to take shape as a by the BC Archives website. While distinct neighbourhood with the arrival not a scholarly history of Victoria’s in 1891 of the interurban streetcar line food trade, this book provides readers linking New Westminster to Vancouver. with an attractive, entertaining, and There was a stop at Largen’s Corner informative introduction to the subject. (Venables and Glen), and a scattering of houses appeared. Development was stalled by the economic downturn of the 1890s but resumed its steady pace during The Drive: A Retail, Social and the boomtime that preceded the Great Political History of Commercial War, until, by the time King picks up 1935 Drive, Vancouver, to 1956 the story in , the area was a settled neighbourhood with its own identity Jak King in the constellation of Vancouver “suburbs.” Vancouver: Driver Press, 2011. 284 $25.00 The book’s subtitle promises retail, pp. paper. social, and political history, and King Daniel Francis delivers on all three. His encyclopaedic Vancouver cataloguing of every storefront between Venables and Seventh Avenue may try the patience of some readers, but n the morning of 8 April 1949, generally he keeps the story moving at a nattily dressed crook named a brisk pace. The social is epitomized RobertO Harrison visited the Bank by the Grandview Lawn Bowling of Commerce at the corner of First Association, whose greens were at Avenue and Commercial Drive and Victoria Park. Among its members, relieved it of $3,000. Armed with a nine- the club counted everybody who was Book Reviews 141 anybody in Grandview. It was the glue, Vancouver’s Bessborough remarks King, that kept the local elite Armoury: A History together. R. Victor Stevenson As for the political, King argues that the good burghers of the Drive Vancouver: The Fifteenth Field invented a master narrative to get the Artillery Regiment, rca Museum improvements they needed for their and Archives Society, 2010. 112 pp. neighbourhood. According to this Illus. $25.00 paper. narrative, Grandview was the victim of discrimination on the part of the James Wood City Fathers, who habitually neglected University of Victoria the needs of the east side in favour of the downtown and the west side. “They ictor Stevenson’s positioned Grandview as the neglected long-standing colony of the indifferent Vancouver personal and professional empire,” writes King, “and pitched attachmentV to Vancouver’s Bessborough their demands as requests for deserved Armoury is reflected in his concise equal treatment” (80). King does not and well-researched account of the always agree with this point of view, building’s history. Having served but he argues that it usually worked, as both honourary colonel of the Fifteenth Field Artillery Regiment, especially when it came to obtaining rca important communications links to the , the primary reserve unit housed downtown. at the Bessborough, and as the founder, King explores several subjects director, and curator of the regiment’s that affect the larger city. To take an museum and archives – the first official example, now that the future of the Canadian Forces militia artillery viaducts has come up for debate, it is museum of its kind in Canada – his interesting to read about the role that book is presented as the collective Commercial Drive boosters played product of Stevenson’s leadership in the planning of the First Avenue and the work of several university Viaduct in the 1930s. As well, King’s students sponsored by the Directorate description of the end of the ward of History and Heritage and the Royal Canadian Artillery Heritage system, abolished by the voters at the 10 end of 1935, adds useful background to Fund ( ). A significant strength of another perennial debate in the city. the resulting work is the primary The Drive is the first of a projected research this group has assembled, from series of books about the neighbourhood. military correspondence at Library and If this one is anything to go by, residents Archives Canada to legal, municipal, of the area are lucky to have found such and architectural records as well as local newspaper coverage from the 1920s an intelligent and entertaining guide as 1990 Jak King. to the late s. The group worked in consultation with ubc history professor Peter Moogk, who carried the book through to publication after Stevenson became fatally ill. The introduction to Vancouver’s Bessborough Armoury notes that it is “intended to inform military personnel 142 bc studies and civilian community members “wide-ranging effects on the men and alike of the armoury’s rich history … women who have called it home, and It is not an indulgence in nostalgia, its relationship with its surrounding but rather an attempt to objectively community” (10), those looking for and accurately relate the history of the more detail here will continue to look Bessborough Armoury” (10). Stevenson to Peter Moogk’s 1978 work, Vancouver has succeeded in achieving this goal. Defended: A History of the Men and Guns The various military units that have