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Labour/Le Travailleur

Reviews / Comptes Rendus

Volume 48, 2001

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Publisher(s) Canadian Committee on Labour History

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Cite this article (2001). Reviews / Comptes Rendus. Labour/Le Travailleur, 48, 265–348.

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Beverly Boutilier and Alison Prentice, religious and social convictions, and a eds. Creating Historical Memory: Eng­ study of the Ontario Women's Institutes' lish-Canadian Women and the Work of involvement in writing local histories. History, (Vancouver: UBC Press 1997) Despite differences, they shared a com­ mon interest in creating a history that BRINGING TOGETHER a collection of es­ would inspire Canadians to greater feel­ says highlighting the lives and works of ing for their country. women engaged in the writing and teach­ The second section, "Transitions," pro­ ing of history over the century spanning files historians who, through study and the 1870s to the 1970s, Beverly Boutilier adoption of professional historical re­ and Alison Prentice address the creation search methods, bridged the gap between of historical memory both inside and out­ "amateur" and "professional" history, side the academy. Through these portraits still working outside the academy but of the individual and collective efforts of gradually building links to the inside. "amateur" and "professional" historians, Women living within Catholic religious the editors suggest that because of the communities engaged in historical writ­ responsibilities and constraints associ­ ing in the course of their contemplative ated with gender, women viewed history and record-keeping practices. Like the from a different perspective than male Women's Institutes, their work was col­ historians, addressed topics overlooked laborative. Individual women may have by men, and initiated social, cultural, and been prime movers; however, individual regional studies well before these became authorship was rarely acknowledged in acceptable within the academy. publications. Cloistered women initially Divided into four thematic sections, wrote to preserve historical memory the book traces what might be viewed as within their own communities. It was in the "evolution" of historical writing by their work as educators that they began to women of Anglo-Celt background as they expand their mandate. As their educa­ moved from outside to inside the acad­ tional institutions strove to gain standing emy. The first section, "Community and recognition in the broader commu­ Building," looks at the individual and col­ nity, these women were required to go lective efforts of women engaged in writ­ beyond the convent walls for training in ing nation-building history from a social academic disciplines. This process inevi­ rather than political perspective; an ap­ tably helped to professionalize their ap­ proach that allowed them to incorporate proaches to history, and also encouraged women into the story. Included are pro­ them to write for a wider audience. files of two Victorian women, Agnes Also operating outside of the acad­ Maule Machar and Sarah Anne Curzon, emy, Constance Lindsay Skinner and Isa­ whose writings were influenced by their bel Murphy Skelton gained a degree of professional respect and support from Table of Contents for Reviews, pp.5-6. some male academics through their per- 266 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

sonal affiliations and innovative combi­ In this collection of historiographical nation of "scientific" history research essays, a number of themes emerge. The methods, combining cultural and social authors argue that women have been in­ history. Self-made and earning her pre­ volved in historical work for a long time, carious living by the pen, Skinner scorned but that the professionalization that oc­ much about the academic world, yet de­ curred around the turn of the century ex­ pended upon and valued her connections cluded women both from history and the with those academics who recognized her writing of history. Because gender shaped talents. Married to Oscar D. Skelton, so much in their lives — finances, respon­ well-known political economist and sen­ sibilities to family, and restrictions in mo­ ior public servant, Isabel Skelton was less bility, for example — they tended to write financially strapped. However, her desire about events, people, and places within to engage in research and writing was their local areas whose experiences bore often thwarted by family responsibilities. similarities to their work. In spite of obstacles, Skinner and Skelton Of the individuals highlighted in this produced works of originality in content text, all had some parental encourage­ and approach. ment and support for their intellectual The third section, titled "The Acad­ pursuits. These women initially engaged emy," looks at women either within or on in collective community history without the edges of the academy, articulating the constraints on their lines of inquiry or challenges they faced in being accepted methods. But when faced with the pros­ into the history profession, regardless of pect of outside critical attention to their training and talents. Often receiving en­ work, the standards of male scholarship couragement in undergraduate study or imposed new rules. In the case of even at the Master's level, women found Women's Institutes, there were internal that few professors encouraged them to differences as to how "professional" they go further. The few Canadian women who ought to be. In the case of the nuns, as did obtain doctorates were almost always members of their community gained in passed over for permanent faculty ap­ academic training, their desire to shape pointments. Their options were to leave their community histories for an outside the country for better prospects or stay for critical audience grew. poorly paid sessional work. Others taught While one of the express purposes of in public schools or worked in archives. the book is to "call into question the le­ Not surprisingly, independent means and gitimacy of the amateur/professional di­ freedom from family demands often de­ chotomy as applied to the term 'histo­ termined whether and when a woman his­ rian,'" the implicit message is that pro­ torian could practice her craft. gress is measured by women's attainment The last section, "New Departures," of professional status. Contemporary ten­ looks at the development of women's his­ sions among women making history in­ tory as a category of study within univer­ side and outside the academy are only sities during the 1970s. The chapter sug­ briefly addressed. This account does not gests that while some of the interest in go beyond the 1970s, however. With the women's history grew out of the feminist professionalization of women's history, movement, the relationship between one wonders whether there is a danger of women historians and feminist activism is creating a new canon that excludes "ama­ not a given, nor is it always a comfortable teurs": minority women, feminist activ­ one. The essay further suggests that in ists, and those exploring family and com­ spite of gains women historians need to munity stories in non-academic ways. be proactive to both maintain and im­ Nevertheless, this eclectic collection prove the status of women in their profes­ of essays illustrates how women, because sion. of their lived experience, recorded history REVIEWS 267

