reviews / comptes rendus

Ian Milligan, Rebel Youth: 1960s Labour links with a decidedly older Left, particu- Unrest, Young Workers, and New larly that based in the labour movement. Leftists in English Canada (Vancouver: Although these links were complex and University of British Columbia Press often fraught with conflict, they were an 2014) essential part of creating the Canadian New Left. While the historiography of the US To this developing body of New Left New Left is rich and varied enough to scholarship we can welcome the addi- have already gone through several waves tion of Ian Milligan’s Rebel Youth: 1960s of revision, scholarship on the Canadian Labour Unrest, Young Workers, and New New Left has been sparse. With the no- Leftists in English Canada. Milligan’s table exception of studies of Québécois book aims to “demonstrate the salience nationalism and the Quiet Revolution, of labour and how this significantly af- relatively little has been written about the fected the direction of radical and not-so- panoply of movements that erupted and radical political and cultural movements flamed out across English and French through the long sixties.” (11) While Canada over the course of the 1960s and campus revolts must be part of any tell- early 1970s. To the extent that such schol- ing of the New Left’s story, and are cer- arship exists, it has focused largely on the tainly featured in Rebel Youth, Milligan’s student-led and “new social movement” focus extends far beyond the universities. aspects of the New Left. Here the domi- He argues that understanding what was nant narrative has been one of “children happening in the workplace was central of privilege” rejecting the values of their to understanding the New Left. parents and the class-based “Old Left” to The first two chapters of Rebel Youth found movements based on identities and outline the contours of this broader per- lifestyles. spective on youth revolt in the 1960s. We Fortunately, a new generation of schol- encounter not only the well-known cam- arship has developed in recent years to pus radicals, but the young Inco miners challenge the “children of privilege” nar- in Sudbury gathered at the mine cages, rative. Contributions from Sean Mills, banging their lunch pails in defense of Bryan Palmer, Joan Sangster, Peter their customary right to have lunch be- McInnis, Benjamin Isitt, two significant fore their shift. We meet the anti-au- edited volumes, and several disserta- thoritarian, pot-smoking “long-hairs” tions have begun to paint a much more working the lines at Inglis and Chrysler. nuanced – and interesting – picture of They shared with their college-bound the “long 1960s.” While recognizing the contemporaries a common youth cul- “newness” of the Canadian New Left, ture, characterized by “personal freedom, this new scholarship has highlighted individual expression, and democracy both its global dimensions, as well as its above all else,” which did not mix well

Table of Contents for Reviews, pp. 5–6.

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with the authoritarian structures of the Project. But, as with similar New Left university and workplace alike. (22) But community organizing initiatives in Milligan is careful to note that within the US, these Canadian efforts proved this shared culture, there were important fleeting. By the late 1960s, there was a differences along race, gender, and class growing realization among student New lines. These differences created divisions Leftists that class remained centrally im- that would prove difficult to overcome as portant, and that an alliance of some sort the movements of the 1960s developed. with workers would be necessary. The next two chapters focus on youth The question, as Milligan explores, revolt in the workplace, and how the was what shape that alliance might take. campus-based left understood and re- Student New Left efforts to engage with sponded to this revolt. Imbued with the working class struggles exposed the cul- anti-authoritarianism of the period, tural, material, and ideological chasms young workers chafed at basic workplace that separated the students from their indignities and arbitrary rules that their working class peers. At the same time, the seniors accepted, such as miners having overwhelmingly male student New Left to heat their lunch using electric wiring leadership’s ossified conception of class from the underground lighting system. left it blind to dynamics of patriarchy and (43) They also often rebelled against sexism within their own movements. The their official union leadership, engaging result was conflict and acrimonious splits in unsanctioned wildcat strikes in the within New Left organizations, but also late 1960s on an unprecedented scale. a feminist-led push to expand notions of This revolt spilled over into internal what the working class was beyond in- union politics, leading to leadership chal- dustrial factory workers, and to build or- lenges and injecting new militancy into ganizations that addressed working class unions in auto, steel, and mining. While women’s issues, such as the BC-based some union leaders resisted calls for Service, Office, and Retail Workers Union change others, like United Auto Workers of Canada (sorwuc). Canadian Director Dennis McDermott, The remaining chapters of Milligan’s sought to engage younger workers. book offer case studies of key struggles, Meanwhile, campus New Leftists both on campus and on the picket line, sought to make sense of this workplace that defined the fraught relationship be- revolt. Many had embraced the idea, tween workers and student New Leftists popularized by intellectuals such as C. in this period. The narrative culmi- Wright Mills and Herbert Marcuse, nates in a retelling of the 1973 Artistic that postwar prosperity had placated Woodwork strike, which for Milligan en- the working class, which could no lon- capsulates the strengths and weaknesses ger serve as the central agent of social of the labour-New Left relationship. change. Instead, they argued that change The core strength underpinningRebel would come from the ranks of “the dis- Youth is the voices of those involved in possessed,” a looser term encompassing the events he recounts. Given the paucity the urban poor, First Nations people, stu- of written records, Milligan collected dents, and people of colour. As a result, more than seventy oral histories from early New Left efforts to expand beyond key participants. They provide insight the campus took the form of organizing into the debates and discussions that in poor and First Nations communities, animated the New Left. As Milligan is such as the Kingston Community Project careful to point out, they also provide a and the Student Neestow Partnership particular perspective on the movements

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of the period. His interview sample was know more about this critical period will predominantly male, and skewed more find much of interest, and Milligan’s work towards former campus radicals and will provide an important base for future labour leaders than worker activists. research. Nonetheless, this collection of primary Barry Eidlin source data and first-person accounts is a Rutgers University remarkable achievement in itself, and will no doubt prove to be a valuable resource for future scholars of the Canadian Gordon Hak, The Left in British sixties. Columbia: A History of Struggle Rebel Youth has other flaws that go (Vancouver: Ronsdale Press 2013) deeper than the limited perspectives of its oral histories. Most significant is This important book examines a vi- its lack of analytical focus. Milligan be- tal topic in Canadian working-class his- gins Rebel Youth by setting out to “dem- tory – the political trajectory on the onstrate the salience of labour,” and “left coast” of British Columbia from its Chapters 1 and 2 do a good job of incor- origins in the 19th century to the pres- porating workers’ perspectives into New ent. Hak’s approach is moderate and bal- Left history. But, as the book unfolds, the anced rather than Marxist, evident in his workers tend to fade into the background selection, structuring, and discussion of and the story becomes much more about subject matter and themes. To be sure, campus-based New Leftists and their Communists, anarchists, and other radi- sometimes more, sometimes less, suc- cal activists and currents receive proper cessful efforts to support working class attention, but Hak is careful to reach out struggles. Similarly, Milligan’s very con- to the diversity of left perspectives and ception of the New Left and its constitu- working-class viewpoints in crafting this ents shifts over the course of the book. survey work. While he notes in Chapter 2 that young He traces the history of BC’s left from workers saw themselves as part of the the standpoint of the working class, New Left, (44) for much of the book he broadly conceived, with the objective counterposes “New Leftists,” by which he of identifying a movement capable of means student activists, and workers. To inspiring and mobilizing a majority of what extent does the author see the two people in a project for far-reaching social groups as separate, or as different parts of and economic change. As a result, Hak’s the same movement? Milligan vacillates association with familiar protagonists on the question. His narrative also lacks and institutions is necessarily detached, cohesion and can be difficult to follow at meaning that some readers, particularly times. The individual cases and stories those most familiar with aspects of BC’s are engaging, but it remains unclear why left history, or those who most strongly Milligan selected these cases, or how they identify with particular ideologies or work together to develop a broader argu- organizations, may feel their pet topic ment. Overall, the manuscript could have has received short shrift. Hak’s gener- benefited from more careful research de- ous and inclusive approach produces a sign and more thorough editing. high-quality work that is accessible to Notwithstanding these shortcomings, general readers, while providing a valu- Rebel Youth is a much-needed addition able contribution for specialist scholars to the scholarship on labour and the New and post-secondary educators. The book Left in 1960s Canada. Readers wanting to is readable and inviting, employing plain

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language, effective illustrations, and a to wield more power on behalf of work- useful glossary. ers.” (59) Examining how the Communist A survey work of this scope, given the Party eclipsed other radical left forma- abundance of prior specialist studies, is tions, Hak suggests the party “built on a challenging assignment and Hak de- a successful revolution, provided a con- livers with competence and finesse. He crete institutional structure, and exuded provides useful original insight on the the promise of a new international order” politics of craft workers and others in the (66) – before the process of Stalinization 19th century and traces the trajectory of “blunted discussion, and hence creativ- electoralism from “Lib-Labism” and the ity, and ensured the future ossification pre-World War I Socialist Party, through of revolutionary Marxism in British the various labourist parties of the inter- Columbia.” (73) war period, to the ebbs and flows of the Of social democracy, Hak acknowledg- Co-operative Commonwealth Federation es the limitations of the ccf and ndp pro- and the New Democratic Party, immersed grams in opposition and in government, in the broader political, social, and eco- while suggesting (in relation to the defeat nomic context. Actors from Knights of of the Barrett government in 1975) that Labor to Single Taxers to Wobblies to “the ndp had sizeable electoral support New Leftists to the Squamish Five are and it had the ability to scare the business woven into the tapestry. community.” (143) Turning to the neolib- Hak also situates the British Columbia eral era and the Solidarity movement’s left in global context, demonstrating challenge to Restraint in 1983, Hak pos- how international events – the Russian its that “Social Credit had transgressed Revolution, world wars, economic depres- fundamental values in a modern liberal sions, Keynesian interventions, oil shocks, society ... but the transgression was not trade agreements, climate summits, sufficient to raise questions about the le- Occupy protests – as well as national fac- gitimacy of established state and demo- tors such as the Reform Party and Idle No cratic institutions.” (156) More — influenced developments in BC. The book is particularly strong in its To be sure, there are aspects of the closing sections, where Hak provides book that could be developed more fully, a thoughtful and timely analysis of the particularly discussion of the relationship challenges and opportunities confront- between the Left and women, workers of ing the BC left from ascendant ecologi- colour, and indigenous people. Specific cal consciousness, organization, and themes such as the social gospel, the co- electoral support. He explores the ten- operative movement, and working-class sion between working-class economic culture are hardly mentioned, reflecting interests and environmental concerns the challenges of telling a complex story over the management and conversation in a compact and accessible way. of natural resources, examining how “the Hak deftly pursues the connection be- left and the Greens remained aloof from tween left politics and union organiza- each other,” (175) both electorally and tion and struggle throughout the book, more broadly in the provincial political as well as the interplay of radicalism, re- landscape. Seeking to bridge class inter- formism, and militancy. Comparing the ests and post-materialist ecological val- Industrial Workers of the World to more ues, Hak suggests the need for “a political conventional forms of labour organiza- and union movement that integrates the tion, Hak discusses the trade-off between left and environmentalism or an environ- “the loss of democracy” and “the ability mental movement that critically engages

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capitalist institutions and ideals.” He currents of anti-Semitism in both the posits that the ecological crisis could Old and New Worlds, Salsberg joined “serve as a catalyst” for the left to tran- the Communist Party of Canada in 1926 scend the stultifying conditions of the largely because of his growing conviction neoliberalism. that the Soviet Union would not only ad- Hak is both a realist and a dreamer, ac- vance the cause of the working class but knowledging that “working-class politi- would also create an environment where cal identities in a liberal capitalist society anti-Semitism would be completely con- are indeed complex.” (167) He concludes demned and Yiddish culture would thrive. the book with powerful commentary that As a committed Communist, he became people in British Columbia and other a leading – but by no means orthodox – lands would be wise to consider: “In the Party figure, playing an especially promi- long-term, if the goal is to construct a nent role building the Workers’ Unity society based on leftist principles and League (wul) during the first half of the ideals, and not merely to elect an ndp Great Depression. As Tulchinsky stress- government, the battle for the hearts es, Salsberg stayed in the Party until 1957 and minds of working and lower-middle- despite the fact that, as early as the 1930s, class-right populists will be important. he began to have serious misgivings To be successful, the left will have to about the treatment of Jews in the USSR. acknowledge the insecurities, hopes and Tulchinsky also examines Salsberg’s interests of these right populists ... [and] stint as city councillor (intermittently develop solutions that are more persua- in the late 1930s and early 1940s) and sive than those coming from the right.” as an openly Communist member of the (201) Ontario Legislature from 1943 to 1955. Benjamin Isitt The last section of the book then focuses University of Victoria on Salsberg’s later years as a journalist for the Canadian Jewish News and as a Jewish activist who strove to confront the Gerald Tulchinsky, Joe Salsberg: A Life influence of the “allrightniks” (those who of Commitment (Toronto: University of were upwardly mobile and forgot their Toronto Press, 2013) working-class roots) within Canada’s Jewish community. In this phase of his Gerald Tulchinsky’s fascinating bi- life, Salsberg struggled against the nar- ography of Joe Salsberg explores the row religiosity and consumerism that he multifaceted nature of this prominent believed were becoming so influential in activist’s complex life. Born in a small the Jewish mainstream. town in Poland in 1902, Salsberg im- A highly prominent scholar of Canadian migrated to Canada in 1913 and grew Jewish history, Tulchinsky is perceptive up in an Orthodox Jewish environment. when elucidating Salsberg’s Jewish con- In Toronto, he began a full-time job as a cerns. One of the important strengths of clothing worker at the age of thirteen and the book is the way in which the author became a committed trade unionist. As captures the sounds and the flavour of Tulchinsky demonstrates, Salsberg’s sub- the yiddishe gassen, the neighbourhood sequent life of intense activism revolved along Toronto’s Spadina Avenue where so around two identities: his Jewishness and many immigrant Jews congregated in the his working-class culture of solidarity. early years. Highlighting this neighbour- Drawn at first to the Left Labour hood culture, Tulchinsky explains why Zionist movement as a response to deep many non-Communist Jews continued

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to vote for the charismatic Salsberg well When focusing on the interwar years, into the Cold War period. Tulchinsky stresses Salsberg’s vital con- Tulchinsky also grapples with why tributions to the Canadian labour move- Salsberg continued to stay in the Party ment. Salsberg played a leading role in the for so long despite his growing awareness rise of industrial unionism, organizing a of the persecution of Jews in the Soviet wide variety of groups, including cloth- Union. Salsberg refrained from publicly ing workers, steelworkers, autoworkers, criticizing the increasing Soviet anti- and merchant seamen. Despite Salsberg’s Semitism until he finally broke with the importance to the Communists’ wul Party completely in the wake of the Stalin during the Party’s Third Period (1928– Revelations. Tulchinsky provides a fasci- 1935), Tulchinsky gives less weight to the nating account of the growing evidence impact of Party policy in these conten- of Soviet anti-Semitism and the searing tious years. Less emphasis is also given debates among Jewish Communists and to explaining why the Party switched to some of their leading non-Jewish coun- building separate Communist unions terparts about how to interpret these in the late 1920s, abandoning its earlier developments and how to react them. He emphasis on “boring from within” the details Salsberg’s determined efforts, in established unions. The author briefly the mid-1950s, to build pressure with- describes Salsberg’s standard Third- in the Party to force a change in Soviet Period Communist critique of the al- policy toward Jews, and he explains how legedly corrupt unions – including the Salsberg finally gave up these efforts International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ when he reluctantly concluded that the Union and the Amalgamated Clothing policy would not change enough under Workers – but does not stop to assess the Khrushchev. validity of such criticism. Tulchinsky also Tulchinsky also provides an impor- describes Salsberg’s calls for labour unity tant overview of Salsberg’s actions in the in the midst of the highly sectarian Third provincial parliament. While he parried Period but does not examine the impact anti-Semitic barbs and red-baiting within of dual unionism in the clothing sector the legislature, Salsberg supported such even though Salsberg was the national causes as an increased minimum wage, organizer of the wul’s Industrial Union better factory safety standards, improved of Needle Trades Workers. old age pensions, prison reform, and day When describing how Salsberg re- nurseries for the children of working engaged with the mainstream Jewish mothers. In advance of the rise of left community after leaving the Communist nationalism in this country, he criticized Party, Tulchinsky asserts that Salsberg the extension of US power and economic “was coming home”: “In this new phase, in interests in Canada. As Tulchinsky also reality the second half of his life, Salsberg emphasizes, Salsberg worked intensely to became what he truly was … a public promote anti-discrimination legislation, Jewish conscience, a secular rabbi pursu- yet the author might also have highlight- ing causes that would elevate the minds ed the fact that Salsberg’s efforts along and spirits of Toronto’s Jews caught in these lines were not always welcomed by what he saw as the downdraft of North human rights activists who sometimes American modernity.” (121) Whether feared that his involvement would fuel or not one agrees with the author’s as- their opponents’ efforts to dismiss rights sessment that this phase of Salsberg’s activism as a “Communist plot.” life most embodied who he truly was, Tulchinsky has provided a valuable and

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absorbing account of one of the most chapters he does a fine job of setting the important and intriguing Jewish labour problem of Polish-Canadian radicalism leaders in Canadian history. in the larger context of Polish-Canadian Ruth A. Frager and Polish history. To accomplish this McMaster University Polec brings together the best scholar- ship on the Polish diaspora, 19th century Polish history, and the far from pleas- Patryk Polec, Hurrah Revolutionaries: ant North American experience of most The Polish Canadian Communist Polish immigrants in the pre-World War Movement, 1918–1948 (Montreal: II era. He then moves on to his more sub- McGill-Queens University Press 2015) stantive research on the Polish-Canadian left – its leaders (particularly Dutkiewicz, Hurrah Revolutionaries is designed Polka and Morski), its organizations (the to be a social history of politics – one that Polish Workers and Farmers Association, consciously seeks to fill rather notable the Polish People’s Association, and the gaps in the historiographies of Polish- Polish Democratic Association), and es- Canadian studies and ethnic radicalism pecially its press (Glos Pracy was the most in Canada. Even better, it is a work which, important in this regard). It is of consid- as the author puts it, is largely “based on erable importance that Polec never fails recently discovered Polish consular files.” to interweave this story with the history (xx) As such, the expectations of those of more mainstream Polonia, especially who care about social, cultural, ethnic the religious and secular organizations and labour history will be high when which helped to inform the attitudes of they start reading the substantive parts many Polish Canadians. Polec is at his of Polec’s work. Polish-Canadian radi- best when describing the antagonism calism has most assuredly been under- which existed between the patriotism, studied, and has either been dismissed as conservatism and religiosity of most virtually non-existent or a mere adjunct Poles and the overtly internationalist and of Ukrainian-Canadian radicalism. The atheist Polish Communists, particularly inherent promise to offer the history of when analyzing the ways in which those Polish-Canadian radicalism the same antagonisms were partially (and briefly) level of scholarly attention as has already overcome in the late 1930s, allowing the been accorded to the Finnish, Ukrainian, Polish-Canadian Communist movement Jewish, Hungarian, Russian and Croatian to have its moment in the sun. “lefts” is heady stuff, especially when One of the author’s core contentions compounded by the always intriguing is that whereas the leaders of the Polish- prospect of new insights being provided Canadian Communist movement had, through the use of a heretofore largely for the most part, been radicalized before untouched set of source materials. In they arrived in Canada, much of the rank short, the scholarly bar has been set quite and file membership were radicalized high. by conditions in the new world – by the Polec starts his work well. In theoreti- experience of mistreatment at the hands cal and methodological terms, he success- of the often nativist dominant society fully blends Benedict Anderson’s notion and by the economic difficulties associ- of an imagined community with Ian ated with life in Canada – particularly McKay’s “reconnaissance approach” to the experience of the Great Depression. the history of the Canadian left. Perhaps Still, for all the harsh living and work- even more to the point, in his early ing conditions of Polish immigrants and

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despite what Polec describes as the he- often readers are told that sources sim- roic efforts of the small and dedicated ply do not exist which would allow the band of Polish-Canadian Communists author to go beyond an analysis of the who led the movement prior to the mid- leadership. But even here, key struggles 1930s, Communists had only limited between leaders such as Morski and success with Polish immigrants. The re- Dutkiewicz are not plumbed to any great ligious and nationalistic predispositions depth. Nor is the relationship between of most Polish-Canadians made them the leadership of the cpc and the Polish relatively resistant to the appeal of the leaders examined. And much the same Communists. In Polec’s analysis, it was can be said about some of the key battles the arrival of a new leader in 1935 – between the cpc and its ethnic affiliates Alfred Morski – at the same time that – which clearly had an impact upon the the Comintern was mandating the adop- Polish-Canadian Communists. In effect, tion of the less confrontational tactics all too often the reader is left wanting and rhetoric of the Popular Front, that more. changed this, albeit briefly. Between the Unfortunately, the Polish Consular impact of the Depression, Morski’s seem- records which are central to this study ingly less doctrinaire positions on reli- simply do not allow for an in-depth gion and nationalism, and the growing analysis of the inner workings of the popularity of the Communist Party of Polish-Canadian Communist movement. Canada (cpc), the Polish-Canadian pro- They provide an outside and overtly anti- communist movement became a signifi- communist view which, while valuable, cant force. However, it did not last long. would benefit by being balanced with The coming of World War II, the Nazi- sources which provide an internal view- Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, the Soviet point. In this regard it needs to be noted occupation of parts of Poland, the war- that as valuable as Greg Kealey and Reg time atrocities committed against Poles Whitaker’s edited series of rcmp Security by Soviet forces, the creation of a Soviet- Bulletins may be, these do not provide dominated “independent” Polish govern- the needed counter-balance. Indeed, one ment after the war, and perhaps most cannot help but feel that Polec is a bit importantly, the arrival of a new wave of over-reliant upon these volumes for much well-educated and militantly anti-com- of his core data on Polish Communists – munist Polish emigres brought this new- as witnessed by the incredible number found popularity to a crashing halt. With of references drawn from these works. the deepening of the Cold War after 1947 This raises a key question, at least in my the Polish-Canadian Communist move- mind: why did the author not make use ment went into a steep decline – an even of the readily accessible Comintern re- more dramatic and profound decline cords which relate to the Canadian party than that experienced by other parts of and its constituent parts. Although the the Canadian Communist movement. Communist International fonds were As the above summary indicates, Polec cited in the bibliography, not a single certainly deepens our understanding footnote was based upon this invaluable of the Polish-Canadian pro-communist source. left, and for this he is to be congratulated. It must also be said that Polec was However, there are some weaknesses. not well served by his editors. Several First and foremost, his work is frustrat- simple mistakes should have been caught ingly vague when dealing with anyone before this book went to press: settlers outside of a handful of leaders. All too did not get 150 acres for $10.00 (37);

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unlike the Trades and Labor Congress, Finnish immigration to Karelia was the Industrial Workers of the World was known as “Karelian fever” and has at- not “generally hostile to immigrants” tracted attention in recent decades, espe- (53); there was no “Thalmud Torah Hall” cially in the Finnish diaspora in the US in Winnipeg (137); Tim Buck was not in- and Canada and in Finland itself. terned during World War II (159) – and A few people researched the topic prior the list goes on and on. Beyond this, to the 1980s, beginning with the pioneer- awkward constructions, occasionally in- ing work of Finnish historian Reino Kero. appropriate word choices, and a forgot- But the key development that has made ten word here and there – for example a it possible for scholars to study Karelian “not” was dropped in a crucial part of the fever in depth was the opening of previ- Conclusion – are all a bit irritating. These ously closed Soviet archives in the late are small matters, but collectively they 1980s and 1990s. Irina Takala probably is mar an otherwise useful work. the leading scholar in this field, publish- Still, having said this, while Hurrah ing widely in Russian on this episode and Revolutionaries does not fully live up to related topics for more than 25 years. She its promise, it still makes a valuable con- and Alexey Golubey have worked exten- tribution to the literature and will be the sively in Karelian archives and utilized go-to work on Polish-Canadian radical- interviews with survivors of Karelian fe- ism for some time to come. ver and their families. In some respects, Jim Mochoruk The Search for a Socialist El Dorado is University of North Dakota the culmination of a generation of re- search conducted in Russia, Finland, Canada, and the US. Though there are Alexey Golubev and Irina Takala, The some real points of disagreement among Search for a Socialist El Dorado: Finnish those who have worked on this topic, Immigration to Soviet Karelia from the Golubey and Takala have treated the dif- United States and Canada in the 1930s ference perspectives with balance and (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba provide the most substantial treatment of Press 2014) North American Finnish immigration to Karelia to date. Between 1931 and 1934, more than Karelia itself holds a special place in 6000 Finns from the United States and Finnish culture in that it was the land Canada moved to Soviet Karelia, lo- of the Kalevela, or the source of the cated in northwest Russia on the border tales and legends that made up the epic with Finland. Although the immigrants poem of Finland. With the Bolshevik departed with high hopes, they were Revolution of 1917, Finland became in- shocked by conditions when they arrived, dependent from Russia, and Karelia and some quickly returned to North emerged as a borderland in where the America. For those who stayed, the expe- population consisted largely of Karelians, rience often was quite harsh and, in 1937 a non-Slavic people who spoke dialects of and 1938, many of the men were caught Finnish, and Russians. For practical po- up in the Stalinist purges; several hun- litical reasons, Lenin agreed to turn over dred of them were executed and buried the leadership of Karelia to “Red Finns” in unmarked graves. In most cases, their who had lost out in the Finnish Civil War fates were unreported and families often of 1918. In addition to their small num- did not learn the truth of their deaths bers, there were other Finns who crossed until decades later. The North American over into Karelia in the 1920s and 1930s

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(or “border hoppers”), but the two larg- successful, though neither the American est ethnic groups there were native or Canadian Communist parties were en- Karelians and Russians, whose numbers thusiastic about these efforts. Hard times would continue to increase as a result of at home combined with the appeal of liv- migration from other parts of the Soviet ing in a socialist society, including edu- Union. During the period when Red cational opportunity for their children, Finns dominated government and econ- played a major role in the recruitment omy in Karelia, that is, between 1920 and drive. 1935, Finns were a distinct minority of Unfortunately, the new immigrants the overall population, roughly 3 percent did not have a realistic idea about what at its peak. Led by Edvard Gylling and they were getting into. Living and work- Kustaa Rovio, the Red Finns sought to ing conditions were worse – much worse build a model socialist society and a base – than imagined, and government in- that ultimately might serve to establish efficiency and lack of infrastructure in a “greater socialist Finland,” incorporat- Karelia proved quite appalling. Many, if ing Karelia, the Kola Peninsula and, of not most, adult men ended up working in course, Finland itself. Such dreams, how- the timber industry, regardless of their ever, reflected a cruel irony that would be expectations. Some of the newcomers re- turned on the Red Finns in the mid and turned to North America as soon as they late 1930s during the Great Purge, as then could; others stuck it out either because they were charged with bourgeois nation- they did not have the means to fund the alism and plotting to detach Karelia from trip home or, and this is an important the Soviet Union to join it to capitalist point that Golubey and Takala make, Finland. they continued to hope to take part in The Red Finns always were concerned building a socialist society. Such hopes with the ethnic balance in Karelia and were dashed, if not before, by the Great once the Five Year Plan was implemented Purge of 1937–38. While Finns were not in 1928, Karelia was assigned the respon- the sole target of the repressive measures sibility of producing raw materials for in Karelia, they were disproportionately export so as to attract foreign currency. represented among the victims. The ex- Timber was the region’s greatest natu- act number of victims remains unclear, ral resource, and now it was required to but Finns paid a higher price than either produce more of that commodity than Karelians or Russians despite the fact before. Meeting this demand called they were a very small percentage of the for more timber workers, as even more overall population. (Among the repressed Russian workers migrated to Karelia. To Finns, border-hoppers suffered even counter-balance this influx, as well as higher losses than the North Americans.) to attract skilled forest workers, the Red Golubev and Takala point out that mi- Finns sought to recruit Finns from the norities in border regions in other parts US and Canada. After some difficulties, of the Soviet Union also were dispropor- Moscow agreed to allow the immigration tionately repressed in 1937–38. of North American Finns, and ultimately The Search for a Socialist El Dorado un- more than 6000 of them came to Karelia. derstandably is more concerned with the Not all sections of the Soviet regime ap- experiences of the North American Finns proved, however, as the security forces after they arrived in Karelia. Perhaps, and foreign ministry always opposed though, they might have devoted more the move. Recruitment from left-wing attention to them before they left the US Finish communities abroad was quite and Canada. At one point, they referred