of Lower Mainland Defences. Although occupied the building and their training Stevenson’s book is dedicated “to the activities, their reorganization in reservists and cadets who have marched response to changing requirements through the portals of the Bessborough over time, early struggles to fund the Armoury,” his book should be regarded construction and maintenance of the first and foremost as a history of the armoury, its unique late Art Deco building itself rather than of those who architecture, and the wide range of served within it or their place in the military and social functions that community. have characterized its existence – all The concluding portions of are carefully outlined in this book. the book highlight Stevenson’s Of particular interest is the chapter dedication to the preservation of the portraying the complex financial, armoury against the threat of new legal, and leadership challenges faced and “creative” uses of community by the Vancouver Overseas Artillery structures that emerged in the 1990s. Association in attempting to have At that time, Stevenson opposed a the armoury built in 1932-33, faced local campaign backed by Liberal as it was by a crippling economic MP Hedy Fry to establish a family depression and a decline in both federal recreation centre at the Bessborough and community support in an era of that would have undermined the decidedly limited interest in military building’s military function. After affairs. Urban historians might look gathering the support of municipal for a broadening of the analysis here and provincial backers, Stevenson to further establish the context of this was instrumental in discrediting a fascinating chapter, perhaps by drawing citizen advocacy group’s contention comparisons between the isolationism that the armoury was “underused” and financial restraint of the1930 s as by its military occupants. Pointing to opposed to Vancouver’s pre-1914 martial the almost insurmountable “difficulty enthusiasm and the community spirit of moving guns and vehicles within that had once led to the formation of a structure containing a swimming militia units such as the Sixth Regiment pool” (75), Stevenson led the campaign Duke of Connaught’s Own Rifles or the to achieve both federal and municipal Seventy-Second Seaforth Highlanders. heritage status for the Bessborough By focusing his research on the Armoury. As a result of these efforts, building itself, Stevenson has written the building will be preserved as a a valuable account that presents the heritage structure, and the publication Bessborough as a microcosm of the of Vancouver’s Bessborough Armoury city’s history, “a living symbol of our stands as an admirable written and past” (81). Although the book falls photographic record of its past. Though slightly short of the introduction’s now deceased, Stevenson’s efforts have promise to examine the armoury’s helped preserve the Bessborough “not Book Reviews 143 just [as] a historical artifact, but [as] a years to its brief electoral victory in functioning testament to Vancouver’s 1972. However, as with any attempt to history” (83), and he leaves us with write contemporary history, the living a book that may inspire continuing may take issue with Isitt’s facts and research into the place of this historic arguments, especially those veterans in armoury in the Vancouver community. the ranks of the Anarchists, Maoists, Trotskyists, Marxist-Leninists, and social democrats that populate his volume. To his credit, Isitt has Militant Minority: British courageously leapt into that breach, Columbia Workers and the Rise penning a portrait of the BC left, warts and all. of a New Left, 1948-1972 In some cases, not enough space is Benjamin Isitt devoted to key left events. For example, the historic 1950s Peace Arch concerts Toronto: University of Toronto that fought back against McCarthyism Press, 2011. 424 pp. $35.00 paper. get only light treatment. In other cases, Ron Verzuh Militant Minority shines with a full discussion of the left debates that took Simon Fraser University place outside the Lower Mainland, notably in the Kootenays, with their history of electing left politicians and abour historians have been dissenting from party policy. arguing about the left in BC Through a reading of personal papers politicsL and labour for ages. Now, and the labour and left press, Isitt through a skilful conversion of his shares some amusing anecdotes about 2008 University of Toronto dissertation the back-biting and clamour on the BC “Tug of War,” University of Victoria left. One incident, though not new to scholar Ben Isitt adds his analysis of the labour historians, involves an expletive- province’s often fractious working-class filled speech drunkenly delivered by politics and what they might mean Mine-Mill district director Harvey today. Murphy, an arch-Communist. The so- Militant Minority does not explore called “underpants speech” got Murphy totally new territory. Historians have expelled from the labour movement been fascinated by