differently from men. In some cases, they of history emphasizing continuity with initiated new ways of approaching history the expressed intent of being meaningful through interdisciplinary methods and to contemporary society. In Citizens and erased the false boundaries of public and Nation, Friesen, a University of Manitoba private worlds. Without addressing the historian, proposes a radically different overtly political topics of male historians, thematic focus and periodization of Cana­ their act of writing women into history dian history based on the dominant mode was sometimes political. This collection of communication and culture. His chro­ does not pretend to be definitive. How­ nology introduces four overlapping peri­ ever, it does point to the existence of a ods bridging "time immémorial" to the vibrant alternative stream of Canadian present. It begins with an era Friesen re­ historiography that grew alongside the fers to as "oral-traditional," proceeds to a professional male-stream historiography "textual-settler" period, continues onto and has yet to be fully explored. "print capitalism," and concludes with our contemporary experience of "screen Sharon MacDonald capitalism." The author is especially in­ University of New Brunswick terested in how these particular regimes of communication shape the experience of space and time. Within each of these communication and technological eras, Gerald Friesen, Citizens and Nation: An Friesen focuses on an "ordinary" individ­ Essay on History, Communication and ual or a group of ordinary individuals to Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto explore his argument. One of the attrac­ Press 2000) tive qualities of this temporal division is its geographic flexibility, as these differ­ I HAVE BEEN accused by western Canadian ent communication systems occur con­ friends of revealing my eastern Canadian currently in diverse parts of Canada. This sensibilities in my measurement of dis­ method of periodization permits chrono­ tance. When asked the distance between logical overlapping to recognize the vari­ Montreal and Toronto, I answer five ance of place. The dominant mode of hours, a measure of time linked to my communication for Elizabeth Goudie's experience with a specific form of tech­ Labrador of the 1930s is therefore very nology, the automobile. The translation different from the urban Vancouver expe­ of space into an experiential unit of the rience of Phyllis Knight during the exact time required to drive the distance gives same years. In addition to proposing a vast space concrete meaning for me. A new narrative framework, Citizens and given technology, in this case a car, or­ Nations is also a study of Canadian histo­ ders my understanding of time and space. riography itself. As the narrative of na­ This link between time, space, technol­ tional history proceeds, Friesen explores ogy, and experience is the focus of Gerald the ways in which English-speaking, Ca­ Friesen's Citizens and Nation: An Essay nadian historians have attempted to create on History, Communication and Canada. a synthesized national history from this Gerald Friesen has written a brave and vast and diverse geographic space. important book. It is a modern — or per­ haps more accurately — a postmodern Friesen begins his study with the ex­ and contemporary project in the older tra­ amination of a northern aboriginal family dition of national syntheses of W.L. Mor­ through Graydon McCrea's 1983 Na­ ton's The Canadian Identity (1961) or tional Film Board documentary Summer Arthur Lower's From Colony to Nation: of the Loucheux: Portrait of a Northern A History of Canada (1946). The book Indian Family. This unusual source is used addresses the question of why Canada is to explore the "oral-traditional" mode of a "public identity" and presents a version Aboriginal peoples to demonstrate how 268 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

the oral story-telling tradition connects to tutions of the state and shaped society historical and contemporary concerns, through associations such as political par­ causing problems of cultural under­ ties, unions, and education. Friesen uses standing for those ingrained with the no­ this period to present a historiographical tion of a clear differentiation between em­ discussion counterposing "progressive pirical fact and myth. In his efforts to social" and "conservative political" emphasize continuity, Friesen recognizes streams of Canadian history. In a juxtapo­ Aboriginal people as one of the founding sition of the former's emphasis on the peoples of Canada but acknowledges that transition "from feudalism to capitalism" their stories have not been integrated into and the latter's emphasis on the "conver­ the myths of other Canadians. gence of technological and political fac­ The second section, characterized by tors in the creation of the modern Cana­ what Friesen refers to as the "textual-set­ dian state," he concludes that they are tler" move from an oral to a literate soci­ both "too narrowly economic, and insuf­ ety, was marked by the arrival of Euro­ ficiently cultural, to convey the distinct­ pean immigrants and spanned the period iveness of the Canadian experience." from European contact to the 20th cen­ (122) He closes this argument with the tury. Friesen uses the example of Eliza­ assertion that both these historical tradi­ beth Goudie, born in 1902 in Labrador, to tions are less relevant today and holds up represent the last generation of "pio­ the cultural turn as a potential direction neers" which stretched according to place which would keep a history of Canada from the 17th to the mid-20th century. For meaningful. this group of people, written texts supple­ The final section, entitled "Screen mented oral communication and Friesen Capitalism," allows Friesen to bring this makes an effort to stress the many social, story up to the present. Expanding from familial, and economic attributes this oral interviews, Ken Dryden's The Moved group shared with Aboriginal peoples. and the Shaken: The Story of One Man 's While Aboriginals and settlers shared a Life (1993) and the memoirs of Simonne common experience of "natural" time and Monet-Chartrand, Friesen sees the recent space, Friesen acknowledges that impor­ past coinciding with unprecedented tech­ tant differences also emerged in terms of nological changes in the experience of the role of church, law, and government. time as space and the coexistence of "in­ The third section of the book, organ­ security and plenty." ( 168) In this section, ized under the rubric of "Print-Capitalist Friesen emphases how ordinary people National Societies," will likely be of face globalization, and cast doubt on both greatest interest and the source of greatest their government and their own agency as contention to readers of this journal. citizens, expressing skepticism about the Here, through the life of Phyllis Knight, capacity of any state to govern well. a German immigrant whose memoir was This is undoubtedly a clever and published as A Very Ordinary Life ( 1974), thought-provoking study. It is a case Friesen turns his attention to themes such where the enthusiastic reviewers' quotes as the alienation of labour, waged em­ on the back of the book do not exaggerate. ployment, gender, and ethnicity. Friesen Not surprising for such an innovative also wants his readers to see this period book, I came away with unease. In the as a time when ordinary people responded first place, I remain uncertain about the to new manifestations of time and space, intended audience. Although it is written such as waged work and technology, and in an engaging style, it is not a volume adopted strategies and tools to shape their likely to displace popular (and tradi­ economic, political, and social worlds. In tional) general histories such as Craig other words, common people learned to Brown et al's An Illustrated History of respond through participation in the insti­ Canada or Desmond Morton's A Short REVIEWS 269

