BOOK REVIEWS

Living Proof: The Essential asserts a methodological standard Data-Collection Guide for against which use and occupancy maps can be evaluated. Indigenous Use-and-Occupancy Living Proof is a massive book. Its Map Surveys large-format pages display effectively Terry Tobias more than 70 f ul l-colour maps and dozens of tables and figures. Vancouver: Union of BC Indian The language used in the book Chiefs and Ecotrust Canada, 2009. is straightforward. The jargon of 486 pp. $100.00 cloth/$50.00 paper. cartography, geography, and social science research is defined clearly, Thomas McIlwraith often with the aid of tables and figures. Douglas College The advantages and disadvantages of project design decisions, such as o maps speak for themselves? paying high honoraria or using group DTerry Tobias insists that interviews are, for example, presented indigenous land use and occupancy in tabular form. The readable style and maps must speak loudly and clearly, and the pairing of text and tables offset he demonstrates that they can if rigorous the physically intimidating size of the research and methodological standards volume. The result is a handbook that are followed. Tobias explains this in is accessible to readers with different Living Proof, a spectacular handbook backgrounds and levels of research that lays out an effective process for the experience. The scale of production is production of thematic maps detailing enormous, too. The book took most indigenous uses of the land. In it, of ten years to research and write. It Tobias notes that indigenous groups includes extensive quotations about throughout Canada and elsewhere are best mapping and research practices producing land-use maps as central from more than 120 practitioners of components of their negotiations with use and occupancy mapping. Tobias’s governments and industrial developers. inclusion of the voices of indigenous His goal is to establish a process for people, academics, consultants, and generating the data with which these government representatives in the text maps are created. In doing so, Tobias gives readers the opportunity to hear bc studies, no. 69, Spring 11 143 144 bc studies directly from the people with expertise presents conventions for coding the in preparation and use of land use maps. data on maps. Several figures, complete Living Proof is directed largely at with “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” indigenous communities and their icons, contrast effective and problematic researchers. It emphasizes the creation techniques for marking maps with of map biographies – maps generated point, line, and polygon data. The from interviews with indigenous chapter offers a strategy for conducting participants that depict land use and a map-centred interview. And it occupancy for specified time periods includes more than 20 coloured maps and locations – as the central thematic showing examples of good and poor maps in a community’s cartographic use of map symbols. It is incredibly collection. The book begins with an detailed and leaves little room for extended example of a mapping project variation in style, which reflects Tobias’s in the Tseil-Waututh indigenous message: standardized methods for community of Greater Vancouver. It is the preparation and presentation of written in part by Chief Leah George- land-use maps improve the likelihood Wilson and illustrates her community’s that the maps will be understood. experience of using Tobias’s methods The volume does provoke questions from inception through to design of audience for these maps. The and on to final map production. Each implied audiences are governments subsequent chapter of Living Proof and industrial developers – those groups demonstrates a different part of the with whom indigenous communities mapping process. Included first are seek dialogue through maps. While general observations about using and good maps do speak for themselves, reading map biographies. The heart of the messages they impart may be the book consists of lesson-like accounts interpreted differently by different of the techniques for eliciting data audiences. Indigenous cartographers that can be plotted on maps. Tobias may identify and emphasize the places discusses, for example, managing where moose were killed on kill maps, projects and designing interview for instance, but such maps also show questionnaires. He delves into minutiae, where moose have not been killed – such as the importance of choosing the should developers choose to read them right nib size for a mapping pen. While that way. The standards established by anachronistic to current computer- Living Proof limit misinterpretations assisted map-makers, mapping pens by enabling recipients of these maps to are necessary for producing working see clearly their value and limitations. maps in the field. And tips related Map-based consultations will be to cartography, such as reading map improved if both cartographers and scales or understanding contour lines, map readers use this manual. are scattered throughout. Examples of Living Proof is informed by academics, map-biography projects are numerous. consultants, and the principles of good They come from community mapping social science research. It emphasizes projects from across Canada and one careful data collection and leaves the chapter is devoted to an Australian production of maps to cartographers example. and technicians. It sets a high standard Chapter 12 “Recording Spatial for the research central to generating Data,” exemplifies Tobias’s style and the information plotted on use and Living Proof ’s perspective. This chapter occupancy maps, and is a reference Book Reviews 145

that will be used by community-based now thought possible. The company’s researchers and academics with an subsequent rebirth was to be phased interest in indigenous land use into in over five years so that, by 2003, the future. I expect that governments implementation would be complete. and courts will pay attention to it, too, Forestry and Biodiversity documents as they seek criteria for evaluating the the learning process undertaken by aboriginal rights and title arguments MacBlo employees, commissioned which can stem from map biographies. researchers, and hired contractors to Do maps speak? Good maps do. solve a complex, “wicked” problem – If the methods and standards set by how does a for-profit company sustain Tobias in Living Proof are followed, use biological diversity in a managed and occupancy maps will speak loudly coastal temperate rainforest? Its authors and clearly, and be listened to. argue that the answer was a two- pronged approach that included forest- zoning and variable retention logging, both informed by adaptive ecosystem Forestry and Biodiversity: management. They proposed that Learning How to Sustain if select, representative areas were reserved from logging, then the forest Biodiversity in Managed Forests patches would act as lifeboats. After Edited by Fred L. Bunnell and logging, the adjacent cutblock could be Glen B. Dunsworth recolonized by species in the reserved habitat, whether or not those species Vancouver: ubc Press, 2009. 374 pp. were known to, or understood by, $39.95 paper. science. This book is a highly structured, David Brownstein very complicated case study, and it is University of certainly not an easy introduction to either adaptive management or coastal “ o more clear-cuts ! ” S o ecology. Most readers will want to announced MacMillan Bloedel approach it as a reference volume – Nceo Tom Stephens in a dramatic something to sample rather than to 1998 policy shift. The gap between consume from beginning to end – an global social expectations and the approach greatly facilitated by the many firm’s perceived destructive logging section signs that point elsewhere in the practices, primarily the accusation text to related passages. It should be of that it over-harvested pristine old- great interest to advanced students of growth forests, had prompted waves biodiversity conservation as well as to of international protest. Pressure local forest managers and policy-makers from the company’s own customers (and their critics). The lucid, highly meant that business as usual was no condensed chapter summaries act as longer possible. In response, company an intelligible mental gathering point, management convened six teams and an antidote to the often highly complex gave them ninety days to address sections that they summarize. different aspects of the question of Forestry and Biodiversity is divided whether or not the company could into three unequal parts, with stop clear-cutting and still make a contributions from six authors, most profit. Previous impossibilities were variously linked to the University of 146 bc studies