British Columbia’s for two years and began what became left-labour politics since at least the a major purge of the “Reds” in union 1960s work of Martin Robin (Radical ranks. Politics and Canadian Labour, 1880-1930 Tied to the purges were the [1968]) and Paul Phillips (No Power political fortunes of the Co-operative Greater [1967]), or the 1990s work of Commonwealth Federation-New Mark Leier (Red Flags and Red Tape Democratic Party (ccf-ndp) and the [1995]). But these earlier volumes do Communist Party of Canada, and not fully cover the time period of this Isitt pays much attention to the details welcome new work. in convention proceedings and press Isitt revisits and challenges some reports (both labour and mainstream). long-held truths and cites some hard Most interesting are the skirmishes facts about the fragile nature of the within the ccf between dissidents like province’s left from its early Cold War Colin Cameron and Dorothy Steeves, 144 bc studies on the one hand, and avowed anti- hand, will find the painstaking attention Communists like future ndp federal to detail of much use. leader David Lewis and well-meaning For now, Isitt’s book will dominate moderates like Angus and Grace the shelves of BC left histories. But MacInnis, on the other. hot on its tail is a forthcoming volume “The MacInnises, and their allies by Vancouver city councillor Geoff in the ‘moderate’ faction were no less Meggs and Globe and Mail reporter committed to improving the conditions Rod Mickleburgh that promises fresh of BC’s working class,” notes Isitt, “but insights into the province’s political they objected to the strident statements past. Hopefully, it will also let some and radical resolutions of the left wing, new skeletons out of the BC ndp closet which they considered harmful to the through an examination of the Dave ccf’s electoral objectives” (91). With Barrett government, which won power that statement, he captures the essence in 1972. of what was to guide left debates for the foreseeable future and into the new century, including those in the late British Columbia Politics and 1960 s involving the dissident Waffle Government group. Indeed, some would argue that the same debate rages now on the eve of Michael Howlett, another BC election in which the ndp Dennis Pilon, and has high hopes of regaining power after Tracy Summerville, eds. ten years of Liberal rule. Like many historians of the left, Toronto: Emond Montgomery, Isitt concludes that, had the labour 2009. 324 pp. $63.00 paper. ccf-ndp movement and the not culled Allan Craigie its radicals, we might have had a more effective and even more voter- University of British Columbia friendly platform for resisting the worst corporate excesses that followed the ritish Columbia’s unique Second World War. As Isitt puts it: “By Bgeographical location and relative the 1970s, institutionalized collective isolation within Canada makes for an bargaining and an institutionalized interesting study of how politics can be social-democratic party distanced conducted differently in the federation. workers from the locus of economic The contributors to British Columbia and political decision-making. Militant Politics and Government highlight the agency – their historic weapon against province’s individuality in great detail. capitalist exploitation – had been Divided into four thematic sections of paradoxically rendered essential and approximately five chapters each, this obsolete” (203). work is as valuable to those new to BC A mild warning to the non-academic politics as it is to those well versed in reader or those not schooled in left the subject. ideology: Militant Minority might A thorough overview of BC poli- prove a taxing read with its detailed tics is presented in the first substantive explanations of the various internecine section. The contributions by Telford wars on the left and its over-abundance and James are of particular interest of footnotes. Academics, on the other to scholars of federalism. Telford ar- gues that British Columbia has typi- Book Reviews 145 cally punched well below its weight in the BC Citizen’s Assembly. His chapter intergovernmental relations because examines the experiment and the successive premiers, of all parties, resulting referenda as well as the history have neglected to build a strong and of electoral reform within the province. capable department dedicated to this Though more historically based than endeavour. He claims that what suc- the other contributions, Pilon’s chapter cess British Columbia does achieve is fits well within the overarching themes the result of the premier’s taking an of the volume and paves the way for active hand in the file rather than of subsequent chapters, which deal with the ongoing work of a department of the unique and highly polarized polit- intergovernmental affairs. This creates ical situation in British Columbia. The a situation in which, through the lack of other chapters in this section deal with investment in intergovernmental rela- a variety of issues