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to them as “mostly urbanized” (113) and Maureen Moynagh and Nancy leave it at that. Yet while the Red Finns Forestell, eds., Documenting First Wave sought to recruit timber workers and Feminisms, Volume I: Transnational other skilled workers, many of the adults Collaborations and Crosscurrents who came were farmers or had been (Toronto: University of Toronto Press farmers previously. Even some who left 2012) for Karelia from cities such as Detroit or Chicago had rural backgrounds as well. Nancy Forestell and Maureen But agriculture itself was a low priority Moynagh, eds., Documenting First Wave for Karelia, and only about 3 per cent of Feminisms, Volume II: Canada – National the North Americans ended up farming. and Transnational Contexts (Toronto: Golubev and Takala discuss the signifi- University of Toronto Press 2014) cant material and cultural contributions made by these immigrants. Among them In 1860, Nahnebahwequa – Catherine were their expertise and tools for the Sutton, an Ojibwa woman, travelled timber industry, as well as their roles in to England to meet the colonial secre- developing Karelian theatre and music, tary and Queen Victoria seeking justice including the introduction of jazz. They against Indian Department policy that also constructed a thirty-six foot stone did not allow Indigenous women to own monument to Lenin which still stands in land. In 1922, Margaret E. Cumming, Petrozavodsk. In the wake of the Great Irish nationalist, suffragist, and co-found- Purge and World War II, however, their er of the All-India Women’s Conference, efforts were largely overlooked or forgot- praised Afghanistan’s medical univer- ten. Not until glasnost and the fall of the sity for women, which had 500 students. Soviet Union would that change. Turkish Communist Najiye Hanim ad- The Search for a Socialist El Dorado dressed the First Congress of the Peoples provides a masterful account of the of the East in 1920 explaining that, con- North American immigrant experience trary to popular belief, the question of the in Karelia. Its authors show a deep under- chador was not a priority for the woman standing of the topic, skillfully utilizing movement in her country where women, the findings of many others, while dem- who were obliged to take on social duties onstrating their own extensive research. because men were fighting in a war, were This book deserves a wide reading, espe- fighting for equality in the context of cially among students of the Finnish dias- global revolutionary movements. These pora, Finnish and Soviet history, and the are a few examples from these fascinating broad field of immigration history itself. documentary readers that illustrate a key William C. Pratt contention of Documenting First Wave University of Nebraska at Omaha Feminisms. We still have much to learn from how first wave feminists negotiated unequal political and economic relation- ships that emerged from imperialism and global capitalist expansion. Moynagh and Forestell compiled these readers because reading documents is the best way to make sense of why collabora- tion was possible in certain contexts and how conflicts produced by asymmetri- cal relationships entrenched inequalities

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among activists engaged in local and in- Toronto abolition societies’ apathy to- ternational struggles for women’s rights. wards fugitive slaves living in British The documents in Volume I draw on the North America. Imperialism is a key vibrant historiography of the first wave them in both volumes. Documents ex- that uses transnational approaches to amine the difficult relationships between examine collaborations and tensions in women from the East and the West in international women’s organizing. Well- international organizations and include known middle-class feminists are in- writing by white feminists who cast ra- cluded alongside documents written by cialized women as “inferior sisters” who working-class socialists and nationalist needed to be rescued from backward cus- women engaged in anti-colonial move- toms. Anti-colonial feminists talk back to ments. In Volume II, the editors hope these women, clarifying misperceptions to instigate a long overdue reevaluation of their cultures held by feminist allies of first wave feminism in Canada, which and criticizing men in nationalist move- is underdeveloped in comparison to the ments who did not challenge women’s rich international historiography. The ed- inequality. Imperial connections drew itors deliberately chose documents that prominent Canadian women dedicated are not as available to students and schol- to promoting the British Empire into ars as canonical texts. Both volumes in- international organizations. One of the clude documents that demonstrate how key strengths of the Canadian volume is hierarchical relationships among women the inclusion of documents written by prioritized the goals of white, middle- women marginalized by race who used class activists. A key strength of the col- imperial ties to promote their rights. In lections is the attention to activists who a letter to Lady Aberdeen, Catherine Hay, fostered collaborations that challenged a Jamaican immigrant who was work- hierarchical race and class relations. ing as a domestic in Toronto because The volumes are organized accord- an earthquake compelled her to leave ing to parallel themes and document the home, demanded the same treatment as development of the international woman white women in need of protection be- movement from Seneca Falls in 1848 cause she was also a British subject and until the end of World War II when de- a Christian. Indigenous women used in- velopment of rights discourse and the ternational organizations as a forum to achievement of suffrage in many nations air grievances about colonial practices transformed feminism. The documents introduced by the Canadian government in both volumes are divided into eight that undermined treaty rights protected sections that highlight international con- by the Crown. nections. Volume I begins with feminist Feminism was the first international writing about the relationship between movement. Both volumes have a section slavery, abolition, and women’s rights. that examines the tensions between inter- The documents trace the evolution from nationalism and nationalisms. Feminists feminist comparisons between women’s often used the universality of women’s subordination and slaves’ lives to the inequality in their appeals for a global emergence of the abolition movement, sisterhood that would transcend national the first political movement to bring borders. Documents demonstrate how together women from different nation- feminists used international connections alities and races. Provincial Freeman ar- and the successes of feminist initiatives ticles written by Mary Ann Shadd Cary abroad strategically in national cam- in Volume II criticize the hypocrisy in paigns. The development of the League

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of Nations after World War I produced birth control and the right to abortion to new transnational spaces where women protect working-class women from the could work together to find solutions for burden of large families. International issues, such as the traffic in women, that socialist and labour organizations drew manifested themselves in particular ways many women into global politics and at the local level but required global ac- both volumes include sections of docu- tion. Documents in Volume II reveal that ments appealing to women to fight for Canadian women from diverse social and equal rights as workers, social reformers’ economic backgrounds contributed to concerns about poor factory conditions these debates. Sections on suffrage and and the morality of working women, and citizenship in both volumes explore how breaking barriers to participation in pro- the international collaboration of women fessions. Both volumes conclude with sec- for the right to vote and to enjoy the same tions on peace and pacifism. Positioning citizenship rights as men bolstered wom- themselves as mothers of the race and en’s conviction to achieve their rights in humanity, activists argued that women long and contentious campaigns. At the were naturally pacifists and decried the same time, the decision by international slaughter of their sons on the battlefields. suffrage organizations to support nation- Socialist women complicated these argu- al movements for women’s right to vote ments arguing that their sons were the based on the same criteria as men exclud- first to be recruited for military service ed many women. Both readers include in wars that would not change class in- lectures and articles that criticize femi- equality. Not all pacifists agreed with this nists who endorsed partial suffrage for position, but maternalist discourses were women. Women’s demands for political, compelling arguments for many women economic, and civil rights often failed engaged in peace activism. to challenge other social and economic It is a monumental task to compile inequalities. The development of citizen- readers that capture the complexity of ship rights in the context of colonial ex- the debates in first wave international pansion shaped the dominant arguments feminism and how Canadian feminists about citizenship and women’s rights and were informed by and contributed to thus excluded women marginalized by these movements. Moynagh and Forestell race, ethnicity, class, and religion. The have chosen the documents judiciously editors include documents on regional and have produced readers that examine movements, such as Pan-Arab feminism, the ideological differences and diversity Latin American conferences, and pan- in the woman movement. The general Pacific alliances, that organized women introduction to Documenting First Wave who shared similar experiences of racism Feminism and introductions to each vol- rooted in colonialism. ume are knowledgeable discussions of Documents on moral reform, sexual- the important themes in the internation- ity, and birth control explore both con- al and Canadian historiography. Section servative campaigns for moral reform introductions set up key debates to pro- and sex radicals. The international eu- vide context for the documents making genics movement informed thinking on these books excellent textbooks. These women’s sexuality and reproduction and collections of documents demonstrate the editors include documents by women how first wave feminists understood in- who endorsed birth control to protect equalities produced by the intersection of the race rather than to promote women’s gender, race, ethnicity, religion, and sexu- rights. Other feminists advocated for ality. These are the issues that maintain

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divisions in international and local wom- 1984. The reforms of 1984 prompted de- en’s movements today. We still have a lot bate throughout Canada, making British to learn from these women. Columbia “the epicentre of a conflict on Nancy Janovicek the nature and legitimacy of the human University of Calgary rights state.” (21) To set the stage for his examination of human rights legislation, Clément illus- Dominique Clément, Equality trates the entrenched nature of gender in- Deferred: Sex Discrimination and equality in Canadian law. He documents British Columbia’s Human Rights State, the failure of labour organizations and 1953–1984 (Vancouver: University of Jewish activists – who campaigned relent- British Columbia Press 2014) lessly to ban discrimination on the bases of race, religion, and ethnicity – to under- Equality Deferred provides an impor- stand the problem of sex discrimination. tant and compelling account of the ori- He then explores the 1953 Equal Pay Act, gins of human rights legislation in British the first equality-based legislation in the Columbia, the first Canadian jurisdiction province to deal with women, and acts to prohibit discrimination on the basis banning discrimination in employment of sex. Utilizing previously undisclosed and accommodation. These reforms were records of British Columbia’s human largely ineffective, as was the symbolic rights commission, Clément documents inclusion of sex as a prohibited ground not only egregious acts of discrimination of discrimination in the Socred’s Human by individuals, but also the courage of Rights Act of 1969. Thus was the stage set women who pioneered claims for human for the ndp’s 1973 Human Rights Code. rights and the challenges and limitations The bulk of Equality Deferred explores of the human rights regime. Ultimately, the origins and implementation of this the book illustrates the entrenched na- ground-breaking and progressive Human ture of sex-based discrimination and the Rights Code. Clément provides unprec- need to understand inequality beyond its edented detail about the development of definition in human rights legislation as the Human Rights Branch – a separate acts of individual discrimination. agency intended to deal with complaints Clément places his study in the con- – and the work performed under the text of the limited scholarship on human leadership of Kathleen Ruff, who hired rights in Canada and asserts that British the province’s first human rights investi- Columbia provides an ideal test case for gators and developed procedures for in- the study of human rights, not only be- vestigating complaints. Ruff, with a long cause the province was the first to pro- history of work in the feminist movement, hibit sex-based discrimination, but also brought an advocacy approach to the because human rights were highly politi- Branch and relied upon her connections cized in the province. British Columbia with progressive social movements in the had the most highly developed women’s province to recruit committed investi- movement in the country, but human gators and to promote the human rights rights developments were deeply contest- regime. The Branch received complaints ed. The New Democrat Party advocated, from women who had been fired when and for a time oversaw, the nation’s most pregnant, had been paid unequal wages progressive human rights regime at the for work the same as that performed by time, only to see their work decimated by men, or had been subjected to sexual ha- the Social Credit Party (the Socreds) in rassment. Precedents established under

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the Code “profoundly challenged the its innovations, and its flaws. The book -il entrenched male culture of many work- lustrates not only the important connec- places.” (117) As Clément notes, however, tions between human rights legislation human rights laws had limited reach; the and politics and the vulnerability of pro- women who utilized the Code were over- gressive reform, but also the challenges whelmingly white and while a wide range of implementation and education and the of women “undoubtedly experienced dis- intransigence of discriminatory beliefs crimination,” they did not “engage with and practices. Clément asserts that the human rights law.” (7) Nonetheless, the focus of human rights legislation on in- courage and dedication of the women and dividual complaints cannot fully address men who worked in the Branch, and the systemic inequality. Further, by defin- tenacity of the women who made com- ing discrimination through “a catalogue plaints, make for inspiring reading. The of independently enumerated grounds,” unrepentant vulgarity of discriminators (213) human rights codes and boards is equally instructive. The Branch flour- of inquiry obliged defendants to define ished, innovated, and expanded across themselves narrowly and ignored socio- the province under the ndp, but the elec- economic context and histories of op- tion of the Socreds in 1975 brought in- pression. Clément argues that an updated creasing challenges for the human rights vision of human rights is required and regime. Clément describes the govern- that “a transformational human rights ment as “dominated by men whose poli- agenda would go beyond formal legal cies demonstrated little understanding equality and change institutional struc- of sex discrimination” (185) and details tures and practices.” (216) In illustrating the myriad ways in which government of- why such a renewed vision is necessary, ficials worked to undermine the Human Equality Deferred provides not only a Rights Branch through under-funding, useful history of one Canadian human failure to replace complaints investi- rights regime, but also important lessons gators, and ignoring the reports of the for our collective future. Branch. Ultimately, the Socreds went Lori Chambers beyond passive opposition to the Branch Lakehead University and replaced the Human Rights Code of 1973 with the Human Rights Act of 1984, a measure “almost universally vilified as Suzanne Morton, Wisdom, Justice, a regressive step” (186); the Act restruc- and Charity: Canadian Social Welfare tured the human rights regime to place Through the Life of Jane B. Wisdom, the burden of complaint almost entirely 1884–1975 (Toronto: University of on the victims of discrimination and Toronto Press 2014) retrenched the progress of the previous decade. The passage of the Act coincided In this evocative, thoughtfully craft- with a restraint regime which led to the ed, and engagingly written political bi- dismissal of thousands of civil servants, ography of social worker Jane Wisdom, wage cuts, and the elimination of mul- Suzanne Morton traces the large histori- tiple social services. Until 1996, British cal processes of liberal welfare state ex- Columbia’s human rights regime “was pansion and the professionalization of the black sheep in Canada.” (196) social work through the life and career Equality Deferred is mandatory read- of one individual woman. Born in 1884 ing for all those interested in the human in Saint John, New Brunswick, educat- rights state in Canada, its development, ed at McGill University, and trained in

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casework in New York City, Wisdom’s The resulting book is a sensitive and social work career spanned national in-depth public biography that eschews boundaries and was intricately tied to a speculation about Wisdom’s personal number of extraordinary political mo- life in favour of a nuanced assessment of ments in North American history. At how her work and professional identity various points in her life, Wisdom partic- intersected with larger developments in ipated in the settlement house and char- the Canadian welfare state. The strength ity organization movement, witnessed of this approach rests in the way that the impact of both world wars and the Morton successfully pulls out the de- Great Depression, and worked within the tails of Wisdom’s life trajectory while framework of expanding state responsi- understanding her as part of larger local, bility for social welfare. Her death in 1975 national, and international communi- came just as the welfare state began to de- ties, including extended family, friend- cline in the face of global neoliberalism. ships, and professional, educational, Given that Wisdom was neither a poli- and religious networks. While biogra- tician nor a particularly influential poli- phy can never fully capture the subject’s cy maker (unlike her more well-known motivations, interiority, or historical contemporary Charlotte Whitton), the significance, the genre’s structure is an structure of a historical biography raises important reminder that the boundaries a number of methodological challenges. of both individual life stories and of tra- Well-known figures with a strong sense ditional historical narratives are messy of their historical role generally leave and difficult to contain. Morton’s close voluminous, detailed, and comprehen- analysis of Wisdom’s work and life dem- sive archival records. By all accounts, onstrates that the ideological distinctions Wisdom was reluctant to write herself between social democracy and liberalism into welfare state history, often down- were rarely neat or binary, that the tran- playing her work and deliberately stay- sition of social welfare provision from a ing under the public radar. Furthermore, charity to a rights-based model was not Wisdom’s life was marked by economic linear, and that welfare state policy could precarity as an unmarried and low-paid be both frustrating bureaucratic and re- working woman from a large and fi- sponsive to local needs. The chapter on nancially struggling family. As a result, Wisdom’s time in Glace Bay between she worked and lived at various times 1940 and 1952 nicely captures these com- in Montréal, Halifax, New York City, plexities, showing how her work as a mu- Halifax, and Glace Bay. The constantly nicipal welfare administrator meant that changing conditions of her employment, she worked within imposed and bureau- her mobility across provincial and na- cratic strictures while carefully support- tional borders, and the way her life was ing the 1947 miners’ strike and working lived in a liminal space between public to eliminate inadequate municipally and private make tracing her life story fin­anced poor relief. a difficult endeavour. Morton observes This biography of Wisdom adds nu- early in the introduction that the process ance to a robust Canadian welfare state of researching and writing a historical historiography. Historians have pub- biography, which rests on patiently and lished widely on welfare policy develop- painstakingly finding, assessing, and as- ment, the intersection of policy with class sembling the fragments of a subject’s life and gender inequality, and organized and story into a coherent narrative, closely grassroots responses to poverty. But there echoes the casework method itself. is little historical research on the lives

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of the individuals who developed, stud- opened in 1910. Wisdom also trained ied, and administered the programs and with the famous casework specialist policies of the welfare state. As Morton Mary Richmond in New York City. In eloquently demonstrates, welfare policies the midst of this larger transnational were enacted not solely by large, bureau- context, however, Morton never loses cratic organizations but also by individu- the place-based importance of Wisdom’s als who were shaped by bureaucratic and deep professional and familial connec- hierarchical systems and by cultural, tions to the Maritimes and Montréal, the religious, political, and philosophical places where she spent the majority of her values. Influenced by Anglo-Protestant life. The thoughtful analysis of Wisdom’s values of service, obligation, and religious education at McGill University and her faith, for example, Wisdom’s liberalism ties to the Anglo-Protestant community was tempered by an ethos of collective of Montréal adds an important dimen- responsibility for the well-being of fami- sion to the complex history of social lies, communities, and citizens. Morton’s service and welfare state development in analysis of Wisdom’s life, her ideological Québec, a history shaped by linguistic in- formation, and the system in which she equalities and institutionalized religious lived and worked is simultaneously a nu- differences. Good welfare state history, as anced critique of the limits of the expand- Morton adeptly demonstrates, is the his- ed liberal welfare state and an empathetic tory of women, labour, class formation, assessment of the life of one woman who urban development, religion, region, and helped to build and administer it. the nation state. Wisdom, Justice, and Wisdom’s personal and professional Charity is an invaluable book for histo- mobility allows Morton to provide a se- rians in these fields and for social work ries of case studies in welfare state for- educators and practitioners seeking a nu- mation in multiple locations, tracing a anced history of the relationship between process of historical change that is both social workers and clients, communities, geographically precise and transnational policies, and the state. in scope. Morton carefully tracks the Lara Campbell personal and professional connections Simon Fraser University between Wisdom and her friends, men- tors, and colleagues, showing how social workers were influenced by progressive Kenneth C. Dewar, Frank Underhill trends in Canada, Great Britain, and the and the Politics of Ideas (Montréal and United States. Wisdom and her contem- Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University poraries travelled back and forth between Press 2015) Canada and the United States for educa- tion, training, and work, suggesting that Kenneth Dewar, in this study of his- historians of social welfare should pay torian and public intellectual Frank close attention to transnational con- Underhill, offers us a worthy companion nections in the development of social to R. Douglas Francis’ Frank H. Underhill: work theory and practice. In particular, Intellectual Provocateur, (Toronto: Wisdom was deeply influenced by the University of Toronto Press, 1986). Dewar British and American settlement house provides a strong contextual examina- movement; she lived for a short time in tion of Underhill’s life, from his boyhood a settlement house in New York’s Lower days in industrializing Toronto, his elite East Side and was one of the first resi- studies at Oxford University, his service dents in the Montréal settlement which in the World War I, his varied political

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interactions, and his experiences as an liberal party” (53) that was neither the intellectual straddling the line between business-oriented Liberal Party of post- formal and informal academia. Underhill Confederation Canada, nor the ideologi- is a complex figure, and to capture his in- cal socialist party that Underhill came fluence, influences, and thoughts in such to see the ccf as. The most “real” lib- succinct terms is to be applauded. eral party, in his view, came in the inter Dewar’s portrayal of Underhill’s role and postwar period, when Liberals like in the university and wider community W.L.M. King, Lester Pearson, and Tom is especially illuminating. The philoso- Kent brought social democratic ideas into phy of education being torn between the mainstream. generalists and specialists, the higher Key to Dewar’s argument is that, both levels of inter-disciplinarity, the audi- historically and today, the differences be- ence of scholarly literature, the relative tween liberalism and social democracy, ease in finding tenure-track work, and or between the Liberal Party and the perhaps most importantly, the increased ccf-ndp, are much smaller than the gulf profile of the professor as a societal force that separates them from the Tory and are all intriguing. If I have one agree- neoconservative traditions. Underhill, ment with Dewar above all others, it is especially as he grew into an elder states- that Underhill epitomized the Canadian man, understood this, and so should we public intellectual, and still today of- as Canada approaches a federal election fers a model to academics that we ignore in which a splitting of the “progressive” only at our peril, along with our refusal vote is still possible, implores Dewar. to change the world, rather than merely In this light, my criticism here is theorize about it. the somewhat rushed discussions of But beyond the masterful chronicling Underhill’s relationship with social- of Underhill’s life, Dewar has a broader ism and liberalism, and the meanings of ideological frame of analysis, and gen- those two ideological systems. One could eral political purpose. This is the primary have included a discussion of Ian McKay’s value of the book, and where the major- Liberal Order Framework, which asserts ity of analysis and constructive criticism that liberalism, including the variety held should be aimed. In Dewar`s view, bol- by those 19th century radicals Underhill stered by the foreword of ndp premier admired, was a force opposed to liberty, turned federal Liberal leader Bob Rae, because liberalism’s primacy of property Underhill was always a liberal democrat, creates fundamental inequalities and who sought to incorporate into the ven- oppressions. He could have better ad- erable traditions of 19th century liberal dressed the theoretical concept of Red radicals the reforms spurred by social Toryism, which questions the assertion democrats disenchanted with the limi- that Canadian l/Liberalism is merely a tations – but not inherent failures – of centrist plot point between socialism and profit and private property. Dewar feels conservatism. that liberals like Underhill are who gave Ultimately, I am unconvinced of the Canada its social and economic progress assertion that social democracy is of in the postwar period, and who can do the same tradition as liberalism. And so again providing that “progressives” while Dewar makes a convincing case work together against regressive social for Underhill’s personal liberalism, his and economic interests. In Underhill’s actions and associations during the ccf words, the goal was to combine liberal- years were anything but. In my view, the ism and social democracy to create a “real ccf, while a force for liberty many liberals

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like Pierre Elliott Trudeau admired, was should not discourage those interested in not liberal because it sought the end of such questions from reading. If anything, capitalism, the subordination of private Dewar offers a welcome contribution to property, and the placing of collective exploring how integral Canadian intel- interests ahead of individual desires. The lectuals like Underhill have struggled ccf’s democratic socialist tradition was to navigate and convey the ideological not relatable to the broader Canadian corridors of liberalism and socialism, liberal tradition. This carries forward along with what that means for Canadian until at least the early 1980s, where the politics now, and into the future. Being a ndp embraced socialist concepts of jus- spark towards such projects might well tice and freedom, which placed them be this book’s crowning achievement. across the aisle from the Liberals and the Christo Aivalis (Progressive) Conservatives; two parties Queen’s University of a definitively liberal tradition. More should and could have been said – by Underhill historically, and by Dewar Chris Andersen, “Métis”: Race, in this otherwise excellent study – about Recognition, and the Struggle for the assumptions of capitalism’s supposed Indigenous Peoplehood (Vancouver: recovery and reformation in the postwar University of British Columbia Press Keynesian world, which led many on the 2014) left, Underhill key among them, away from questioning the inherent mecha- “Métis” is both an academic explora- nisms of capitalism. While in some ways, tion of the meaning of ethnic and/or the “golden age” of capitalism held true Aboriginal identity and an impassioned from the end of World War II until the late polemic for the recognition of the west- 1960s, the period since then has been one ern Red River Métis as a separate people of a capitalist system in perpetual crisis, or nation with the exclusive right to be the response to which has been an attack called “Métis,” from a scholar who identi- on social programs, wages, public owner- fies himself both as a Métis and Métis na- ship, and the organized working class – tionalist. The usual academic discussions all elements that prevented governments, of ethnicity, identity, and aboriginality, from Liberal Trudeau to Conservative whether from a sociological/anthropo- Harper, from using the immiseration logical or historical viewpoint, usually of the average Canadian as a method of come from presumably disinterested out- increasing corporate profitability and in- siders – those without a personal stake in ternational competitiveness. Capitalism, the game – and seldom from the view- in contrast to Underhill’s view, has solved point of an insider. But Andersen’s work neither production nor distribution, and is an example of an increasing number the assertion that liberalism offers a of Métis scholars who are not only at- path toward substantive reform is a mis- tempting to delineate Métis ethnogenesis take, not just today, but during the entire and history, but are attempting to define course of Underhill’s life. how Métis identity should be regarded in But as I note above, Dewar presents contemporary Canadian society. Despite here a book that all those interested in Andersen’s personal stake in defining the Canadian left, liberal, intellectual, and Métis Nation, this work is a closely rea- political history must read. Criticisms soned and academically sound discussion of his approach to defining and assess- of Aboriginal identity in Canada. ing Canadian liberalism and socialism

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The core of Andersen’s thesis is over a century of colonial classification straightforward, although profoundly as such, the imposed hierarchical social counterintuitive to the pervading per- relations created by the colonial authori- ception of “Métis” in Canada. He states ties eventually become reified. Perhaps categorically that the Métis should not of particular interest to the readers of be thought of as a “mixed” race – part Labour/Le Travail, Andersen downplays “Indian” and part “white” – but as a po- the idea of grounding Métis identity in litical construct, a nation, the group that the fur trade, because although it adds was recognized in the Manitoba Act, roughly a century to the Métis people’s 1870, whose rights were recognized in history, it “unnecessarily muddies the the statutes and orders-in-council from waters of Métis national origins in social the early 1800s into the 20th century. relations of hybridity rather than politi- Andersen makes a convincing case that cal consciousness as citizens of the Métis “mixedness” is an illogical way to differ- people.” (109) He prefers to concentrate entiate the Métis from other indigenous on an events-based analysis to explain people. Obviously, all Aboriginal people, the emergence of Métis peoplehood First Nations and Inuit included, are at (Seven Oaks and so on) which sharpened least partially “mixed.” Concentrating collective understandings between Métis on Métis hybridity, therefore, ignores and non-Métis plains communities. the real characteristics that set the Métis To illustrate the effect of the court sys- apart from other Aboriginal peoples – tem on Métis identity, Andersen concen- kinship links across wide territories, fam- trates on the Supreme Court of Canada’s ily histories, separate communities – and 2003 decision R. v. Powley, and its con- most importantly in Andersen’s estima- comitant definition of Métis. His concern tion, political mobilization. As he and is not so much that the court recognized other Métis scholars have explained, the the Ontario population in question as constant obsession with Métis hybridity Métis, but how they did so. Recognition waters down Métis aboriginality, making was based on a mixed Aboriginal and them appear “not as indigenous” as other non-Aboriginal ancestry, historic separ- Aboriginal groups, or not even a people. ateness from adjacent “Indian” communi- Defining the Métis through their ties, and contemporary self-identification mixed heritage may well be illogical, but as Métis, rather than, as Andersen would Andersen concedes that it remains the have preferred, on political self-con- major factor characterizing the Métis in sciousness and an attachment to the Canadian society today. He outlines the Métis people whose core was Red River. process by which the idea of Métis hybrid- In an extension of this issue, Andersen ity became so entrenched by concentrat- examines how ethnohistorians have be- ing not only on its historical origins with gun to classify all historic Upper Great the Canadian colonial government, but Lakes non-tribal communities as “Métis,” in the manner in which it continues to be partly based on the Powley decision, and reinforced today through the influence of partly based on these communities’ con- the Canadian court system and the cen- temporary identification of themselves as sus. Andersen largely couches his argu- Métis. ment in terms of social fields as defined by Andersen has particular problems sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, in particular with the concept that any contemporary explaining how state classifications be- group which chooses to identify itself come unquestioned and unquestionable. as Métis should be recognized as such, Métis are viewed as hybrid because, after whether or not it has a connection to the

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historic Métis Nation. This is his major within Canada’s colonial definitional concern with the way “Métis” is treated system of “Aboriginal.” He is simply say- in Canada’s National Household Survey ing that they should not be identified as – an important issue because, like the Métis, either by themselves or others. courts, the census has the power to cre- If much of this sounds familiar to ate and categorize; to reconfirm already- readers, Andersen has made all these ar- existing perceptions. Canada’s National guments before in various published doc- Household Survey is flawed in his estima- uments. In fact, the book reads more like tion because self-identification is used as a series of free-standing papers stitched the major criterion for delineating a Métis together than a single structured argu- population. Pointing to the skyrocket- ment. Because of this, the book is some- ing and demographically improbably what repetitive. For example, Chapter increase in the “Métis” population (over 4 is subtitled “A Critical Reading of 100 per cent between 1996 and 2006) the Supreme Court of Canada and the Andersen says this is likely due to the idea Census.” But Andersen has already dis- of mistaken self-identification, wherein cussed both of these issues in Chapter 2, any individual with a “mixed Aboriginal which is subtitled “The Supreme Court heritage” may identify as “Métis” whether and the Census.” But to be fair, the chap- or not the term has any local historic sig- ters are all mustered to make the main nificance. Making self-identification the point, that Métis should be defined in major criterion for identification as Métis national rather than race-defined terms, means that the Canadian census recog- and Andersen makes a convincing argu- nizes no cultural, linguistic or territorial ment. This book is a welcome addition to boundaries to the Canadian Métis popu- the literature on the Métis, not least be- lation and that subsequently, the Métis cause it deals not only with the historical can be found anywhere in Canada. situation, but brings the argument up and This raises the issue of the “other into the 20th and 21st centuries. Métis” – that is, the communities of Joe Sawchuk “mixed” indigenous peoples in various Brandon University parts of Canada who, for one reason or another, have taken on the designation of “Métis” despite having no historic or Jody Perrun, The Patriotic Consensus: kinship links to Red River. Because the Unity, Morale and the Second World War Canadian Constitution offers only three in Winnipeg (Winnipeg: University of alternatives to identify as Aboriginal Manitoba Press 2014) – First Nations, Inuit, or Métis – many groups in parts of Canada who do not Jody Perrun has produced a comprehen- readily identify as First Nations or Inuit sive and welcome addition to the growing have tended to identify as “Métis” be- number of recent publications examining cause, particularly in its racialized defi- the impact of the World Wars within the nition, it seems to be an anomalous, confines of a particular Canadian com- non-cultural-specific concept that can munity. Based in part upon the prem- be utilized by any Aboriginal group. In ise that national studies of Canada’s denying these emergent groups (who like homefront – which surprisingly remain the Métis, may be post-contact) the right sparse – flatten out diverse experiences, to identify as Métis, Andersen is careful this analysis emphasizes that the Second not to deny that they have the right to World War both united and fractured define themselves as an indigenous group Winnipeg where, for instance, patriotism