History of Canada. The context and nar­ history more meaningful to the current rative of this volume are not sufficiently generation of students of Canadian history, filled out or developed to be easily acces­ I maintain that it is important to defend sible for those unfamiliar with the general the importance of economics, politics, narrative, debates, and themes of English class, and gender, especially as they were/ Canadian history. This book, which Frie- are shaped by culture and technology. sen modestly refers to as an essay, is more This is a book which must be read by creative, more challenging, and for those anyone seriously interested in Canadian grounded in its debates, more interesting. (however you define it) history. I do not I suspect that Citizens and Nations with think you have to adopt all of Friesen's its origins in international communica­ conclusions or assumptions to benefit tions theory, economics, and politics will greatly. This is a synthesis that manages find its greatest, and perhaps most influ­ to integrate the presence of Aboriginal ential audience in graduate courses. peoples throughout the entire narrative. The book has other tensions. Friesen The incorporation of time and space as adopts an intimacy with his historical sub­ changing historical experiences and the jects and refers to them by their first name way they connect to the experience of — an easy familiarity I did not share. The citizenship has altered the way I see the result was some ahistorical discomfort for past. What more can you ask from a book? me as women such as Phyllis Knight and Simonne Monet-Chartrand became Suzanne Morton "Phyllis" and "Simonne." The narrative McGill University strategy of focusing on individuals suc­ ceeds as an engaging approach for high­ lighting the "heroic" experience of ordi­ Bob Russell, More with Less: Work Reor­ nary Canadians, but this emphasis on in­ ganization in the Canadian Mining Indus­ dividuals is in conflict with the try (Toronto: University of Toronto Press importance of movements and communi­ 1999) ties to Friesen's arguments and perhaps even with the notion of a common culture. BOB RUSSELL, a well-respected sociolo­ At the level of culture, while the book is gist whose earlier book was on employ­ an important contribution to English-lan­ ment issues, has produced an original guage Canadian history, despite a con­ study of Saskatchewan mining and the scious and well-meaning attempt to in­ reorganization it has undergone. He inter­ clude Francophone Québec, the bridge is rogates his subject with a sophisticated uneasy. There is a failure to differentiate understanding of labour process, theory, the great disparity in international power and methods. For the most part the book between the English and French lan­ is accessible to a general audience but guages in discussions of globalization most suitable for graduate students or and communication. This is perhaps a other researchers. Senior undergraduates missed opportunity. Finally, and most would be challenged by the specificity of significantly, I was not convinced that the debates and research techniques. As a economics and politics or class and gen­ contribution to the scholarly community der are in any way less "relevant" today on work, it is excellent. He uses novel for understanding the dramatic pace of evidence and intensive research to power change in the present or the past. In the his analysis. end, despite what he says, and based on what he actually does in the book, I do not The mining industry has been trans­ believe that Friesen believes this either. formed from a labour-intensive to capital- While I concur with Friesen's use of cul­ intensive production with the mechaniza­ ture and technology as the means to make tion of underground and automation of surface operations (milling, smelting, and 270 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

refining). This process has been under­ This mode of analysis is related to the way for some time and much of the atten­ practices and implications for workers' tion dedicated to this industry has focused experiences as derived from extensive on the political economy of equipment questionnaire-based interviewing. The replacing people in direct production, and unit of analysis is the workplace, not the the weakness of linkages to equipment community (as with Meg Luxton's More manufacture. The staples tradition has than a Labour of Love, 1980). also focused on market fluctuations for Russell analyzes the extent of post- resource products. Bob Russell has cho­ Fordism, characterized by competitive sen to focus on work re-organization, in­ flexibility, leading to an intensification of cluding developments in managerial work effort whereby multi-skilling of strategies associated with new production workers is at the expense of the de-skill- systems. That is not to say he has totally ing of jobs. Given the range of cases in neglected the traditional issues. He notes his comparison and rapid changes they that the mines he examines are on the undergo over time, at best there is a hy­ edge of underground robotics since pot­ bridization of Fordist models in use, as ash production lends itself to this, and revealed by his comparison of five sites. rich uranium deposits in highly risky ar­ Job reassignments and job expansions are eas provide enormous inducement. Com­ common experiences for the reduced puterization certainly has a key role in the workforces at all sites. mills he examines. In common with ear­ Post-industrialism Russell associates lier work, he notes what he graphically with two processes: "the social division calls "job hemorrhaging," indicating of labour (what is produced) and changes workers' concerns about seniority and in the technical division of labour (how bumping-rights in light of these forces. items are produced)." (10) His study al­ Russell organizes his analysis around lows him to investigate only the second of the paradigms of the transformations con­ these, which he equates to changing occu­ tained in the abstractions of Fordism to pations and their requirements (opera- post-Fordism and industrial to post-in­ tionalized as operator versus maintenance dustrial work as forms of industrial gov­ occupations in either mines or mills). ernance. His main finding, and title for He concludes: "The post-Fordist firms the book, is "More with Less," by which and the post-industrial occupations in our he means, the common theme regardless study show no more consistent propensity of the managerial "packaging" is more to adopt those practices that have been work for fewer workers who receive, rela­ singled out as being responsible for the tively, less pay for more work expected. reskilling of labour than their counter­ His focus is on four mining companies parts. What then is behind the common with five mine sites in Saskatchewan, trend pertaining to skill that runs across four producing potash and one uranium. both occupational categories and employ­ These companies and mines provide a ers' managerial strategies?" (158) The natural experiment made messy by rapid common answer is job expansion as ex­ corporate restructuring, including exten­ pressed in multitasking. With this insight, sive privatization of crown corporations. he casts new light on the complex concept His mode of analysis is not case studies of skill and the labour process debates but comparisons of sites and occupations. surrounding it. He also addresses implica­ Russell claims the comparisons come tions for production politics in the form from variations in the cultures of employ­ of grievances, disciplining workers, un­ ment each provides with respect to the ion activism, sabotage, and job harass­ post-Fordist and post-industrial trajecto­ ment. One of the most novel features is ries. the remote mine at Key Lake which is characterized by "radically spacialized REVIEWS 271