in BC politics, from tions, the province has little corporate party competition and media owner- knowledge to fall back on if the premier ship to the role of interest groups and directs his or her attention to other files. ngos. The contributors address issues The reviewer found it surprising that, common throughout the federation but given the resentment towards the rest of demonstrate how they are either han- the federation and the sense of isolation dled or manifested differently in British that some claim characterize politics Columbia. in British Columbia, so little emphasis The third and fourth substantive sec- is placed upon building a dedicated tions of the volume offer a great deal bureaucracy in this area. of insight into the province. The indi- James’s contribution offers an in- vidual chapters offer valuable reading triguing explanation – federalism – as on issues ranging from institutional to why British Columbia has been slow accountability and the structures of the to recognize its historic faults vis-à- office of the premier and the cabinet to vis First Nations and other minorities. issues of health care, social policy, the He argues that the federal government’s environment, and culture. The topics apologies for past wrongs allow British examined in these chapters provide a Columbia to simply “pass the buck.” broad understanding of the issues in the The province is able to deny that it or province and would serve as an excellent its people are at fault, even though the starting point for further exploration. provincial government often lobbied British Columbia Politics and the federal government in favour of Government offers a valuable overview discriminatory policies that were driven of BC politics, clearly explaining the by the demands of British Columbians. character of politics within the prov- James’s account helps explain the set- ince and indicating what sets British tler/majority population’s slow response Columbia apart from the rest of the fed- to claims that it has historically acted eration. The volume is broad enough to in a discriminatory manner. This con- be used as a text for an undergraduate tribution reveals yet another area of course in BC politics, but it also offers Canadian politics in which federalism a level of insight that would be useful to influences the debate. more senior students and researchers. The next section explores democracy in British Columbia. Pilon leads the section with a study of an interesting experiment in citizen engagement – 146 bc studies

Indigenous Women and academy, while Laura E. Donaldson Feminism: Politics, traces the struggle for sovereignty Activism, Culture reflected in early Cherokee women’s writing. The second section on activism Cheryl Suzack, Shari M. includes a chapter by Cheryl Suzack Huhndorf, Jeanne Perreault, on the gendered implications of the and Jean Barman, eds. Indian Act in Canada and one by Jean Barman on the agency of Northwest ubc 2010 Vancouver: Press, . Coast Aboriginal women “on the 344 pp. $34.95 paper. cusp of contact.” ann elise lewallen Tina Block departs from the North American Thompson Rivers University focus in her analysis of the activism of indigenous Ainu women in Japan. Kim Anderson traces her personal he unique circumstances of journey to feminism, grounded as indigenous women are often it was in her personal experience of overlookedT in the literature on both motherhood and indigenous traditions. mainstream feminism and indigenous Teresa Zackodnick examines the call activism. Indigenous Women and for coalitional feminism embodied Feminism: Politics, Activism, Culture within Anna Julia Cooper’s 1891 essay is thus a welcome addition to the “Woman versus the Indian.” In the existing scholarship. This volume brings final section on culture, the authors together scholars and activists from explore indigenous women as both various disciplines, including English, producers and subjects of art, fiction, women’s studies, law, history, and ethnic and other cultural media. Shari M. studies. Despite varied approaches, Huhndorf and Katherine Young Evans the authors share a commitment to reveal how theatre has been used to taking indigenous women’s distinct expose the links between patriarchy experiences seriously in their own and colonialism, and to disseminate right. Pamela McCallum notes that indigenous feminism. As Patricia indigenous feminism “has sometimes Demers shows, documentary film been characterized as a contradictory has also been ably used to challenge positioning that asks women to choose conventional representations of between their ancestry and their indigenous women. Native art and gender” (254). This book moves beyond poetry, examined by Pamela McCallum this either/or characterization by and Jeanne Perreault, respectively, revealing the complex and multifarious have figured significantly in efforts to relationship between indigenous women reclaim and give voice to indigenous and feminism in both past and present. memory and history. No discussion of The book opens with a section on indigenous feminism would be complete politics, in which Rebecca Tsosie without attention to the violence explores Native women’s leadership in that was (and is) perpetrated against contemporary Canada and the United indigenous women; the representations States, and Minnie Grey reflects upon and realities of such violence are her involvement in Inuit society and addressed by Julia Emberley in her politics. In this same section, Patricia analysis of Wiebe and Johnson’s Stolen Penn Hilden and Leece M. Lee probe Life and by Elizabeth Kalbfleisch in her indigenous feminist work within the exploration of Rebecca Belmore’s Vigil. Book Reviews 147