British Columbia’s forestry school. During the project’s first six Part 1, the comparatively short years, this enormous forest tenure “Introduction,” has four contextual was sold and resold by four different chapters. These include a description companies. With each change in of the resource management problem, ownership, personnel within the the 1.1-million-hectare empirical case company also changed. The authors study, and two chapters on the adaptive confide that lack of corporate continuity management approach employed. was partially responsible for some Part 2, “The Indicators,” has seven failings in attaining the goals of the challenging chapters that consider adaptive management program (240). the three major indicators of success Government also hindered the process. in sustaining biological diversity Since the original analysis in 2001, the (ecosystem representation, habitat provincial government attempted to structure, and individual species) and resolve a trade dispute with the United information derived from each. Part 3, States via a 20 percent take-back of “Summary,” provides a concluding Crown lands. Further, funding came statement in two chapters, one on the from four different programs aimed monitoring program that guided the at quick, rather than enduring, results transition project and another on the (282). More recent efforts to update progress made and lessons learned the analysis have been unsuccessful. through implementing an adaptive land New company ownership no longer management program. allowed access to data from private The question in most readers’ minds lands, information was lost because of will be whether this was a successful company cutbacks for resource analysis, transformation or a complicated and some government information was corporate attempt to pass one of many not readily available (100). Throughout evaluations the authors describe: Forestry and Biodiversity, the authors “the BC-TV test” (65). The answer make oblique, scattered observations is buried in the book’s details and is indicating that even relatively simple indeterminate. While the authors have ecosystem monitoring requires great many valuable insights to share, they find commitment from a stable corporate it very difficult to assess the initiative’s and government infrastructure. I would ongoing environmental impact. We add that this is obviously a situation learn that the approach created progress not enjoyed by forest species in British in the initial years of implementation, Columbia. when the operational environment was This book represents a state-of- conducive to improvement, but that the-art articulation of current ecological “it is probably naive to expect direct and silvicultural understanding, a short-term feedback from monitoring monumental labour, and a model for results in the face of much stronger what might have been. An unfortunate economic pressures on forest managers. shortcoming is that there is no mention Ultimately, monitoring may lead to of any attempt to incorporate traditional improved practices not by direct ecological knowledge into the process. feedback but simply by serving as a Indeed, apart from infrequent mentions frequent reminder that particular forest as stakeholders, Native peoples are practices are valued for more than their entirely absent. That complaint aside, economic contributions” (170). this book is certainly timely. The United Nations declared 2010 the Book Reviews 147

International Year of Biodiversity and and city park systems in the Pacific 2011 the International Year of the Forest. Northwest was John Charles Olmsted This volume is a strong reminder that, (1852-1920). While working in the region despite MacMillan Bloedel’s quasi- early in the twentieth century, he was religious transformation in the late the senior partner of Olmsted Brothers, 1990s, that fervour has since faltered for many years ’s leading and has not been taken up by other firm of landscape architects and town companies in the province. The BC planners. It is John Olmsted’s landscape Forest Service has seen such severe designs that grace numerous cities, cuts in recent years that nobody has a small towns, and older suburban clear idea of the state of the provincial communities throughout the region, forest. Forestry and Biodiversity should especially in and around Seattle and serve as a call for reinvigorated attempts Portland. His many projects in the at ecosystem-based land management. are brought to the But, given the highly technical nature fore in this handsomely illustrated of the book, I fear few are likely to book. read it. Like his illustrious stepfather, John favoured the pastoral and picturesque approaches to landscape architecture. Greenscapes: Olmsted’s But he could also replicate any style Pacific Northwest of design desired by a client. Among many accomplishments, he was a Joan Hockaday founder and the first president of the American Association of Landscape Pullman: Washington State Uni- Architects (1899). John Olmsted was 2009 162 versity Press, . xii, pp. most renowned as a park designer. $29 95 . paper. The park systems of Seattle, Portland, Larry McCann and Spokane stand as outstanding University of Victoria illustrations of this line of work in the Pacific Northwest. But there are several hundred other landscape his book is about John Charles projects located throughout the region Olmsted, the nephew cum stepson – college and university campuses, ofT Frederick Law Olmsted Sr., the institutional and exhibition grounds, renowned landscape architect of parkways and boulevards, suburban New York’s Central Park. The senior subdivisions, and country estates Olmsted created an urban plan for – that further highlight his superb Tacoma in the early 1870s that was never craftsmanship. In Oak Bay, a suburban acted upon; Frederick Law Olmsted, municipality in Greater Victoria, Jr., John Olmsted’s stepbrother and British Columbia’s capital city region, younger than John by eighteen years, John Olmsted’s residential masterpiece, offered comments on an initial design the Uplands, has influenced a century for the University of British Columbia of subdivision design. Through its and some other Vancouver civic projects artistry and practicality, not least just before the outbreak of the First the indelible Olmstedian signature World War, but he did nothing else in of gracefully curving roads, the the Pacific Northwest. The source of Uplands has been widely imitated (for the signature Olmstedian curving roads example, at Capilano Estates in the 148 bc studies

British Properties of West Vancouver). encourage further scholarship about Remarkably, John Olmsted’s Pacific this masterful designer. It is to be hoped Northwest landscapes were conceived that such research will elaborate on in a relatively short period, from 1903 John Olmsted’s design philosophy or to the eve of the First World War. probe individual projects to reveal the During this period, John Olmsted was many ways in which he influenced not often on the road for months at a time, only landscape design but also other crisscrossing North America, carrying features of the region’s urban and in his battered trunks the plans for as suburban development. many as fifty different jobs. Joan Hockaday, the author of Greenscapes, was a leading contributor The Aquaculture Controversy in to the centenary celebrations, held in Canada: Activism, Policy, and Seattle during 2003, that paid particular homage to John Olmsted’s Seattle Contested Science park system. In this way, and with the Nathan Young and Ralph consummate skills of the investigative Matthews journalist that she is, Hockaday became aware of Olmsted’s much broader, Vancouver: ubc Press, 2010. 