industrial relations" as workers shuffled government's role in shaping those three in and out on two crews who work twelve- markets. The following two chapters fo­ hours shifts for a week at a time. cus on the structure of the lumber indus­ More with Less is recommended as a try. Hak finds that coastal timber produc­ key reference work for those interested in tion was not so much characterized by post-Fordist and post-industrial debates monopoly capital as by entrepreneurial about labour processes, skill, and mana­ capital, ownership instability, and a wide gerial practices. It provides a strong base variety in the sizes of mill companies. In for these discussions and reveals the com­ terms of mill ownership, Hak discovers a plexity of theoretically-informed empiri­ significant pattern of British control until cal research, especially when the ground the 1880s, after which central Canadian beneath our feet shifts so rapidly. entrepreneurial and local ownership be­ came more pronounced. Paralleling the Wallace Clement varieties and decentralized nature of mill Carleton University ownership was the volatile, competitive nature of the industry that neither state aid nor trade associations were ever able to surmount. Gordon Hak, Turning Trees into Dollars: The British Columbia Coastal Lumber In­ The next three chapters examine more dustry 1858-1913 (Toronto: University of closely the relationship between business Toronto Press 2000) and government in framing commercial lumbering. Chapter 4 looks at the limited GORDON HAK'S BOOK is a welcome role the Dominion government played in study about British Columbia's forest in­ British Columbia forestry, but the impor­ dustry during the 19th and early-20th cen­ tance the provincial government exer­ turies. The work begins with the impetus cised over the province's forest lands and for substantial lumbering in British Co­ industry. Retaining forest land owner­ lumbia — the 1858 gold strike. It con­ ship, except for the railway belts, meant cludes in 1913 with the United States the provincial government set the frame­ lowering its tariff barriers to wood from work for the timber industry most directly Canada, thereby opening a new era for through timber leases and licenses. Hak provincial timbering. Largely an eco­ shows how the government also shaped nomic and political history, Professor the industry through such means as fire Hak corrects popular misconceptions, re­ regulations and log-scaling policies. fines the staples interpretive paradigm, Chapter 5 discusses early social and and addresses the inadequacies of pre­ political critics of forest use and practices vious provincial forest industry studies. in the province, as well as how and why Framed within a capitalist paradigm, Hak those voices gave way to a scientific con­ weaves his history around the interrelated servation movement in the 1890s. Here, relationships of market exchange, gov­ as elsewhere in North America, the con­ ernment and lumber company policies, servation movement grew from utilitarian timber technologies, workers, and conser­ fears about a timber famine, climate vation impulses. changes, streamflow, and the need to Turning Trees into Dollars opens with safeguard urban watersheds. To turn-of- a sound introductory overview. Chapters the-century forest conservationists, waste 1 to 3 look at the lumber industry from the created by timber theft, fire, and inappro­ perspective of mill owners. Chapter 1 priate cutting practices would be replaced shows the unfolding significance of local, by wise, rational, scientific management continental prairie West, and interna­ for sustained use. It was a position that the tional markets in framing the province's progressive wing of the lumber industry timber industry until World War I, and the 272 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

could and did support in their pursuit of labor exploitation would have signifi­ stabilized markets. cantly strengthened the work. In addition, Chapter 6 largely explores the matura­ Hak could have done more with railroads, tion of the scientific conservation per­ which seemed here, as in the Pacific spective and its embodiment in the Forest Northwest United States, to be fitting Act of 1912. Rather than viewing the For­ symbols and agents of changes in the est Act as a reform measure, however, 1880s. Although he does discuss govern­ Hak argues that the act, and conservation ment subsidization for the Canadian Pa­ measures in general, remained securely cific Railway and the Esquimault and within a dominant cultural paradigm Nanaimo Railway, and the role both where market imperatives and business played in timber holdings and regula­ interests trumped biological considera­ tions, railroads did even more. The rails tions and where scientific, technological, brought people, capital investment, new and political decision-making followed technologies, and business forms of or­ suit. Still, Hak makes clear that although ganization, increased market access, and government and industrial lumbermen al­ integrated British Columbia ever more lied by the early 20th century to increas­ tightly into structures of power beyond ingly structure a more integrated and con­ the province's borders. Finally, other solidated lumber industry in corporate readers may be disappointed that al­ hands, independent logging companies though Professor Hak claims that the continued to be a viable and significant United States Pacific Northwest offers economic and political presence. Not un­ parallels to the British Columbia forest til the 1930s would corporate capitalism industry, his monograph does not seri­ exercise hegemony over the British Co­ ously pursue a comparative perspective. lumbia timber industry. Nonetheless, Turning Trees Into Dol­ lars has achieved a great deal. Professor The final three chapters detail the Hak set out to provide a history of the growing industrialization of the timber timber industry in British Columbia from industry, and the interplay between tech­ the 19th to the early-20th centuries. He nology and labour in the production proc­ has done that, and in the process has of­ ess for both milling and logging opera­ fered interesting revisionist interpreta­ tions. Hak shows that industrialization tions. Readers now have a sound prelimi­ not only increased production but nary work to Richard A. Rajala's Clear- speeded up labour exploitation as well as cutting the Pacific Rainforest: job-related accidents. In addition, he de­ Production, Science, and Regulation lineates the structure of the industry's job (UBC Press, 1998), which focuses on the hierarchies, including its ethnic and racial post-World War I to 1965 era when cor­ make-up; the marital status and the life­ porate capitalists used changing tech­ style of workers; why there was a notable nologies, management structures, har­ lack of union and political activism vesting practices, and influence over gov­ among loggers and millworkers before ernment forest policies to impose a 1913; and how and why the scientific factory management system on regional management of people and machinery forests and the lives of workers. What Dr. proceeded hand-in-hand. Hak has accomplished will allow others Like any study, Turning Trees Into to build on his work, and hopefully begin Dollars cannot be all things to all people. to construct comparative histories not Some readers will probably wish that Hak only for the Greater Pacific Northwest but had been more attentive to environmental also between Canada and the United history. To have more thoroughly dis­ States. cussed environment attitudes, practices, policies, and consequences, and to have Robert Bunting linked up more concretely resource and Fort Lewis College REVIEWS 273