This collection is cross-disciplinary After Canaan: Essays on Race, and collaborative, containing chapters Writing, and Region by both indigenous and non-indigenous authors. Taken together, the chapters Wayde Compton illustrate the deeply gendered character Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, of colonialism and its aftermath, and 2010. 232 pp. $19.95 paper. offer rich examples of indigenous women’s agency today and in history. Karina Vernon The editors aptly note that a “single, University of Toronto normative definition of indigenous feminism remains impossible” (2). Because the contributors do not ascribe t has been three years since we to any unitary notion of indigenous have seen a major critical monograph feminism, this collection captures publishedI in the field of black Canadian multiple definitions and perspectives; cultural studies. The last was Katherine this also means, however, that the McKittrick and Clyde Wood’s guiding questions that are meant to significant edited collection Black lend cohesion to the collection are, at Geographies and the Politics of Place. Yet occasional points, difficult to discern. in the last decade there has been no The volume is also somewhat uneven in shortage of critical black intellectual tone, certain of the chapters being more work published for, in Canada, black formal and research-oriented and others poets and novelists do double-duty, more personal and reflective. As with all publishing creative work that offers cross-disciplinary collections, this one innovative methodologies for critically presents organizational challenges, and reading the complex space of black the division of the book into sections Canada. Compton’s two previously on politics, activism, and culture seems published collections of poetry (1999, arbitrary given the considerable overlap 2004), along with his anthology of between them. These are, nonetheless, black British Columbia, Bluesprint minor points about a very impressive (2001), profoundly transformed our volume that embraces and engages inherited understandings of British with the diversity and complexity of its Columbia by recovering it as a black subject matter. space. In After Canaan: Essays on Race, This collection reveals the importance Writing, and Region, Compton brings of indigenous women to the ongoing to the essay form all his gifts as a struggle for both indigenous rights poet, an archivist, an activist, and an and gender equality. It brings to light intellectual. The result is a beautiful many examples of indigenous feminist and intelligent collection of essays – a practice and compels a broadening major contribution to black cultural of conventional understandings of studies in Canada. feminism. Indigenous Women and As the title of this collection suggests, Feminism will surely help to fuel Compton is interested in exploring ongoing, critical conversations on the what Canaan – the promised land of meanings, priorities, and practices of African-American spirituals, Canada – indigenous feminism in Canada, the means to black people today, 180 years United States, and beyond. As such, after the abolition of slavery in this this volume is sure to be of great interest country, forty years after the institution to scholars and activists alike. of multiculturalism as an official state 148 bc studies policy, and two decades after the end of or think they see. As Compton lucidly strategic essentialism as a viable cultural explains: politics. When a person with mixed Cree Compton opens by observing, in and Norwegian ancestry, for his characteristically lyrical way, that example, walks down the street Canada has always been an ironic space and is seen by someone who for blackness: it is “the appendix of the assumes she is only white, our epic and the echo of the odyssey” (16) to inadequate phraseology – that African America. Canada, once the site she is “passing for white” – is and centre of so much longing, quickly much like saying that because a diminished in the heroic narratives of man finds a woman attractive, the flight north. But what is admirable she is flirting with him. Both about Compton as a theorist is that formulations are dangerous for he never seeks to recentre any form the way they lift the viewer of blackness – Canadian or British wholly out of any implication Columbian – as dominant; rather, he