304 pp. regional repertoire of design projects. $85.00 cloth. To relate this wider “greenscape” story, she scoured regional archives and, more Jaime Yard important, culled the vast collection York University of letters between John and his wife, Fidie. Numbering several thousand, this source was blended with archival here are few issues in British records held at Fairstead in Brookline, Columbia more divisive than the one-time Olmsted home and office, aquaculture.T With their new book, now a national historic site and archive Nathan Young and Ralph Matthews that holds the plans and drawings for provide a timely, well-documented, and any project undertaken by the Olmsted clearly articulated step back from the firm. Other information was gathered aquaculture fray. The impetus behind from the Olmsted “Job Reports” held at the book is stated succinctly by the the Library of Congress in Washington. authors in their opening paraphrase The result is a splendid narrative, a of Ulrich Beck (2002): “this is a case comprehensive journey across untold where more and more knowledge Pacific Northwest landscapes as related paradoxically appears to be leading us through the “eyes” and letter-writing of further and further from consensus” the master designer and, sometimes, of (13). In response to the proliferation clients. Hockaday is skilled at extracting of aquaculture debates, Young and a telling word or sentence that describes Matthews provide a useful outline of the essential character and importance many key contemporary issues. This of an Olmsted landscape. book could serve as a useful foundation Greenscapes: Olmsted’s Pacific for academics, coastal communities, Northwest lays out the varied industry members, policy-makers, contributions of John Olmsted in the and lobbyists who are interested in Pacific Northwest. Besides standing gaining access to reliable baseline data on its own merits, the book should on such crucial issues as employment Book Reviews 149 potential and quality, regulatory Neoliberalism is usefully deployed in instruments and challenges, and the the text as a descriptive analytical frame conflicts inherent in the Canadian state for contemporary state facilitation simultaneously working to regulate and of global markets, but the critique of to promote aquaculture development. this economic ideology is sometimes A useful inventory of active pro- left implicit in the data-concentrated and anti-aquaculture lobby groups is chapters to follow. Young and included (10-12). This research redresses Matthews’s critique is most apparent a fundamental gap in the existing in the final chapter of the book, which literature on aquaculture, namely, an addresses aquaculture industry self- index of key issues and data without regulation. Readers looking for a more a prior commitment to a pro- or anti- critical investigation of the application aquaculture development stance. of neoliberal ideology in fisheries Aquaculture Controversy in Canada is and aquaculture might supplement divided into three main sections. The their reading with Dean Bavington’s principal argument of the first section is Managed Annihilation, an examination that aquaculture development and policy of management ideology in fisheries, must be understood with reference to also recently published by ubc Press; broader structural changes to Canadian the ongoing work of Evelyn Pinkerton economic organization – specifically, on ecosystem-based fisheries co- neoliberal restructuring of cycles of management; and John Phyne’s critical accumulation and systems of regulation. comparative work on aquaculture in Descriptions of the reconfiguration of Norway, Ireland, and Chile. These local-global connections and devolution authors provide in-depth examinations of state involvement in industrial of the community-level impacts of regulation to corporate actors are the private enclosure of ecological persistent themes of this work and of commons for aquaculture development, earlier work by these authors (Young while Young and Matthews focus their 2008; Young and Matthews 2007). attention on the discursive construction Given the great emphasis within of such impacts. this section on the empowerment In part two, Young and Matthews of corporate actors under neoliberal posit that, for the majority of Canadians, reforms, the absence of any sustained aquaculture is “learned rather than discussion of corporate concentration lived” (75): that is, farmed fish are within global aquaculture, particularly encountered only as controversial the role of Norwegian transnational commodities in the market, the corporations in shaping the industry, conditions of their production being is a notable absence. The analytic something read about rather than framework that Young and Matthews witnessed directly. Through the three provide – juxtaposing the geography chapters in this section the authors of Fordist extractive development outline how the authority of science to neoliberal resource management is invoked in a contradictory manner strategies – would be usefully grounded by environmental non-governmental by a more sustained discussion of the organizations (engo), industry public major global aquaculture corporations relations, aquaculture experts, and and the extent of their Canadian the media. Chapter 3 specifically investments. examines key incidents that have contributed to the endemic uncertainty 150 bc studies in scientific debates about aquaculture. invitation for key contested studies in the Significantly, they find that it is engo debate – on pcb levels (Hites et al. 2004), aquaculture opponents who have been sea lice contamination of wild fish most successful in defining the issues for (Krkosek et al. 2007, 2008; Riddell et debate and their scientific framing 103( ). al. 2008), and the effects of chemicals The authors suggest that the extreme and antibiotics on surrounding marine splitting of the expert community and environments and human health – to their claims to scientific authority on be restructured and repeated by teams such issues as environmental impacts, of researchers with different industry, toxicity and human health, and effects public, and engo affiliations. Chapter 5 on wild fish stocks have resulted in is a content analysis of 1,558 print media an increasingly technical debate that items from two national and five appears to have undermined, rather regional newspapers. The separation than enhanced, the public faith in of economic and environmental issues scientific objectivity. Stated otherwise, in media coverage is emphasized, as is aquaculture is often perceived by the the reliance of the media on a few key public to be a moral and commercial industry and engo spokespeople. debate disguised as a scientific one. Perhaps the most valuable and Chapter 4 draws upon a survey, potentially most controversial conducted by Young and Matthews chapters are contained in the final and their research assistants, of three section of the book, which deals with hundred aquaculture experts across political economy. Chapter 6 relays Canada. Expertise is defined as “direct the findings of a survey responded involvement in aquaculture and the to by 275 aquaculture firms across communication of research findings” Canada. An estimate of full-time, and “formal educational background part-time, and seasonal employment in natural and/or social sciences” (115). in the industry nationwide is provided: The survey finds that the institutional five thousand to six thousand jobs for affiliation of experts is the strongest the 2003-04 year (202). Significantly, determinant in their responses to the survey finds that three-quarters questions, but the authors avoid taking of the aquaculture workforce is male. a stand on whether or not personal Together, these statistics are in direct and social variables help explain conflict with claims by the Province professional stances on aquaculture (113). of British Columbia that “aquaculture Nevertheless, they quantify how value provides about 6,000 jobs” in British orientations towards economic growth Columbia alone and casts doubt upon and environmental health correlate the claim that “over half the jobs in with support for and opposition to BC aquaculture are filled by women aquaculture development (129-30). and First Nations” (British Columbia They conclude that experts on all sides 2010). Young and Matthews’s research of the debate are more interested in reflects that the aquaculture workforce “protecting the integrity of science is divided on gender-segregated lines, from the turbulence caused by the with women highly concentrated in controversy than they are with attacking seasonal work – a continuation of the adversaries” (157) and that experts traditional gender divide in fishing and overwhelmingly place blame upon the fish processing 204( ; see also Muszyńska media for fuelling the controversy. 1996). This finding appears as a promising Book Reviews 151