Kerry Badgley, "Ringing in the Common This emphasis on the local has the Love of Good": The United Farmers of merit of stressing how central self-activ­ Ontario, 1914-1926 (Montreal and King­ ity and self-organization were in creating ston: McGill-Queen's University Press the energy and force to challenge bour­ 2000) geois norms. By studying the UFWO and the many local farm co-operatives, IN SPRING 2001 thousands mobilized to Badgley also does a valuable service in protest the Free Trade Area of the Ameri­ stressing that farm progressives had a cas conference in Québec City. Following substantive radical practice that went be­ the "battle in Seattle" in 1999 and protests yond the more short-lived and contradic­ in Europe, a new anti-capitalist current tory politics of the UFO. has arisen. It is a current that includes What is also to be welcomed is some inspired by democratic socialism, Badgley's sharp posing of the arguments but mostly includes a new generation in­ about the meaning of the farm progressive spired by some form of populism, radical movement then and now — the first mass liberalism open to refinement as either break from bourgeois politics in Canada anarchist or socialist. and the relevance of direct democracy to Kerry Badgley's study of the United any radical project today. In Badgley's Farmers of Ontario (UFO) seems a long opinion, the UFO movement was "uncon­ way away from Seattle or Québec, but his sciously anarchist." For Badgley, what study of rank-and-file populism is clearly activists today can do is make the core linked to the debates of the new activism. political principles of the farm populist In particular, Badgley focuses on the radi­ experiment a conscious challenge. cal experimentation of Ontario farm pro­ As a Marxist, and as someone who has gressives in co-operation; the develop­ studied the UFO through the leadership of ment of an autonomous farm women's W.C. Good (one of three key figures in movement (the United Farm Women of the movement along with E.C. Drury, Ontario-UFWO); and the rise and fall (due farm premier, and J.J. Morrison, provin­ to the hegemony of traditional forces and cial co-operative secretary), I had a a conservative UFO leadership) of an in­ number of points for debate. dependent UFO politics through a brief First, Badgley's account of the rise provincial government (1919-1923); and and fall of the UFO as a means to examine the election of 24 federal MPs in 1921. To local organisations in Lambton, Simcoe, give force to his positive evaluation of the and Lanark needs to be fleshed out. UFO experience, Badgley examines rank- Where does it fit with C.M. Johnston's and-file members in three counties: account of the UFO government or the Lambton, Simcoe, and Lanark. stories of the United Farmers' Co-opera­ There are a number of positive fea­ tive Company and the Ontario federal tures about this study. It is the first to farm progressive caucus from the Good seriously address the local dimension of study? How did local UFO mobilization the farm progressive challenge to Can­ link with election results? (Appendix R) ada's bourgeois elites — through co-op­ There is a powerful dialectical relation­ erative enterprises, the church union ship between rank-and-file action and movement, and moral debates about pro­ provincial leadership and structures; one hibition and betting; as well as from a cannot be examined without the other. spontaneous revolt against military con­ Secondly, in rightly stressing the need scription in 1917 to develop an inde­ for local studies of the farm progressive pendent politics breaking from the parlia­ challenge, Badgley appears to have omit­ mentary clientelism of Conservatives and ted arguments about context and how to Liberals. make local choices to test that context. The central interpretive argument about 274 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

UFO leadership from my Good study is tario. The selection of local studies can be that there were three (not two) currents: a refined and tested further. reform from above argument by E.C. Thirdly, what about interpretation? Drury about making the UFO a people's Badgley does a good job in summarizing party within existing market and parlia­ how Ontario historiography has margi­ mentary rules; a radical reform from be­ nalized this mass, radical challenge to its low argument by W.C. Good to extend dominant political culture. But he has to direct democracy methods in co-opera­ simplify the Marxist narrative and cri­ tion to politics through the single land tax, tique to deny there is a meaningful organ­ free trade, modest government economic izational and social context for local re­ intervention, and a transformed parlia­ sponses, which included all tendencies — mentary system through a variety of di­ from Simcoe County's F.W. Webster and rect democracy reforms like proportional his explicit mention of anarchism to argue representation and the single preferential single land tax and radical electoral re­ ballot; and thirdly, a purely negative, sec­ forms, to the mainstream co-operative tional argument by J.J. Morrison for oc­ and political practice of most Simcoe UFO cupational self-defence through narrowly members who were led by E.C. Drury conceived co-operative action. Arguably, locally, to the negative sectionalism of it was Morrison who triumphed as the Leslie Oke and the Lambton farm co-op­ sole leader remaining after 1926. erative association. Badgley's accounts of local activist Despite these criticisms, this is a valu­ initiatives in co-operation and politics ap­ able book for two reasons. First, the On­ pear to illustrate all three of these tenden­ tario farm progressive challenge was a cies as well as confirm how economically radical, mass break from Canadian capi­ and socially representative UFO member­ talist politics. The farmers' achievement ship was. If anything, his local studies is well worth repeated, careful study from confirm anecdotal evidence in leadership a variety of points of view. studies about the importance of the single Secondly, the farm progressive chal­ land tax to the most radical populists, the lenge was more than a break from bour­ relative youthfulness of UFO activists, geois politics. It also put forward a mass, and the importance of pro-Union Presby­ democratic debate in practice on what terians influenced by the Social Gospel. will replace it. As a Marxist, I have ar­ Another contextual question is: why gued that the nature of that break and choose Lambton, Simcoe, and Lanark alternative has to be class situated. A Counties? Badgley offers two reasons: petit-bourgeois populist movement did their geographical representativeness and challenge for power but it did not conquer available evidence (the degree of local it. Activists of the 21st century have to organization in Lambton, the only extant ask why. club records being for Simcoe, and the number of local papers in Lanark). How­ Robin Wylie ever, as noted in the Good study, from a Douglas College farm production system point of view, there were four regional farm economies in Ontario: the dairy belt (divided be­ Peter Campbell, Canadian Marxists and tween eastern and western Ontario — the Search for a Third Way (Montreal and Lanark being in the first); a mixed live­ Kingston: McGill-Queen's University stock system (Lambton and Simcoe); a Press 1999) few specialized areas such as the fruit farmers of Niagara or Prince Edward; and PETER CAMPBELL invites us to recon­ the agro-forestry system of Northern On­ sider the legacy of Canadian Marxists ac­ tive in the first decades of the 20th REVIEWS 275 century. He asserts that these Marxists the logic of worker self-emancipation and "comprised one of the most important to evolve a voluntarist Marxism against groups of thinkers and activists in Cana­ the grain of existing determinist ac­ dian history." (4) Campbell is particularly counts? How did they apply the classical interested in those Marxists of this era texts to their time? What evidence exists whom he views as having defined them­ that the Hegelian legacy of Labriola lib­ selves through their rejection of both the erated these Canadian Marxists from the revolutionary politics of the Communist thrall of a doctrine that posed few super- International and the gradualism of Cana­ structural questions? How did their ac­ dian social democracy. The defining fea­ count of proletarian revolution differ ture of Campbell's "Marxists of the third from that embraced by militants who way" was their commitment "to the heart stood with the Communist International? and soul of Karl Marx's historical mate­ Finally, did Campbell's Marxists evolve rialism, his belief that the emancipation an idiom and inflection of their own mak­ of the working class must be the work of ing? the working class itself." (4) He believes Campbell advances his argument that the important "theoretical contribu­ through biographical accounts of the pub­ tions" of these Marxists, especially their lic careers and private lives of Socialist analysis of the "relationship between Party of Canada (SPC) activist William worker self-emancipation and the leader­ Pritchard, One Big Union (OBU), and ship question..." has been unfairly ig­ Winnipeg General Strike leader R.B. nored by historians of the left. (9) Russell, west coast labour activist Ernest The perspective of Campbell's Marx­ Winch, and Ontario's Arthur Mould. ists of the third way was rooted in British Campbell's selection of subjects turned Non-conformism and the gradualist, posi- on the question of whether their "political tivist mechanical Marxism of the Second practice" was "derived from theoretical International. This was a Marxism that formulations in a conscious manner" and constructed revolution as an inevitable whether the activist left a "significant product of the internal contradictions of body of personal correspondence or writ­ the capitalist order. Its adherents came to ings in labour papers." (10) Such consid­ Marx through the classical texts: Darwin, erations were important because Camp­ and Spencer, rather than Lenin. Campbell bell intended to treat "consciousness as an adds the Hegelian Marxism of Italian An­ historical agent" and "to deal directly tonio Labriola, to this lineage. Through with Canada's Marxists of the third way Labriola Marxists of the third way were and their ideas, to take them seriously as drawn to a theoretical concern with ideas thinkers." (10) Despite Campbell's and consciousness as dynamics in the his­ claims, readers expecting a book of close torical process. A close study of the textual exegesis will be disappointed. Marxism of members of the Socialist This is not a book preoccupied with the­ Party of Canada reveals "a marked ory. Campbell's emphasis is on practice. Hegelian and idealist influence." (21) In the case of Ernest Winch, for exam­ Campbell links the Hegelian Marxism of ple, Campbell explains that an account of Labriola (and the long shadow of Gram- Winch's life provides an opportunity to sci) with book notices contained in Cot­ "assess more thoroughly how effective ton's Weekly and Hank Bartholomew's Marxists of the third way were at involv­ columns in the Western Clarion. Camp­ ing rank and file workers in the process bell's claim that Marxists of the third way of creating a broad-based socialist move­ bequeathed a distinct body of Marxist the­ ment, thereby putting their theory into ory poses a number of questions. What practice." (31 ) We learn a good deal about prompted them, rather than others in the Winch's career in west coast labour and Canadian Marxist tradition, to theorize labour political organizations from 1910 276 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