and responsibility. (23) theorizes what the “Afropheripheral” spaces of black Canada make possible. But Compton does not stop with These essays prove British Columbia this insightful critique of the language to be fertile ground for rethinking the of racialization. The triumph of this orthodoxies of both “race” and anti- essay is that it offers a new discourse, racism, and they prove Compton to be borrowed from biology, that relocates one of the most important theorists of race from the body to language. Instead critical mixed race working today. of “passing,” Compton suggests the The first essay in the collection, term “pheneticizing,” which he defines “Pheneticizing Versus Passing,” is as “racially perceiving someone based daringly original and is the piece that on a subjective examination of his or will make this collection canonical. her outward appearance” (25). This The author articulates the problematic term effectively shifts responsibility for of “race” succinctly: “the body of the racialization back to the agent doing phonograph, like the racialized body, the looking, and it transforms the is never closed” (199). In other words, racialized person from object to subject. the racialized body can never blink In other words, Compton offers a way to interrupt the gaze of those who of allowing the racialized body, the “I,” would arrange a body’s features into a to blink. semblance of a pattern, a racialized text. “Pheneticizing versus Passing” This phenomenon is particularly vexing elevates critical writing about race for mixed-race people whose polysemic to the level of poetry. Compton’s features are perennially “open” to “Glossary of Racial Transgression” scrutiny and racial misperception. Yet includes this definition of race: the only term available to talk about “A folk taxonomy; a pseudoscientific the ways mixed-race people are mis- demographic categorization system. seen is “passing” (a concept developed Like a national border or a literary in the far-off American South after the genre, race is only as real as our current Civil War), which only reinforces the social consensus” (25). Throughout the misperception that mixed-race people collection, Compton’s prose is limpid are responsible for what others see – and beautiful, making this not only Book Reviews 149 a necessary but also a highly readable Several of the essays in After Canaan collection of essays. include such lovely autobiographical “Seven Routes to Hogan’s Alley,” moments. But in After Canaan Compton about the diverse black and multi- also makes it clear that he considers ethnic neighbourhood in Vancouver’s theorizing black British Columbia to be East End, is the longest, most wide- a collective, not an individual, project. ranging essay in the collection. And, Throughout the book he thinks with like Hogan’s Alley itself, it functions and through the work of a wide range of like passageway or bridge, connecting BC writers and artists: Mifflin Gibbs, the essays about British Columbia’s Isaac Dickson, Melinda Mollineaux, black history in the first part of the Jason de Couto, Fred Booker, and collection to those towards the end Alexis Mazurin. For these last two (like his essay “Obama and Language,” writers, Compton includes stirring which speculates about the future). elegiac essays that both analyze and By offering seven “routes,” or readings, celebrate the cultural contributions of Hogan’s Alley – including a they made during their lifetimes. The comprehensive history, a social history, elegiac mode is, after all, an aspect of a poem, a visual installation, a “retro- Compton’s poetics, as announced by the speculative” reading of history, and a book’s epigram (taken from Heraclitus): found poem – Compton is careful never “Everything flows and nothing abides; to overdetermine Hogan’s Alley or to /everything gives way and nothing reduce its meanings to a single story. stays fixed.” It seems true that, in The meticulously researched history of black British Columbia especially, the neighbourhood and its production nothing abides, but it can nevertheless as a “slum” by journalists, city councils, be archived. By writing careful essays and urban planners will be most valuable about their work, Compton enters to teachers and historians. But for me Fred Booker and Alexis Mazurin as the most powerful moments of the important figures into the black BC essay come when Compton shifts into archive. This is compassionate criticism. the autobiographical mode to consider why this vanished neighbourhood has become a surrogate imagined home to a current generation of black British Columbians. Compton writes: “I sometimes find my own circumstances strange; that I, a person who has more white than black biological ancestry, have devoted so much of my time to the project of recovering blackness in this place” (109). Ultimately, the essays in this collection reveal that to be black in British Columbia is to occupy a space of irony: we live somewhere between here and history, between absence and the archive. Living in the Afroperiphery, it is no wonder that Hogan’s Alley and its vanished spaces speak to us so seductively. 150 bc studies