The final chapter outlines the rationale activists and germane to the discussion behind what the Canadian government at hand (see especially Singer 1975, calls “results-based regulation,” or 2006; Shukin 2009). At a time when “performance-based regulation.” an ever-increasing portion of the This type of regulation is opposed to global fisheries harvest comes from process regulation, which industry has farms, the lack of attention paid to deemed too cumbersome. Young and how the rights of fish themselves are Matthews argue that the devolution represented by interested parties, and of regulatory power to corporate actors the naturalization of privatizing a wild is based on two assumptions: first, resource, deserves more attention and that the “private sector is inherently might have been more prominently innovative” and, second, that “flexibility noted by the authors. Overall, however, is necessary to remain competitive in Aquaculture Controversy in Canada global markets” (37). They highlight is an important contribution to the the contradictions inherent in the aquaculture issue, providing a reliable simultaneous promotional and baseline for public policy debates and regulatory goals of the Canadian academics alike. government vis-à-vis aquaculture. The jurisdictional complications between Works Cited federal and provincial ministries and Bavington, Dean. 2010. Managed acts are clearly outlined. This is an Annihilation: An Unnatural History issue that promises to become more of the Newfoundland Cod Collapse. complex in British Columbia as in- Vancouver: ubc Press. land container aquaculture is overseen Beck, Ulrich and Elisabeth Beck- by the BC ministries of environment 2002 and agriculture and lands rather than Gernsheim. . Individualization: Fisheries and Oceans Canada. Institutionalized Individualism and There is only one significant gap Its Social and Political Consequences. London: Sage. in the text that I wish to emphasize. 2010 Implicit in the list of issues that British Columbia. . Aquaculture. Young and Matthews provide is an http://www.gov.bc.ca/yourbc/ acceptance of the anthropocentrism aquaculture/aa_workers.html?src=/ that undergirds rendering wild fish workers/aa_workers.html (viewed 6 October 2010). into domesticated private property for 2004 human consumption. While it might Hites, Ronald A. et al. . be argued that this focus on human “Global Assessment of Organic Contaminants in Farmed Salmon.” livelihoods simply mirrors a gap in 303 226 29 the public discourse that Young and Science : - . 2007 Matthews set out to track, many groups Krkosek, Martin et al. . “Declining active in the aquaculture controversy Wild Salmon Populations in Relation attempt to speak on behalf of wild fish to Parasites from Farm Salmon.” 318 1772 75 or invoke the inherent importance of Science : - . salmon to BC heritage. The macro- ––––. 2008. “Response to Comment on history of environmental movements ‘Declining Wild Salmon Populations included in the text completely ignores in Relation to Parasites from Farm a vast literature in animal studies and Salmon.’” Science 322: 1790c. on animal rights that is both central Muszyńska, Alicja. 1996. Cheap to the logic of many anti-aquaculture Wage Labour: Race and Gender in 152 bc studies

the Fisheries of British Columbia. its predecessors. In a good, general Montreal and Kingston: McGill- introduction (there are no citations or Queens University Press. notes), Inglis traces the history of the Riddell, Brian E. et al. 2008. “Comment region as Europeans both imagined on ‘Declining Wild Salmon and came to know it. As one would Populations in Relation to Parasites expect, the Northwest Coast, taken as from Farm Salmon.’” Science 322: extending from northern California 1790b. to Alaska and, in some instances, Singer, Peter. 1975. Animal Liberation. Kamchatka, is introduced as the home New York: Harper Collins. of many peoples and the object of ––––. 2006. In Defense of Animals: The imperial designs by Russians, Spanish, Second Wave. Malden: Blackwell. British, and USAmericans; however, Shukin, Nicole. 2009. Animal Capital: French voyages are also included, and Rendering Life in Biopolitical there is a wee entry about Asian voyages. Times. Minneapolis: University of Readers will be divided on whether Minnesota Press. a work bearing this title requires a Native perspective; at any rate, one is Young, Nathan. 2008. “Radica l not attempted. Although an extensive, Neoliberalism in British Columbia: seventy-five-page bibliography – with Remaking Rural Geographies.” its own table of contents (355-58) and Canadian Journal of Sociology 33 (1): divided into twenty-four parts, ranging 1-36. from an introductory section (that Young, Nathan, and Ralph Matthews. includes, among other things, reference 2007. “Resource Economies and works, maps, and “key monographs”) Neo-Liberal Experimentation: The to a section on the Oregon Treaty – is Reform of Industry and Community too often not up to date, descriptions in Rural British Columbia.” Area: found in various entries are solid and Journal of the Royal Geographical accurate, maps of the coast drawn for Society/Institute of British Geographers the volume helpful, and the Chronology 39 (2): 176-85. satisfactory as far as it goes (1494-1867). Notably error-free for the most part, the text for entries uses bold font for Historical Dictionary of the names of people, places, and events that have their own entries, so the Discovery and Exploration of the resource serves its reader well as far as Northwest Coast of America it goes. A considerable disappointment Robin Inglis is the volume’s lack of an index (other titles in this series lack one as well). Plymouth, UK: Scarecrow Press, Few illustrations – four – are included, none in colour. This aspect of the 2008. 512 pp. $108.00 cloth. book, together with the absence in the I.S. MacLaren bibliography of a section on artists who University of Alberta accompanied expeditions, is a surprise given a prefatorial emphasis on their contribution (ix) and entries for many he fourth in a series of historical of them. dictionaries from the Scarecrow Press,T Robin Inglis’s Historical The “historical” in Historical Dictionary meets the standard set by Dictionary is exhibited in the emphasis Book Reviews 153 on the role that a person or place played naturalist on the US Exploring before 1867. For example, ) would be defensible if Island’s Friendly Cove, “a small but there were not entries for George well-sheltered harbor at the entrance Wilhelm Steller, the naturalist on to ” (132), derives its Bering’s second Kamchatka expedition significance from being home to of 1741; Dufresne, on La Pérouse’s “Mowachaht” people and having 1781 expedition; Tadeo Hanke, on hosted Cook (1778), the Nootka Sound Malaspina’s expedition; and Archibald Incident (1789), and Malaspina and Menzies, on Vancouver’s expedition. Vancouver (early 1790s), all of whom/ Similarly, fur trader Gabriel Franchère, which have entries of their own (the known because he published a book Mowachaht excepted). The entry for about his time on the Pacific Slope, “Nootka” mentions Nuu-chah-nulth has an entry, but fellow trader Ross First Nations (238) but does not indicate Cox, who published a better book, the Mowachaht Muchalaht as one of does not. Among other traders on the them. An index could have provided , Peter Skene Ogden, clarification. Without one, the reader John McLoughlin, and likely puts down the book and embarks rate an entry; William Fraser Tolmie on an internet search. (whose name appears in the entry Entries on luminaries of exploration, for Fort Nisqually), John Work, and such as Bering and Chirikov, Bodega y Samuel Black do not. Despite placing Quadra, Cook, Malaspina, Vancouver, the end point of the Chronology at Mackenzie, Lewis and Clark, and 1867 (marking the date not of Canadian Thompson are factually accurate and Confederation but, rather, of Russia’s sufficiently detailed (e.g., in terms selling of Alaska to the ), of the inclusion of dates) and are neither the Fraser River (1858-59) nor the buttressed by solid entries on lesser Cariboo (1862) gold rushes have entries, lights such as Dimitrii Bragin, Peter nor do New Westminster, Yale, Fort Puget, Ivan Fedorovich Kruzenshtern, Langley, or Fort Rupert. San Francisco Zachary Mudge, and the remarkable receives an entry, but the California Cossack Semen Dezhnev, “the first gold rush (1848-55) does not. The 1859 to sail around the northern edge on the San Juan Islands of Asia, now Cape Dezhnev, and is remarked on in the Chronology through what was later named Bering (xliii), but it is only discussed in the Strait” (102). As one would perhaps entry entitled “San Juan Boundary expect in a reference book, the entries Dispute,” which does not appear in the offer no groundbreaking historical Chronology. interpretation. This marks another instance of how There are few sins of commission, an index would have enhanced the but sins of omission abound. There is no volume, and yet another occurs in an entry for , arguably the attempt to sort out which First Nations foremost product of Pacific Northwest have entries and which do not. Although discovery and exploration, yet there the entry on Natives does as good a is a short one on the labret, which descriptive job as is possible in nine is inaccurately associated only with hundred words, only general groups Tlingit and only with Tlingit women. are identified. Elsewhere in the volume, That no entry exists for David Douglas Haida, Tlingit, Chinook, and Makah or for Charles Pickering (the foremost have their own entries, but Nisga’a, 154 bc studies