to 1940. Yet the voice of Winch is largely other strike leaders were based on "a absent from this narrative. Rather than spur-of-the-moment, trumped-up amend­ textual analysis, Campbell offers specula­ ment to the Criminal Code." (93) The tion. On the fundamental question of the charges were based on the unamended utility of the general strike, for example, Criminal Code in force in June 1919. Campbell asserts that Winch and other Campbell seems ultimately disappointed "Marxists of the third way supported in­ with Pritchard as theorist. He notes that dustrial unionism and the general strike as by the early 1920s, with the decline of the a response to the repression of the capi­ SPC, Pritchard "had little else to offer in talist state and the mobilization of the its place beyond an unquestioned belief in rank-and-file workers, but they were worker agency that at times seemed more skeptical about its long-term benefits." like a kind of religious faith than the prod­ (41) This finding is not disclosed and uct of an historical materialist reading of amplified through a consideration of texts the state of the working class in Canada containing the theory of Winch and others and elsewhere in the 1920s." (100) on this question. The road signs in Campbell's account William Pritchard is credited with ex­ of the political pilgrimage of Arthur ercising great influence through "his abil­ Mould are ambivalent. "It is not clear ity to interpret and critique capitalist so­ why" he became involved in the labour ciety, present the case for socialism, and movement. (136) His changing political convince workers of the need for educa­ affiliations are attributed by Campbell to tion and organization." (74) How did misplaced "faith he placed in J.S. Pritchard theorize his practice as an intel­ Woodsworth in the early 1930s, and in lectual of the left? Though Campbell in­ Joseph Stalin in the ensuing years...." dicates a preoccupation with exploring ( 167) Campbell offers the unflattering as­ the "consciousness" of his subjects, he sessment that Mould was "a man who provides no account of Pritchard's theory sometimes overlooked or chose not to see of the role of intellectuals in the process that he himself was at times incapable of of worker emancipation and the passage the discernment he expected from the to a proletarian order. Pritchard supported workers themselves." (167) Existential a resolution at the Western Labour Con­ rather than theoretical imperatives appear ference in Calgary endorsing "the system to have settled his final turn to the left. of industrial soviet control" but, Camp­ However, even here we remain on the bell observes, everything Pritchard said terrain of speculation, not theoretical exe­ or wrote before or after 1919 suggested gesis. Campbell reports that Mould never that he did not agree with replacing par­ provided an explanation for his turn to liamentary institutions with soviet-style Communism and that it was unclear if he government. No explanation bearing on ever embraced Leninism. Still, he con­ his theory as a Marxist of the third way is cludes that Mould embraced Communism offered for such apparent contradictions. because in Mould's view the Communists Campbell contends that Pritchard was were the only party "making a serious convinced that constitutional action could attempt to put the ideas of Marx and Lenin bring about socialism. What was needed into practice." (160) was a "working-class majority ready and able to accept the responsibilities of The account of R.B. Russell centers on power." (94) Yet, such an assertion dis­ 1919. Russell did not see the strike as a closes little about Pritchard's adaptation prelude to a proletarian order. Russell of the classical texts to his time. Camp­ "recognized the tremendous amount of bell's account of Pritchard's trial in the educating and organizing of the workers winter of 1920 incorrectly claims that left to do." (188) Broadening his argu­ criminal charges against Pritchard and the ment, Campbell offers the view that for Russell, and other Marxists of the third REVIEWS 277 way, 1919 was "only a moment of revo­ ble complex of trenches and fortifications lutionary potential in that much longer of the dominant class?" evolutionary process Marxists of the third way saw as the basis of all change in the Tom Mitchell organic world and in human society." Brandon University (189) Yet on this important point it re­ mains unclear who would educate and organize the workers, why education was Jim Egan, Challenging the Conspiracy of needed, or how the education and organi­ Silence: My Life as a Canadian Gay Ac­ zation of workers would threaten capital­ tivist, compiled and edited by Donald W. ist hegemony and lay the foundations of McLeod (Toronto: The Canadian Lesbian proletarian rule. and Gay Archives and Homewood Books Campbell asserts incorrectly that 1998) Russell was singled out for special prose­ cution in 1919. Like Pritchard, he was JIM EGAN, Canada's first gay activist, charged with seditious conspiracy under died at the age of 78 on 9 March 2000. In the Criminal Code in place in June 1919 1949 Jim broke the silence on gay rights and arraigned for trial with the other in Canada when he started to write letters strike leaders. However, on 27 November to newspapers, magazines, and govern­ 1919, the Crown chose to try Russell ment committees defending gay men and separately because A.J. Andrews was lesbians. At first, only the scandal sheets concerned that the available jury panel would accept his letters and columns, but might be exhausted before a jury was se­ by the 1960s some of the more "respect­ lected if the defence exercised all the per­ able" publications began to print them. emptory challenges at its disposal with Later, in the 1990s Jim and Jack Nesbitt, eight defendants. Undaunted, the defence his life partner, took the Canadian gov­ sought to extend its number of challenges ernment all the way to the Supreme Court by having Russell tried under the in a major same-sex spousal benefits amended Criminal Code, assented to on 7 struggle. This was the case that led the July 1919 and in effect since 1 October Supreme Court to declare that the Charter 1919. Conviction under the amended of Rights includes sexual orientation pro­ code could mean a sentence of twenty tection. rather than two years for Russell. The threat of a longer sentence entitled the I met Jim a number of times through­ defence to greater peremptory challenges. out the 1980s and 1990s and learned a The Crown rejected the defence bid. great deal from him. This review is writ­ ten in memory of Jim, in celebration of Marxists of the Third Way does not his activism, and to claim him as a work­ achieve the ambitious goals set out by its ing-class hero. In Challenging the Con­ author. Nevertheless, it is a book well spiracy of Silence, gay historian Donald worth reading and thinking about. Camp­ McLeod has skilfully woven together a bell's preoccupations remind us of the series of interviews with Jim, informed by need to interrogate the theory bequeathed Jim's own writings and other sources, to to the contemporary left and to consider provide a rich and detailed account of how it has shaped our understanding and "the social and personal circumstances interest — or misunderstanding and dis­ that allowed Jim Egan to become Can­ interest — in the nature of capitalist he­ ada's earliest known public gay activ- gemony. Such introspection is essential in ist."(13) In this autobiographical oral his­ thinking about and accounting for the his­ tory Jim's spirit comes through loud and torical possibilities and realities Gramsci clear. For those who knew him Jim comes alluded to when he asked, "What can an to life in these pages as we again hear and innovatory class oppose to this formida­ feel his voice and passion. 278 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