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manifested from both heartfelt loyalty doing enough to protect Canadians from and the application of coercion. potential enemy saboteurs, something Perrun shows Winnipeg as a compel- that prompted Manitoba’s Attorney ling place upon which to focus analysis. General to organize a home defence force Then the second largest community in among those deemed ineligible for mili- Western Canada, it was also among the tary service. Internment operations saw country’s most ethnically diverse cities. notable attention placed on Winnipeg’s More than a third of its 300,000 resi- Germans and Ukrainians. Moreover, dents were born outside of Britain and twenty Winnipeg Communists were in- the United States, a group mainly com- terned out of some 100 Communists na- prised of Ukrainians, Jews, Germans, tionwide. The significant influence the Scandinavians and Poles, people who political left once enjoyed in local gov- mostly congregated in the city’s North ernment disintegrated, something from End. More than most places, Winnipeg which there was no recovery even after possessed a powerful and politically ro- the Soviet Union switched to the Allied bust labour movement that had demon- side and Canadian Communists cham- strated a propensity to radicalism, most pioned the war effort. Most Communists obviously with the 1919 General Strike. who had been interned were released over Winnipeg entered the war with a the course of 1942. Still Winnipeggers strong, but still limited, consensus. remained wary of accepting them as al- Recruitment proceeded well but, by the lies, claiming they had no attachment end of 1941, there came notable pressure, to defending freedom, and only backed particularly from the city’s Anglo-Saxon Canada’s war effort as a means of sup- majority, for conscription for overseas porting Moscow. service to force so-called slackers into Perrun’s study provides valuable de- the military. Such was a sentiment fo- tail on the ways in which the war wors- cused not only upon Quebec, namely its ened internal fractures within certain French-Canadian majority, but also on groups, one example being between the local groups, such as Mennonites. While Ukrainian left, which ultimately pro- some were castigated for their reluctance moted a maximum war effort, including to volunteer, Perrun shows others as conscription, and Ukrainian nationalists discouraged, and even precluded, from who despised the Soviets for the brutal military service, namely those of African, occupation of their homeland. Perrun Asian and Aboriginal background. also presents Winnipeg as divided by Popular opinion, as expressed in the the April 1942 plebiscite in which the press and from societal leaders, enthu- federal government sought a mandate to siastically backed the war effort. But release it from its pledge not to conscript Perrun argues that unity of purpose was for overseas service. Most supported also pursued through coercion and re- a “yes” vote, but in the city’s north end, pression, such as intolerance of dissent- large numbers of Ukrainians, Poles and ing views. Reminiscent of World War I Germans registered their opposition, as Canada, many Winnipeggers expressed did French-Canadians congregated in concern over fifth columnists, assuming St. Boniface. Vitriolic condemnations of their presence among those of Central opposing views were also evident in the and Eastern European decent. He writes press, as the Winnipeg Tribune, a conser- of dissatisfaction expressed towards the vative newspaper, viciously denounced federal government for supposedly not its main competitor, the Winnipeg Free

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Press, a long-time Liberal supporter, posed to family stability as a result of for advocating an approach of “studi- lengthy separations, the perception of ill- ous moderation” (52) on conscription. governed youth and rising delinquency, Perrun presents the tyranny of the ma- the difficulty of veterans reintegrating jority as also evident when it came to into civilian society, and acute housing the treatment of Japanese Canadians. shortages that far outlasted the conflict. Several hundred forcibly evacuated from Like other recent local studies of Canada’s West Coast worked for a pit- Canada during the World Wars, Perrun’s tance under unusually harsh conditions demonstrates commonalities with other on Manitoba’s sugar beet farms. parts of Canada. However, he also cites The Patriotic Consensus covers the unique characteristics and experiences myriad ways in which Winnipeggers ral- reflecting, for example, Winnipeg’s par- lied to support the war effort. Besides ticular demographic qualities. Some nationally orchestrated propaganda, parts of the book would have benefitted namely for Victory Bond campaigns, from more detail, such as on how World Perrun shows how grassroots efforts mo- War II affected Winnipeg’s econ­omy. bilized thousands of volunteers and pro- Little information is provided on the duced remarkable results, as Winnipeg impact of the Veterans Charter on those consistently, and significantly, exceeded who returned to Winnipeg. Although average per capita funds raised across Perrun rightfully compares Winnipeg’s Canada. He presents innovative local ini- wartime patterns to regional and nation- tiatives, namely If Day, where, to spark al trends, in some areas he provides few Victory Bond purchases, the military local examples, instead citing those from “invaded” Winnipeg to create the atmo- different communities culled from previ- sphere of a Nazi occupation, a strategy ously published works. Still, The Patriotic publicized across North America and Consensus is a skilfully executed study that spawned similar activities elsewhere. that provides an important contribution Perrun explains how women volun- to the growing number of works demon- teers led efforts to raise the morale of ser- strating the diversity and complexity of vicemen in Canada and overseas, namely Canada’s war experience. by packing and sending comfort packages Jeff Keshen and running canteens. Efforts to salvage Mount Royal University items was also shown as engaging multi- tudes, and making people feel they were providing essential contributions to the Marcel Martel, Canada the Good: A Short war effort. Many others took it upon History of Vice since 1500 (Waterloo: themselves to try and lessen the financial Wilfrid Laurier University Press 2014) and emotional strains experienced by those left at home by servicemen, namely In Canada the Good, Marcel Martel wives, often with children; but Perrun ex- offers an engaging and comprehensive plains this was an activity also designed account of how Canadian society has to monitor behaviour, namely by report- “dealt with vice over the last five hun- ing on women whose moral conduct was dred years.” (2) The focus here concerns deemed unworthy of government sup- the “constraints put in place by collec- port through the Dependents Allowance tivities, institutions, and the state on how program. Considerable space is also de- individuals must behave in society, and voted to covering the challenges the war what is expected from them.” (3) Martel’s

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vices of choice include forms of sexual- controlled the disciplinary process and ity, alcohol consumption, drug use, and more women than men faced investiga- gambling. tion. He provides accounts from above of Canada the Good begins with a de- the state’s handling of abortion, infanti- scriptive account from above of the cide, and divorce. He explores how social French state and the Roman Catholic control – mostly through the charivaris Church as forces of European morality in - was also exercised within communities the New World in the years 1500 to 1700. in an era when “the boundaries of privacy He relates a familiar story. The grow- were porous.” (38) ing mutual dependence of First Nations Canada the Good characterizes the and French colonizers curbed the drive years 1850 to 1920 as an era in which of the Church and state to reform the vice was in retreat, driven to ground by perceived vices – sexual promiscuity, triumphant reformers. The Industrial alcohol consumption and gambling – of Revolution “radically transformed soci- First Nations. Commerce, Martel tells us, ety in last half of 19th century,” and led trumped morality. Christians “from various denominations In his account of the colonial era, 1700 to launch a massive sustained campaign to 1850, Martel explores the mecha- targeting a series of vices that caused nisms available to the Roman Catholic according to them social upheaval and Church to impose moral discipline on decay.” (152) Success of moral reform- its adherents. There were limitations on ers depended upon their ability to reach the Church’s power: too few priests, un- out to other groups and build coalitions. cooperative habitants, and state tolera- Relying on Alan Hunt, Martel argues that tion of prostitution. The state did crack moral regulation movements succeeded down on prostitutes periodically under to the degree that they could build coali- vagrancy laws; the prosecution of mostly tions of groups with “different ideologi- non-Francophone women, Martel argues, cal, political and social agendas.” Their reflected how “class, gender, and ethnic- campaigns were rooted in “normative ity shaped law enforcement.” (32) Martel narratives” that targeted behavior de- notes that same-sex prosecutions were fined as “intrinsically bad, wrong or im- rare. He surmises that there were “other moral.” (51) mechanisms” to deal with what were Martel makes general reference to an termed “crimes against nature.” (33) undifferentiated Social Gospel move- Outside Catholic regions of British ment and to those committed to the wis- North America after the conquest dom of eugenics. He draws our attention “Protestant officials” from various de- to campaigns again polygamy, prostitu- nominations sought to shape a moral tion, abortion, and homosexuality and order. Here no distinction is made be- to the growing role of physicians as “new tween the established Anglican Church moral entrepreneurs.” (154) The decades- and evangelical denominations in their long campaign against the consumption ability to exercise influence within the of alcohol and the response of the alcohol state or over larger or smaller sections lobby and the state federally and provin- of the colonial population. He draws our cially is canvassed. Campaigns against attention to the role of denominational narcotics and tobacco are reviewed. The “tribunals” that heard cases dealing with growing role of the state in the regulation horse racing, drinking, and adultery. and criminalization of vice is explored. Here Martel explains moral discipline Politicians “came to agree that the state was applied in a gendered fashion – men could have a role in implementing a

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morally based order as means to being formation and Canada’s troubled historic social peace.” (153) The state deployed relationship with First Nations. legislation to strength the Christian mor- Because Canada the Good appears to al order by imposing criminal penalties be intended as an introduction to the for those abortionists, homosexuals, and subject of moral regulation in Canadian drug users but it did so as a secondary history, some introductory conceptual locus of moral regulation drawn into the commentary beyond the brief and quite fray only by forces in civil society. general comments offered in the book’s In his review of moral regulation in late introduction would have been very appro- 20th century Canada, Martel describes priate. Martel acknowledges theoretical the development of the birth control debts to Alan Hunt’s Governing Morals: and feminist movements, and the sexual A Social History of Moral Regulation revolution of the 1960s that triggered (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, new debates, legislative action, and court 1999) and he invokes Foucault as an ana- struggles over abortion, prostitution, lytical fulcrum, but he offers readers and homosexuality. Martel reviews state little sustained commentary of a theo- control of alcohol in the post-prohibition retical nature concerning social control era and the state’s role in the evolution of and moral regulation. Indeed he deploys gambling. Finally the story of the crimi- these analytical terms without defini- nalization of marijuana and the subse- tion or commentary. He employs “moral quent debates over its legalization, and panic” as an interpretive category only the tobacco question – health threat or in his conclusion and without comment annoying habit – are canvassed. on its heuristic value. Hunt’s Governing Canada the Good is not a work of Morals – a study that appears to have in- theoretical or empirical originality. The spired the writing of Canada the Good – descriptive content of the book is drawn begins with a finely textured account of from the secondary literature on social theory informing studies of social control control and moral regulation in Canada and moral regulation. Such an introduc- including Martel’s own work on drug tory road map here might have provided policy. The account offered here is mostly a framework in which to build more in- from above, though Martel makes effec- terpretive commentary on the wide rang- tive use of published work that brings ing historical data contained in Canada readers closer to circadian forms of moral the Good. regulation. Tom Mitchell Martel offers no account of moral Brandon University regulation as a feature of state formation. Opportunities for such analysis abound in Canada the Good: the Catholic Church Andrew Smith and Dimitry Anastakis, in the colonial period was a feature of the eds., Smart Globalization: The Canadian state, and the Anglican Church had for Business and Economic History a time at least the status of established Experience (Toronto: University of church. In his account of the attempts Toronto Press 2014) by the state and its surrogates to reshape the moral world of Aboriginal people in This edited collection examines Canada, Martel might have taken the Canadian business and economic his- opportunity to explore the connection tory through the theme of globalization. between the construction of particular Drawing upon the work of economists forms of citizenship as a feature of state Ha-Joon Chang and Dani Rodrik, editors

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Andrew Smith and Dimitry Anastakis studies. Daryl White offers a tidy inves- present Canada as an ideal historical tigation of Canadian efforts to restrict example of “selective globalization” in the export of nickel from Inco’s Sudbury their sweeping and thought-provoking mine to the Central Powers during the introduction. By this they mean that period of American neutrality in the First Canada’s economic development has World War, a chapter that underlines the been characterized by the state’s selective transnational entanglements associated and democratically mediated embrace of with the operation of the modern cor- globalization. The book’s eight essays, in poration. Livio Di Matteo, J.C. Herbery various ways and to various degrees, ex- Emery, and Martin Shanahan compare amine the nature and test the success of wealth formation in the Lakehead region this development strategy. With contri- with that of South Australia between butions from historians and economists, 1905 and 1915. Though both were settler the volume represents an effort to bridge economies dependent on wheat exports, the disciplinary boundaries between his- the authors find that South Australia had tory and economics. It also represents developed a greater ability to accumulate an effort by historians to insert them- wealth because of its command of more selves and their work more directly in linkages associated with grain produc- present-day debates about globalization tion. In other words, Thunder Bay and and economic policy. These are laudable Port Arthur did not perform the met- initiatives. ropolitan function of Adelaide within The first five essays centre upon the South Australia. Finally, Michael N.A. era of globalization before World War I. Hinton presents calculations that suggest Andrew Dilley examines Ontario’s hydro- that – contrary to the assumptions of his- electric policy in relation to the Canadian torian Michael Bliss and others – the pro- businessmen and British bondholders tective tariff did not render the Canadian interested in private development. Dilley cotton industry inefficient. The author’s finds the City of London’s campaign depiction of efficiency as the constitutive against public power in Ontario rather force in economic life, however, under- more powerful than previously believed. plays the importance of access to capital He concludes that Ontario’s ability to and markets in determining the shape of back public hydroelectric power, in defi- the cotton industry during the late 19th ance of the City, demonstrates the ca- century. pacity for flexible accommodation of The last three essays focus mainly on popular economic policies within the the post-1945 era. Greig Mordue’s essay British Empire during the pre-1914 phase on the Canadian auto industry surveys of globalization. Mark Kuhlberg dem- the shifting balance between imperial- onstrates persuasively that the Ontario ism, multilateralism, and continental- government’s commitment to establish- ism in structuring the Canadian state’s ing the “manufacturing condition” on efforts to grow the industry. In particu- pulpwood during the period from 1890 lar, Mordue offers a detailed explanation to 1930 was a politically strategic gesture of the forces associated with globaliza- that lacked substance. The real purpose tion that enabled foreign imports to gain and outcome of the policy was to facilitate greater market share in Canada by the the flow of pulpwood across the border late 1950s, and in so doing highlights to American mills. In this case, the pro- the significance of international devel- gram of selective globalization appears opments in hastening the Auto Pact in less significant than depicted in earlier 1965. Graham D. Taylor looks at the

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rise and fall of the Seagram empire. The between the doctrinaire neoliberal the- Bronfman family expanded their liquor ory of globalization and the historical business by supplying the US market af- experience of globalization as evidenced ter the Volstead Act shut down the (le- through Canada’s business and economic gal) industry there. They chose to locate history. The inherently political nature in Montréal because prohibition within of production and exchange in the mar- Canada was most unlikely in Quebec. ketplace is an implicit theme that runs After the repeal of the Volstead Act, Sam throughout many of the essays. It is also Bronfman established production in the a theme that underlines the importance US and moved Seagram’s headquarters to of business and economic history to the New York before pursuing international mainstream of historical scholarship. opportunities in the postwar period. The essays demonstrate the capacity of Seagram catered to a new generation business historians and economists to of consumers with a taste for blended formulate important research questions whisky, expanded into rum and high-end with clarity and precision. It is an ap- whisky, and formed partnerships with es- proach that can and should be expanded tablished distillers abroad. Bronfman was and elaborated upon to incorporate more a leading driver in globalizing the liquor regions (outside Ontario), more histori- business, but the industry would catch cal actors (such as workers), and more up with Seagram and mismanagement searching questions (about the nature of by his son and grandson would eventu- capital accumulation). As is, this collec- ally bring the business crashing down. tion will be of interest to anyone interest- Matthew J. Bellamy contributes the final ed in better understanding the historical essay. He seeks to explain why Canadian complexities and contingencies of eco- brewers failed to establish international nomic life in a globalizing world. The es- markets for their beers. Bellamy em- says are, on the whole, of a high quality phasizes industrial concentration and and address challenging questions that inter-provincial trade restrictions in cre- may help generate more research and in- ating a highly cartelized and regionalized tellectual exchange in the future. Many market dominated by three companies, scholars will find this book to be well which discouraged price competition. worth a read. Furthermore, Canadian brewers were Don Nerbas lured by the shortsighted gains to be Cape Breton University made through licensing agreements with larger American brewers: Labatt brewed Budweiser; Carling-O’Keefe, Miller; and Francis Peddie, Young, Well-Educated, Molson, Coors. American brands were and Adaptable: Chilean Exiles in Ontario thus imported and Canadian ones did and Quebec, 1973–2010 (Winnipeg: not capture a significant international University of Manitoba Press 2014 market. Canada’s largest beer companies are today assets of foreign companies. Francis Peddie examines the lives of In general, the essays do a better job of Chilean exiles in Canada following their asking and answering their own specific departure from Chile after the 1973 mili- questions than addressing the central tary coup d’etat. The book focuses on the problematique of the book, which is to years immediately following the takeover be expected in an edited collection. The to 2010. Peddie utilizes interviews with volume nonetheless succeeds in present- twenty-one Chilean Canadians and two ing ample evidence of the disjuncture

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other individuals actively involved within Canada. The stories vary from immedi- their community. ate departures after the coup to accounts Peddie argues that “the everyday real- of those who left in the years that fol- ity of exile – the physical distance from lowed. Peddie also explores the role of the Chile and the unavoidable connections Canadian solidarity movement and ar- to Canadian society – caused a re-eval- gues that “the pressure this lobby brought uation of beliefs, values, and practices to bear on the federal government was among the exiles.” (1) This re-evaluation, vital in ensuring that humanitarian con- according to Peddie, led to further sepa- siderations were not sacrificed to World ration from their identity as Chileans. War fears about admitting leftists.” (21) Over time, he concludes, Canada became Chapter 3 focuses on the exiles them- home to these exiles and the place where selves, and their impressions of life in they had jobs, children, and the reoccur- Canada. Peddie argues that when they ring day-to-day experiences of their lives. first settled in Canada, the exiles es- While Peddie acknowledges that tablished a culture of exile through the this argument could be made for sev- building of community associations. eral other immigrant or refugee groups These associations served multiple pur- in Canada, he urges readers to reserve poses such as social support and net- judgement. He argues that what makes working, as well as a forum for asserting a the first wave of Chilean exiles remark- national and political identity opposed to able is the success many of them had in the Chilean military regime. There was, professions and trades, as well as the lev- however, a shift away from these mecha- els of prosperity they achieved in Canada. nisms of cultural identity. Eventually, Moreover Peddie argues that the links these exiles developed a complex set of they established in their new communi- identities within a wider Canadian com- ties, “provided the impetus for gradual munity. In the fourth chapter, Peddie ex- social integration,” which ultimately im- amines how the characteristic of being pacted the way these exiles defined their an exile was only a small part of a more identity with themselves and others. (2) complex identity that developed into the In the first chapter Peddie examines “realms of work, family and gender.” (21) Canada and Chile within the greater con- He argues that eventually these realms text of the Cold War. Peddie also explores integrated them deeper into Canadian several of the contributing factors that led life. This integration caused a trans- to the coup d’etat. He describes the diffi- formation “from temporary visitors to culty of exile and asserts that “the Cold long-term inhabitants of their places of War provided the historical backdrop refuge.” (99) Moreover, Peddie says that for understanding how the twenty-one this also resulted in a shift of Chilean people at the core of this research trans- Canadian culture, from a culture of exile formed from active members of Chilean to one of immigration. The military gov- society to exiles in a country that was ernment’s relinquishing of power, as well physically distant, largely unknown, and the reasons behind so many Chilean ex- only grudgingly welcome.” (24) The ad- iles deciding to remain in Canada, are the mission of the exiles into Canada forced subjects of the Chapter 5. Peddie argues the government to balance its perceived that, after so many years in exile and hav- security concerns with humanitarian pol- ing successfully established new homes icy. In the second chapter Peddie explores in Canada, it was impractical to return the circumstances surrounding the exiles to Chile when the opportunity to do so departure from Chile and their arrival in arose in the 1990s. All the years spent

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building a life in Canada created ties that lives as the decades passed. Peddie ad- bound them here. Of course, not all ex- dresses the fundamental shift from exile iles stayed in Canada, but Peddie explains to immigrant, and traces the all-impor- that those who went back to Chile often tant impacts of family, work, and gender encountered new problems. in their entrenchment within Canadian Peddie relies primarily on the inter- society. views conducted in Toronto, Ottawa, Thirstan Falconer and Santiago, Chile, with the majority University of Victoria of the interviews having been conducted in Peddie’s hometown of Toronto. The study is also supplemented with pam- Ryan O’Connor, The First Green Wave: phlets, Canadian government reports, Pollution Probe and the Origins of expulsion orders issued by the Chilean Environmental Activism in Ontario military government, as well as studies (Vancouver: University of British produced by non-governmental organi- Columbia Press 2015) zations regarding the effects of exile on peoples, families, and on the broader so- While the Canadian environmental cial order. While Peddie’s use of oral his- movement is often popularly conceived tory will generate questions from some as an offshoot of its US counterpart that historians, the method is a fundamen- emerged in the 1970s, Ryan O’Connor ar- tally important approach to examining gues that it actually emerged in the 1960s ethnocultural history. Moreover Peddie as a domestic response to industrial pol- is careful to supplement these interviews lution. Focusing on the environmental with archival sources. His study is a wel- non-governmental organization (engo) come contribution to an evolving field Pollution Probe, The First Green Wave of ethnocultural history that examines follows the development of the early the rise of a more intricate multicultural environmental movement in Toronto. Canadian identity and the reverberations O’Connor’s book provides an important felt in a complex society and economy. corrective to both public and academic By his own admission, Peddie’s argu- historical perspectives of the Canadian ment could be adapted to other ethno- environmental movement and provides a cultural groups, either immigrants or valuable set of historical case studies for refugees. While there is a definite un- the modern environmental movement. derlying simplicity to some of the argu- O’Connor differentiates between the ments and conclusions Peddie draws, origins of the Canadian and American they are no less imperative. Peddie’s study environmental movements. Whereas the of Chilean exiles in Canada is a welcome US environmental movement evolved contribution to a historiography thirst- from a confluence of existing conserva- ing for additional studies that provide tion groups in the 1950s with ecological insights into the settling, development, values to form national activist groups as well as the social and economic mo- like the Sierra Club and the Audubon bility of various ethnocultural groups in Society, O’Connor shows that in Canada Canada during the postwar period. The engos were regional and spontaneous, author succinctly builds on the narrative differentiated from conservation groups, of exile by establishing and crafting the and without the substantial funding complex secondary factors of work, fam- enjoyed by their US counterparts. The ily and gender that ultimately rose to the Ontario environmental movement did surface and defined Chilean-Canadian not begin with Rachel Carson’s Silent

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Spring (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1962) more manageable domestic issues from nor with Earth Day, writes O’Connor, the 1980s forward. but rather as a response to industrial air Perhaps the most important theme pollution exposed in the 1967 cbc docu- in The First Green Wave is that engos mentary The Air of Death.The shock of have a significant effect on society, busi- this documentary and the ensuing con- ness, and government, although success troversy inspired the creation of Group relative to a group’s ambitions is rarely Action to Stop Pollution (gasp) in 1967 immediate or complete. For instance, and Pollution Probe in 1969. many of Pollution Probe’s early efforts Although gasp was formed first, after to get the Toronto and Ontario govern- an initial spike of interest it languished ments to fund a mechanized solid waste and ceased to operate in 1970. Pollution recycling plant were rejected, mecha- Probe, however, had the institutional sup- nized recycling plants were approved port of the Department of Zoology at the in the late 1970s, recycling eventually University of Toronto, which gave it the became standard practice nation wide, space and resources to thrive. O’Connor and their motto “reduce, reuse, recycle” argues that through 1970 and 1971 has become synonymous with recycling. Pollution Probe formed the leadership (112) In 1972, cela brought legal chal- foundation of the Toronto environmental lenges against the Ontario Government community, most notably fostering the and the Lake Ontario Cement Company creation of the Canadian Environmental over extraction of sand from Sandbanks Law Association (cela). Between 1972 Provincial Park in Prince Edward County, and 1974 Pollution Probe reached its ze- Ontario. The two sets of charges were nith. They centralized, adopted a hierar- both thrown out and cela was held liable chical team model, and branched out into for court costs. However, the attraction urban development and energy issues. of public attention, O’Connor argues, However, the onset of the OPEC energy impelled the provincial government to crisis in 1973 hamstrung Probe’s ambi- halt extraction and cancel the lease in tions as funding rapidly collapsed and 1973. cela was widely perceived to have staff had to be let go. This was an espe- established itself as a legitimate organi- cially tough time for the environmental zation and began to collaborate with the movement, writes O’Connor, as austerity provincial government. O’Connor argues and energy issues came to dominate the that the increasing participation and engo agenda, and Pollution Probe was perceived legitimacy of engos during surpassed by and split from its subsid- the Frist Green Wave eroded the bipar- iary, Energy Probe, and was challenged tite bargaining model. Up to this point by the increasing influence of other environmental policy in Canada had engos like Greenpeace and the Is Five largely been produced through private Foundation (iff). Though in the 1980s bipartisan negotiations between business Pollution Probe had a resurgence with and government in which government its work on the Love Canal case, waste, was understood to be a just representa- and public health issues, the emergence tive of the environment and the public of bigger national organizations such as good. While many scholars have situated Greenpeace, the Sierra Club of Canada, the collapse of bipartite bargaining in the and the Canadian Coalition on Acid 1980s, O’Connor effectively argues that Rain, which O’Connor identifies as the it occurred in the early 1970s with the second wave of environmentalism, forced emergence of Pollution Probe and cela. Pollution Probe to limit itself to smaller,

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O’Connor succeeds in making the his- Pollution Probe had a significant influ- tory of early environmentalism in Canada ence on business and government, but valuable to contemporary environmen- also how that influence was perceived by tal organizations. The First Green Wave the business people and politicians who shows how some groups can fail and some were affected by it. Nonetheless, it would can succeed. The experience of Pollution be useful to have an expanded perspec- Probe exemplifies the difficulties of -har tive on how business and government monizing the visions and intentions of perceived and assessed their responses various members of a group, the difficul- to the early engos. This minor nitpicking ties of assessing what environmentalism aside, The First Green Waveis an invalu- really is, and what practical actions can able contribution to the history of the en- be taken to achieve some sort of measur- vironmental movement, and a very useful, able result. However, many of Pollution contemporarily relevant assessment of Probe’s early successes were achieved by the dynamics of environmental politics. a privileged group of mostly Caucasian Hereward Longley young people with elite connections and University of Alberta institutional backing at a time of relative economic prosperity, and perhaps one of greater political hospitality. Further, Margaret E. Beare, Nathalie Des Rosiers, O’Connor points out, there was little en- and Abigail C. Deshman, eds., Putting gagement with the working class, and en- the State on Trial: The Policing of Protest vironmental justice issues were not yet on during the G20 Summit (Vancouver: the table. Thus, as factors such as gender, University of British Columbia Press ethnicity, class, indigeneity, and political 2015) orientation are now increasingly and in- extricably connected with environmental Putting the State on Trial exam- politics, the issues facing contemporary ines the policing and suppression of pro- engos are exponentially more compli- tests associated with the Toronto and cated than those facing Pollution Probe Huntsville meetings of the G8 and G20 in and its contemporaries. summer of 2010. As a volume with fifteen The First Green Wave is meticulously re- chapters, the book offers an extensive searched and superbly written. O’Connor analysis of those many enduring images consulted several major collections of from the protests in Toronto: police ken- archival records and conducted 67 in- neling and mass arbitrary arrests, shoddy terviews. The book showcases the influ- conditions of the temporary holding fa- ence of Pollution Probe on an astonishing cilities, the manipulation of laws to in- number of significant events in Canadian timidate and arrest protesters, as well history, however, while the book does an as the images of police violently attack- excellent job of situating the influence ing unarmed protestors. With a security of the engo, some episodes, such as the budget of over $1 billion, what transpired Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry are in the streets and temporary detention passed over with too much haste. While facilities of Toronto solicited a fair de- in some ways this is a strength, as this gree of media scrutiny and public outcry. book is a very clear and fast read, some of Though the policing of the G20 summit the examples could be more thoroughly has received some degree of academic at- fleshed out.The First Green Wavepaints tention, the volume does an excellent job a particularly strong picture of environ- providing new analysis and discussion of mental politics by showing not just that both the events of the G20 as well as the

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relationship between these events and Wood on the transforming strategies the long-standing police suppression of (and tactics) of protest policing in North the political left in Canada. America between the 1995 and 2012. As a In their introduction to the volume the concise yet comprehensive account of the editors stress that the book is not simply transforming repertoire of police practic- about the G20 but a broader examina- es, Wood underlines how Toronto’s G20 tion of the policing of dissent in Canada. is best understood as the most recent it- In an effort to underline this point, they eration of suppressive mechanisms devel- give a short synopsis “From the Winnipeg oped to control increasingly plural social Strike to Toronto’s G20” that, though justice movements. As Wood concludes: quick, provides an illustrative portrait “to understand why police kettled pro- of the historical suppression of leftist tests in the rainy Toronto streets in 2010 movements by policing forces in Canada. means looking beyond that day and those Though the editors themselves shy away actors to the increasingly integrated and from framing their analysis of policing as less accountable networks in which po- only targeting the left (they make a shal- lice decision-making takes place.” (61) It low point regarding the policing of hock- is precisely the operational environments ey riots and Guns N’ Roses concerts), of integration and discretion that are ad- the historical record is overwhelmingly dressed in the second thematic section of illustrative of the rcmp’s (and others’) the book. obsessive surveillance and disruption of Under the banner of “Policing the left-wing movements. Event,” five chapters provide a range of After the introduction from the edi- discussions on the policing and surveil- tors, the collection is divided into three lance activities that transpired in prepa- sections. The first of the thematic sec- ration and on the streets of Toronto. tions features five chapters examining Indeed, as perhaps the most radical trends that gave rise to the mass suppres- transformation to protest policing, it is sion of protests in Toronto. This section precisely the pre-emptive surveillance contains a number of useful chapters for practices that structure the “events” that instructors of upper-year courses looking unfold in protest spaces. As an important for concise readings on the relationship theme within social movements and po- between leftist political movements and licing literature, the role of pre-emption the state in Canada. In particular, Leo and ubiquitous social movement surveil- Panitch offers an excellent stage-setting lance was central thread within the chap- chapter that catalogues the transnational ters of this section. Moving beyond the architectures of global capitalism and immediate threats that political surveil- the protests that have coincided with lance presents to the suppression of pro- these meetings of political elites. Though tests, chapters from Kate Milberry and hasty in its concluding remarks around Andrew Clement, Veronica Kitchen and violence and tactics, Panitch underlines Kimberly Rygiel, and Nicholas Lamb and the connections between transnational George Rigakos, all underline how the economic powers and localized protest, information and intelligence networks as well as relating how Canadian events established through these policing op- figure into global patterns of accumula- erations have far-reaching repercussions tion and resistance. Though perhaps out- in terms of future surveillance and po- side the interest of some readers of this litical suppression. Combined with more journal, the first thematic section also opaque and unresponsive systems of contains a brilliant chapter by Lesley “accountability” or redress, the chapters