City of Love and Revolution: of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll tends to Vancouver in the Sixties undermine Aronsen’s argument that the Lawrence Aronsen sixties happened uniquely in Vancouver. Though the book is written for a Vancouver: New Star Books, 2010. popular audience, Aronsen obliges 208 pp. $24.00 paper. scholarly readers by providing pages of useful endnotes. However, Aronsen Matt Cavers sometimes makes unwarranted claims, University of British Columbia such as his statement that, in pre- sixties Vancouver, “gay males remained hidden, only indulging their impulses awrence Aronsen’s handsomely late at night in a West End after- Lillustrated City of Love and hours club near English Bay” (57); or Revolution examines a period of his improbably precise breakdown Vancouver’s history that still resonates. of Vancouver hippies into “angries,” The latest contribution to a growing “freaks and heads,” “cynical beats,” “hip literature on the sixties in Canada, the capitalists,” and “love hippies” (16). For book also contributes to contemporary the most part, Aronsen’s position as a debates about Vancouver’s history veteran of Vancouver’s sixties enriches and identity. Scholars of Vancouver the text, but lapses such as these will and the sixties may find some of the alienate readers hoping for more detail. book’s generalizations unsatisfying; Here and there Aronsen ventures nevertheless, Aronsen writes beyond hippies and yippies. His chapter engagingly, and the book provides an on the Vancouver Free University stands entertaining introduction to a lively out in that it traces the ways through chapter in the city’s history. which an experimental educational The sensual spectacle of the institution left its mark on the city’s counterculture era features prominently social landscape. But otherwise City of in City of Love and Revolution, but Love and Revolution does a better job more elusive is the meaning of the of drawing attention to the strange and city’s “extended summer of love” (10). wonderful aspects of Vancouver’s sixties Early on, Aronsen argues that “the than it does of listening for their untold 1960s in Vancouver were not unique stories and later reverberations. because of the style of dress, music, or variety of drugs enjoyed by hippies, yippies, and other youth, but because of Vancouver’s focus on environmentalism, Native rights, and neighbourhood- based political reform” (8). Despite this, Aronsen spends little time on these apparently unique happenings. Amchitka and Greenpeace receive a few pages in the last chapter; Aboriginal activism gets a short paragraph in the conclusion; and “neighbourhood-based political reform” receives little explicit discussion. Instead, the book’s textual and visual focus on the familiar trio Book Reviews 151

The Third Crop: won the Hubert Evans award for non- A Personal and Historical fiction. Journey into the Photo Albums A third crop is a rare extra crop of hay, harvested in the fall and laboriously and Shoeboxes of the Slocan fixed to drying poles. Moir intends it Valley, 1800s to early 1940s as a metaphor for those who put the Rita Moir hard extra work into making life and community in the Slocan, but it is Winlaw, BC: Sono Nis Press, 2011. also a metaphor for her work for this 180 pp. $28.95 paper. book. Her third crop is photographs, some from public collections, more from Cole Harris family albums, shoeboxes, and attics. University of British Columbia This book began with conversations around kitchen tables. he Slocan Valley is quirky and Many of the pictures she has found isolated, and its past can be told in are marvellous, and she has let them “do manyT ways. The valley has been a site of the talking.” Hers is not a representative conflict between capital and labour on collection, nor, probably, could it an industrial mining frontier, a haven be. There is much more on the lower for refugees from Czarist Russia, a locus valley, where she lives, than the upper of family life on semi-subsistent farms, valley; much more on the years that a set of camps during the Second World albums and attics in the lower valley might be expected to uncover – from War for Japanese evacuated from the 1910 1940 coast, a favoured resort in the late 1960s about to the early s – than and early 1970s for young Americans fed on the mining boom. Almost all up with their country, a place where the pictures of the latter are from the economy stalled, many left, and in public collections. The strengths of her various ways the remainder managed to collection are these: intimate views of get by. None of these tellings is wrong. rural life in the lower Slocan Valley, The modern Slocan began in a mining previously unknown or little-known boom but thereafter became home to pictures of logging operations and a variety of people and to sputtering sawmills in the lower Slocan Valley, economies. Such