Jim's early experiences were very cian with the Toronto Department of Zo­ much working class in character. He was ology where he learned how to preserve born in Toronto in 1921 and his father was animal specimens, and as an assistant at a fine cabinet maker. He recalls excite­ Connaught Labs. ment when he went swimming naked with He joined the merchant marine for the other young men in the Don River. Jim last two years of the war. As in the expe­ remembers that "I certainly had that feel­ riences of many others, and as Allan ing that many gays have that I was some­ Berube describes in Coming Out Under how different from the other boys."(17) Fire, it was the war mobilization and its He became somewhat of a loner and as he shifting of the contexts of gender and describes it "an absolutely omnivorous sexual life that opened up new erotic pos­ reader."(17) He became a largely self- sibilities for Jim. He discovered the gay taught working-class young man. His world in various ports that he visited. For mother, who became the main force in his instance, he describes picking up an life when his father died, never ques­ Army guy in Piccadilly Circus in London tioned his reading and he devoured Char­ in 1944 or 1945. les Dickens, H.G. Wells, and eventually In 1947 he came back to Toronto and discovered Walt Whitman, Oscar Wilde, began to investigate the local gay world and other references to same-sex passion that had expanded during the war years. and desire. Although he had many sexual adventures, When he was 13 or 14 Jim tells us: Jim wanted to meet another man and settle down. He met Jack Nesbitt, a hairstylist, I realized I was sexually attracted to males. in 1948. Later, in 1949, Jim and Jack I'd never heard the words "gay" or "homosex­ moved to Oak Ridges to work for a man ual." I think it must be difficult for someone who owned a biological supply business. today to believe that young fellows then had never heard these words, but it was certainly This began Jim and Jack's love for living true in my case and amongst the boys I knew in more rural areas that would often take in working class, east end Toronto ... I became them away from larger urban centres. sexually active with some of the boys on the The late 1940s and the 1950s were a street ... when I was thirteen, somehow or difficult time for many gay men with other, ... we started sexual experimentation widespread police harassment and entrap­ with each other.... One of the things I quickly ment and media coverage marked by si­ discovered was that while they all liked to fool around, they certainly did not want to talk lence on homosexual experience in the about it. And I realized fairly early on that it mainstream media and heterosexist sen­ was something that could not be discussed, but sationalism in the scandal sheets. Jim it was a fun thing that you could do anytime stresses that even though "there was a the opportunity arose. (19-20) homophobic climate during this period that cried out for change, I think it is Here we get a sense that Jim in his youth important to note that the situation was may have been participating in the type of not entirely bad."(43) Jim's "fury" at the largely pre-homosexual, working-class heterosexism in media coverage is what sexual culture that George Chauncey propelled him into major letter and article writes about in Gay New York. At the writing campaigns that took place in a same time we get a sense of the early series of waves from 1949 until 1964. As development of prohibitions on homo­ he put it, "There were never any articles sexuality as a topic of discussion and published from the gay point of view, form of identification in working-class which in my mind equalled a conspiracy communities. of silence on the true nature of homosexu­ When the war came, Jim tried to join ality." (43) Jim set himself the task of the Army but was rejected because of a breaking this silence. corneal scar. He then worked as a techni­ REVIEWS 279