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listed above are excellent in calling at- police impunity in Canada. Perhaps the tention towards the long-term threat to chapter with the least direct relation to civil liberties and political resistance the events at Toronto, but the most ger- that arise from current information col- mane in terms of contemporary (post- lection/sharing practices of policing and G20) policing in Toronto, is Howard security agencies. Morton’s legal analysis of the powers of Given the spectacular transgressions “street checks”. Given the recent protests of the policing practices in Toronto, the by groups like #blacklivesmatter against third thematic section addresses issues “carding” practices (as well as the killing of “accountability” and lessons to be of unarmed black men) in Toronto, the learned. Divided between four chapters, chapter is illustrative of the book’s aim of authors examine different elements of being relevant to broader issues of police the after-the-event responses including violence and impunity. a number of legal avenues of contesta- As a policing scholar, I highly recom- tion and/or redress, public and media mend the text. Above all, the text provides scrutiny, inquiry, and investigative mod- a valuable set of resources for graduate els of “accountability” and oversight, as students and supervisor regarding is- well as broader notions of critical public sues of policing and social movements in education. As a concluding section it is Canada. Specific chapters could certainly illustrative of two overarching themes of be used for weekly readings or case stud- the volume: an entirely antagonistic and ies in undergraduate or graduate courses. hostile attitude from policing agencies As a relatively inexpensive text from an towards the demonstrations, which ratio- academic publisher, it could be used for nalized the wanton approach to the issues upper-level special topics courses, as the of Charter freedoms and police violence; book does provide enough distinct mate- and secondly, an institutional model of rials to be used in perhaps three weeks’ policing in Canada that systematically worth of readings and discussion. The shields police agencies (and officers) from text is exemplary for its interdisciplin- being brought to justice for their crimes. ary and scope of contributions, though It is not an issue of bad apples, but bad its shelf life maybe limited given the next containers and as Nathalie Des Rosiers G20-esque events may be upon us soon highlights in her concluding remarks, the enough. repetition of these patterns of policing Jeffrey Monaghan violence and impunity are inevitable, as University of Ottawa was evident in the violent suppression of Quebec student strikes of 2012. In addition to the clear and systematic Jerome Klassen, Joining Empire: The critiques offered in the conclusions of the Political Economy of the New Canadian volume, the final section is exemplary of Foreign Policy (Toronto: University of the most notable academic contribution Toronto Press 2014) from the volume: its fluid, interdisciplin- ary approach to examining the topic of This book makes the case that political suppression in Canada. The vol- “Canada’s new foreign policy is a class- ume combines black-letter legal analysis based effort at joining empire.” (6; all em- with sociological theorizing and histori- phases in quotes are from the original) cal investigations to provide a thoughtful “Empire” refers to the current system of and empirically rich account of the events collective imperialism dominated by the in Toronto, as well as the broader issue of United States. The second notable term

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in the above sentence registers what is a broader base for Canadian capital to most distinctive about this book – “class- further internationalize: “Thenafta re- based.” I will raise some questions below lationship, then, has been critical for the about the third notable term, “new.” expanded reproduction of Canadian cap- Along with earlier works, includ- ital on a global scale.” (134) ing Todd Gordon’s Imperialist Canada This recent expansion of Canadian (Winnipeg: Arbeiter Ring, 2010), this book capital beyond the domestic economy challenges understandings of Canada as plays a central role in Klassen’s account. some kind of rich dependency. The New It is examined in more detail when the Canadian Political Economy School held three circuits of capital approach (capital that one reason Canada does not qualify in the sphere of production, in circula- as an advanced capitalist country is that tion, and in the financial or money form) it lacks a real national bourgeoisie with its is used to evaluate Canada’s current role own class interests (see Wallace Clement, in the world economy. Despite certain Continental Corporate Power [Toronto: particularities, the Canadian circuits are McClelland and Stewart, 1977]). It is a deemed typical of an advanced capitalist fundamentally different framework for economy. “The Canadian state must be analysis and politics to recognize instead located as a secondary imperialist power that a relatively independent Canadian in world accumulation … tightly bound imperialist bourgeoisie controls Canada’s with the political economy of US capital- economy and the Canadian state. To note ism, but also linked to wider circuits of this difference we should regardJoining capital in the world economy.” (152) Empire as part of a newer Canadian The nature of Canadian capital is also Political Economy School. The particu- evaluated in terms of the directorship larity of Canada’s relationship with the linkages among leading corporations. In US remains central, but the dependency- a chapter written with William Carroll, premised justification for Canadian left- author of the seminal Corporate Power nationalism is gone. and Canadian Capitalism (Vancouver: Klassen first reviews theories of im- University of British Columbia Press, perialism. His own account emphasizes 1986), the corporate network in Canada that spatial expansion is inherent to capi- is characterized as “largely dominated by talism, and that value is geographically nationally owned firms – in particular, by transferred through trade. As indicated leading [transnational corporations] un- by adopting the term “empire,” he views der Canadian ownership.” (176) Changes collective imperialism by the advanced between 1996 and 2006 include a “grow- capitalist states as currently predominat- ing set of directorship interlocks between ing over inter-imperialist rivalry. Canadian-owned TNCs and the largest The book then reviews the nature of foreign-based firms in the world.” (176) the US-led empire of capital in order to Leading Canadian firms “operate not as address how Canada fits into this frame- continental ‘compradors’ but as active work. It treats North American conti- members of an ‘Atlantic ruling class’ with nental deep integration as an example transnational reach into both developed of how secondary powers like Canada and developing countries.” (177) must find specialized roles to advance These points are applied to explain the interests of their own capitalist class. recent Canadian “security” and foreign Continentalization is characterized as policy. Klassen criticizes dependency- part of a broader “spatial fix” for the capi- influenced writers for their “one-sided fo- talist crisis of accumulation. It provided cus on the interiorization of US corporate

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power in the Canadian political economy, refers to the “economic foundations of to the detriment of understanding the Canada’s new imperialism” (122) and how exteriorization of Canadian capital in a “new power bloc emerged in the politi- transnational patterns of exploitation cal economy of Canada.” (200) While the and accumulation.” (185) Joining Empire recent security and foreign policy prac- makes the case that “the transformation tices are “not entirely new, they been of the Canadian state since 2001 is the advanced qualitatively over the past two structural effect of the internationaliza- decades, especially since 9/11.” (207) tion of capital and the recomposition of In some respects these changes are the power block around globalizing cor- qualitative, but in other respects they porate interests.” (187) are not. Canada held extensive invest- The evidence offered includes detailed ments abroad long before they surged review of the succession of policy propos- recently in tandem with those of other als and statements by Canadian business countries. William Carroll demonstrated leaders and government agencies that that Canadian finance capital emerged progressively articulated the new ap- well over a century ago. Canada-US co- proach. A densely documented chapter operation on “security” issues has long on Afghanistan and Haiti illustrates its been very close. The interests advanced application. It explores how development by current foreign policy do not seem aid is funded, the training of police and very different than in the earlier cases security forces, and the financing elec- from Israel to the Congo enumerated in tions of limited legitimacy. Yves Engler’s The Black Book of Canadian Analyses that focus on capital often ne- Foreign Policy (Halifax: Fernwood, 2009). glect the other side of the class relation- As a partisan of the perspective that ship. I therefore appreciated that at each Canada has long been imperialist I may logical step in his account Klassen includ- be demanding too much of a work whose ed placeholders for attention to “anti-im- chief merit is that it addresses recent perialist struggles of workers, oppressed developments. My appreciation of what nations and other subaltern agents.” (56) has changed is also confounded by un- The book ends by calling for the “further certainty that much analytical purchase building of a counterforce to empire, and is gained by the concept of “empire.” In with it, a program of antiracist, working- any case, greater clarity about Canada’s class politics … not just in Canada but previous political-economic status would around the world as well.” (257) help identify what is really “new” in the My chief reservation concerns what is last three decades covered by this book. new. I think the diagnosis of Canada as With honourable exceptions the New currently imperialist would be stronger Canadian Political Economy School ne- if the book made clearer when it became glected making the domestic bourgeoi- so. The distinct emphasis is on the recent sie an object of serious study. Joining period rather than any continuity from Empire is an important correction of before. that cardinal deficiency. We now have a Thus Canada-US free trade is char- theoretically sophisticated and up-to- acterized as “a key turning point for date account of how Canadian foreign Canadian capitalism.” (98) The North and security policy expresses the class American Free Trade Agreement interests of Canadian capital. “sparked an internationalization of Bill Burgess Canadian capital on national, regional Kwantlen Polytechnic University and international scales.” (103) Klassen

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Dan Zuberi, Cleaning Up: How Hospital other health care professionals, along Outsourcing is Hurting Workers and with participant observation (although Endangering Patients (Ithaca: Cornell the participant observation goes largely University Press 2013) unmentioned in the book), all of which occurred between 2007 and 2011. Zuberi The future of the labour movement in recruited preliminary interviewees at the US and Canada almost certainly de- union meetings and used snowball sam- pends on its success in service industries pling among these interviewees to broad- like health care and education. Within en his sample. such industries, workers and those who This design would not necessarily be advocate on their behalf are wise to link an issue if the book’s goal were to enrich claims for better wages and working con- our understanding of the experience of ditions to broader conceptions of the ancillary hospital work in an increas- public good like better patient care and ingly market-driven environment. But higher quality schools. This is clearly the book’s central argument hinges on Dan Zuberi’s intention in Cleaning Up: the link between outsourcing and infec- How Hospital Outsourcing Is Hurting tion rates. Thus, the fact that the research Workers and Endangering Patients, the starts three years after outsourcing be- title of which makes the connection that comes problematic. While we learn a lot he works to substantiate over the course about the struggles that hospital workers of 125 pages. The broad claim of the book face in the contemporary environment, – that the way a society treats its lowest- it is almost impossible for the reader to level health care workers in turn impacts discern the extent to which these prob- the health of the society – is an important lems have worsened since outsourcing. and provocative one. (Zuberi often reports statistics from his Zuberi begins with the spectre of interviews – i.e. 74 per cent of the work- rampant hospital-acquired infections, ers he interviewed said the job negatively which rose sharply in British Columbia affected their physical health (46) – with- immediately following the widespread out discussing how these statistics might outsourcing of ancillary hospital staff in be different from those that would have 2004 (though has declined slightly since). been found before outsourcing, and He argues that there is a “largely over- without discussing how this statistic is looked connection between deteriorating influenced by his admittedly biased re- working conditions in hospitals and the cruitment strategy). increase in hospital-acquired infections.” Given the data to which Zuberi had (6) The greatest strengths of the book are access, another potential strategy would in the rhetorical links it makes between have been for him to compare the experi- workers’ and patients’ wellbeing, and in ences of workers, and hospital infection its passionate advocacy on behalf of low- rates, across different hospitals that used wage hospital workers. outsourcing in different ways or to differ- Given his interest in the relationship ent extents. This would have helped him between the outsourcing of hospital an- to draw clearer conclusions about the cillary staff and the increase in hospital relationship between outsourcing and infection rates, however, Zuberi employs workers’ experiences, and between each a somewhat counterintuitive research of these and hospital-acquired infection design. His research consists of inter- rates. Yet while Zuberi recruited inter- views with hospital ancillary workers and viewees who worked at different hospitals

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across Vancouver, he spends no time dis- the services for which it contracts. It cussing variation in workers’ experiences would likely not surprise us, for example, by hospital. if an external corporation implemented The more general problem with this and administered a hospital’s electronic book, however, is that it is simultane- medical records systems in a more effi- ously so narrow in focus and so broad. cient and effective way than an in-house By staking his argument on the connec- team. Large and unsubstantiated gener- tion between the outsourcing of ancillary alizations – “outsourcing is incompatible staff and hospital-acquired infections, with the needs of complex institutions” he sets himself up for questions he is not (122) – do not help us better understand prepared to answer. First, does outsourc- the ways that market forces interact with ing actually lead to increases in hospital- bureaucratic systems such as the hospi- acquired infections? Zuberi’s interviews tals in Vancouver. do not help to answer this question. On If Zuberi’s narrow claim is unsupport- this question, in fact, the most compel- ed by his evidence, his sweeping discus- ling evidence that Zuberi marshals is not sions of hospital-acquired infections, on his own. Instead, he cites several reports the one hand, and low-wage work, on the on hospital outsourcing in Vancouver – other, feel irrelevant – the non-overlap- by Robert Stanwick and Nancy Pollak, ping areas of a Venn diagram of which among others – as well as a robust health the book’s argument sits at the intersec- policy literature, all of which support the tion. The book discusses a wide variety conclusion that Zuberi repeats here. of causes of hospital infection that have Second, if outsourcing does in fact lead little to do with the outsourcing of ancil- to increases in infections in Vancouver, lary workers: among them too little hand by what process does this occur and how washing among all hospital workers, generalizable is this process? In the case the overuse of antibiotics, a lack of ad- of British Columbia, Zuberi argues, out- ministrative monitoring and reporting, sourcing led to a radical reduction in an- hospital overcrowding, contaminated cillary staffing levels and cutbacks in the catheters. Likewise, we learn quite a bit training of these staff, a fragmentation about the hardships faced by of low-wage of communications systems between in- workers that bear only indirectly on hos- house staff and the outsourced ancillary pital safety or cleanliness. staff, and an almost complete lack of ac- Despite these limitations, Zuberi’s countability for the contractors. Zuberi analysis succeeds in highlighting the im- implies that these are all inevitable re- portance of hospital cleanliness for the sults of outsourcing: “Fundamentally, prevention of hospital-acquired infec- corporate managers and supervisors do tions, and in suggesting (if not proving) not work for the best interests of patients. the ways that improving the wages and Rather, they are there to protect the best working conditions of low-wage hospital interests of the firms that employ them.” ancillary workers might improve patient (63) This likely contains some truth, but outcomes. While this reader was hoping it is almost certainly an oversimplifica- for a more rigorous proof of the connec- tion. We might imagine counterfactual tion between worker and public well-be- cases in which outsourcing could lead ing, Zuberi’s book nevertheless makes an to the hiring of more expert cleaners, argument we cannot afford to ignore. the implementation of more streamlined Adam Reich communications systems, and a hospital Columbia University administration that carefully monitors

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William A. Mirola, Redeeming Time: a means to ‘redeem time’ for workers.” Protestantism and Chicago’s Eight- (2) Catholics are largely ignored be- Hour Movement, 1866-1912 (Urbana: cause they were not a significant reli- University of Illinois Press 2015) gious group in Chicago at the time. And though the Catholic church was involved William Mirola is a sociology profes- with immigrant worker issues in the city, sor at Marian University in Indianapolis, Mirola notes, the church as a whole did and co-editor of three previous works not get involved with labour questions in on religion and class. Redeeming Time is a significant manner until afterRerum rooted in his dissertation in Sociology at Novarum in 1891. Indiana University; he notes that he be- The book’s six chapters take a chrono- gan the research some twenty years ago. logical approach. Chapter 1 discusses Scholars have done little to examine the the views of Chicago Protestants in the possibilities for and limits to cooperation 19th century, the emergence of various between religion and labour. This book, factions within the eight-hour move- examining a 50 year period in one city’s ment, and the connections among la- history, is a helpful contribution to this bour reformers, employers, and clergy. limited conversation. Labour historians Clergy saw employers as morally upright have tended to underestimate the role Christians, as evidenced by their business of the clergy in the 19th century labour success and their church attendance. By movement, Mirola observes, while reli- contrast, they viewed the working class gious historians have overvalued it. as potentially dangerous, and opposed Mirola defines the eight-hour move- the eight-hour day for fear that workers ment as “a central narrative in American would use the time to drink alcohol or industrial development” in which we can be immorally idle. As employers began “identify the origins of several features of to redefine their faith as strictly personal the contemporary economic landscape.” and limited to Sunday mornings, clergy (xii) These features include American support for them ceased to be unques- Protestant churches’ limited involvement tioning. Workers, meanwhile, “lacking in the labour struggle, the labour move- access to other resources,” counted on ment’s focus on “pragmatic unionism,” churches to support their demands for an and the growth of “the market’s untouch- eight-hour day. (41) able morality of profit accumulation.” Chapter 2 outlines the first eight-hour (xii) Mirola takes pains to argue that the campaign in Chicago, in 1866–7, while failure of the clergy to take action in sup- the next two chapters focus on the period port of labour was not, as some would be- from 1873 to the aftermath of Haymarket. lieve, inevitable. Nonetheless, this failure Over this period, the intransigence of resulted in the loss of their moral legiti- employers and the unequal struggle be- macy with respect to “the routine opera- tween workers and employers evidenced tions of capitalism.” (xii–xiii) by Haymarket resulted in growing sym- The focus on Protestants is clearly ex- pathy for workers on the part of clergy. plained; the choice of Chicago, less so. Clergy support for the eight-hour day Chicago workers were at the centre of emerged as a result. However, clergy took national debates on the eight-hour day, advantage of the eight-hour movement a moral question that involved “beliefs “to mobilize support for the temperance about work, industrial justice, leisure, and Sabbatarian movements and to rein- education, civic duty, and health. It was force Protestant morality among an in- creasingly Catholic working class.” (116)

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Chapter 5 examines the 1890s and the religion as a basis for activism around passage of the Sweatshop Act in Illinois. economic and industrial issues.” (20) He Three factions within the labour move- acknowledges that “redeeming time” may ment made use of religious rhetoric seem ridiculous to those living in a mul- (craft unions, the Knights of Labor, and titasking age where our time is increas- the Central Labor Union). Their impor- ingly governed by technology. In the case tance declined as workers realized that of late 19th century Chicago workers, avoiding religious justifications for the “redeeming time involved an accommo- eight-hour day “allowed labor to speak a dation to capitalism and industrial pro- language that resonated with employers duction instead of resistance to it.” (197) and minimized the risk of fragmenting It was not Protestant clergy who aided a religiously divided labor movement.” workers in winning the fight for the eight- (152) The Knights and theclu , though, hour day. Rather, he concludes, success saw religious rhetoric as “a means to came through the strengthening of the frame a future social order based on co- labour movement through strikes, the operation and justice, the antithesis of evidence of continued economic success industrial capitalism.” (153) The slow- provided by those businesses that moved ness on the part of Protestant clergy to to an eight hour day, and public sympa- translate moral support into practical thy for worker protests in the aftermath action meant that the labour movement of Haymarket. Nonetheless, Mirola de- began to move away from the clergy just clares that there is “some hope for the role as “the new Protestant consciousness was religion plays in the contemporary labor about to be institutionalized into a pan- movement” in that our present situation denominational social creed supporting has similarities to that of turn-of-the- labor rights.” (153) The Social Gospel century Chicago. However, “demands came too late, in some ways, for the la- to redeem time through shorter hours bour movement. are few, as most workers appear anxious Three particular events are the subject to hold on to their job regardless of the of Chapter 6: shorter hours for women hours they work.” (207) He ends by quot- workers, a demand for shorter hours for ing the “prophetic warning” of theologian typographers at a Methodist publishing Walter Rauschenbusch, writing in 1912: house (which resulted in conflict with “If the present struggle of wage-workers the Methodist church), and the creation is successful, and they become the domi- of the pro-labour Social Creed of the nant class of the future, any religious Churches. By the beginning of the 20th ideas and institutions which they now century, the shift had been made from re- embrace in the heat of struggle will rise ligious to political and economic rhetoric. with them to power and any institution Protestant churches turned their atten- on which they turn their back is likely to tion to the middle class, while the labour find itself left in the cold.” (207) It seems, movement abandoned the oppositional then, that the benefits to a potential fu- and transformative language of religion ture church-labour alliance rest primar- for the language of employers which was ily with the church. Mirola, however, “based on the logic of the capitalist mar- seems to hold out hope for the faithful, ket.” (191) Workers sought to shorten the declaring it “ironic” that “today, people of workday rather than redeem it from capi- faith remain hesitant to fight in and over talist dictates. the arena of capitalist economics and Mirola’s conclusion explores “the pos- industrial conditions.” (ix) Reading this sibilities and constraints surrounding book while attending the recent “Religion

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and Labor: Moral Vision from/for the the direction of what came to be known Grassroots” conference at Syracuse as “Stalinism” destructively impacted on University, it’s a hope that I share. the US Communist Party. Janis Thiessen The classic study of early US University of Winnipeg Communism is the two-volume work of 1957 and 1960 by liberal-minded ex- Communist Theodore Draper – The Roots Jacob A. Zumoff, The Communist of American Communism and American International and US Communism, Communism and Soviet Russia. Draper’s 1919–1929 (Leiden: Brill 2015) meticulous work transcended the cari- catures yet ultimately was dismissive of This book challenges a long-standing US Communism as being dominated by story about the early US Communist the perspectives and needs not of the Party. Amid the prosperous 1920s, ac- US working class but, instead, of the cording to the old narrative, a small Communist leaders of Soviet Russia. group of American radicals, out of touch Zumoff’s introduction traces the with the US realities, hope to follow the conflict between Draper and his fol- example of Russia’s workers and peas- lowers, who see the tragedy of a Soviet- ants led by V.I. Lenin and Leon Trotsky, dominated US Communism, and who made the 1917 Revolution. The result younger 1960s activist-scholars seeing was a new Communist Party character- US Communism in its 1930s reform- ized by crazy, sectarian ultra-leftism. ist incarnation as a source of inspiring A primary culprit was the Communist struggles. He draws from each of the two International, pulling naïve idealists into approaches while transcending both. organizational, strategic, and tactical Fully conversant with the secondary lit- schemes derived from backward Russia, erature, he has also delved into the papers hilariously inappropriate to the most of numerous participants, plus newly dynamic capitalist country in the world. available archives of the US Communist (I myself heard a story, perhaps apocry- Party and the Communist International. phal, of an early Communist leaflet ap- And he has drawn all of this together into pealing to the Workers and Peasants of a well-written, highly informative volume Brooklyn.) that will stand as a “must-read” source for Pushing against what he sees as a cari- years to come. cature of early US Communism, Jacob Zumoff’s study complements John Zumoff adheres to the original revolu- Riddell’s multi-volume edition on the tionary perspectives. Whether he is right first four congresses of the Communist or wrong in this, his orientation causes International. These reveal a richness and him to seek and dig out valuable informa- diversity of political thought and experi- tion about what the early Communists ence often missed by some historians. Far actually thought, did, and tried to do. from imposing inappropriate “foreign” The result is a picture of an early US perspectives, we see Lenin, Trotsky, and Communism far more interesting and other leaders of the Comintern insist- impressive than is revealed by the time- ing (and assisting) in US Communists worn narrative. Zumoff’s thesis is that grounding themselves in the realities the Comintern played a positive role in its of their own political and cultural en- first four years, but that increasingly af- vironment. Up to 1923–24, as Zumoff terwards, its negative transformation in documents, the relationship proved to be overwhelmingly positive.

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Even in the days of relative health, the Comintern). At this point, Cannon – however, a situation of “factional gang sincerely believing in the need for loyalty warfare” (158) permeated the young to the Comintern, which had done much party. On one side was the central leader good in the past and represented world Charles Ruthenberg, assisted by an ambi- revolution – broke with Foster, form- tious protégé named Jay Lovestone; on ing a caucus to end factionalism. Upon the other side a largely trade union based Ruthenberg’s premature death in 1927, current headed by William Z. Foster and however, the super-factional Lovestone James P. Cannon. became Party leader. The problem was worsened by Jószef Lovestone and those around him Pogány, a functionary sent by the enthusiastically supported Stalin and Communist International to assist waged an anti-Trotsky campaign that the Hungarian-American federation. expelled Cannon and others. But he him- Adopting the name “John Pepper,” he self was soon – almost inadvertently – proved to be a very talented yet irrespon- caught up in an anti-Bukharin campaign, sible adventurer. Pepper passed himself as Stalin and those around him sought to off as having far more authority than had centralize the world Communist move- been intended by those who sent him and ment under their control. By 1929, the US assumed a central role in the inner coun- Communist Party was “Stalinized” under cils of the Party. Aligning himself with the pliant leadership of Earl Browder. the Ruthenberg-Lovestone faction, he This is a political history of the US contributed to a sharpening of the inner- Communist Party, with a focus on lead- party warfare, and also to a combination ers, factional disputes, and especially the of opportunism and sectarian arrogance ongoing relationship with the leadership, that seriously damaged Communist pros- policies, and apparatus of the Communist pects in the broader arena of US labour International. Limited attention is given activism. to the on-the-ground work and experi- Although Pepper was finally removed ence of, for example, the Trade Union in 1925, the factionalism sharpened. This Educational League, the International took place within a context of consider- Labor Defense, the American Negro able maneuvering and manipulation, as Labor Congress, the Workers School, the role played by the Comintern was etc. While such studies remain to be transformed by developments inside the written, utilizing the tools of social his- Soviet Communist Party. Lenin’s death tory, this volume contributes a valuable amid the ballooning of a bureaucratic framework. state and party apparatus, a temporary A major plus of Zumoff’s contribution alliance of Comintern chieftain Gregory is his inclusion of four chapters on “the Zinoviev with Stalin against Trotsky, Negro Question.” He shows that it was then an alliance of Stalin and Nikolai Comintern insight and influence which Bukharin against Zinoviev and Trotsky, compelled the US Communist Party to and finally Stalin’s triumphant rupture come to overcome a deep-rooted ten- with Bukharin – all were reflected within dency on the US Left to avoid coming to the Comintern and had an impact on de- grips with racism. In legitimately chal- velopments within US Communism. lenging later Comintern theorizations When the Foster-Cannon caucus had however, he includes “self-determination a majority, the Comintern intervened for black Americans” in a list of Stalinist- on behalf of the Ruthenberg-Lovestone influenced “ideological errors and eccen- caucus (which it deemed more loyal to tricities.” (366) Surely this merits further

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consideration. Leon Trotsky himself Elizabeth Catlett. (3) Battat also includes (in interaction with Black radicals like brief analyses of Tillie Olsen’s 1930s Claude McKay and C.L.R. James) em- Yonnondio, a white migration narrative braced a more supple version of self-de- written and set in the 1930s but pub- termination for African-Americans. lished in 1974; Richard Wright’s 1941 More work also remains to be done photo-essay 12 Million Black Voices; the on the post-1929 period. While the 1945 nonfictional migration narrative, Communist Party of later years has been They Seek A City, co-written by Black a focus of other historians, it awaits writer Arna Bontemps and white leftist treatment from someone with Zumoff’s Jack Conroy; and Harriette Arnow’s The political sensibilities. Bryan Palmer’s Dollmaker (1954). Precisely because in- multi-volume biography of James P. terracial alliances and relationships were Cannon promises to do justice to the so rare, Battat contends that writers in scholarly study of US Trotskyism. The her study “turned to the migration narra- Lovestone group evaporated in 1940 but tive to articulate their reform visions.” (4) deserves greater attention than Zumoff That radical writers and artists, Black suggests. He misleadingly claims that and white, used literature and other cul- “starting in the 1930s its leaders began tural forms to push for social change to act as braintrusters to the afl bureau- is well documented by scholars of the crats’ opposition to Communism and the 1930s and the Left. But Battat’s under- cio” (284) – but the story is more complex lying quest is to show that these artists and interesting than that. Nonetheless, produced an interracial migration nar- this fine book stands as a major contribu- rative canon, which, she says, emerged tion to the history of Communism in the from shared contexts, and which should United States. “replace the traditional view of black Paul Le Blanc and white migration as separate streams La Roche College feeding different political and aesthetic pools.” (13) This poses a number of ques- tions, not fully addressed in this study, Erin Royston Battat, Ain’t Got No Home: chief among them are these: how does she America’s Great Migrations and the define “interracial migration narrative,” Making of An Interracial Left (Chapel and is the evidence presented here exten- Hill: University of North Carolina Press sive enough to make a convincing argu- 2014) ment that this interracial canon exists? Clearly, the social issues of the 1930s Erin Battat’s study is a comparative and 1940s – the Depression, migration, analysis of migration narratives showing and the prominence of the Left – did pro- how “black and white writers experiment- duce a new cultural map, and the migra- ed with new literary forms that recast the tion narrative was at the centre of these relationship between African American cultural shifts. Battat focuses on the and southern white workers and testified migration narratives of Attaway, Babb, to the possibility of class-based inter- and Himes because they “more explic- racial alliances.” (2) Ultimately, Battat is itly engage with the intersections of class focused on “the aesthetic dimension” of and race in the migration experience.” migration art, looking at how struggles (11) She begins to make her case for the for social justice surfaced in the fiction interracial character of their narratives of Sonora Babb, William Attaway, and with the recovery of Sonora Babb’s ne- Chester Himes and in the visual art of glected 1930s dust bowl novel Whose