Kwakwaka’wakw, and Songhees – or or fish (an entry for Monterey Shells is any Coast Salish group – do not, and one exception) or fishing and hunting. neither do Interior/Plateau Salish. The design of watercraft, whether of As to individuals, Wickaninnish, Native or non-Native manufacture, Maquinna, and Cunneah have entries, attracts no entries, an exception being but and Casenov/Cazenove/ baidarka (Aleutian open boats, larger Cassino, the Chinook leaders whose than kayaks). rule of the lower Columbia River A few surprise entries are welcome. during the height of the at One is for early historians of the was considerable, do region, such as Hubert Howe Bancroft not. Some Spanish missionary activities and Frederic W. Howay. An entry are mentioned, and Eusebio Francisco occurs for geographer and speculative Kin and the Carmel Mission have cartographer Philippe Buache, who, entries, as does the Russian Orthodox on his 1752 map, plotted Buddhist Church, but the volume has nothing monk Hui Shen’s fanciful kingdom about Belgian, French-Canadian, of Fusang in British Columbia. An British, and USAmerican missionaries entry for cartography provides a good, (such as François Norbert Blanchet brief history of its evolution with and Modeste Demers, Pierre-Jean De respect to the region, and entries for Smet, Cushing and Myra Eells, Henry Aaron Arrowsmith and Alexander Spalding, Asa Bowen Smith, Elkanah Dalrymple suggest that the author is and Mary Walker, Daniel Lee, and particularly interested in the history of Marcus and Narcissa Whitman). maps. Brobdingnag, Jonathan Swift’s Yet, while there is no comprehensive imaginary realm in Gulliver’s Travels entry for missionaries, there is one (1726), has an entry, which is meritorious for artists and for each artist who for noting that Swift “exploited the accompanied expeditions of exploration Pacific as a region outside the sphere – for instance, John Webber with of reality, approachable only in fiction Cook, Atanásio Echeverría with and satire, as indeed it remained for Revillagigedo and Bodega y Quadra, another generation” (51). Entrada de Luka Voronin with Joseph Billings, Hezeta has its own entry, as it should, Gaspard Duché de Vancy and Blondela for this first European name 1775( ) for with La Pérouse, Tomás de Suría with the delta of the Columbia River is Malaspina, and George seldom recalled. The entries for health Davidson with Gray, Henry Humphrys and disease are troubling in that the with Vancouver, Louis Choris with former is reserved for whites and the von Kotzebue, William Smyth with latter for First Nations. The “vanishing Beechey, and Friedrich Heinrich von Indian” motif, which ends the section Kittlitz with Litke/Lütke. (Alfred on First Nations and disease, concludes Agate, Joseph Drayton, and Henry that, in the hundred years between Eld – who served on the US Exploring 1774 and 1874 “the native population of Expedition under Charles Wilkes – are the Northwest Coast fell by up to 80 listed in the entry for him.) However, percent from 188,000 to 38,000” (104). no entries exist for other early European Entries occur for artefacts, navigation, or Euro-North American artists who and running surveys as well as for came overland, so Paul Kane, John Mix cannibalism and violence (principally, Stanley, and Gustav Sohon are absent. between whites and Natives) but not for There is nothing about animals, birds, religions or the relationship between Book Reviews 155 evangelizing and exploring (let alone brief publication. But it is too bad Native belief systems). Meanwhile, that a little more weight could not however, scientists garner an entry, have been given to its affairs west presumably because much European of the Rocky Mountains. In little exploration of the region occurred more than forty years the company during the Age of Reason (290). extended its influence from Montreal This is, taken altogether, a fairly to the Arctic and south to Fort George comprehensive dictionary, exhibiting (Astoria) at the mouth of the Columbia some wide gaps and some genuine River. Modern British Columbia strengths. Suturing people, places, owes its existence to four great nwc and events together is perhaps still explorers: Alexander Mackenzie, David a necessary scholarly and publishing Thompson, Simon Fraser, and John activity, but it is fast being outflanked Stuart (Fraser’s second-in-command). by contributions to Wikipedia, the Omitted is the important fact that, cross-referencing capability of which for almost half of the nwc’s forty enables many links to be drawn that no years – until its amalgamation with reference source without an index can the Hudson’s Bay Company (hbc) in achieve. 1821 – the nwc trading posts in New Caledonia (Fraser’s name for British Columbia) shipped up to four tons of Profit and Ambition: The North superior furs by annual fur brigades, West Company and the Fur thousands of kilometres east to Fort William. During the final terrible six Trade, 1779-1821 years brigades were forced to run the David A. Morrison gauntlet of hbc traders fighting hard to gain a foothold in Athabaska and New Gatineau, QC: Canadian Museum Caledonia. of Civilization Corporation, 2009. Looking closely at the illustrations, 64 pp. Illus., maps, $19.95 paper. one finds a definite preference for the Marie Elliott east side of the Rockies: a brass and iron kettle, assorted guns, Native dress, and Victoria ornaments. Even the romantic vistas by Frances Anne Hopkins are of voyageurs his booklet was published to on eastern rivers, and Paul Kane’s The accompany the Canadian Museum Mountain Portage is of Kakabeka Falls ofT Civilization’s current exhibition (by near Fort William. The maps provide the same name), which ends 6 February some glimpse of New Caledonia and 2011. It is more than just a catalogue the Columbia River, but those on page because, in addition to the superb 48 appear to be post-1960. Fraser did graphic layout of maps, paintings, not portage around the Peace River and artefacts, most in colour, the text Dam and canoe up Williston Lake, nor provides a succinct overview of the did Thompson travel across Kinbasket history of the North West Company Lake. The map on page 62 shows too (nwc). many forts west of the mountains for There were so many twists and 1817; there were only three in New turns to the progress of the nwc Caledonia at that time. that it is impossible to include all This publication fills the void the main characters and plots in a in a dearth of fur trade resources 156 bc studies available for social studies teachers in much about British Columbia, but a son elementary and high schools and also (Chartres Brew) of a family friend was serves as encouragement to conduct known to be forming a constabulary further research. Lest we think that there. With no more information the fur trade died out long ago, the than that, but armed with letters of Fur Council of Canada assures us on recommendation from important their website that, “thanks to modern people, O’Reilly immigrated to British wildlife management and trapping Columbia. Governor Douglas, then regulations, there are as many beavers struggling to find minimally qualified and muskrats in North America now as colonial officials, appointed him a when the Europeans first arrived in the stipendiary magistrate and provisional continent.” gold commissioner. O’Reilly flourished in British Columbia. He became a county court Peter O’Reilly: The Rise of a judge; a member of the Legislative Reluctant Immigrant Council; briefly the commissioner of BC Land and Works; and, for Lynn Stonier-Newman eighteen years from the summer of 1880, the province’s Indian reserve Vancouver: TouchWood Editions, 1863 2010 278 $19 95 commissioner. In December , he . pp. . paper. married Caroline Trutch, sister of Cole Harris Joseph Trutch, who, when Douglas University of British Columbia retired a few months later, became the colony’s chief commissioner of lands and works. He lived in a fashionable house eter O’Reilly, third son of a – Point Ellis House – on the outskirts landed Anglo-Irish family with of Victoria, entertained lavishly, and estatesP in County Meath (Ireland) and moved comfortably in the highest social Lancashire (), immigrated to circles. He had become a prominent Vancouver Island early in 1859. He was figure among the small group of men thirty-two years of age and had served who dominated the social hierarchy and for six years in the Irish Revenue Police, political agenda of early modern British from which, when it merged with the Columbia. Royal Irish Constabulary, he had been Such a man deserves a biography, honourably discharged. A lover of and Lynne Stonier-Newman has horses, he then became a stable hand provided a lively, readable one intended responsible for the health of pedigreed for a general readership. It situates horses in a prestigious stable, but he O’Reilly within the main political resigned when his father considered events of his day – the Chilcotin War, the position socially unacceptable – it the amalgamation of the colonies, diminished