consistency as there intimate views of Japanese life during has been has to do with a sense of a the internment. The Doukhobors place apart, a refuge from the insanities also figure, and there are remarkable of the larger world. pictures of sporting life, particularly Rita Moir arrived in the Slocan in of two young women in long skirts on the early 1970s and became a central the trail to the New Denver glacier and figure at the Vallican Whole, a of an outlandish party of four roped community hall that emerged out of together on the Kokanee Glacier. the lower Slocan Valley’s then vibrant Enjoy this book for the pictures. It counterculture. Since, she has become is not academic history, nor is it always a staff journalist (for theNelson Daily accurate. But taken for what it is, an News) and freelance writer, and has affectionate gleaning of tucked-away written three previous books, one of photos, it is delightful and fascinating. which, Buffalo Jump: A Woman’s Travels, 152 bc studies

Talk-Action=Zero: An preserver of more than three decades Illustrated History of doa of doa’s history. Joe Keithley In many ways, Talk-Action=Zero is an archive. For all the salty language, Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 2011. Keithley’s prose is plain and sometimes 224 pp. $27.95 paper. even dour. Keithley offers a remarkably conventional historical narrative that Adele Perry focuses on who was in the band; University of Manitoba where they travelled; what they wrote, played, and recorded; and the causes and movements they allied themselves omewhere in a Vancouver with. Documenting the changes in basement is my copy of Expo Hurts line-up is no easy task, and the hand- EveryoneS . The seven-inch EP record drawn “family tree” at the end of the came out in 1986, the same year my book reminds readers just how many unimpressive high school career drew musicians joined the band, left it, or to a close and Vancouver entered a new died. Keithley’s narrative carefully phase in its infatuation with grandiose traces doa’s engagement with and vocal capitalism. The album had a grainy support for a remarkably wide range of black-and-white cover that gestured causes. Doa didn’t just protest Expo: to local and wider politics of the day: it also lent its support to campaigns photos of US president Ronald Reagan, to preserve British Columbia’s a smiling BC Social Credit premier environment, to protest war and Bill Bennett, and Olaf Solheim, the militarism, and to raise awareness of old miner who threw himself out of his the threat of house fires in Vancouver’s single-occupancy room in Vancouver’s eastside. Keithley’s narrative also Downtown Eastside when he heard suggests some informal social politics that he would be evicted to make that are far from uncomplicated. way for tourist dollars. Expo Hurts Casual violence is everywhere. A roadie Everyone included songs by a number becomes “One-Punch Bernie” (113) and of Vancouver’s alternative bands, most a broken beer-bottle stabbing becomes of all doa. “the Winnipeg handshake” (164). Formed in 1978, doa was by then It is the visual archive in Talk- firmly established at the centre of a Action=Zero that steals the show. thriving and seasoned local punk-rock The bulk of the book is made up of scene. Talk-Action=Zero: An Illustrated posters, playbills, photographs, set lists, History of doa is written by the band’s and other ephemera from Keithley’s founding member and lead singer collection. Some of the most visually Joe Keithley. In addition to being a striking posters are designed by artist, musician, Keithley is a failed Green author, and musician David Lester, a Party candidate, a political activist, member of Mecca Normal, one of the a record-label proprietor, and, in his other bands featured on Expo Hurts 2003 I, Shithead: A Life in Punk, an Everyone. Bev Davies’ photographs autobiographer. Talk-Action=Zero is are another highlight. These images a handsome, substantial, and almost document doa’s ability to celebrate stately book published by Arsenal Pulp and recontextualize some of the most Press, and it makes it clear that Keithley enduring symbols of white, masculine is also a remarkable recorder and Book Reviews 153 working-class BC culture – the mack jacket, beer, and hockey. People interested in the early days of punk rock in Vancouver might read Keithley’s Talk-Action=Zero alongside Suzanne Tabata’s remarkable 2010 documentary Bloodied But Unbowed. As the teenagers of the 1970s and 1980s become middle aged, we will see more and more cultural products that recall, recast, and sell the memory of punk rock. At worst these will be cloying and nostalgic, while at best they will give readers tools and resources with which to have a discussion of punk and the work it did and did not do. Doa is not itself history. The band, anchored by the now venerable Keithley, plays, records, and tours still, and this book is a revealing window onto the history of punk rock and a testament to the resilience of some of its most enduring practitioners.