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Names Are Unknown, which was finally Security Administration, neither she nor published in 2004 by the University of Babb examines the way Babb’s novel is Oklahoma Press. Because Babb was a deeply implicated in racial exclusion. communist, she was invested in exposing In the chapter on William Attaway’s the way capitalism’s demands produced 1941 migrant novel Blood on the Forge, the shocking conditions of migrant la- Battat’s own analysis undercuts every ex- bour communities, and, presumably, a ample of interracial unity or solidarity that greater investment in representing inter- she provides. Battat claims, for example, racial solidarity. The most clearly articu- that “interracial camaraderie flourishes in lated example of interracial unity Battat the bunkhouse” in Blood on the Forge but offers fromWhose Names Are Unknown “deteriorates in the realm of the family is the scene of Black, white, and Filipino and neighborhood.” (90) What is substan- workers gaining a collective voice as they tially the experience of race in Blood on join with one another “across boundar- the Forge is violent racial hostilities, white ies of race, ethnicity and gender.” (65) working-class resistance to Blacks, and Yet, as Battat herself notes, this collec- race war. In Battat’s own terms, Attaway tive unity is undercut in the novel’s own “refigures the North as a site of race and practice of marginalizing and stereotyp- class conflict rather than integration and ing its characters of colour. The one Black opportunity, pressing for revolutionary male character in the novel is introduced change.” (92) There are flashes of inter- as “The Negro” Garrison, along with his racial unity in this novel, or more accu- wife Phoebe, who never speaks, and the rately, “interracial camaraderie,” which “short, stocky Filipino” named Pedro. appear and disappear like meteoroids but These stock characters do not enter the are never sustained because, in the words novel until Chapter 37, nearly the end, of Attaway, “political and social equality” when they meet together at an organiz- are inseparable. (90) The same can be said ing meeting, but Battat pushes this as for the example of Chester Himes’s If He the essential scene of interracial unity, Hollers, which depicts a racial hostility so concluding that, “This tableau [of Black, venomous among the workers in the ship- white, and Filipino workers] attests to yards of California that the main black the central role of migration in bringing character Bob Jones ends psychologically about interracial working-class solidar- and physically damaged and the only dra- ity.” (66) Battat seems determined to pro- matization of interracial unity is Bob’s be- duce this solidarity even as she critiques ing drafted along with the two Mexican Babb for her thin portrayals of people of youths. colour. The argument for an interracial Battat concludes that by the 1950s, vision is further eroded by the way Babb “stories of internal migration no longer describes these white migrant camps as adequately conveyed the vision of an in- normative. White migrants drive around terracial class struggle,” but withered towns undisturbed; their children go to “amidst anticommunist purges and es- school or expect to; they go to the mov- calating racial hostilities in the South.” ies undisturbed; they eat and drink (164) She considers only three narratives wherever they want and whenever they to show how the rise of conservative have enough money; the worst slur they politics shifted the emphasis in migra- are subjected to is being called “Okies.” tion narratives away from a critique of Although Babb does deal with the issue social issues: Ralph Ellison’s Invisible of the Okies’ whiteness in a 1938 jour- Man (1952), Dorothy West’s The Living Is nal she kept while working for the Farm Easy (1947), and Harriette Arnow’s The

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Dollmaker (1954). She does not include in this study – especially its examina- many major postwar African American tion of the intersections of populism, re- migration novels, and I suggest that look- gionalism, feminism, and left radicalism ing at even three – Lloyd L. Brown’s Iron – needs to be balanced by a greater em- City (1951), James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on phasis on the messy, contradictory ele- the Mountain (1953), or Paule Marshall’s ments of the migration story that Battat Brown Girl, Brownstones (1959) – would so deftly identifies. produce a more complicated story than Mary Helen Washington the one Battat tells. The one Black migra- University of Maryland, College Park tion narrative that produced the inter- racial ideal Battat imagines is Lloyd L. Brown’s 1951 Iron City. In a Scottsboro- Robert Justin Goldstein, ed., Little “Red like depiction of interracial unity, the Scares”: Anti-Communism and Political Mississippi migrant flees the racial Repression in the United States, 1921– violence in Mississippi for Pittsburgh, 1946 (Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate 2014) drawn there by seeing the poster of two Communist Party nominees, one white Little “Red Scares” is an impor- and one Black, and joins an interracial tant contribution to the literature on cadre of Communist Party members American anticommunism. It gathers to- to free a falsely imprisoned Black man. gether thirteen experts in the field, and Though Iron City’s interracial ideol- sheds light on a period in the history of ogy may have been motivated by Brown’s American anticommunism that has re- communist commitments, this novel is ceived relatively little historiographical the singular example from the Cold War attention: the years between 1921 and 1950s of Left interracialism: Blacks and 1946. The volume is edited by a pioneer whites are joined together as social and in the field, Robert Justin Goldstein. As intellectual equals, sharing bread, mon- Goldstein makes clear in his succinct in- ey, struggle, and jail. Unfortunately, this troduction, this volume proves that the novel is not included in Battat’s study. first Red Scare of 1919–1920 was not a Battat proposes that the “tensions and blip in American history: rather, it was continuities between African American the opening salvo for decades of anti- and white migration novels” call for an communist, counter-subversive activity. “integrated approach” to understanding Within this framework, McCarthyism the 1930s Left and its literary produc- was nothing new under the sun. Further, tion. (69) In Battat’s own terms, however, Little “Red Scares” explores the many fac- the record – both discursive and histori- es of counter-subversion between 1921 cal – reflects a “fundamental divergence and 1946. Anticommunism was imple- in black and white migration narratives.” mented at the federal, state, and munici- (126) Battat consistently deploys this pal levels, often to varying degrees and at strategy of invoking then dismissing a different times. The book shows that the more nuanced critical perspective in fa- boom in activism was a grassroots mat- vour of a kind of cultural idealism that ter, too. Militant religious and secular or- inflates the concepts of integration and ganizations were rabidly anticommunist interracialism. Moreover, given how few and remarkably well-organized, and of- migration texts are included here, it is ten bundled their attacks on communism hard to justify the claims of an interracial within broader battles against the rise of migration canon. What is so promising secularism, the influx of immigrants, or racial and gender equality.

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The thirteen chapters in the volume hold high the banner of free speech, and are organized chronologically and the- begin fighting for checks on federal and matically. They all, to varying degrees, state power. Thus, for Freeberg, anticom- engage with four overarching questions: munist activism faltered because it was (1) What is the relationship between the shown to be biased and undemocratic by first “great” Red Scare and the second one a large swath of Americans. (1946–1954)? Is this a story of continu- Freeberg’s interpretation stands in ity or change over time?; (2) Assuming sharp contrast to that advanced by that anticommunism remained a cen- other scholars in the volume, including tral force throughout the period under Marquette University emeritus historian analysis, who led the pack? Should we Athan Theoharis. In his investigation focus our attention on Congress, the fed- of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, eral government, state governments, lo- Theoharis argues that anticommunist cal governments, private-sector groups, activity was never really scaled back after business interests, labour groups, main- the first Red Scare. Rather, the FBI contin- stream media, or religious organiza- ued monitoring suspected communists. tions?; (3) What were the key arguments In the process, the Bureau “evolved from used against communism, and to what a minor agency having limited influence extent did these arguments resonate with to a powerful agency that profoundly, if at broad sectors of the population?; and (4) times indirectly, affected national policy Did counter-subversive activities suc- and political culture.” (23) Furthermore, cessfully curb the spread of communist the FBI “won,” in the sense that for fear and left-wing radicalism in the United of being discovered, radical leftists hid States between the two world wars? in the shadows. In his contribution, the The arguments offered in answer to path-breaking expert in this field M.J. these questions vary from chapter to Heale comes down somewhere between chapter: there is no unified approach or Freeberg and Theoharis. He argues that overarching consensus, and rarely do au- there was a huge shift in the interwar thors directly engage (and disagree with) years, but that it was mainly operative at one another. For instance, the first two the federal level. Indeed, Heale suggests chapters provide a new framework for that in the 1930s, American Communists understanding the place of the 1920s in “were largely spared harassment” by the US history, but the similarities end there. federal government, just as state and local In Chapter 1, University of Tennessee authorities and private right-wing groups historian Ernest Freeberg argues that the began ramping up their anticommunist receding of the first “great” Red Scare activities: “the federal government,” he was the work of the emergent civil liber- notes, “was a relatively late recruit to the ties movement. For Freeberg, the move- anticommunist cause.” (62) ment initially coalesced around causes In contrast to Freeberg, Heale and such as the continued imprisonment of others assert that the radical left took hundreds of war dissenters after World a real beating in the interwar years. War I. (Among the 1,200 dissenters con- Consider the treatment of supporters of victed during the war was Socialist Party the Spanish Republic (who were often leader Eugene V. Debs who, in 1920, unfairly tarred as 100% communists, as ran for president from behind bars.) investigated by historian Eric Smith), Imprisonment without due process led a or the reaction to consumer advocates large number of Americans – including (such as the League of Women Shoppers, chastened liberals and progressives – to analyzed by University of Iowa professor

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Landon Storrs). In one of the most fasci- a great deal of emphasis on state legis- nating chapters of the volume, Kennesaw latures (the New York state legislature, State University Georgia professor Robbie to be precise), in his investigation of the Lieberman shows how advocates of ra- Rapp-Coudert Committee’s work to root cial equality were more often than not out communists in academia. As anti- branded communists, and hence sum- fdr campaigns gained momentum in marily dismissed by mainstream white the House in the 1930s, Kenneth O’Reilly America. Even universities and sites of investigates how “winning back America” learning were not protected, as Stephen was a key motivation for the founders of Leberstein and Timothy Cain explore in the Dies House Un-American Activities their chapters on American universities Committee (huac), whose creators cast and schools, respectively. All of these the Roosevelt administration as “un- examples suggest the continuity and suc- American.” The charges have an eerie cess of anticommunist activism in the resonance today. interwar years. Given its breadth and depth, Little “Red Authors in the collection also offer a Scares” will be of interests to specialists in variety of answers to the question of who a range of different fields. With appropri- was wagging the dog. For the young but ate scaffolding, it may be put to produc- already quite accomplished Alex Goodall tive use in undergraduate and graduate (author of the ground-breaking Loyalty courses on US history, the history of anti- and Liberty: American Countersubversion communism, and the history of counter- from World War I to the McCarthy Era, subversion since World War I. To be sure, [Champaign: University of Illinois Press, the book does not provide all of the an- 2014]), Congress was ahead of the pack, swers to the questions that it poses, and it though it was isolated and unable to could benefit from a more active attempt unite other anticommunists in com- to situate the United States in a broader mon cause. Rebecca Hill (Kennesaw framework. We get glimmers of the State University) concurs, and shows transnational anticommunist networks how it would take until the late 1930s of which American actors were a part in for Congressional conservatives to gain only a few of the contributions, though momentum again, in the lead-up to the we now know that this international con- Hatch Act. For Chad Pearson (Collin text is crucial if we want to come to a deep College), business interests – in the understanding of the causes and effects form of employer associations like the of American anticommunism. Happily, National Association of Manufacturers, this important issue is one that a num- the US Chamber of Commerce, and the ber of young scholars (including Daniel Southern States Industrial Council – Bessner, Paul Hanebrink, Alex Goodall, were the decisive voices. Leading expert Udi Greenberg, Michele Louro, Jennifer Markku Ruotsila (author of British and Luff, Tony Michels, Kathy Olmsted, and American Anticommunism before the Colleen Woods) are exploring in new and Cold War, [New York: Taylor and Francis, forthcoming work. 2001]), puts labour groups in the driver’s Giuliana Chamedes seat: he provocatively argues that their University of Wisconsin – Madison cooperation with anticommunist sur- veillance activities and their overt an- ticommunist statements strengthened the counter-subversive movement in a big way. Finally, Stephen Leberstein puts

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David Lucander, Winning the War for Crow in northern and mid-western cities. Democracy: The March on Washington mowm organizers would pave the way for Movement, 1941–1946 (Urbana: the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. University of Illinois Press 2014) After stating his case in the intro- duction, Lucander develops it in five In exchange for a presidential ban sections. Chapter 1 covers mowm’s on racial discrimination by employ- formation in 1941. African-American ers producing war matériel for the US college graduates, trade unionists, and federal government and creating a Fair female professionals comprised mowm’s Employment Practices Committee executive staff. Like Randolph, presi- (fepc), African-American labour leader dent of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car A. Philip Randolph cancelled a threat- Porters (bscp), they saw themselves as ened protest rally by Black workers in “reformers.” (3) In dealings with Franklin Washington, DC on the eve of US en- Roosevelt, Randolph collaborated with try into World War II. While eventu- Walter White’s National Association ally killed by Congress, the fepc was for the Advancement of Colored People instrumental in raising Black employ- (naacp). Roosevelt and his advisors ment to six million by 1944. However, held that a march would benefit Axis little is known about Randolph’s short- propaganda, hurt fragile relations with lived March on Washington Movement southern Democrats, and destabilize the (mowm) that fought to secure gainful labour market. First suggested by New employment for Blacks in defence indus- York City mayor Fiorella La Guardia as tries and public services. The latest edi- a compromise, eo 8802 was born out tion of a labour history classic does not of “political calculations, not idealistic refer to mowm. (Melvin Dubofsky and impulses.” (37) The fepc had few pow- Foster Rhea Dulles, Labor in America ers but represented the novel idea that [Wheeling: Harlan Davidson, 2010]) the federal government could regulate Besides an entry in The Encyclopedia of discriminatory employment practices. U.S. Labor and Working-Class History, Leftist reactions to Randolph’s agree- the group attracts little attention. (Eric ment to cancel the march were negative. Arnesen, ed. [London: Routledge, 2007]) The Communist Party-backed National As David Lucander argues, mowm’s Negro Congress denounced Randolph. significance does not solely rest on the (Randolph was a noted anti-communist.) release of Executive Order (eo) 8802. Criticism of Randolph’s clumsy leader- mowm and the fepc were not the prod- ship style mounted within mowm. ucts of legislation drafted by white poli- In Chapter 2, Lucander writes about ticians. mowm emerged from an activist mowm’s growth and relations with pro- Black working-class culture which was gressive groups. To reinforce the idea firmly rooted in the New Deal order and that African Americans must take the which had a lasting social impact. In the lead in asserting racial equality, mowm spirit of Double V campaigns, mowm op- was all Black in membership. While posed both foreign fascism and domes- most members did not share Randolph’s tic racism with “critical patriotism.” (56) socialism, his direct action concepts Unlike W.E.B. Du Bois during World War influenced mowm protests. Although I, Randolph and his associates were not African-American women were key ad- against confrontation. Members of the ministrators and field organizers, there all-Black grassroots movement organized was a “gendered division of labor” at na- protests against various forms of Jim tional headquarters. (63) mowm enjoyed

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support from pacifist A.J. Muste. Large of the St. Louis naacp, many of whose rallies in New York City and Chicago members also belonged to mowm, orga- featured keynote speakers like Mary nized sit-ins in segregated department McLeod Bethune, Adam Clayton Powell, store restaurants; white Fellowship of and Norman Thomas. But as thenaacp Reconciliation activists also partici- was unwilling to work with what it saw pated. In collaboration with the naacp as a potential rival, its ties with mowm chapter at Howard University, mowm weakened. organizer Pauli Murray organized lunch- Chapters 3, 4, and 6 concentrate on St. counter sit-ins at department stores in Louis mowm and the fepc Region IX of- Washington, DC. fice, which covered St. Louis. The city’s Lucander finishes with an assess- Blacks were hard hit by the Depression ment of mowm. Besides the 1963 March and an entrenched Jim Crow system. on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Nearly two million black migrants had its legacy was the desegregation of the gone to St. Louis from the South but were armed forces, the creation of numerous excluded from manufacturing. Led by state-level fepcs, and the creation of fed- charismatic bscp organizer T.D. McNeal, eral affirmative action programs.mowm the mowm St. Louis Unit exemplified opened a new front in the war for democ- how ordinary people put Randolph’s racy: sustained state intervention – albeit ideas into practice. McNeal understood limited – in the work world. The sections the connection between racial and eco- on St. Louis are case studies of working- nomic injustice. He and David Grant, class politics. trained lawyer and former industrial la- Lucander consulted the papers of bourer, gained support from the city’s Randolph, individual mowm organiz- Democratic Party. While these men were ers, the bscp, and the naacp. He also harassed by white supremacists, mowm accessed Black-owned newspapers, oral was respected in Black society. St. Louis history interviews, and Federal Bureau mowm employed organized labour’s of Investigation reports. The appendi- rhetoric and tactics. In three years, there ces have information about mowm’s 26 were hundreds of protests and a rally at branches. Lucander observes that no the municipal auditorium drawing over transcript of the 1941 White House meet- 10,000 people. St. Louis mowm was ex- ing exists. Few mowm documents were posed to political intrigue, as with the preserved due to persistent funding prob- situation at US Cartridge. There,mowm lems and “an intentionally loose mem- wanted to desegregate the firm in line bership policy.” (181) It is understandable with fepc recommendations, but man- why it is difficult to study mowm. agement and a white United Electrical Lucander has mined relevant historiog- local agreed to create an all-Black pro- raphy. His work fits well with recent stud- duction unit segregated from the rest of ies of the “long civil rights movement” and the workforce. While there is no record changes in the New Deal coalition (Andor of a company having a federal contract Skotnes, A New Deal for All? [Durham: revoked for violating eo 8802, mowm un- Duke University Press, 2013]; Paul Frymer, successfully pushed for the establishment Black and Blue [Princeton: Princeton of a permanent fepc as the war drew to University Press, 2008]; Stephen R. Ortiz, a close. Beyond the Bonus March and GI Bill [New Chapter 5 deals with the role mowm York: New York University Press, 2010]). women played in protests to desegre- Lucander speaks to the “working-class gate public utilities. A women’s auxiliary Americanism” thesis.

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There are a few criticisms. Since E.D. and the US National Student Association Nixon was a guiding force behind the (nsa). By the time the cia formed in 1947, 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott, I was anticommunist organizers, associated curious about his mowm-related activi- with a variety of state and private forms ties. What place did the Port Chicago of covert action, were already entrenched controversy have in mowm’s opposition in the movement that formed the nsa. to segregation in the armed forces? What The key strengths of Paget’s work are was the corporate community’s thinking her detailed description of select mo- about mowm protests? A minor mistake ments of covert action and her analy- is that Chapter 6 opens with the claim sis of how the nsa came about, how it that V-J Day took place in 1944. became involved internationally, and Winning the War for Democracy is how the nsa-cia relationship and ob- a welcome alternative to the “Greatest jectives changed over time. The main Generation” narrative. In light of Occupy body of Paget’s text describes the inter- Wall Street and Black Lives Matter, national activities of the “nsa-cia” in the Winning the War for Democracy is a International Student Conference (isc) noteworthy challenge to the still popu- and its Coordinating Secretariat (cosec), larly-held notion that African-American and how the global revolutionary poten- labour played a subsidiary role in strug- tial of the Soviet-influenced International gles for civil rights. Union of Students (ius) was undermined. Anthony B. Newkirk Paget presents several case studies involv- Philander Smith College ing particular national student organiza- tions. With a few exceptions, such as the case of Sweden, Paget seems mainly con- Karen M. Paget, Patriotic Betrayal: The cerned with covert operations in “devel- Inside Story of the cia’s Secret Campaign oping” nations. She has little to say about to Enroll American Students in the covert operations in Western nations or Crusade Against Communism (New with the cia’s relation (or not) with these Haven: Yale University Press 2015) nation’s own intelligence operations. Around 1955, cia objectives shifted With a focus on the Central from breaking the ius monopoly on in- Intelligence Agency (cia), Paget reviews ternational student organizing to keeping the forms of covert action in US national the isc united, working against ius-isc and in international student organiza- unification (especially strong among tions from 1941 to the late 1960s. Paget’s African, Asian, and Latin American stu- book is a truly remarkable story of be- dent leaders) and gathering intelligence trayal, manipulation, and deceit orches- on student leaders (future national lead- trated by the US government on its own ers). Her description of the balancing act citizens and internationally. Her work between colonized and colonizing na- is the latest – and most sophisticated to tions in the isc and racism among nsa date – contribution to the small litera- delegates, made the book irresistible. The ture on cia meddling in student politics last third of the book describes the covert internationally. action that occurred after the revelations The first few chapters are dedicated to of cia involvement. important “from above” student organiz- Paget admits her work is “American- ing that Paget effectively argues is key to centric since the nsa is the prism understanding how later events unfolded, through which this history is told” (ix) especially the relation between the cia and that she was a “witting” (4) nsa-cia

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insider. In spite of these important ad- the National Federation of Canadian missions, she never reflects on how this University Students (nfcus) is mysteri- subjective location affects her telling of ous given Canada’s geopolitical location the nsa-cia history, choosing instead an to the US and the fact that the nfcus apparent objective “God’s-eye” perspec- and nsa were in regular communication. tive in her narrative. She does not really Could it be that, typical of American re- say much about her and her husband’s searchers on student politics, she simply role in the nsa-cia. On one hand, Paget’s ignores Canada? Alternatively, is it that insider status appears to provide us with the information might be too sensitive? a unique view of the cia’s covert action In spite of the absence of any nsa-cia- – her prior knowledge and membership nfcus details, nevertheless, her work in the exclusive club of the “witting” no offers us opportunity to reflect on the re- doubt facilitated her access to former lationship between various forms of co- nsa-cia participants. On the other hand, vert action and student organizations in readers have to ask themselves, how does the Canadian context, both historically being an American and a former nsa-cia and contemporaneously. The most nota- participant affect the knowledge gener- ble example is Paget’s outing of “witting” ated and presented? While Paget’s work is nsa-cia operatives – who I found attend- central to uncovering many truths, given ing nfcus meetings and were no doubt the history of lies and smokescreens of on the look-out for opportunities to have the nsa-cia, how can we trust Paget’s nfcus act on behalf of the US govern- account? The tendency to leave these ment’s Cold War goals. Another insight methodological and ultimately ethical into the Canadian situation is Paget’s concerns unaddressed reduces the cred- broad view of covert action in student ibility of her otherwise extraordinary organizations: government intelligence story. agencies are not the only institutions I appreciate Paget’s admission of involved in covert action. University ad- American-centrism. However, she fails to ministrators and “professional youth or- consider how an American-centric per- ganizers” such as those connected to the spective hinders her narrative of the nsa- Catholic Church and youth wings of the cia actions. For example, Paget seems to dominant political parties for example decontextualize naively nsa-cia actions have all engaged in covert action on stu- in relationship to the military-force side dent organization in Canada. of Pax Americana. Additionally, her fo- Another example of how Paget sheds cus on the cia in the nsa draws attention light on the Canadian situation in her de- away from the nsa’s domestic achieve- scription of Eleanor Roosevelt’s wartime ments. Moreover, Paget ignores other student meetings where various anticom- interconnected spheres of youth orga- munist covert agencies converged. One of nization such as the World Assembly of the anticommunist techniques student Youth, the World Youth Festivals, and the leaders learned at these conferences was history of the ius. As well, she overlooks the “student as such” policy, whereby any the December 1949 “London Conference” future US national student organization which prefigured the isc meeting and would “focus [only] on ‘student’ (that is, was likely linked to a British covert ac- educational) issues.” (17) This is just what tion. Paget’s account is hardly the “full happened in the nsa and the isc and was story” as claimed on the book’s front flap. one of the key demands placed on the ius From a Canadian-centric point of (before the isc was formed) by nfcus view, Paget’s omission of reference to and nsa in order for them to join. Calls

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for “student as such” policies and other Sekou M. Franklin, After the Rebellion: such politically stifling policies were, Black Youth, Social Movement Activism, from time-to-time, a divisive postwar fea- and the Post-Civil Rights Generation ture in Canadian student organizations. (New York: New York University Press Currently, it is a key policy of several po- 2014) litically conservative, centrally controlled, provincial and national student organiza- As President Obama leaves office while tions. These organizations appeared in Black youth remain open targets for those the late 1980s and early 1990s to openly paid to protect and serve all citizens, this undermine the Canadian Federation of book is timely. Political scientist Sekou Students and its Québec allies that posed Franklin focuses on strategies and move- a threat to Canadian political and eco- ment-building among those he calls the nomic elites. Given the counter-subver- “post-civil rights generation” of young sive origins of “student as such” policy, people: those he describes as coming of it is probable that wherever such policy age after the mass movements. (16) These is seen, covert action is active. It stands young people’s post-Jim Crow experienc- to reason that any national or provincial es shape their realities and the backlash student organization that threatens elite against those rights previous generations interests is going to be subject to forms of fought for. The goal of the book, therefore, covert action “from above.” is to assess the changes, limitations, and I appreciate the enormity of Paget’s opportunities for youth-driven mobiliza- project and the challenge of forming a tion and activism. In these assessments, single narrative on the “vast spider plant” Franklin successfully engages with social of covert action. (6) In spite of Paget’s movement theories and the subtle differ- nsa-cia-centric lens, her work will clear- ences between transformational move- ly be useful to those wanting to “deepen ments (long-term, more high risk, with the understanding of how the American a more sustained impact) and protest operation influenced [or not] interna- movements (short-term, restricted, with tional student politics”: one of Paget’s key limited mobilization opportunities). hopes. (ix) Her book should have broad Franklin carefully puts his analysis of appeal to Cold War historians and “spy the post-civil rights activism in histori- culture” junkies alike, to those concerned cal context – spending considerable time with imperialism, neocolonialization, plotting youth radicalism from the 1930s youth-state relations, as well, wartime to the 1980s, highlighting the ebbs and and postwar political youth cultures. I flows, the cyclical patterns of movement look forward to reading accounts, stimu- activity, and change over time. He also lated by Paget’s work, from other national situates these moments of activism with- points of view. in the political contexts of their time, Nigel Roy Moses plotting the interplay between national St. John’s, NL politics and political mood swings, with the subsequent strategic organizing in response: from the rise of Nazi Germany and its effect on the US Communist Party in the 1930s and 1940s to the national swing to the right from the late 1960s. He clearly demonstrates why history matters and how movements emerge not out of a vacuum, but from the work and legacies

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of generations before. He provides a clear particularly for young activists currently introduction outlining his methodology on the frontlines from the streets to with- and choices before launching into rich in the academy. multi-disciplinary explorations of five Franklin focuses on strategies and case studies. Starting with the Southern movement-building, keeping in sharp Negro Youth Congress (snyc) in the pre- focus the intersectionalities between Cold War era, Franklin considers the movements, individuals, generations, post-World War II Student Nonviolent and goals. One of the major threads upon Coordinating Committee (sncc), one which Franklin pulls throughout the of the better-known youth-driven activ- book are the intersectional approaches ist groups in US history, alongside the by activists to incorporate multiple in- lesser-known Student Organization for terests that support each other – like Black Unity (sobu). As the mass move- race and economic justice, and labour ments disintegrated, activism continued, union organizing – a persistent thread albeit without the driving momentum throughout the 20th century as the sta- of the 1950s and 1960s. From the di- tus of Black people hinged on the axis vestment movements to the New Haven of race and class. As such, he connects youth movements, the Black Student local to nation; across generations; in- Leadership Network (bsln), the afl- tra and intergroup dynamics; college cio’s Union Summer program, and the campuses to non-campus coalitions. juvenile justice reform movement (jjrm) The result is a complex web of organiza- initiatives, Franklin explains how young tions, people, and campaigns that some- people made use of the tools available to times muddy the prose yet illustrates the them and tapped into the legacies of ear- messiness of movement-building and lier campaigning strategies. movement-organizing. His work to solidify the rich and un- He reiterates what many historians derstudied histories of youthful Black ac- have done in the past twenty years to tivism contextualizes the movements for complicate the mid-century Black mass change by more recent generations after of movements, unraveling the simplistic the mid-1970s to 2006. Underscoring the notions of the Black freedom struggle that historical existence of vibrant pockets of principally pivots around a few events or persistent activism and what he terms people, and Franklin adds to these ex- “movement infrastructure” and “insti- isting narratives the more recent Black tutional leveraging,” Franklin acknowl- youth movements that pierce the 21st cen- edges the labyrinth of rhetorical and legal tury landscape, like the hiv/aids aware- obstacles that hinder the development of ness campaigns and more recent labour transformative movements and move- campaigns. Case studies by design place ment-building. Franklin situates 21st artificial spotlights that can often throw century radicalism and activism in the shadows on many other equally important context of historical work and the cur- examples, or exaggerate the effects of one rent discourses that mask and devalue, or over another, or separate tightly interlock- as he puts it “curtail[s] transformational ing campaigns and coalitions, but by creat- movement initiatives that use extra- ing a multi-faceted theoretical framework systemic pressures,” the continuously in his first chapter to map out the many evolving work in which young people are ways in which movements existed and ex- engaged. (11) Thus the book serves to ist, Franklin plots sheer activist resilience bridge the knowledge of the mass move- as political and social landscapes shifted ment years to the present, imperative in the post-civil rights era.