his daughters’ marital Confederation, arguments over the prospects. The family estates were not railway, the Indian land question – prospering, and, in these circumstances, but particularly within his family life a grandfather recommended and social relations. He emerges most emigration. India after the mutiny clearly in this account as husband, seemed dangerous, and career prospects father, and friend. in the British Caribbean seemed For those less interested in this limited. No one in the family knew domestic O’Reilly than in his fit with Book Reviews 157 the larger events of his day, this book together as well as the Britishness of may be frustrating. For one thing, it their outlook and aspirations. It shows is barely footnoted. Lynne Stonier- how effortlessly they assumed their Newman has worked hard in many right to live in and govern a part of the archives, but, with next to no footnotes, world that, a few years before, few of the status of most of her information is them knew anything about. As for Peter unclear. Governor Douglas, she says, O’Reilly himself, it reveals a considerate granted Native fishing reserves near husband and father, and a trustworthy Yale in the summer of 1858. If so, this official who did his superiors’ bidding, is important information, previously thought within the values of his class, unknown, but what is the evidence? and would never espouse a cause that He certainly granted a reserve at Yale risked his social standing or the well- in the summer of 1858, the first reserve being of his family. on the mainland, but one reserve is not fishing reserves. Her claim deserves to be tracked down, yet the tracking is not simple. Similarly, she suggests at Inside Chinatown: Ancient several points that O’Reilly held a more Culture in a New World generous view of Native land allocation than his brother-in-law, Joseph Trutch, Robert Amos and a claim that, without accompanying Kileasa Wong evidence, cannot be evaluated. There are similar uncertainties on virtually Victoria: TouchWood Editions, 2010 160 $44 95 every page. . pp. . paper. Nor is Stonier-Newman much aware Larry Wong of O’Reilly’s official doings or of their Vancouver implications. She has, for example, very little sense of O’Reilly’s work in the Nicola Valley in the summer of 1858 his book is like an open house as, on his brother-in-law’s instructions, Tfor all benevolent and family he laid out reserves of ten acres (4.05 associations to Victoria’s Chinatown, hectares) per family, or of the effect the oldest in Canada. The reader is of these allocations on the Nicola. introduced to each society and its Similarly, she ignores the on-the- purpose, through many photographs, ground results of O’Reilly’s eighteen some never before published, and years as Indian reserve commissioner, histories in both English and Chinese. when, more than anyone else, he created The founding of the societies is the reserve map of British Columbia, integral to the history of Chinese in the principal work and legacy of his life. Canada, as is shown very well in this On the other hand, hers is an book. The societies were set up to help intriguing glimpse of elite society in newly arrived immigrants. In general, early-modern British Columbia. It the benevolent and family associations reveals the opportunity the province were meant to help new immigrants offered a small group of men to achieve from in the twentieth century, a social and political prominence that such as the Hook Sin Tong Charity could not possibly have been theirs Association, the Chinese Consolidated in Britain. It reveals the close web of Benevolent Association, and the Lee social relations that bound this group Association. 158 bc studies

Later, service clubs such as the Lions Chinese Community Leadership: Club and the Chinatown Intermediate Case Study of Victoria in Canada Care Centre came into being. Politics also played an important role in the David Chuenyan Lai establishment of the Chinese Young Men’s Progressive Party and the Chinese Singapore: World Scientific Publishing, 2010. 250 pp. Illus. Canadian Cultural Association. There $50 00 were also martial arts clubs such as . paper. the Sheung Wong Kung-Fu Club and Larry Wong the Dart Coon Club; for the ladies Vancouver there were the Lung Kong Women’s Association, the Victoria Chinese Ladies Club, and the Chinatown am particularly interested in Lioness Club. this volume, having been born in Nods are given to outstanding Vancouver’sI Chinatown in 1938 and individuals who helped shape Victoria’s having a father who was treasurer of Chinatown, such as David Lai, Kileasa a district association. He was a shirt Wong, and Alan Lowe, the former tailor, and I remember in the 1940s and mayor of Victoria. But Jack and Bessie 1950s his friends were on the boards of Tang, who contributed so much to the Chinese Benevolent Association Chinese opera in Victoria, are not (cba) and other societies. I didn’t mentioned. realize how community-minded and It may have been outside the book’s influential these people were until scope, but I would have liked to have much later in my life. One outstanding seen mention of the Mission Home for friend of my father’s was Wong Foon Girls, which became an orphanage, a Sien, then national president of the cba school, and a safe haven for Chinese in Vancouver. For many years in the girls in the early twentieth century. 1960s he regularly made pilgrimages to Though the book focuses on Ottawa to lobby for the opening up of Victoria’s Chinatown, the stories of immigration laws for Chinese. the societies apply to any Chinatown In his book, David Lai examines the in Canada. In fact, some societies’ persistence of early Chinese organizers headquarters moved to Vancouver in helping those in need and providing early last century. This shift led to the community leadership. He provides rich growth of Vancouver’s Chinatown, details about early Chinese history in which explains the bond between Canada, illustrated by the reproduction the two communities of Victoria and of original documents, other records, Vancouver. and a seven-page bibliography. Lai’s focus is on the Consolidated Chinese Benevolent Association in Victoria. It was March 1884 when a group of Chinese merchants in Victoria wrote to the Chinese consul-general in San Francisco requesting the establishment of a consulate in Canada. The Chinese had first arrived in Victoria in June 1858, yet, for almost thirty years, there had been no representatives of their Book Reviews 159 homeland other than clan associations. Victoria in June 1884. Once the cpr Why? Because the Manchu simply was completed, an economic slump didn’t have a consulate in Canada. set in, and all of the Chinese railway The consul-general in San Francisco workers became unemployed. Workers obviously thought it was a good drifted to Victoria in large numbers, idea and gave the go-ahead for the making merchants uneasy. There was Victoria merchants to form the Chinese no Chinese consulate in Canada, and it Consolidated Benevolent Association became increasingly important to have (ccba), allowing it “the power and community representation such as that authority to ‘govern’ Chinatown and provided by the ccba. Manchu subjects in Canada” (28). Twenty merchants sat on the ccba The following month, a temporary provisional board. Their mandate board of directors in Victoria sent out was to look after the sick and poor, a notice to all Chinatowns in British arbitrate disputes, police social Columbia about the formation of the vices in Chinatown, and fight racial ccba, which sought a minimum of discrimination. Board members were two dollars from each Chinese and mostly in the import and export offered special recognition to those business as well as in labour-recruiting, who gave more than three dollars. land development, and opium- In addition to fundraising, the ccba manufacturing. Opium was legal then wanted to function as a collective voice and profitable, particularly for the to fight against the ten-dollar provincial province, which collected taxes on it. head tax and the fifteen-dollar gold- In 1885, the ccba purchased property mining tax (as well as against other on Fisgard Street and built a three- discriminatory practices then in place). storey brick structure: “the street façade The next step was to draw up a displayed a double tiered projecting constitution written in both English balcony with wooden supporting posts, and Chinese, with the former being sent decorative corner brackets, fretwork to the Registrar of Companies as part and turned balusters, dividing and of an application for incorporation. On decorative canopies” (39-40). The street 18 A u g u s t 1884, t h e C h i n e s e level was for commercial use; the second Consolidated Benevolent Association floor housed the association