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What Franklin lacks in storytelling oral history interviews and conducted and narrative (the investments in people’s over 80 of his own. He also reconstructed life stories and choices that can also suc- records of the Black Student Leadership cessfully inform subsequent generations) Network/Black Community Crusade for he makes up for in the detail of his case Children, and the Juvenile Justice Reform studies, rendering visible the multilayers Movement as well as mining the rich ar- of movement infrastructures, genera- chival repositories at Howard University tions, and organizations at those specific and the Library of Congress. In all these moments. This approach complicates the ways, this book is useful to social move- discourse about disengaged and apathetic ment scholars across disciplines as well youth by showcasing examples of bravery, as current activists in need of historical tenacity, and wisdom beyond their years markers and anchors for their ongoing in the face of oftentimes deadly resis- campaigns. tance to their claims for equal treatment Françoise N. Hamlin and social justice. While it is wise to keep Brown University in mind the relatively small numbers of foot soldiers at any given time (even dur- ing sncc’s heyday), the act of remember- Paul Le Blanc and Michael D. Yates, ing, documenting, and analyzing locates A Freedom Budget for All Americans: sources of resilience, agency, and survival Recapturing the Promise of the Civil throughout the Black experiences in the Rights Movement in the Struggle for United States is invaluable. As a minor Economic Justice Today (New York: tangent, the book could be strengthened Monthly Review Press 2013) further by a more sustained gendered analysis beyond acknowledging women’s A little known document from the leadership to insert more layers that re- mid-1960s provided the labour-left flect experiences, choices, and outcomes with a blueprint for realizing the most among activists. For instance, how did radical promises of the civil rights young women navigate through their re- movement. Reflecting the ideas of its so- spective movements (from snyc into the cialist authors, the “Freedom Budget for 21st century) differently than young men, All Americans” promised the elimination and did these tactics and strategies shift of poverty by ending unemployment and along the timeline? providing increased access to education, While Franklin clearly lauds these housing, and healthcare. Paul Le Blanc youthful movements, he maintains a and Michael D. Yates trace the long his- critical eye to the internal weaknesses, tory of the “Freedom Budget” and argue disagreements, and turmoil that divided for its continuing relevance in an era of and diluted their effectiveness. Despite austerity politics, growing inequality, and all the forces vying for their destruction, rising social unrest. young people managed to accomplish Activists and scholars, many of whom what they did. Although Franklin may had worked together to organize the not adequately prove how influential 1963 March on Washington for Jobs certain groups were to later generations and Freedom, developed the Freedom – a metric hard to acquire across time Budget, which called for $180 billion in – the mere extensive historical trajec- federal spending over ten years and went tory should cement the activist lineage far beyond Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great for the next generations. To access this Society programs in addressing the root information, Franklin utilized existing causes of poverty. Following the passage

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of the landmark civil rights bills of the for future struggles around an undefiled mid-1960s, supporters of the “Freedom vision.” (175) Budget” viewed it as a logical move in to What might be salvaged of an ob- the realm of economic justice. Martin scure left-wing budget proposal from the Luther King, Jr., the budget’s highest- 1960s? Yates and Le Blanc believe quite profile advocate, heralded it as “a kind of a bit. They acknowledge that the political Marshall Plan for the disadvantaged.” (92) challenges are even more daunting than The budget was a collaborative proj- they were in the 1960s, an era of glorious ect, but Brotherhood of Sleeping Car hope and possibility by comparison. But Porters President A. Philip Randolph and they argue that a new “Freedom Budget” his close associate Bayard Rustin spear- is even more urgent today than it was fif- headed the work. The great strength of ty years ago. By most key indicators, the the 84-page “Freedom Budget” was that conditions for the poor and working class it called for a radical reordering of the na- have worsened and economic disparities tion’s priorities based on realistic budget are growing. A new budget is still possi- projections. Its great weakness was that it ble, they suggest, though it would require was a non-starter politically. The budget a political willingness coupled with deep gained little traction due to the increas- cuts in military spending and a stronger ingly conservative political climate and a commitment to progressive taxation. preoccupation – among politicians and The authors decline to detail a political left-activists alike – with Vietnam that strategy for moving such a proposal, but pushed domestic issues to the margins. It drawing on the history of the “Freedom enjoyed a slight revival during the 1968 Budget” they provide suggestions for Memphis sanitation workers strike and activists who might endeavor the cam- the Poor People’s Campaign, but it died paign. They urge activists to frame their shortly thereafter. Rustin, Randolph, and work within the context of broad ideo- their acolytes share some of the blame for logical goals that express fundamental the budget’s political failure, according human values. That deep ideological and to Le Blanc and Yates. In the mid-1960s, educational work needs to be coupled this small but influential group of social- with mass protest and organization out ists sought to curry favour with leaders of which “the political consciousness and of the afl-cio and liberals within the broad social forces may develop that can Democratic Party. Rustin urged radical actually put a New Freedom Budget on activists to shift their focus from pro- the agenda.” (240) test to politics in order to effect change This book was written against the from within liberal institutions. This backdrop of the Occupy Wall Street pro- shift, however, undermined the budget tests of 2011–2012 and was intended to proponents’ ability to launch the sort of provide activists with some history and grassroots movement that was necessary strategic tools for building a sustainable to its success. Even had it enjoyed a popu- movement around issues of social justice. lar base of support, however, Le Blanc While too late for Occupy, A Freedom and Yates are guarded about its chance Budget should be required reading for of success. “Perhaps its only hope was to Black Lives Matter activists, labour lead- be associated with the kind of radical and ers, and others dedicated to the causes of radicalizing struggle that King was wag- Black freedom and economic justice. ing at the end of his life,” they conclude. Kerry Taylor “In such a context, its defeat might have The Citadel provided, as did King’s defeat, inspiration

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Gregg Shotwell, Autoworkers Under the of a bubble gum machine…. Balloons Gun: A Shop-Floor View of the End of the got in my eyes and several of my indus- American Dream (Chicago: Haymarket trial brothers were snorting helium and Press 2011) speaking in tongues.” (46–47) His mock conversation with a representative on Autoworkers Under the Gun, Gregg Delphi’s Ethics Line may elicit hearty Shotwell’s brilliant book-length compen- laughter. (144–146) Yet Shotwell aims for dium of his shop-floor newsletter entitled and delivers far more than laughs. Close Live Bait & Ammo, conveys sharp wit, readings of labour contracts and the poignant and prescient insights, unapol- business press equip Shotwell to dispel ogetic indignation, occasionally earthy inflated claims from business leaders and humour, and yet so much more. An auto- journalists about “legacy costs” in auto- worker and United Auto Workers (uaw) workers’ wages and health care benefits. member in Michigan for thirty years, (122) His well-informed perspectives in- Shotwell’s newsletter series spread far voke labour history to compare produc- beyond the factory walls via the Internet, tion quality standards to workers’ efforts spurring other uaw members to form the a century earlier to maintain the quality Soldiers of Solidarity (sos) protest move- and prices of kosher products, terming ment against concessions and corpo- each a “living agreement” that workers rate bankruptcies. Reading his missives themselves uphold. (61) makes it easy to see why Shotwell galva- Shotwell’s “Strike Back” from January nized fellow union members to action. A 2001 blazes like a cannonball across the superb scribe with a keen eye for detail corporate and labour-relations bows with and a gift for turning phrases into rhe- its fervent call for workers’ power and torical daggers, Shotwell used his news- control, reminiscent in fury and scope letters to catalogue, in amazing detail, of how Allen Ginsberg’s Howl exploded how parts manufacturer Delphi spun off onto the postwar cultural horizon almost from General Motors in robust shape but a half-century earlier. Shotwell’s plea for rapidly descended into debt and bank- widespread resistance to social indigni- ruptcy. More importantly, he anticipated ties and economic insecurity emerges the decimation of the formerly solid con- most forcefully in his poem, “Strike tractual scaffolding of wages, benefits, back”: “Strike back because your broth- and work rules, and the inevitably devas- ers and sisters are laid off. Strike back be- tating blowback this had on his cowork- cause you hate the bastards. Strike back ers – two-tier wages for new employees, to redeem your dignity. Strike back for increased pension and health-care con- full employment. Strike back to abolish tributions, layoffs, and the concomitant inequality. Strike back because your job upheavals to people’s lives and communi- is a bore and your boss is an ass. Strike ties. In the process, he weaves a narrative back for freedom… Strike back because that is alternatively laugh-out-loud funny, Medicare doesn’t cover prescriptions for infuriating, and heart-rending. your mother... Strike back.” (31–32) At his most humorous, Shotwell Strong research and a laser-like focus combines the Gonzo journalistic style make Shotwell a formidable opponent for of Hunter S. Thompson with the shop- company and union alike, both of which floor perspectives of Rivethead author he roundly criticizes. He adroitly pivots Ben Hamper. Describing the density of between skewering Delphi for its “stock- helium balloons at a union convention, piled debt in the US” and the “swindle” of he writes, “I felt like I was in the bottom its “corporate restructuring” abroad, and

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his repeated contention that uaw was deindustrialization, as well as for workers complicit in allowing Delphi to shed its seeking to find and hone their own voices obligations to the former General Motors through the examples of Shotwell and employees. (159–166, 69) One can trace a others willing to “strike back” against the deepening seriousness in Shotwell’s tone attacks on their livelihoods and integrity. as the book – whose newsletter entries It is masterful, a must-read. proceed chronologically – careens to- Jason Kozlowski ward its ominous, painful end for Delphi West Virginia University employees. His calls for workers’ resis- tance grow from work-to-rule tactics to forming a mass labour “revolt” akin to Stephen Tuck, The Night Malcolm the civil rights movement to save the X Spoke at the Oxford Union: A “next generation of workers.” (211) Here Transatlantic Story of Antiracist Protest one must ask why, despite the spread of (Berkeley: University of California Press sos, acts of workplace solidarity, and 2014) concerted legal actions opposing Delphi’s bankruptcy, more workers did not re- Readers should not take the title spond to Shotwell’s pleas. He squarely of Stephen Tuck’s new book too liter- blames Delphi for spurring fear among ally. The Night Malcolm X Spoke at the its workforce and the uaw for failing Oxford Union is not a microhistory of to resist. However, Shotwell’s eloquent the evening of 3 December 1964, when epilogue might explain more and read Malcolm X graced the British institu- differently with an assessment of the pos- tion to debate the notion, “Extremism sibilities and limitations of work-to-rule in defence of liberty is no vice, and mod- campaigns, a distinguishing between job eration in the pursuit of vice is no vir- and class consciousness, and perhaps a tue.” Nor is it a Rashomon-like tale that fuller examination of how information compares different recollections of the through mass media – which he utilizes debate that X and the Scottish national- and criticizes so well – shapes working- ist Hugh MacDiarmid lost to the liberal class perspectives. Conservative MP Humphry Berkeley and Shotwell serves as an articulate voice the Labour peer Lord Stoneham by 228 of a generation of workers watching, votes to 137. It is more similar in tone criticizing, and resisting the dismantling and content to articles in the (neo)liberal of the structures and cultures that union media that have marked the anniversary solidarity, through fierce struggles, built of X’s speech and assassination by asking and expanded in the postwar period. He pundits and historians to provide pithy raises important questions about the di- accounts of race relations in Britain and minished terms, conditions, possibilities, the United States during the past fifty and consequences of industrial labour for years. As a result, the book serves as an future generations, arguing that two-tier instructive tale for anyone who wishes to systems render “second-class citizenship” translate historical articles to a broader through generational discrimination. public, communicate radical campaigns (140–141) Thus, Autoworkers Under the for human rights in the 1960s to contem- Gun eloquently refutes the myth of the porary audiences consumed by social me- “selfish unionized worker” so prevalent in dia activism and the clichés of journalists the US. This book has great value for in- and public relations agencies, and speak structors covering labour relations, work- to audiences in the US and UK that are ing-class life and intellectualism, and not only divided by a common language

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but different understandings of race and narrative will no doubt uncover other racialization. moments in which the language and style Although it draws on some of the of Tuck’s tale marks a significant depar- Malcolm X Papers at the Schomburg ture from historical accounts that do not Center for Research in Black Culture, eschew social and cultural theory. Two Chapter 1 is primarily concerned with examples, however, deserve particular at- synthesizing secondary material about tention. In the first, Tuck describes white Malcolm X’s life of travel and discov- British students from economically dis- ery between 1925 and 1964. It may advantaged backgrounds as “lower class” not be “breathless and sensational.” rather than connect them to a long his- (21) However, its descriptive asides tory of working-class radicalism. (63) In about Marcus Garvey (a “charismatic the second, Tuck repeatedly notes that Jamaican”), and X’s sensitivity to the Malcolm “may well have” read a particu- “marketing game” and “propaganda” (13, lar newspaper article that the historian 39, 42) bear as much resemblance to the has found illustrative. (73, 83) Such pas- series of prints and paintings of X de- sages suggest that the historian may not veloped by Glen Ligon in 2000 (which have found archival material relating to drew on Afrocentric colouring books of X’s interpretation of written documents. the 1970s and the erratic styles and un- They may also be used to note the book’s worried markings of school children), (over)reliance on journalistic articles, as Manning Marable’s Pulitzer Prize- and concomitant lack of engagement winning Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention with music, art, and film that influenced (London: Penguin, 2011). the politics and poetics of the African After providing a CliffsNotes compan- American icon. ion to X’s biography in Chapter 1, Chapter Chapter 3 marks a dramatic shift in 2 paints a picture of Oxford, Britain, focus as it provides detailed discussion and race that moves between 1870 and of organizations and groups that cam- 1964. This means a certain imbalance paigned against racial discrimination in to the book, since it does not provide an Oxford between 1956 and 1964. It also equivalent emphasis on 19th century an- shares similar rhetorical strategies to lib- tecedents to X’s visit to Oxford, such as erals in the 1950s and 60s who wished to the UK tours of Frederick Douglass and distance themselves from so-called dan- Ida Wells-Barnett, which were critical gerous militants. For while Tuck was will- components of crusades against slavery, ing to describe British tabloids such as the lynching, and anti-Black racism. In ad- Daily Mirror as “left-leaning” in Chapter dition, the chapter discusses anti-Black 2, (75) Chapter 3 considers newspapers riots in British ports in the early 20th such as the Daily Mail and Daily Express century with phrases such as “Tensions to be normative and national rather than rose. Violence followed.” (57) It does not right-leaning or ideological. analyse the rhetoric about the protection Chapter 4 is devoted to the night of white jobs and women in relation to X spoke at the Oxford Union, while transdisciplinary work about the fears Chapter 5 considers X, Oxford, and a of miscegenation. Nor does it connect racial Atlantic between 1964 and 1968. such phobias about mixture and mixing The chapters not only adapt material to X’s diatribes against so-called “mon- previously published in Tuck’s 2013 ar- grel-complexioned children” created by ticle on transatlantic history in the American slavery. Historians of labour American Historical Review (“Malcolm who scratch the surface of this historical X’s Visit to Oxford University: U.S. Civil

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Rights, Black Britain, and the Special is not only revealing about what it says Relationship on Race”), but offer fur- about the marketing of humanities re- ther evidence for an elegiac description search as new, accessible, and transatlan- of British-American opposition to ra- tic. It is also notable for what it does not cial discrimination – a liberal hour that say about earlier work in the field of Black achieved a shifting of the racial architec- Atlantic Studies that creatively adapted ture with reform measures in relation to the insights of critical theory about trav- health, education, housing, immigration, el, media, and culture in order to analyse transportation, and antipoverty legisla- the transnational, transdisciplinary, and tion between 1963 and 1966 in the United transracial nature of anti-racist protest. States, and between 1966 and 1968 in the Daniel McNeil United Kingdom. Carleton University This is not to say that Tuck ignores X’s impact on radical humanists who espoused Black Power. However, his epi- Chantal Norrgard, Seasons of Change: logue only devotes two pages to British Labor, Treaty Rights and Ojibwe activists and artists who were inspired Nationhood (Chapel Hill: University of by X in order to assert the importance of North Carolina Press 2014) radical collective identities in the 1970s, and quickly scrolls forward to Oxford Chantal Norrgard’s monograph students in a digital age who adapt the Seasons of Change: Labor, Treaty Rights, creeds, deeds and iconography of global and Ojibwe Nationhood is a small, well- African Americans who insist, “I, Too, researched book that promises much. Am Harvard”. Such emphases are un- The author’s central purpose is to argue derstandable since Tuck is a Professor that Ojibwe participation in the broader of Modern History at the University of economy was an expression of their sov- Oxford, Director of the Oxford Research ereignty and numerous acts of resistance Centre in the Humanities, and Visiting against federal assimilation policies. Fellow at the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Ojibwe pursued economic integration not African and African American Studies at because they had similar material needs Harvard University, who is able to draw as other people, but because they want- on a network of powerful entrepreneur- ed to maintain sovereignty. Moreover, ial intellectuals (such as Henry Louis Seasons of Change aims to “move in the Gates Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University new direction of indigenizing American Professor and Director of the Hutchins labor history.” (9) The study is devoted Center for African and African American to the Ojibwe south of Lake Superior Research at Harvard University, who (Minnesota and Wisconsin). Five sub- wrote the book’s foreword). Yet if the fi- stantive chapters organize the material nal pages of The Night Malcolm X Spoke thematically or topically: berrying, com- at the Oxford Union reframe X as an en- mercialized hunting and trapping, fish- trepreneurial subject who was attracted ing, work in the lumber industry, and by the power and prestige of an elite uni- tourist colonialism. A helpful appendix versity, it also bears repetition that Tuck reproduces the treaties of 1837, 1842, and is mindful of X’s repeated dismissal of 1854. those “so-called intellectuals” and has One of the most interesting chapters constructed a book that displays little concerns berrying and gathering ac- interest in what he terms the “so-called tivities. This region was well endowed Black Atlantic.” (7) In short, his narrative with wild rice beds, berry patches, and

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maple sugar trees, and the Ojibwe were labour and work is justified as an under- long familiar with these resources. Not taking to negate a social-science harm. only does this chapter demonstrate new Those academics that perpetrated an market possibilities with colonization, ignorance of Ojibwe economic agency, but also highlights a fond social dimen- thereby purposely promoting settler co- sion created by commercial gathering lonialism/federal Indian policy, are not activities. Life at seasonal work sites was named. How commingling work and la- recalled as happy times. The material bour will actually mitigate this problem here demonstrates strongly the role of or how Ojibwe historical experiences will women (and children) in the production resonate with the broader labour history and marketing of these natural products. seem nebulous. While historical accounts Important content of the second chapter that exclude all but the industrial prole- explains the violation of treaty rights by tariat have not been an accommodating state authorities and Norrgard provides approach for understanding capitalism, a legal history of several court cases. The Norrgard’s imprecise definitions means third chapter concerns commercial fish- that in other circumstances, farmers or ing on Lake Superior and here Norrgard businessmen would fit aptly. Traders on is attentive to the larger structures (i.e., Wall Street work hard, but does that re- monopoly) and treaty rights violations. ally write them into the American labour A chapter on Ojibwe participation in the movement? Her conclusions rest on this lumbering industry provides information bit of logic. on reservation logging, the work process- Occasionally, terms such as “capitalist es of this sector, and engagement is con- market” or “commercialization” are sum- ceived as the exercise of creative agency moned (e.g., 7, 26, 63, 64), but essentially, to challenge assumptions about the dis- the study eschews economic concepts. In appearing Indian and assimilation. The the absence of precise and appropriate ter- final substantive chapter relates how the minology, how can comparative interpre- Ojibwe made tourist colonialism serve tations about labour history be reached? their own ends. Iron mining, a mainstay (For example, not all markets are capital- for the region, is noticeably absent. ist markets.) The allotment policy is refer- More rigour and less ambiguity would enced and necessarily so, but the author have produced a better monograph. assumes that this rather convoluted pro- Norrgard’s ascribed meaning for labour cess of dispossession of reservation lands is central to her purpose and argument: is on the tip of every historians tongue; “I apply both terms “work” and “labor” to and regrettably, the scholarship on this American Indian economic relations as a topic is never acknowledged. Norrgard way of asserting an indigenous presence delineates the goal of tribal sovereignty in American labor history” but ultimately as “cultural, social, and political auton- she is out to dismantle “Euro-American omy.” (3) In a monograph that professes definitions of labor and work that have economic concerns, her construct of been deliberately deployed to restrict and sovereignty, absent an economic aspect, undercut Native people’s economic agen- seems designed to shape a conclusion by cy and to further the initiatives of settler omission. Expedient interpretations flow colonialism and federal Indian policy.” easily from vague terminology. (9) Necessarily, work and labour are used Overall, the study suffers from a lack of “interchangeably to describe strategies periodization; when it begins and when Native peoples have developed to make a it ends is not clear. If the prior situation living.” (9) This conceptual conflation of of the Ojibwe is not explained, then the

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reader cannot know what transforma- there is no need to measure change; an- tions may have occurred. Congruent with ecdotes will suffice. If sovereignty was ambiguous terminology are problems of the explicit objective of the Ojibwe, did coherent reasoning. To illustrate: “The participation in evolving regional econo- treaties initiated the growth of indus- mies (selling labour and products) really tries.” (7) While it is vital to understand enhance their sovereignty? In the final treaties, treaties could not initiate. Access analysis, were they more sovereign at the and new property rights followed, to be end of this period than at its beginning? sure, but in these circumstances, only the The author’s central claim that the investment of capital initiates industrial Ojibwe pursued engagement in order growth. (In other words, the “lawful” ces- to fulfill a sovereignty agenda lacks ad- sion of Indian lands is a necessary, but equate evidence and convincing reason- not a sufficient condition, for economic ing. It is a claim repetitiously advanced by growth.) Ambiguous terminology com- assertion, a political mantra. Interviews plements inexact reasoning, and as such, with James La Frenier, Paul Buffalo, and detracts from the extensive research. Daniel Morrison provide no support for Apart from pointing out that Ojibwe the sovereignty project. (104–106) By lumberjacks had once owned the land indicating a basic desire to make a liv- that they were logging, no specific find- ing, the few indications from the Ojibwe ings contribute to an indigenized labour about their motives amount to contrary history. Rather than rationalize the use evidence. (e.g., 31, 39, 90, 96) Similarly, of work to replace labour, the relations George Starr chose the lumber industry of economic life can be conceptualized over the hardship of fishing and trapping; more precisely (e.g., paternalism, inde- and in his words: “My home at that time pendent production, use value, exchange was a wigwam, but as I was employed value, property, etc.). The desire to re- in Ashland in the sawmills, I purchased late meaningfully Ojibwe experiences to lumber through my labor and built a American labour history should also be house in the mill town.” (97) The poten- pursued by locating them, through a pre- tial for trade and wage employment to cise terminology, in economic history. generate greater consumption possibili- The empirical reconstruction of Ojibwe ties does not fit with the myopic sover- economic life in the late 19th and early eignty/resistance construct. 20th centuries, set within the context of Frank J. Tough changes to the regional economy, is the University of Alberta strength of this study. This monograph will be appreciated by the communities concerned, since Norrgard brings much Isabel Altamirano-Jiménez, Indigenous textured detail to their history. Similarly, Encounters with Neoliberalism: Place, through a discussion of the exercise of Women, and the Environment in Canada treaty rights she links directly the his- and Mexico (Vancouver: University of torical and contemporary Ojibwe com- British Columbia Press 2013) munities (e.g., 81–82). Often Norrgard is careful to note some real limits of inte- On 1 January 1994 five cities in the gration, yet external forces (e.g., markets, state of Chiapas in southern Mexico decision-makers) raise no fundamental woke up to find that men and women challenges to the agency explanation or from the Zapatista National Liberation impinge upon the sovereignty project. If Army (ezln) had taken charge. The date terms are weakly operationalized, then of this uprising was hardly coincidental,

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designed rather to correspond with the situating the role of governments within day on which the North American Free indigenous histories. Her central focus Trade Agreement (nafta) came into ef- here is how indigeneity is produced, ar- fect, a neoliberal trade policy they be- guing that the historical comparative lieved would economically disenfranchise analysis demonstrates the process by them. A largely peasant-based movement which colonial structures and modes of comprised of Mayan indigenous commu- governance have produced the roots of nities, the Zapatistas’ demands centred gendered indigenous material inequi- upon indigenous rights of dignity, jus- ties, displacement, and containment. As tice, and land. While this uprising took a contested field of governance, indige- Mexico and the world by surprise, the neity is strongly linked to these colonial presence of women at the highest level of formations. command within the Zapatista organiza- At the centre of her analysis is the con- tion was even more striking. While the nection between the colonial experiences Zapatista movement has gained a global of indigenous communities and the con- reputation, unbeknownst to many a wide temporary neoliberal challenges. The au- variety of indigenous responses to neo- thor tests her theories through four case liberal policies have emerged in the past studies, two from Canada and two from several decades. Mexico, the two weaker parties within In her path-breaking work Indigenous nafta, in order to highlight the differ- Encounters with Neoliberalism, Isabel ent forms of dispossession, exploitation, Altamirano-Jiménez explores the and othering of indigenous communi- Zapatista and three other encounters be- ties, as well as spatially and economi- tween indigenous or aboriginal commu- cally distinctive colonial and neocolonial nities and neoliberalism, highlighting the projects. In Canada, aboriginal engage- complex relationships between the global ment with neoliberalism in the north- market, colonialism, and gender. Within ern Arctic region of Nunavut is now at an ambitious set of goals, Altamirano- the centre of the government’s attempt Jiménez demonstrates how indigeneity to a timeless claim of sovereignty to the is shaped by colonial structures, by eco- territory while the Nisga’a in British nomic, social, and political interests, and Columbia have legalized private prop- by gendered senses of place all of which erty. Unlike other aboriginal groups, the operate on different scales and make cer- Nisga’a have engaged with the capitalist tain political visions (im)possible. She market and wage economy which has pays particular attention to the roles of been crucial to their survival as a people. gender and women within the broader In Mexico, Altamirano-Jiménez analyzes global processes of environmentalism, the Zapatista uprising, an indigenous led indigeneity, and neoliberalism. movement for self-government, a conflict The book is structured in a fairly which continues to unfold. In the state of straight forward manner. The first two Oaxaca, indigenous communities are in chapters outline the theoretical founda- conflict with the government over natu- tions Altamirano-Jiménez employs in ral resource management. In all cases, the the four case studies. The author defines author notes community strategies to en- many critical terms including neoliber- gage with neoliberal reforms are judged alism and neoliberalization, as well as by preconceived criteria of outsiders. differentiations between types of colo- Critical to Altamirano-Jiménez’s anal- nizers, primarily between settler and ex- ysis is her distinction between settler and tractive colonizing practices consistently extraction colonialism. The settler model

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(as found in Canada) starts from the pre- will test these significant hypotheses es- conception that the land was empty and pecially in the area of gender analysis it eliminates the indigenous peoples in a where gender norms within indigenous, particular way, not because they have or aboriginal, and colonizing societies are have not a right to the land but because rather distinct and continuously in flux. they are indigenous. In contrast, the ex- The specific role of women within these traction model as seen in the Spanish col- movements will emerge as the litmus test onization of Mexico allowed indigenous for the sustainability of these movements peoples to retain their lands in exchange and the author’s identification of this par- for labour, resources and social humilia- ticular element (although frequently ob- tion. They are recognized as humans, al- scured within historical processes) marks though subjugated humans. this work as a significant contribution. As suggested in the subtitle of this Patricia Harms work, the author pays particular atten- Brandon University tion to women’s experience within these processes arguing that they engage in two battles: one against the colonial pow- Hugh Cunningham, Time, Work and ers that have displaced their communi- Leisure: Life Changes in England ties and a second against their own male since 1700 (Manchester: Manchester counterparts who frequently fight for University Press 2014) recognition even at the expenses of their female members. Altamirano-Jiménez One of the first scholars of the his- argues that colonialism redefined the tory of leisure, Hugh Cunningham has meaning of gender production and returned to the topic in order to correct women’s voices continue to be subsumed three deficiencies in the existing litera- within larger concerns. ture: concentration on the 18th and 19th This book will be of interest to a wide centuries to the exclusion of the 20th, variety of students, scholars, and com- neglect of women, and a focus on leisure munity activists because of its interdis- rather than time use. As Cunningham ciplinary approach to a complex and explains in his introduction, the first gen- continuously evolving subject. As in any eration of leisure historians, observing pioneering work, the book’s strength lies the world around them and noticing that in its creation of a road map identifying automation was shrinking the workweek, a wide variety of directions for future were concerned with the “problem of lei- work. One of the most significant con- sure”: how would people ever adapt to tributions of Altamirano-Jiménez’s work an ever-growing pool of free time? Since is her identification of four paradoxes those original studies people are, if any- within this complex global system. First, thing, working longer, harder, and more global or state articulations of indigene- contingently than ever before – a situa- ity unevenly empower Indigenous peo- tion that has led historians to reconfigure ples. Second, not all landscapes (political the historical problem as one of work-life or environmental) are created equally. balance. Third, indigenous nationalism may lead In the preindustrial period, to new internal divisions and further Cunningham argues, time was governed gender discrimination within these in- by nature. A series of overlapping reli- dividual communities, and finally these gious, civic, and legal calendars structured struggles for a broad array of rights fre- the year. An overarching eternal “God’s quently increase state power. Future work time” imposed certain expectations on

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Protestants, and a sense of the ages of Factory discipline coincided with a man determined a common life course sort of leisure discipline – the attempt to for all classes. The availability of light, impose “rational recreation,” particularly in turn, structured each day. People who on working people. In towns and cities could afford light at night could follow a across Britain, local agitators, including distinctive sleep pattern, with two peri- members of the “respectable” working ods of sleep with a break in the middle, classes, argued for Sunday closings and used for study, prayer, sex, or committing for an end to such immoral traditional crimes. Darkness created danger, limiting entertainments as dog-racing, bear-bait- evening events to full moon nights until ing, and football games. Working men the development of oil lamps and then and boys lost the space for outdoor activi- gaslight extended leisure opportunities in ties to commercial and residential devel- towns. Over the course of the 18th cen- opment, while experiencing expanding tury, schools introduced bells and clocks, opportunities for spectator sports and which soon became ubiquitous. circuses. At the same time, activities that Cunningham shows that at the begin- required or involved more money, like ning of his chosen period, a twelve-hour cricket and horse racing, prospered. By workday was the norm, with Saturday a mid-century, Cunningham shows, some full workday, Monday often a holiday, and groups perceived the end of traditional Sunday reserved for religion. Much has fairs and leisure activities as a loss, and been made of the backward-sloping la- called for a revival of older customs to bour supply curve, another way of saying knit together increasingly divided classes. that, after having earned enough money Between 1830 and 1970, Britons expe- to pursue recreation, workers would stop rienced a decrease in work hours. Child working. Cunningham argues, convinc- workers represented the thin edge of the ingly, that this is an incomplete picture. legislative wedge. Although Cunningham The working year could be uneven, many emphasizes that Romantic notions of jobs were casual, and work available only childhood motivated the first attempts intermittently. Artisans had more control to restrict child labour, this Romanticism over their time than did apprentices, do- was pragmatic, as half-time work for chil- mestic servants, or working-class wom- dren continued until 1918. At every step en, whose only form of “leisure” appeared of this slow and incremental process, to involve switching between household popular agitation was central; by the tasks (this was a remarkably durable fea- time of the campaign for the 8-hour day, ture of women’s lives, continuing into the the agitation was international in scope. present). Cunningham argues that, far As the workday shortened, so the work from working longer in order to take part week rearranged, with “Saint Monday” in a “consumer revolution” at the end of becoming a full workday, and Saturday a the 18th century, working-class Britons half-holiday. Holidays underwent a trans- were forced to step up their labour-force formation, from employers’ opportunities participation to keep up with rising pric- to lay off workers in slack times, to being es for necessities. The imposition of time- regulated by negotiated agreements with discipline in factories is well-known, but trade unions. By the 21st century, many as Cunningham shows, coal miners and workers were entitled to a month’s vaca- agricultural labourers were also subject tion a year. to new determination on the part of em- As the hours and days of labour shrank ployers to standardize the workday and over time, so did the years of men’s labour. curb worker absenteeism. The school-leaving age was raised from 10

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in 1880 to 16 in 1973, and the introduction hours of labour were decreasing, their of pensions, first by employers and then by own were increasing. But no matter what the state, helped to establish a retirement their class position, Britons experienced age between 60 and 65 as the norm by the the late 19th and early 20th century as 1960s. At the same time, women – even stressful, due to the increasing pace of those with young children – increasingly travel and communication. entered the workforce, both to supplement While Cunningham ably and fully the family income in an age of new con- chronicles the changing situation for the sumer goods, and to escape the boredom working classes, his picture of work-life of home-based isolation. balance for employers is more fragmen- The transformation to an industrial tary. Civil servants and bank employees workplace left employers with the peren- had short work-days, but of the work habits nial problem of motivating workers who of employers and project managers (aside were both alienated from the process of from Isambard Kingdom Brunel), we still production, and less willing to be defined know little. Cunningham also provides by monotonous jobs than past workers much more information about the work had been by their trades. Some employ- lives and leisure activities of men than ers responded paternalistically, provid- of women, despite his goal of addressing ing work-based leisure activities. Others some of the gender imbalance in the exist- used the piecework system to motivate ing literature. The penultimate chapter, on workers economically, relied more on women’s lives, includes a too-brief sum- capital-intensive processes to remove mary of women’s work experiences in the skilled workers from the equation, or 20th century, followed by a strong analy- sped up the pace of production. Workers sis of current trends. A problem of too found factory work boring, but it is not much leisure has not materialized; rather, clear from Cunningham’s sources wheth- in some fields, long hours and increased er retail jobs or agricultural labour were productivity without any overtime pay are any more interesting. the norm. Workers may be entitled to their If labour was increasingly soul-killing holidays, but find it impossible to take the for a significant proportion of the work- time off due to work responsibilities. Even force, available leisure options were not the discourse of “work-life balance” elides particularly thrilling either. A minority of the depressing reality that the “life” ele- workers took up active pursuits for body ment consists largely of unpaid household or mind, and by the 20th century some and family labour. of the most popular leisure activities Time, Work and Leisure is a pleasure were sleeping, drinking, watching televi- to read, and should find a wide audience, sion, do-it-yourself jobs, and housework. including undergraduate students and Intriguingly, Cunningham describes a even policymakers. Cunningham strikes leisure life cycle that mirrored the work a good balance between descriptive nar- life cycle; children and teenagers had the rative and a Thompsonian use of a wide most time for fun, while parents of young range of primary sources, from poetry to children had the least. first-hand narratives to employer screeds, A short chapter on the “leisure class” workers’ time-diaries, and government chronicles a transformation, from the statistics. Moreover, he does an excellent embrace of such a class for political and job historically contextualizing present social leadership, to popular deprecation concerns about how we spend our time. of the “idle rich.” Middle-class work- Jaimie Bronstein ers complained that as manual workers’ New Mexico State University

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Seth Koven, The Match Girl and the for and non-judgement of others, recon- Heiress (Princeton: Princeton University ciliation, pacifism, shared resources, and Press 2014) shared responsibilities for housework (which was meant to help to minimize In this book, Seth Koven has used the the class distinctions of residents). friendship between two women, one Koven is commendably wide rang- middle class and wealthy, the other a ing and thorough in his research. The poor factory worker, in order to explore book’s first three chapters focus on the a number of historical themes that were two women’s childhoods, capitalism as part of “the transition from Victorians experienced by match girls, and new to moderns.” (19) In particular, he wish- Edwardian notions of Christianity that es to examine the shift between “High centred on a loving God rather than a Victorian Christian moral paternalism punitive one. The fourth chapter analyses and twentieth-century rights-based so- the friendship, based largely on a packet cial justice ethics and politics.” (19) This is of letters from Dowell to Lester, and sev- an important story, and Koven’s explica- eral biographical fragments that Lester tion will be welcomed by historians of the wrote about Dowell. The fifth chapter period. Muriel Lester was the privileged explores what Koven calls the “Christian daughter of an affluent shipbuilder liv- Revolution,” as Lester and Dowell en- ing in suburban Loughton. She spent her acted it throughout their quotidian lives childhood in upper-middle class comfort in East End London. In the course of within a deeply religious, but free-think- telling this tale, Koven touches on a va- ing nonconformist family. Nellie Dowell riety of fascinating, and at times eccen- was a working-class East Ender whose tric, topics: unionism and the match girl family was pitched into destitution after strikes (including the rhetorical migra- the death of her mariner father when she tion of the pathetic match girl stereotype was about five. Her mother was unable to from street sellers of matches to factory support all five of her children, so Nellie workers), the suffrage agitation and its and her sister were sent to live at a noto- factionalism, the international pacifist riously bad poor law school, Forest Gate, movement (the highlight being a visit by and she subsequently went to work at Gandhi to Kingsley Hall), and new the- Bell’s match factory at age twelve. ology (including Madame Blavatsky and While Koven is unsure how Lester theosophy, and Leo Tolstoy’s ethical and and Dowell met, he uses their friend- spiritual writings). Will Crooks, George ship to frame his exploration of radical Lansbury, Rabindranath Tagore, Sylvia Christianity. Lester rejected the conde- Pankhurst and Annie Besant all figure in scending Lady Bountiful model that had the story, as well. characterized Victorian philanthropy Koven’s book is a detailed and nuanced and instead, following a girlhood epiph- exploration of sincere attempts by dedi- any, sought to remake society in accor- cated Christians to find better and more dance with the Sermon on the Mount. equitable ways to live. Whether these at- She and Dowell tried to create just such a tempts should be seen as revolutionary, society at Kingsley Hall, the community however, is certainly debatable. “Utopian centre Lester and her sister founded in Christianity” seems a more apt descrip- the slums of Bow, a “People’s House” as tor, since (as Koven readily admits), they called it. (3) Kingsley Hall was meant Lester and company had no idea how to to enact “a Christian revolution in every- supply “the precise mechanisms by which day life” (257) that was predicated on love

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a purifying worldwide Christian revolu- need to be told that letters “physically, tion would unfold.” (260) intellectually and psychologically… col- In spite of their attempts to establish an lapse distances” between recipients? Or egalitarian community at Kingsley Hall, that “they are also objects, literally ink on moreover, Lester very much remained the paper”? (226) mentor and leader – and a micro-manag- The various limitations of the friend- ing one at that, who even criticized bits of ship become problematic because Koven toothpaste being left in the wash basins. has focused so tightly upon it, and in the Nor did East Enders adopt the Kingsley end, it cannot bear the analytic weight Hall way of life. Rather, they used its pro- of explicating his notion of revolution- grams, and the skills learned from them, ary Christianity. Links between its cam- as stepping stones to social mobility and paigns and those of the political left need out of Bow. Even the friendship itself be- to be explored much more fully than has tween Lester and Dowell was never based been done in this book if we are to un- on equality: Lester remained the gracious derstand and appreciate the significance lady while Dowell was deferential and of radical Christianity in the first half of adoring, and determined to remain so. the 20th century. Only then can its role Indeed, Koven speculates that it was the in the shift from Victorian paternalism very fact of class difference that at least in to rights-based social justice ethics and part made Lester so attractive to Dowell. politics be appreciated. However laudable their intentions, the Lynn MacKay lived reality of the denizens of Kingsley Brandon University Hall do not seem to have transcended the customary usages of class inherited from the Victorians. Robin Bunce and Paul Field, Darcus Indeed, the motif of this sincere, Howe: A Political Biography (London: though fairly traditional, friendship Bloomsbury Academic 2014) seems to speak more to the limitations of radical Christianity than its successes. On 9 August 2011 Darcus Howe gained To be fair, Koven was at the mercy of his international attention during a bbc in- sources. Lester left little that illuminates terview about England’s riots following her interiority. She emerges as an admi- the police shooting of a young Black male, rable character, if one that is somewhat Mark Duggan. The interview started on difficult to like: the professional saint the wrong foot when Fiona Armstrong who loves humanity more than indi- referred to her interviewee as Marcus vidual human beings, and who could be Howe. It quickly deteriorated when selfish, demanding, and inconsiderate of Armstrong suggested that Howe was “no those who cared for her. Dowell’s letters, stranger to riots.” Howe took exception on the other hand, are a window onto her and quickly corrected Armstrong: he had feelings, hopes, likes, and dislikes, but of- never taken part in a riot, but had been fer next to no explanation of her motives. involved in demonstrations that ended Why did she not support the union in the in conflict. He then politely informed match girl strikes? Why was she so deter- her that she “sounded idiotic” and that mined to keep Lester on a class pedestal? she should “have some respect for an old Koven does the best he can in his very West Indian Negro.” (259) close reading of Dowell’s letters, although The bbc interview went viral. For at times the reading does seem somewhat many, it was the first time that they had strained and obvious. Do readers really heard Howe’s voice, or even heard of him.

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Yet for more than 40 years, Howe had working-class struggles in Europe, it been one of Britain’s most prominent also became one of the most important political figures having been, from the popular political journals in the UK. 1960s through to the 1980s, at the fore- One of the strengths of the journal was front of Black radical politics in England. its appreciation of the relationship be- In their important book, Darcus Howe: tween politics, art, and popular culture. A Political Biography, co-authors Robin Considerable pages of the journal were Bunce and Paul Field trace Howe’s po- devoted to both established and aspiring litical trajectory while offering a window artists, including renowned poet Linton into British society through the prism of Kwesi Johnson who also worked as an ed- Black radical politics. itor for the journal and canonized Howe Darcus Howe, né Rhett Radford in the famous protest song “Man Free (for Leighton Howe, was born in Trinidad Darcus Howe).” in 1943 and raised in the southern But as Bunce and Field show, Race Trinidadian rural village of Eckels. A Today was also a political collective good student, he attended Queen’s Royal that was actively engaged in the very College, the country’s elite school, on an struggles that it covered in its pages. The exhibition scholarship, just like his uncle Race Today Collective rallied people of C.L.R. James had done years before. But African, Asian, and to a lesser extent despite his privileged secondary educa- Euro-English descent in the fight towards tion, he grew up in modest surroundings social justice. Howe was a close associate where he gained an appreciation for the of C.L.R. James who, in his notion of self- Caribbean underclass, race (especially organization, had long argued that so- important given Trinidad’s large Indian called ordinary people have the capacity descended population), working-class to organize themselves without the lead- struggles, and Trinidad’s popular culture, ership of a vanguard party. James also ar- including the steel pan and carnival. gued that small organizations could play Howe carried these impressions with an important role in helping to facilitate him to London in the early 1960s at a social change. Under Howe’s leadership, time when Blacks were arriving in large Race Today became a vehicle through numbers as part of Britain’s ongoing post- which ideas and actions could work in World War II reconstruction. But while symbiosis as people rallied and organized Black labour was needed in the country, to radically change a Britain that was in the growing physical presence of Blacks need of radical change. was unwelcome to many and racist at- As a political biography, Darcus Howe tacks, police brutality, and sensationalist is not only an important chronicle of anti-immigration outbursts in the media Howe’s life and work, but also an impor- and by politicians fueled racial antago- tant introduction to Black British strug- nism. Howe’s initial plan was to pursue gles from the 1960s through to the 1980s. a career in law, but he was increasingly Despite Canada’s close proximity to the drawn towards politics and he abandoned US, the book might prove to be particu- his studies for the movement, eventually larly appealing in this country as, like the leading to his involvement in Race Today. UK, the majority of Canada’s Black popu- Race Today was not simply the most lation descends from immigrants who ar- important Black popular journal of post- rived from the 1950s onwards. And, given war Britain. In covering Black, Asian, Canada’s historical ties to the British em- and white working-class struggles along- pire and its colonial history, race politics side events in Africa, the Caribbean, and in this country perhaps have more, or at

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least as much in common with the British internationalism, and its political pos- experience than with its US counterpart. sibilities, that has a long history in Black While the authors perhaps do not suffi- and Caribbean radical politics. ciently flesh out these ties and informal Howe was and remains, a public in- networks, Black radicals in Canada were tellectual who possesses a deep appre- often connected and in direct communi- ciation for the relationship between ideas cation with their British and Caribbean and action and race and class, but the counterparts as part of a broader Black books says very little about gender and and Caribbean transnational politi- the role of women played in the political cal community that often defied the struggles that Howe was a part of. For limitations of nationalism and national example, while we do learn something boundaries. about the role that deputy editor of Race As the authors’ show, Howe, along with Today Leila Hassan played in the Race C.L.R. James, Robert Hill, James Forman, Today Collective as both an editor and an and many others, participated in the 1968 organizer (Howe and Hassan also mar- Congress of Black Writers in Montréal. ried), we would have benefited from more He connected with important young po- about her influence within the organiza- litical figures such as Walter Rodney and tion, and more about the role that other Stokely Carmichael who, according to the women played within the group and the authors, was a boyhood friend of Howe in challenges they confronted. Despite this Trinidad. Howe went on to join the Civil important omission, Darcus Howe is a Rights/Black Power organization sncc valuable book for readers concerned with (the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Black struggles and human freedom and Committee), leading to his participation in it provides important insight into the New York’s Ocean Hill-Brownsville strug- challenges and possibilities inherent in a gle for community control of education. life of political struggle. Just a few months before the Congress, David Austin Howe was in Paris where he bore wit- John Abbott College ness to the revolt that shook France at its core. Despite being moved by his ex- perience there, he grew concerned about Tara Martin Lopez, The Winter of an intellectualism in France that valo- Discontent: Myth, Memory, History rized philosophy and the ideas of Camus (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press and served to disconnect students from 2014) workers and the wider society. Later he returned to Trinidad where he was in- The Winter of Discontent, a series volved in the 1970 protests that almost of major strikes in Britain in the winter toppled the government of Eric Williams. of 1978–79 in which millions of work- These protests were initially inspired ers participated, is a significant turning by the arrest of Black/Caribbean stu- point in British history. Rejecting the dents in Montréal for their involvement stringent incomes policy imposed by in the protest against racial injustice at James Callaghan’s Labour government, Sir George Williams University (now workers from many different sectors of Concordia University). In other words, the economy – autoworkers and nurses, Howe was involved in some of the most truck drivers and school cleaners, rub- important events in Black and Caribbean bish collectors and gravediggers – went politics in the 1960s and 1970ss and his on strike. They were successful in win- involvement highlights a kind of Black ning immediate material gains. The

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Ford workers, who kicked off the wave of why it still resonates deeply in popu- of strikes by openly defying the five per lar memory.” (3) She seeks to debunk a cent limit set by Callaghan, won a sev- common misunderstanding effectively enteen per cent wage increase and ef- promoted by the Tories that the strik- fectively rendered the incomes policy ing workers in the Winter of Discontent ineffective; National Health Service were “opportunistic” and “greedy,” and workers and truckers also won economic willing to create chaos in people’s lives gains. However, as the workers won the as “rubbish piled in the streets, the dead battles, they lost the war. As the Labour left unburied, and cancer patients turned Party leadership clung to incomes policy away from hospital.” (22) Through her de- even in the face of uprising from its own tailed recounting of the actual events of base, the strikes did not succeed in gener- the strikes, she documents how the most ating mass bases of support; the Winter potent imaginary of the Winter, such as of Discontent instead bolstered support food shortages, piles of rubbish on the for Margaret Thatcher’s Conservatives streets, and unburied dead bodies, was that blamed unions for the crisis, and exaggerated or fabricated. Furthermore, their election in May 1979 inaugurated a Lopez enriches historiography by empha- long period of neoliberalism and decline sizing the centrality of service workers in in working-class power and livelihood. the labour struggles of 1979, the major- In The Winter of Discontent: Myth, ity of whom were women, correcting the Memory, History, Tara Martin Lopez dominant narratives that centre experi- describes the trajectories of each strike ences and militancy of male industrial in detail from the perspectives of par- workers. ticipants based on in-depth interviews, Lopez argues that the “myth” of the offering valuable insights into the lives Winter of Discontent was “crucial to and experiences of those directly en- the ideological success of Thatcherism.” gaged in the strikes. She also explores the (21) As she demonstrates, the negative subsequent narratives of the Winter of representation of the Winter definitely Discontent which, as “myths” and “folk bolstered Thatcherism; however, that the tales,” have served to discredit the la- Conservative Party and the right-wing bour movement and bolster Thatcherism press propagated the “myth” cannot on in the popular political imagination. its own explain its popular resonance. Indeed, considering the significance of Why did their narrative gain dominance, the Winter of Discontent as a key event as opposed to others? The entrenchment in contemporary British history, and the of such a narrative is also in itself a conse- frequent negative references to the de- quence of the defeat of the working-class cade in which labour attained the height at the hands of Thatcherism. She herself of its political power, Lopez makes an im- recognizes that the popular understand- portant contribution to our understand- ing has been “profoundly shaped by the ing of the labour history of the country political vicissitudes of the Conservative that has seen the most far-reaching form Party, but also of New Labour.” (5) The of neoliberalism and undermining of crucial question is the decisive political workers’ power. loss of the working class in the Winter of One of Lopez’s main aims in the book is Discontent itself; the loss led to the myth, to “deconstruct the myth that has devel- rather than vice versa. After all, despite oped around the Winter of Discontent” exaggerations and half-truths embedded in order to “debunk the misunderstand- in the dominant narrative, the disruption ings” and to “penetrate into the depth actually did occur; indeed, the disruptive

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capacity was precisely in itself the source experience of the strike politicized the of these workers’ power. The narratives of workers and some continued to be active ungovernable crisis and disruption, and in unions or the Labour Party for many that of “noble trade union activism,” (7) years to come. However, it seems that the should not be considered as dichotomous content of consciousness and action in and contradictory; the problem is why the the following years has been shaped rath- former was not considered as the latter. er more strongly by the loss in the Winter, Lopez argues that contrary to the than the strikes themselves. Continued hegemonic narrative, the Winter of participation does not mean participa- Discontent was not a “fratricidal act” tion in militant activism as it was in 1979; (205) that undermined its own inter- many of them, as she introduces, later est of the labour movement, or that the supported the “modernization” of the striking workers were “irrationally acting Labour Party that shifted it decisively against their own interests,” (5) on the to the right, through their deepening in- basis that they were low-wage workers volvement in the party itself or unions who were fighting against erosion of their that supported the party leadership’s livelihood. They were indeed low-paid course. She argues that the “the different and, as Lopez emphasizes, women were rememberings” of the event “have dis- over-represented in the public sector tinctly shaped the participants’ political that took the hardest hit in the incomes identities” later. (6) But was their politics policy. However, despite the intentions of causally determined by their interpreta- the workers and justice of their cause, it is tion of the winter, or has their interpre- hard to deny that it was a decisive political tation of the winter been shaped by their failure; while she rejects its characteriza- subsequent politics? As she notes, New tion as “economist militancy,” it was in- Labour’s acceptance of the Conservative deed a series of militant actions primarily narrative of the Winter of Discontent focused on wage claims, and not coordi- has shaped its popular resonance, and nated around a platform or a movement the myth steered the party to the right; that could rally wide support and seek her book would benefit immensely from broader transformation. Why did the a closer examination of the contestations striking workers fail to win broad, mass over memories and interpretations of the support, despite the majority of the pop- Winter within the Labour Party. ulation being wage-earners? Why was the Lopez’s book asks an important ques- labour movement so decisively divided, tion on the relationships between politi- most consequentially between the rank- cal discourse and labour struggles, and and-file workers, and the Labour Party sheds a spotlight on the crucial period in leadership in government determined to contemporary British history. She cap- follow through with the incomes policy? tures well the contradictory power that In contrast to the dense and rich descrip- public-sector and service workers in par- tion of the strikers’ experiences, strategic ticular have; they have great disruptive and political assessment of the Winter of power, but as disruptive power is aimed at Discontent is limited in Lopez’s work, un- social reproduction, it is far more politi- dermining its explanatory capacity. cally challenging to harness such power Lopez emphasizes the formative role of on the basis of broad popular support. participation in the Winter of Discontent Considering the significance of these in shaping the political consciousness sectors in labour struggles today, and and subjectivity of the workers; indeed, continued dominance of neoliberalism she makes a convincing case that the that traces its origin in the late 1970s, her

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book makes a valuable contribution to all Victorian high-tech whose beauty and those interested in the labour movement. emptiness are captivating.” (38) Shannon Ikebe The messages jar. Were the people who University of California, Berkeley built Darlington really better off than those who flock through Luton? Is a street which immortalises a four-century-old Owen Hatherley, A New Kind of Bleak: battle really the best that Britain has to of- Journeys through Urban Britain (London fer? A third more subtle message emerges, and New York: Verso 2012) perhaps as a result: sometimes moderniz- ers get something right. This recognition Owen Hatherley’s cameos of post- appears in Hatherley’s frank admiration Blair Britain, like Cobbett’s Rural Rides, for the “superb mini-city” (221) of Leicester occupy a genre spanning fiction and University, a near-elegiac description of non-fiction with roots inDon Quixote, Edinburgh, and a fulsome appreciation of Pilgrim’s Progress, and Dante’s Inferno. post-blitz Coventry: “The real dogmatists As he guides the reader through the futil- are those who would dismiss the city sim- ity of Britain’s post-Thatcher urban land- ply because it (was) new.” (125) scape, travel becomes the scaffolding of a All three messages are discharged in sweeping social and historical narrative. a rapid-fire aesthetic critique of Britain’s The critique works at several levels. places, laced with racy contempt for their The topmost is that Modernization Isn’t dismalness. For social commentary, how- Working. Squaring up to Tony Blair’s ever, one must call a halt to the exhila- crusading vision of a modern socialism rating journey, and study what is really behind the dubious banner of a caring being said. Unlike Cobbett, Hatherley neoliberalism, Hatherley lands many rarely observes the human conditions he punches. Luton Airport is “one of the speaks of: evidence for what people actu- main places for processing the thousands ally do is provided by the places they live of poorly-paid, poorly-housed East and in. Here lies the rub: the problems under- Central European Gastarbeiter, those lying Blair’s monumental legacy need at- who largely constructed the ‘New Britain’ tention in their own right. promised by the now defunct New Luton is defined by its appalling air- Labour movement” (xi) while the City of port, a child of mass holidays mated with London becomes the “neurotically pro- neoliberal cost-cutting, which distains tected undead capital of undead financial functionality even as it proclaims itself capitalism.” (333) the latest thing in luxury. Anyone who Yet beneath the surface lies a Fings- has fought their way out of the airport Ain’t-Wot-they-Used-to-Be celebration after 10 p.m. will bear out this judge- of pre-modern gentility. Of Plymouth ment: yet Luton itself is one of Britain’s he writes “If, for Aldo Rossi, Berlin’s “Minority white” cities, home to a de- Stalinallee was ‘Europe’s last great street’ cent and respectful multifaith society then Armada Way is certainly Britain’s,” which, alongside Southall and Bradford, (180) whilst Darlington Station – a com- deserves one day to be celebrated as the memoration, he reminds us, of the birth- birthplace of a genuinely new British way place of the railways – “has a claim to of life, free from the cant and hypocrisy of being one of the most beautiful railway those who only poke fun at it. sheds on the entire network, a sombre, Poking fun at Luton is an English pas- smoky and atmospheric place with a ma- time. Like the suburbs, it makes an easy jestic series of curving vaults, a piece of target; it’s where the other half lives. But

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the great unwashed, as the Victorians a year. As far as Hatherley is concerned, dubbed them, live where they can, not the “seaside city of Brighton and Hove where they want – just as Luton’s short- is a place with a radically immaterial haul flights exist because most people economy of tourism, property, media can’t afford much else. The ancient sport and ‘creativity’ which has a “large and of mocking the worse-off rests on a life- ignored working-class.” (149) To my un- style made possible by a poverty that is kind reading, this simultaneously insults alternately ridiculed and pitied by those any manual worker who uses her brain, who hound it. and disqualifies everyone who doesn’t It’s not enough. The finest reflections hump bricks or bend metal from the title on modernity – Yeats comes to mind – of truly working class. identify the spark of hope that smoulders Radhika Desai and I describe such my- at the heart of chaos. opia as a “machinocratic” vision, by anal- Hatherley acknowledges the limita- ogy with the 18th-century ideas known tions of his own critique: Plymouth is “a as physiocracy (in Kees van der Pijl, ed., reminder of just how necessary moderni- Handbook of the International Economy sation was.” (181) However, his sardonic of Production [Aldershot: Elgar, 2015]). demolition ultimately works because it The physiocrats thought all value came spears, with surgical precision, the hy- from nature, which true labour worked pocrisy of New Labour’s “Modernization” up by tending the land. Machinocracy which was, and still is, deployed as an ide- holds that true value comes from things, ological bludgeon, spinning the mere fact which true labour works up by tending that time moves forward into a profound- machines. ly Victorian agenda both in its treatment The distortion is exemplified by of the ordinary people of Britain, and its Hatherley’s architect’s-eye use of build- proclivity for making war on the ordinary ings as a prism for viewing humans; as people of everywhere else. Hatherley’s if landscapes count for more than what barbs, at their best, verge on Swiftean people do in them. I vividly remember satire. when Glasgow and Edinburgh abandoned Yet the ultimate curse of satire is ig- “slum clearance” and began working with norance of its own limits. The book lacks residents to turn homes into liveable what Marx and Engels deployed when spaces; that modern turning point was they constructed a painstaking social integral to the present state of the very criticism of Victorian bleakness, whilst at cities that Hatherley eulogizes for their the same time showing why, and how, a past greatness. Many of London’s worst new age could come of it. In Hatherley’s high-rises (though some are indeed be- book, the most discernible alternative is yond redemption) are being gentrified the glory that once was Britain. into desirable residences. It is Britain’s In the Britain I know (I cannot, in all class system, not its architecture, which honesty, say love), new kinds of life, and holds back the natural creativity of its new kinds of work, are emerging in new residents. kinds of cities, despite the modernizers The book tells us that we must reflect, and in defiance of them. Over two million much more deeply, on the concept of people – many absurdly over-exploited, “modernization.” History’s transforma- and restlessly conscious of it – work in tive movements were never badged as a creative sector which has grown, dur- modernizing. We do not find revolution- ing the most sluggish decade of Britain’s ary banners inscribed “Liberté, Égalité, post-war history, at a steady 2.7 per cent Modernité, any more than a dream of