office; and became a legal entity; for the next the third level was a temple. twenty-five years it was the official voice Merchants in Chinatown enjoyed a of the Chinese communities in Canada, certain amount of prestige during the until a Chinese consulate-general was 1880s. They were mostly immigrants finally installed in Ottawa. from poor backgrounds; however, in We know about the Chinese labourers “Gold Mountain” (a name Chinese who helped construct the Canadian used when referring to California Pacific Railway cpr( ) but not about their and/or British Columbia), by working misery and poverty. Things were so bad hard, these people could enhance that merchants sent a discouraging their social status through honorary message to China, warning labour official titles and ranks awarded by recruiters that two thousand Chinese (or purchased from) the Manchu had died not only from accidents but government. This was a means for the also from the cold climate and beriberi. latter to acquire the loyalty of overseas The message was ignored, however, subjects, particularly through their and more Chinese labourers came to fundraising for investment in China or 160 bc studies for the provision of relief from drought Kong before boarding the ship, and or flood in the home country. put them on before disembarking. By the 1890s, ccba members had Then you will not be disgraced in front nine broad functions: they worked of Westerners; on board the ship, do for the consulate-general in San not undress and catch fleas. Go to the Francisco; fought discriminatory laws; toilet and never urinate overboard. sought protection of Chinese citizens Westerners will not excuse you if you from abuses; enforced the integrity commit this offence; line up for meals of Chinatown; arbitrated internal and do not jump the queue; when disputes; operated the Chinese hospital, Westerners are eating inside their cemetery, and school; shipped bones rooms, do not pop your head in and back to China for burial; fundraised for look, otherwise you will be chided; relief work in Canada; and fundraised after the ship docks, a Western doctor for relief from disasters in China (64-65). will come aboard to check the health In a surprising revelation, David of passengers. Listen to the interpreter Lai notes a letter from the ccba to the and disembark in an orderly fashion. Tung Wah Hospital in Hong Kong, Clean yourself first and put on new warning it not to send more Chinese to clothing before disembarking. (76) Canada, not because of the impending federal head tax of fifty dollars but David Lai also documents other because of the high unemployment rate aspects of Victoria’s Chinatown, such among Chinese railway workers upon as the Chinese school, the Chinese completion of the cpr and Vancouver hospital, and the Chinese cemetery. Island’s Esquimalt and Nanaimo He describes how bones were collected Railway. The hospital – for the ccba from all over British Columbia after the equivalent of a Chinese charitable seven years’ burial and stored in organization – responded that there was Victoria. He also provides a detailed nothing it could do to stop the flow of map of the province, with the locations immigrants as the Manchu government of gravesites. was under pressure from the British He himself participated in the government to encourage Chinese mass burial of bones and the national labourers to emigrate from China and designation of the Chinese cemetery to work in British colonies despite the in Victoria at Harling Point. Other infamous head tax. interesting subjects appear in the chapter Chinese immigration to Canada entitled “Organizational Growth, 1890- therefore continued. By 1901, the ccba 1930s,” which addresses the short-lived had established a code of conduct. Most Chinese Empire Reform Association, immigrants were from poor villages and Dr. Sun Yat-Sen’s Revolutionary Party, were unfamiliar with Western culture and the expansion of the clan and and customs. The following rules were county associations. drawn up so as not to offend Western When Canada recognized China in passengers and, perhaps, to save face: 1970, the cba in Vancouver was divided into two camps: the pro-Taiwan camp whether being met by relatives or by moved out of the 108 East Pender Street friends at the pier in Canada, make building in which it had been based and sure you have five dollars for travelling established the Chinese Benevolent after you go ashore; buy dresses, Association of Canada at 537 Main trousers, hats, and socks in Hong Street in December 1978; the other Book Reviews 161 camp became the Vancouver Chinese since the impact of Campbell and the Benevolent Association. Recently, there political machine he headed is evident has been talk about reintegrating the throughout Vancouver today. He and two groups. his co-authors provide an indispensable David Lai brings his book up to summary of how external and internal the present time, allowing both a forces influenced the problems of the retrospective look and a glimpse des. However, as involved outsiders, into the future. Chinese Community they are less successful in representing Leadership is generously illustrated the des as a community and rely too with original documents, such as much on the official voices of the circulars, regulations, lists of directors, activists and service providers with and minutes of the ccba and other whom they have worked. While this organizations. Thanks to his long limits the book’s ability to speak for the involvement in Victoria’s Chinatown des, it does not detract from the value of and decades of research, Lai offers its information in speaking of the des. insights no one else can provide. Thanks to Lori Culbert, a veteran Unfortunately, this is his last book – a Vancouver reporter, the book is well- testimony to his endless curiosity and written, well-researched, and well- his passion to record history. It will organized. And Simon Fraser University stand proudly next to my copy of Edgar (sfu) criminologist Neil Boyd provides Wickberg’s From China to Canada: a researcher’s perspective on the origin A History of Chinese Communities in of many of the problems facing the Canada (Toronto: McClelland and des. However, the main author and Stewart, 1982). main subject of the book is Larry Campbell. As a police officer, a , a municipal and federal politician, a A Thousand Dreams: contributor to many research and policy reports, a member of many community Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside service agencies, and a media darling, and the Fight for Its Future Campbell was there when things were Larry Campbell, Neil Boyd, happening. He provides the story and Lori Culbert behind the story, and his first-person accounts of pivotal people and events Vancouver: Greystone, 2009. 230 pp. make the book lively. To students of $24.95 paper. Vancouver’s political history and policy development, his perspective on events Gordon Roe in and around the des is golden. Langara College Unfortunately, too much of the book is devoted to the defence of Campbell’s Thousand Dreams is a very legacy. There are annoying omissions A thorough, if partisan, overview of and inclusions. For example, the book the events in the Downtown Eastside states that, as Vancouver’s chief coroner, (des) over the last twenty years. he tried not to take official notice of The partisan aspect is due to the many cases of “assisted suicide” among overwhelming voice of Larry Campbell terminal aids patients, but it passes over and the resulting emphasis on what he his unsuccessful attempt to subpoena did and what he considers important. sfu student Russel Ogden’s research This is an important perspective, on exactly that. And while the section 162 bc studies on Da Vinci’s Inquest, a TV show based of the P3 solution, and some of their loosely on Campbell’s time as coroner, is voices appear, but there is no question interesting, devoting an entire chapter that, for the authors, this is the future to it is a tad excessive. of the des. Much of the book is devoted to The book is enjoyable to read and supporting the vision of a “mixed” very informative, and anyone interested community, developed by Campbell’s in the des in general and the events political ally Jim Green, as a solution to of the last twenty years in particular the des’s problems. Private developers should read it – but critically. If the des are now required to incorporate has a thousand dreams, it also has ten subsidized units and street-level retail thousand voices, and not all of them are spaces into market developments, and in this book. both the municipal and provincial governments are funding the repair or building of new social housing units. Social service agencies, most from the des, manage this social housing Burlesque West: Showgirls, Sex, for the residents of the area. The and Sin in Postwar Vancouver result is two-pronged: although there Becki Ross has been a substantial increase in the number of better-quality subsidized and Toronto: University of Toronto supervised housing units, there has also Press, 2009. 