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Martin Luther King that the world will Rediker’s vision on our understanding of one day be modern. Visionaries like the Atlantic world. The seven chapters of Popova and Rodchenko made Russia the this book give us a synthesis not only of storm-centre of the avant-garde without specific studies of marginalized people, ever worshipping modernity for its own but also of a way of seeing and of hearing sake. Nye Bevan, founder of Britain’s Old beyond the veil of “terracentric” assump- Labour, never spoke of a “modern” health tions, (2) challenging us to re-imagine the service: his goal was simply to have one at emergence of capitalism, changing class all, for the first time in history. relationships, the abolition of slavery, the Visionary movements of change sweep rise of revolutionary movements, and the away antiquity by creating modernity, dynamics of communication and knowl- not by worshipping it. The very word edge across oceans. It is a deeply engag- “Modernization” divides the world into ing and provocative synthesis in which the enlightened and those who stand larger worlds are revealed through felici- in their way. The first are invariably a tous choice of voice, image, and anecdote, rich and privileged minority while the and in the pellucid prose for which this expendable remainder turn out, when author has long been admired. studied with due care, to be the majority. The chapter on sailors’ yarns, a recent “Modernization” is an intrinsically reac- conference paper, is a bold essay on the tionary project: a mythological defence of great oral culture of the sea. The chap- the status quo which repackages anyone ter is rich in allusions (Thomas More, who resists it as an ignorant obstacle to Shakespeare, Montaigne, Milton, Defoe, progress. and many more) but it is no mere literary It then falls to the expendables to excursus. People of great learning went construct a true modernity. Any travel- down to the docks to learn from sailors, ler who pauses long enough to view the and in their yarns sailors spread the news world through their eyes can see it. A of mutinies and revolutions. The sailor marvellous antidote to the follies of post- became the conveyor of crucial infor- Thatcher pretentiousness, and a must- mation, and seaborne yarns “shaped the read for anyone who has yet to visualise dynamics of world history in the age of them, A New Kind of Bleak is the ultimate sail.” (29) travelogue: an exhibit in its own museum. The memoir of Edward Barlow, au- Alan Freeman todidact sailor of the late 17th century, Winnipeg, MB displays the complex thinking of an egalitarian, anti-authoritarian Protestant whose English patriotism allowed room Marcus Rediker, Outlaws of the Atlantic: for echoes of the Diggers of the English Sailors, Pirates, and Motley Crews in the Revolution. Rediker introduces Henry Age of Sail (Boston: Beacon Press 2014) Pitman as another representative charac- ter of the Atlantic world, the escapee, the Sailors, pirates, slaves, and mot- rebel who became a fugitive, marooned ley crews of the Atlantic world gather in a Caribbean ecology. Rediker skilfully here and speak to us through the voice contrasts the real to the fictional maroon, of their pre-eminent historian. Much of Robinson Crusoe, whose image as a mod- it we have heard before, but to see and ern individualist hero was founded on hear these outlaws assembled in one illusion and the evasion of collectivist re- place is a rewarding experience and a re- alities. “Under the Banner of King Death” minder of the transformative impact of introduces new material to the account

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of pirates that Rediker gave us in an ar- work. While critics have suggested that ticle more than three decades ago, and his model of early capitalism is reminis- while inevitably sketchier than his book cent of a later industrial capitalism, and Villains of All Nations (2004), the chapter that his pre-industrial seamen are more serves as a welcome introduction to the like indentured servants than proletar- egalitarian and collectivist culture of the ians, Rediker avoids such concerns in this pirate community. book. He sidesteps the question about The “motley crew” of Chapter 5 in- how proletarian should be defined, and cludes the multi-ethnic sailors, slaves, whether so many types of free and un- labourers, dockers, fugitives, and oth- free labour may be included within that ers who made their own contribution descriptor. He concludes that the com- to the abolitionist movement and to munity of the slave ship gave birth to de- the American Revolution, even as their fiant African American and pan-African antinomian egalitarianism and rowdy cultures, (145) but does not engage in an resistance was severely contained and extended analysis of the mechanisms deflected by the fathers of the republic. of this cultural gestation and birth. We Whether or not you agree that the mot- hear nothing of the controversy over the ley crew was really a proletariat, it is authenticity and nature of evidence in surely possible to agree that these “citi- Olaudah Equiano’s Interesting Narrative zens of the world” were new “vectors of (1789). On the many quantitative issues revolution” (116) in the revolutionary era. arising over the history of the slave trade, Chapter 6, a revised version of a chap- Rediker says little, leaving the quantifi- ter in Rediker’s The Slave Ship (2007), is cation to others while using the results a powerful reconnaissance of the mas- where appropriate to his “human history” sive traffic in human beings across the (the subtitle of The Slave Ship). Atlantic. Rediker’s history tells us more This is merely to say that this book is about resistance and rebellion than do not a work of theory or methodology, at other works on the Middle Passage, and least in an explicit or tendentious way. his account is informed to great advan- The important historiographical truth tage by his deep knowledge of the slave is clear and still urgent, more than three ships, those complex, closely articulated decades after Rediker began his intellec- assemblages of iron, wood, equipment, tual odyssey: history is about perspec- and human beings that became the stage tive and representation, and about who for recurring rebellions. Chapter 7 draws has the power to impose perspective and upon Rediker’s 2012 book on the Amistad meaning on the past. Those who are often rebellion of 1839, but is largely new. Four seen as criminals may also be heroes, and case studies in the popular representa- heroes may be seen as criminals. In its tion of the revolt sustain the case for the own compelling way, the book answers importance of antislavery “from below.” doubters and skeptics. Here is a power- (170) ful, deeply moving and inspiring vision, Outlaws of the Atlantic is a work for at once historical and moral. There is “no scholars, students, and general readers. easy walk to freedom,” (179) these voices It is an obvious choice as a core read- from below loudly proclaim, as they in- ing in an undergraduate course on the vite us to learn from their history in our Atlantic world. Nevertheless, there is own time. much that Rediker does not attempt Eric W. Sager here. He chooses not to revisit some of University of Victoria the critiques prompted by his earlier

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Paulo Drinot and Alan Knight, eds., relatively quickly from the worst of the The Great Depression in Latin America economic decline but also that the cri- (Durham: Duke University Press 2014) sis had a differential impact on middle classes, who recovered quite rapidly, and The essays in this new book edited lower classes, who suffered a significant by Paulo Drinot and Alan Knight pro- decrease in wages and heightened state vide new perspectives on the impact of repression. In Colombia, analyzed by the Great Depression on Latin America. Marcelo Bucheli and Luis Felipe Sáenz, They do not question the centrality of the the Great Depression affected the three economic slump for Latin American eco- export sectors – coffee, banana, and oil nomic and political history. Instead, they – differently, in relation to each sector’s seek to go beyond the traditional focus on distinct configuration of local bourgeoi- economics and politics – related to the sies and relationship to foreign capital. In rise of import-substitution industrializa- Central America, Jeffrey Gould explains tion schemes, political unrest, and rise of that the Great Depression deepened populist regimes in the region – to con- trends already in motion in El Salvador, sider “the broader social, institutional, Nicaragua, and Guatemala, leading to and political history of the slump while increased mobilization of Indigenous paying attention to the ways in which re- communities and lower classes and their gional transformations interacted with repression by military regimes that later global processes.” (9) Another related, adapted ideologies of mestizaje and in- central theme that runs through the book digenismo to co-opt Indigenous sectors. is that the impact of the Great Depression Like in the case of Colombia, Gould pays was not the same across the region. It attention to developments at the sub-na- varied according to each country, and tional, regional, and local levels. within each country it affected different The uneven influence of the Great social groups, economic sectors, and geo- Depression was clear in other cases as graphical areas in particular ways. well. Chile, Cuba, and Mexico were par- Approached in this manner, the previ- ticularly affected by slump given the ous generalizations that had dominated nature of their export economies, as stud- the study of the Great Depression give ied, respectively, by Gillian McGillivray, way to a deeper and richer understand- and Alan Knight. At the other end of ing of its process across the region. the spectrum is Venezuela, where Doug Composed of an introduction by Drinot, Yarrington shows that although the ex- a conclusion by Knight, and seven chap- port economy was impacted, recovery ters on different national cases, the book was also rapid due to the availability of offers a comprehensive, nuanced picture significant oil resources and the main that takes into account common regional political and economic changes in the patterns as well as specific developments 1930s were not due to the economic cri- in each country, grounded in current re- sis but to the death of the dictator Juan gional and national historiographies and Vicente Gómez in 1935. In the case of illuminating continuities and changes Peru, Drinot and Carlos Contreras argue between the periods before and after the that the impact was indirect, in that the Great Depression. economic crisis created economic dislo- The varied impact of the Great cations and social tension that eventually Depression is revealed in different man- resulted in a more interventionist state ners. In the case of Argentina, Roy Hora and policy innovations. not only shows that the country emerged

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The Peruvian case brings attention essays. In the case of Central America, to the topic of the degree of change and Gould provides a detailed analysis of the continuity in terms of state intervention events involving Indigenous communi- as reflected in new economic and social ties in different regions and areas of the policies. The essays dismiss the idea that country. Likewise, Hora complements the Great Depression provoked an abrupt his analysis of broader political and eco- change from export-oriented economies, nomic trends in Argentina with consider- based on laissez-faire economics, to in- ation regarding consumption, education, dustry-based models under increasing and culture, while in Cuba, McGilivray state regulation. Instead, they reflect the points out the significant mobilization current consensus, in that it accelerated of workers and Afro-Cubans in the wake trends in those areas that were already of the economic crisis. In doing so, they under way, and that state interventionism establish a relationship with other works was far from consistent or was complete- on the interwar period in Latin America, ly achieved. In both Colombia and Brazil, such as Natalia Milanesio’s and Eduardo export protectionism had already been Elena’s analysis of popular consumption advanced before 1929. In the latter case, and the state in Argentina in the 1930s Joel Wolfe shows that Getulio Vargas’s and 1940s, Mary Kay Vaughan’s work on economic and social programs, tradition- the modernization of patriarchal rela- ally presented as a reaction to the Great tions under the emergent Mexican revo- Depression, were fragmented and limited lutionary regime in the 1920s and early in their reach – an argument also clear 1930s, and Thomas Klublock’s study on in the case of Argentina. In the case of the gender aspects of Popular Front-era Chile, the previous existence of labour policies in Chile. The focus on Indigenous laws was expanded by a growing consen- and Afro-Latin American populations in sus on the need of a more interventionist the cases of Central America and Cuba state, which was the product of negotia- can be connected also to the renewed in- tions and conflicts between state officers, terest on Indigenous mobilization in the workers, and private employers and that broader field of Latin American studies. gave birth to the system of labour rela- In all these manners, the book suc- tions that would characterize Chile for ceeds in grounding the Great Depression the next decades. In the case of Mexico, in broader political, social, economic, Knight argues that the economic recov- and cultural processes, dismissing easy ery of the 1930s was not only the prod- generalizations and revealing similarities uct of a more diversified export economy, and differences among Latin American an incipient industrial sector, and a large countries. Indeed, each essay eventually subsistence sector that could absorb ex- raises a number of questions about the cess labour. It was also shaped by govern- empirical and theoretical framework ad- mental proto-Keynesian policies related vanced by the other essays in the book. to the major policies of the Mexican rev- For example, it would be interesting to olution as they were being implemented apply the wider geographical scope and under Lázaro Cárdenas, such as land and level of analysis used in the studies on labour reforms and pragmatic economic Central America and Colombia to the nationalizations such as those regarding cases of Argentina and Brazil. And those oil and railroads. aspects and others, such as ethnic and The influence of the newer trends on cultural dynamics, would be relevant for social, ethnic, and cultural history can bringing into the discussion those other be perceived in different manners in the cases not included in the book, such as

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Bolivia and Ecuador, and Uruguay. These despite the dangers and ruling technolo- observations aside, this book is a sig- gies of fear employed against them. nificant addition that will be of interest In part, Hennessey asks the reader to to scholars and general public alike on engage in a conceptual journey in which a topic whose contemporary relevance, she explores the insights from theorists once again, has been highlighted by the of affect as they might intersect with recent global economic crisis. historical materialism and feminist con- Jorge A. Nállim cerns with the social relations under University of Manitoba which basic needs are met and social re- production is organized. For Hennessey, affect arises in each of us as an indeter- Rosemary Hennessy, Fires on the minate and unformed quality. She rejects Border: The Passionate Politics of Labor naturalist theories of emotion and sug- Organizing on the Mexican Frontera gests instead an interplay of bodily sen- (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota sations, perception, consciousness and Press 2013) conveyance to others. Affect exists in the interconnection of mind-body-emotion We have very few conceptual tools and permeates the ways that production with which to identify embodied inten- and care are undertaken. Hennessey’s sities as they work their way through brilliant contribution to labour studies in consciousness into the realm of emo- particular, and social movement theory tions and feelings. How do we name this more generally, is to offer us the concept process? Are we aware of the many trans- of “affect-culture.” formations of our corporeal sensations For Hennessey, affect-culture is the into thoughts or language? Likely we are transmission of embodied sensations not. Even less do we consider what their and cognitive emotions through cultural social impact might be. In Fires on the practices, which are themselves contest- Border: The Passionate Politics of Labor ed. Affects bind us to one another and Organizing on the Mexican Frontera, locates us in an environment. Individual Rosemary Hennessey asks us to consider activists bring their affect-culture with these things. them to their organizing practices and Though her work with the Coalition each movement has its own emotional for Justice in the Maquilas, Hennessey norms. Consequently, argues Hennessey, became curious about the role that activists should become aware of this structures of feeling play in organized little-noticed ambience in which they are resistance by workers. Despite the brutal immersed. If affect-culture is an uncon- violence and unspeakable acts of terror scious dimension of the movement, then committed against workers in the north- its potential may not be realized in col- ern border region of Mexico in recent lective struggle, or worse, its negative im- years, neither the power of employers, pact might wear away the vibrancy of the nor the warring drug cartels’ governance movement and the relationships between by fear has been totalizing. Workers con- participants. tinue to be moved to act collectively to The book is not a study of organizing resist their working and living conditions strategy in labour struggles, as much as nonetheless. Hennessey, as a participant it is an exploration of affect discussed observer and feminist cultural theorist thematically and in conversation with began asking about the motivating dy- rich literatures in each chapter. In par- namics permitting activists to organize, ticular, Hennessey brings an historical

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materialist and feminist reading of sexu- shift in the emotional habitus of the ma- ality, nonconforming sexual identity and quila workers as they developed a more gender in the affect culture of organiz- autonomous stance from which to meet ing in the maquilas. In an introductory their needs outside of the factory gate. account mapping some of her own af- Finally, Hennessey asks what love has to fective encounters, she locates her role do with labour and community organiz- in this project as one of bearing witness ing. Her discussion is set within a broad and identifies her responsibility to learn conversation of hope and utopian pos- how to navigate the affective terrain as an sibilities that arises within social move- outsider. ments “against all common sense.” (226) Each chapter is thematically focused. To answer her questions, Hennessey For example, Foucault’s insight about the sets an historical and regional context “open secret” organizes a discussion of the within which complex sexual identities knowing-not knowing when prescribed in Mexico become sites of social struggle. sexual identities are challenged within She relates stories told by workers and or- organizing campaigns or in all-female ganizers and then analyses these as one workforces. How does sexual identity might approach a literary text, looking feature in the affective culture of orga- for the seen and the unseen, the symbolic nizing, asks Hennessey? How do open se- and the silences embedded within. She crets become part of the undercurrent of places herself in the scene only sparsely collective movements, or enter into the in the context of dialogue. She listens for relations of power between workers, the expressions of meaning as captured in state and capital? Hennessey explores the the insight of her interlocutors, and then relationship of bodies and economies in reflects on these in light of the meaning- an effort to queer materialism, or present ful insights of other voices expressed in a “socialism of the skin” that would con- text and through theory. It is Hennessey’s sider the relationship between surplus skill as an evocative writer that invites value and cultural value and asks how readers to engage with these subtle and embodiment and identity formation be- complex ideas. come part of the devaluing of some bod- Rosemary Hennessey’s Fires on the ies, more than others within capitalism. Border is an outstanding contribution She locates this discussion in the experi- to the literature on Mexican labour ence of gay men and transwomen in the struggles. Her concept of “affect-culture” maquilas. Hennessey goes on to discuss arises out of the embodied specificities deregulation and “bioderegulation” as of Mexican maquila workers’ organizing processes that lower the costs to capital struggles but it suggests an approach hav- of caring and survival. Her discussion is ing much broader purchase. Fires on the situated within the Levis Company’s bio- Border is an excellent source for gradu- politics and gay rights juxtaposed with ate seminar discussions in the many the company’s creation of devalued femi- fields where workers’ lives under capital- nized workforces and workers’ struggle ism are examined. The book would not for an independent union. Hennessey be easily accessible to union activists in also asks questions about the potential its present form, but over time, I have no for readjustments in gendered leadership doubt that its central insights will wend practices. She analyses the encounter be- their way into union education environ- tween northern maquila women workers ments. Many unions and union activists and southern Zapatista indigenous wom- remain unaware of their own affective en and sees in these new relationships, a commitments and do not have a way of

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openly discussing bodies, feelings, emo- violence – and yet ‘not of it’ – pointing tions, or sexuality and how these are re- beyond policing and prisons to a new so- lated to work, community, or capitalism. ciety.” (150) The grounded audaciousness Hennessey does not explore these ques- of the experiment embodies the against tions at the level of the institution and so and beyond dyad that Dixon places at the it is for others to ask how the affect-cul- core of another politics. ture of labour movements and unions can Another politics is the label Dixon be made visible to activists and explored applies to the vision and techniques of consciously as an ever-present element in the “anti-authoritarian current” that our ongoing contestations of capitalism. has developed within the Left in North Teresa Healy America since the 1990s. The book aims sit Graduate Institute, Vermont to more precisely describe and analyze the core characteristics of this broad and unevenly affiliated constellation of ideas Chris Dixon, Another Politics: Talking and practices. Anyone who studies or has across Today’s Transformative been around the Left in the past twenty Movements (Berkeley: University of years will have already conjured an image California Press 2014) of the anti-authoritarian current. Some will like what they see: principled, mili- In 2004, a group of working-class tant, community-grounded organizers, Black and Latina women launched the free from the Old Left, serving the needs “Sista’s Liberated Ground” (slg) project of the most disadvantaged through truly in Brooklyn, NY. In response to the dual democratic, autonomous projects. Others problem of police and gendered interper- will bristle at the image they hold of self- sonal violence, organizers announced righteous ultra-leftists, fixated on smash- the creation of “a space where violence ing Starbucks’ windows, invested in the against sistas is not tolerated, and where marginality of alternative lifestyles, not women turn to each other instead of the serious about building transformative police to address the violence in their mass movements. Few, however, will have lives. (149) Organizers provided work- attempted the theoretically challenging shops on how to create and hold the ter- and politically delicate task of articulat- ritory. They used murals and stickers to ing precisely what holds this diverse cur- physically mark areas of the city that they rent together, where its fault-lines run, would collectively self-govern. what the current contributes, and where Chris Dixon holds up the Sista II Sista its weaknesses lie. project as an example of “another poli- It’s remarkable not only that Dixon’s tics,” the focus of his excellent book of the book accomplishes this complex task, same name. Neither Sista II Sista’s liber- but that he is clearly driven to do so ated ground nor the countless other po- by strategic inquisitiveness about how litical experiments Dixon examines are transformative power works. There is no represented as blueprints for revolution. score-settling in Dixon’s account and he One of the recurring themes in Dixon’s remains humbly open-ended about his book is that there is no single model, tac- conclusions. Thus, the book not only tic, or demand that fits every moment in contributes to debates over an influential all liberation struggles. The inspiration he strain of Left politics, but it also models draws from the Sista’s Liberated Ground the kind of inquiry that helps cultivate is in its ways of managing “to be ‘in the what Alan Sears calls “a learning Left.” world’ – relating to everyday problems of

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In addition to drawing effectively on strategic thinking, very little actual strat- his decades-long experience as a cen- egizing takes place within radical orga- tral activist in dozens of campaigns and nizations and movements. Within the organizations, the book is informed by anti-authoritarian current, robust strate- interviews Dixon conducted with forty- gizing has been prevented largely because seven activists in big cities across North of the tendency of organizers “to focus on America. The interviews provide ex- principles over plans … to fetishize par- periential richness to broader debates; ticular tactics,” and to become trapped however, the book’s unique contribution in “crisis mode organizing.” (111–114) stems from Dixon’s way of integrating To overcome these obstacles, Dixon ar- what he hears and sees. The selective act gues for a “movement-orientation” that of identifying the key elements of another combines intentionality about long-term politics means Dixon is not only describ- plans with regular moments for assess- ing but helping to conceptualize the ment, and accountability mechanisms. strengths and ongoing challenges of this The main focus of Part Three, emergent political tradition. “Organizing,” is anti-authoritarian Part One lays out the historical and leadership and organizational models theoretical orienting points guiding an- (Chapters 7 and 8). The interviews in other politics. Dixon situates the current these chapters reveal significant debate at the convergence of three main “move- within another politics. For example, in ment strands” of theory and activism (34): contrast to the celebration of Occupy anti-racist feminism, prison abolition, Wall Street’s so-called leaderlessness, and reconfigured anarchism (Chapter 1). Dixon not only posits that leadership is In contrast to more doctrinaire Marxist unavoidable (and therefore must be clear- and anarchist currents, another politics ly and consciously designed to enhance takes a “synthetic approach” to the best collective power) but asks, provocatively: traditions of anti-authoritarianism, anti- If it’s true that leadership must involve capitalism, anti-oppression, and anti-im- hierarchy, might there be such a thing perialism (Chapter 2). It also emphasizes as “anti-authoritarian hierarchy”? (197) the importance of “prefigurative politics” While sympathetic to those around the to transformative movements (Chapter anti-authoritarian left who reject po- 3). Dixon’s argument that Left political litical organizations altogether, Dixon projects must be focused on “wholeness, concludes that these sorts of absolutist affective organizing, and being nice” (89) positions “contribute to activist insu- does not equate planting a community larity and undercut our ability to build garden with revolution, as caricaturists sustained and broad-based movements.” of prefigurative politics often have it. On (200) the contrary, Dixon argues, manifesting Repeatedly Dixon declares: if another the world we would like to see as much as politics is going to change the world, it possible “through our means of fighting needs to grow massively. When he raises in this one” (83) is essential to developing the challenge of “scaling up,” (152) it’s the “ongoing, movement-building learn- as part of the vision of “moving beyond ing process” that must grow and flourish insular activist spaces, connecting with in genuinely transformative democratic popular struggles, and building move- projects. (104) ments capable of engaging many, many Part Two is entitled “Strategy” and ar- people.” (110) He urges comrades and al- gues that, despite widespread agreement lies “to create alternatives to purity-based across the Left about the importance of politics,” to cultivate “an experimental

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orientation … vital for imagining our- Shoot!” and “Black Lives Matter” widely selves outside of what we now know.” known. In Canada, efforts to draw atten- (228–229) tion to the murders of indigenous women And herein lays the core contradiction and media exposés of the Toronto police in Dixon’s project: the book is at once re- practice of disproportionately “carding” cord and dream. There is tension between people of colour have insisted that racism description and aspiration in Dixon’s call needs to be taken much more seriously. for “another politics” with broad social Anti-Muslim racism has flared up in the weight. Is the anti-authoritarian current wake of the murderous shootings in Paris we meet in this book the one that exists in January 2015. Within the academic or the one Dixon hopes will develop? The field, much work remains to be done to answer can only be both; at times more integrate racism and anti-racism into re- one than the other (although the shift search and teaching about the working back and forth is rarely signalled by the class, past and present. The publication author). of this collection edited by Abigail Bakan Yet this tension is integral to the book’s and Enakshi Dua is thus particularly virtue. Mere description would have timely. risked adding nothing new, and worse, Theorizing Anti-Racism aims to “ad- deprived us of Dixon’s critical insights on vance critical scholarship in theorizing the actually existing anti-authoritarian race, racism, and anti-racism by recog- left. Mere aspiration would have drifted nizing the pivotal importance of both into a purist’s dream, a how-to manual Marxist and critical race theoretical for a machine that does not exist. Instead, contributions.” (5) Both the editors have Dixon models critical reflection upon one made noteworthy previous contributions radical current in the name of facilitating to this field, Bakan from a Marxist per- collective learning across the Left. In this spective and Dua from the side of critical moment of “tremendous crisis and possi- race theory. In this collaborative project, bility,” (2) this sort of contribution, brim- they have sought to “mitigate the tensions ming with political insight and driven by between these approaches,” (6) treating “urgent patience,” (119) is precisely what postcolonial and critical race theory as a we need more of. single diverse approach. The book is or- James Cairns ganized into four sections. Each is intro- Wilfrid Laurier University – Brantford duced by a short piece by the editors, who also provide brief introductions to two of the thirteen chapters as well as a concise Abigail B. Bakan and Enakshi Dua, afterword. eds., Theorizing Anti-Racism: Linkages The first section, “Rethinking in Marxism and Critical Race Theories Foucault,” opens with a chapter in which (Toronto: University of Toronto Press Dua sketches the divide between Marxist 2014) and postcolonial scholarship on racism and surveys the important contributions Protests across the US against the of Stuart Hall, Paul Gilroy, and Edward murders of Michael Brown in Ferguson Said. She makes the point that the de- and Eric Garner in New York City and the velopment of critical race theory was refusal to lay criminal charges against the shaped by how “post-war Marxism was police officers responsible for the killings (and continues to be) stubbornly lodged of these (and other) African-Americans in … a commitment to ‘class’ that often have made the slogans “Hands up, Don’t led to a silence on the specific processes

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of racism, as well as a hostile relationship Political Intellectuals [New York: towards explicitly anti-racist organizing Routledge, 2003]). Audrey Kobayashi and and politics.” (25) This, Dua notes, led Mark Boyle write on Jean-Paul Sartre and some anti-racist researchers to look to Frantz Fanon. Eunice Sahle uses Fanon Michel Foucault for “a non-economistic and Antonio Gramsci to look at Steven framework.” (33) The result, she suggests, Biko and, more briefly, Fatima Meer. has often been fruitful but also often The final section offers four pieces of neglected the relationship of racism to anti-racist analysis. Bakan’s chapter on capitalism. This is followed by an extract the “Jewish question” argues that the from Robert J.C. Young’s Postcolonialism: creation of Israel as a Zionist state was “a An Historical Introduction (Oxford: critical political element in the advance- Blackwell, 2001) on Foucault’s “archaeo- ment of Jewish whiteness” (259–260) logical” approach of the late 1960s and within the racial hierarchies of Western its application to colonial discourse. The societies. The following piece is Sunera other chapter in this section, also by Dua, Thobani’s telling critique (previously looks at the uses of Foucault by Said and published in 2012) of the failure of in- Hall and reflects on the strengths and fluential works by Giorgio Agamben, weaknesses of postcolonial theorists’ ef- Michael Hardt, and Antonio Negri to forts to combine Foucault and Marx. As scrutinize “the relationship of race to she notes, “for most of those who theo- Western sovereignty within the global rize racialized subjectivities, the social order.” (281) Thobani also touches on constructions of subjectivities, identities, the acceptance of Jews into whiteness, agency, and resistance are not centrally suggesting a psychological explanation tied to the processes of labouring or ex- based on Jews’ response to Nazi exter- ploitation” (86) – a point to which I will mination camps. The contrast between return. this and Bakan’s account illuminates the The second section is “Revisiting difference between Thobani’s theoreti- Marx.” Bakan’s chapter (based on a 2008 cal approach and historical materialism, article) offers a historical materialist ap- as does the absence of any consideration proach that deploys Marx’s concepts of by Thobani of the relationship between exploitation, alienation, and oppression the global state system and capitalism. to theorize racial oppression and privi- Sedef Arat-Koç argues that under neo- lege. This is followed by an interview liberalism middle-class people are con- by the editors with Himani Bannerji, ceiving of “themselves and their ‘other’ arguably the foremost anti-racist femi- in increasingly culturalized ways.” This nist Marxist analyst of racism based in culturalism, she contends, is “a form of Canada. Bannerji reflects on her theoreti- ‘race-thinking’ or ‘race-like thinking’” cal framework, which treats the social as (312) with implications for the meaning a differentiated unity of social relations of race today. The final chapter, Elizabeth rather than a terrain of intersecting iden- Esch and David Roediger’s “Race and the tities, its debt to the sociology of Dorothy Management of Labour in United States Smith, and nationalism. History,” looks at the racial dimension This is followed by three chapters of managerial theory and practice from on “key anti-racist thinkers.” Anthony the 1800s into the 1920s (drawing heav- Bogues writes on the major histori- ily from their 2009 article on the subject). cal works of C.L.R James and W.E.B. Theorizing Anti-Racism succeeds in DuBois (this chapter is drawn from his achieving its stated aim, though not to the Black Heretics, Black Prophets: Radical extent I had hoped it would. Like almost

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all edited collections of this kind, it is an than they deserve. Dua’s perceptive ob- uneven work. Considered as wholes, the servation about the frequent neglect of fourth section is the strongest while the “processes of labouring or exploitation” third is the least tied to the book’s central is important. Does this not pose a more objective. fundamental challenge to the use of The editors do an excellent job of bring- Foucault than she recognizes? This fail- ing together insightful historical mate- ing flows logically from Foucault’s ideal- rialist and poststructuralist-influenced ist Nietzschean conception of society and research in a single volume. However, individuals, in which the body is much- important theoretical questions to which discussed but human corporeality is nev- the two perspectives give different an- ertheless erased, as Joy James and others swers are not clarified, a necessary move have argued. As for Marx, it is too gener- for people interested in deepening dia- ous to say, as Bakan does, that “oppression logue between critical race theorists and is the least complete in its theorization of anti-racist Marxists. One concerns so- all the forms of human relations” (109) he cial ontology: should we agree with Hall studies. It is fruitless to look for adequate that “the social operates like a language”? concepts of oppression, racism ,or race in (78) Others include what is the nature of Marx’s work (which does not mean that racism itself (social relation, ideology, or historical materialists cannot develop discourse?), what explains the perpetu- what Marx did not). ation of racism today and what are the In spite of these limitations, Theorizing relative merits of theories of ideology Anti-Racism contains much of value. and discourse (an issue discussed in Jan Not all of its chapters are of equal inter- Rehmann’s excellent recent book Theories est to people who study work, the work- of Ideology: The Powers of Alienation and ing class, or workers’ organizations. Still, Subjection [Leiden: Brill, 2013]). everyone in the field would benefit from Regrettably, both Foucault and Marx reading at least some of the contents of receive less critical attention in the book this collection. David Camfield University of Manitoba

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