368 pp. $29.95 paper. been an overall decrease in the number of simply affordable housing units in Lara Campbell the area. Large numbers of current Simon Fraser University residents of the area are being displaced. The lucky ones get the new subsidized eather boas and glamorous and affordable housing; the unlucky Fstage shows, breast implants and ones move to the steadily increasing stripper poles: these images of postwar number of emergency shelters or live Vancouver nightlife in Burlesque West rough on the streets and in doorways. reflect the contradictory cultural status A consequence of this “Public- of striptease. Although striptease was Private Partnership” (P3) development defined by various experts as sexually policy is that the existing community deviant, Becki Ross convincingly argues has become redefined as one of service that it was at the same time a popular providers and service receivers. Many and profitable part of Vancouver’s of the social service and community postwar economy. Dancers lived with organizations in the area have become and negotiated this contradiction. As either partners in development or female-dominated work that was fairly developers themselves. There is a lucrative, striptease offered women a growing divide in the des between degree of independence, control, and the newly arrived and revitalized sexual empowerment. Yet dancers also market-oriented community and the worked in an environment that was current residents, many of whom structured by patriarchal and racist are being moved to social service- assumptions about women’s sexuality, supervised housing “reserves.” The and they suffered from occupational book acknowledges that there are hazards that were hard on their bodies individuals and organizations critical and lives. Book Reviews 163

Becki Ross places erotic dancing whom challenged restrictive definitions soundly in the category of work, of female sexuality on a regular basis. carefully showing how dancers, like Attentiveness to race and ethnicity other female workers in the postwar allows Ross to explore how ideas era, had to negotiate gender inequality, about race shaped the geography assumptions of heteronormativity, and and ownership of nightclubs, and sexual harassment. Other historians and the experiences of both dancers and sociologists have analyzed striptease as spectators. The spatial divide of labour, but Ross pushes further to Vancouver, with East End clubs that explore the association of striptease were racially diverse, stigmatized, and with cultural constructions of race, heavily policed, and West End clubs ethnicity, and gender; the relationship that were frequented by “higher-class” of dancers with male clients and club Anglo dancers and clientele, adds to owners; and the connections between the story of racism and segregation dancers and the second-wave women’s in Vancouver’s urban history. Ross movement. Her book is centred around shows how black dancers, for example, interviews with retired dancers, club had to embody racist stereotypes of owners, musicians, and other workers in primitive sexuality, yet did so with the industry, and Ross deeply respects awareness, forethought, and remarkable their experiences and perceptions. humour (124-26). Her willingness to Supplementing oral histories with take seriously the stories of “men behind newspapers, magazines, images, the marquee” allows her to place their and booking diaries, Ross paints a stories within Canadian labour history, complex and rich historical snapshot of showing how club ownership was an Vancouver nightlife and argues that the “occupational enclave” for non-Anglo industry was fundamentally important men who were discriminated against to the city’s burgeoning economy. in the labour market and who struggled Neither Ross nor the dancers she with stereotypes that portrayed them as interviewed understand the industry pimps or mobsters. in simplistic terms, and the result is a Interviews with male owners, in book that portrays stripping as having particular, open future avenues of a messy and complicated relationship research in the history of masculinity. with women’s sexuality. For example, It would be interesting to see a historical Ross critiques anti-pornography study of men who frequented the feminism, arguing that it contributes clubs and to explore their complex to a simplistic and unfair perception perceptions of the women they viewed of dancers as dupes of patriarchy or onstage. A short but intriguing section victims of male oppression. Many on touring in northern and small of the dancers defined themselves as resource towns suggests that rural feminist: all of them claimed that and urban experiences differed, and dancing was empowering (132). Feminist further research of this divide would historians and theorists need to take contribute to a history of gender and these claims seriously and explore the sexuality in rural British Columbia. historical failures of both middle-class Ross is not entirely convinced that and working-class feminists who did the current revival of neo-burlesque not make alliances with erotic dancers, and female-friendly striptease classes many of whom, Ross points out, were will lead to a larger cultural shift, involved in activist collectives, and all of one that destigmatizes erotic dancing 164 bc studies and sex work in general. Women who periods in Victoria due to the First make a living from erotic dancing do World War and the Great Depression. so in an environment that has been Cunningham manages to illuminate deprofessionalized since the 1970s, what goes on in boardrooms, drawing particularly with the advent of small rooms, and backstage to make opera stages in hotel bars, graphic nudity, and productions possible, and she makes the decline of live music and elaborately these ancillary dramas interesting to choreographed shows. Whether the anyone involved with or committed to industry itself will survive in the era of the performing arts. In these times of cheap internet pornography remains the ever-lessening funding for the arts, her next chapter in the fascinating history lively discussions of the financing of of striptease. opera productions are major revelations to those of us who buy tickets, attend performances, and assume (as we should BravO! The History of Opera in not) that a sold-out house can offset the costs of production. At the end of the British Columbia Second World War both government and Rosemary Cunningham private philanthropic foundations began to make grants available to all the arts. From Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Pub- this point on, the story of opera in British lishing, 2009. 208 pp. Illus. Columbia is one of feast and famine, peaks $34.95 cloth. and troughs, all accompanied by backroom Jane O. Hastings dramas over funding. 1959 Central Saanich In , the Grand Opera Society of BC changed its name to the Vancouver Opera Association (voa), engaged the f you think the drama of opera young Irving Guttman as director, and takes place primarily on the stage, launched itself as the only professional BravO!I will open a new world to you. opera company in British Columbia. In her finely documented history Cunningham traces the fortunes of the Cunningham takes us from the voa through the Guttman years, the Bianchi Italian Opera Company of Bonynge years from 1974 to 1979, and San Francisco’s first opera excerpts on to the present, offering extensive in Victoria’s Royal Theatre in 1867 to documentation from newspaper anticipation of the current production articles and reviews, interviews, and of Lillian Alling, the Vancouver Opera other sources as, numerous times, Association’s 2010 season-opening the association rode the roller coaster world premiere. She begins with a brief from the brink of bankruptcy and back history of opera itself in order to show again. Pacific Opera Victoria pov( ) was the state of the genre when European launched in 1980, defying the odds in settlement on the BC coast had reached succeeding in a city of fewer than the the point at which, in the 1870s and 1880s necessary million people to support a (while Verdi was still composing), the professional opera company. This year touring opera companies found a visit the voa celebrates its fiftieth season, the to Victoria worthwhile. Vancouver had pov its thirtieth. its first professional production in1891 ; In addition to her thorough account opera has been a feature of life in these of these two major opera companies, coastal cities ever since, despite barren Cunningham devotes space to “five