While the mainstream print media ig­ collaboration with Katz since "if you keep nored his onslaught, some of the scandal on publicizing this the way you are, it sheets began to print his letters and arti­ won't be possible for any gay man to be cles. He had a series of columns published safe. People will begin to get suspicious in True News Times called "Aspects of and gay men will be recognized as living Homosexuality" and later in Justice a gay life."(84) Jim, of course, refused to Weekly titled "Homosexual Concepts." end his collaboration with Katz since he Jim wrote about the Cold War purges of had no investment in the relations of the homosexuals in the US State Department, closet and in contrast he wanted more the Kinsey Report, and the "causes" of publicity for gay experience. This points homosexuality. In these columns Jim to our need for more historical work in­ showed himself to be a profound gay vestigating class divisions and struggles working-class intellectual. Jim had con­ within gay communities. tacts with the emerging homophile move­ Jim's impressive activism, however, ment in the US and continued his "om­ was at this time not actively supported by nivorous reading" of materials relating to other gay men and he laboured largely in homosexual experiences. isolation. As McLeod points out, Jim's Although Jim later stubbornly resisted activism "went in waves" often related to the insights of social constructionist ap­ the dynamics of his relationship with Jack proaches to sexuality, he was able to write and in 1964 his early career as a gay to a Parliamentary Legislative Committee activist ended when he and Jack decided in 1955 such powerful lines as: "The Ne­ to move to British Columbia. (11) This gro 'problem' was created by the white interaction between activism and our re­ majority; the Jewish 'problem' by the lationships is another area that needs Gentile majority, and the homosexual much more focus in our theorizing of ac­ 'problem' by the heterosexual majority tivism. — who alone can take the necessary steps Challenging the Conspiracy of Silence to bring this problem to a speedy end." is a wonderful celebration of Jim's life. Jim was also very aware of class divi­ Those who are interested in Jim's life of sions within the gay community. Here is activism should also consult: Jim Egan: his description of the "levels" in gay life: Canada's Pioneer Gay Activist, compiled and introduced by Robert Champagne Gay life in Toronto in the 1950s and 1960s was (Toronto: Canadian Lesbian and Gay His­ on a series of levels, with your opera queens tory Network 1987); and David Adkin, and the highly educated university types at the top, and the ribbon clerks at Simpson's at the Jim Loves Jack: The James Egan Story bottom. While there may have been a certain (Toronto: David Adkin Productions amount of overlap, we didn't associate with 1996). anybody except from what we might refer to as the "lower orders." And 1 say that in the Gary Kinsman kindliest way, because we were part of it.(70) Laurentian University. Jim also challenged class relations within gay community formation when he assisted Sidney Katz in 1963 in his arti­ Mary-Ellen Kelm, Colonizing Bodies- cles on the gay community for Maclean's. Aboriginal Health and Healing in British This public visibility for the gay commu­ Columbia 1900-1950 (Vancouver: UBC nity challenged the comfort of some mid­ Press 1998) dle-class gay men who lived most of their lives in the closet. A friend was asked to THIS WORK EXAMINES Aboriginal peo­ arrange a meeting for Jim with a man ple's bodies as sites of attempted coloni­ "who was just oozing money, position, zation in a number of ways. The most and power." (84) Jim was asked to end his interesting contribution that the author 280 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

makes is in examining multiple sites of reconstruction of Aboriginal people's the attempted colonization of Aboriginal personal and political responses to colo­ people. In her work, Kelm goes beyond nialism. attempted colonization as a personal or Kelm also analyses colonization as institutional tool to include colonization personal. Aboriginal people's health and as situational, personal, institutional, and illness are examined in terms of their im­ political, depending upon the perpetra­ pact on families, clans, and nations. (10) tors. The least effective portion of her In this way, the story of attempted colo­ work deals with Aboriginal people's bod­ nization is not one that details just the ies as objects. impact of disease and settler response to In examining colonization as a situ­ disease. The work becomes broader and ational response to factors inherent in set­ studies not just the pressure exerted by tler societies, Kelm relies heavily upon health care and governmental officials on oral histories and testimony provided by families but also the familial response to Elders in First Nations located in the ter­ these impositions. This effort is laudable. ritorial confines of British Columbia. In The ripple effect of ill health and the using Elders as historical sources to draw political construction of Aboriginal from, the author establishes the veracity health extend to the people impacted by of oral traditions as a given fact. This is both. By examining health policy in this valuable, respectful, and reinforcing of context, Kelm is able to explore the effect the understanding that First Nation his­ on Aboriginal people as a collective. In torical traditions and the traditional pres­ assessing the ripple effect on the collec­ ervation of histories are valid and useful tivity, Kelm handily defuses studies of tools. disease that either individualize its causes While the first chapter of this work or consequences, and/or attribute it to does not rely heavily on these sources "cultural" factors divorced from political (dealing instead with government-gener­ context. ated population and mortality rates, and In examining the personalization of hospital admission information) the sec­ colonization, Kelm is able to scrutinize ond chapter deals with the impact of colo­ both the role of missionaries and the bene­ nization on Aboriginal diet and nutrition. fit accruing to missionaries as a result of It is important to note that Kelm examines Aboriginal illness. Faced with diseases not only the impact of colonial mentality Aboriginal cultures and doctors had never on policy development and the intrusive before experienced, missionaries were nature of this policy, but she also makes able to make a name for themselves with sure that she addresses Aboriginal peo­ their "humanitarianism colonialism." ple's responses to the same. She writes of (146) More specifically, the author effec­ First Nation lobbying and Aboriginal tively establishes that Aboriginal illness leadership's negotiations, petitions, and enabled missionary staff to administer responses (19, 47, 56, 152) in the face of spiritual and medical assistance - with the attempted colonization. This is an essen­ end goal being the disruption of the rela­ tial part of the story of colonization that tionship between First Nation people and has been overlooked in many discussions First Nation medical practitioners. (104) of imperialism and its impact on First The author examines not only the role Nations. By choosing to examine the po­ of individuals who earned their liveli­ litical response by Aboriginal leadership, hoods from treating Aboriginal illnesses Kelm demonstrates that the situational re­ but also the position of medical staff who sponse is as important as the sites of colo­ were "reluctant, even disinterested, colo­ nization. Importantly, the story of coloni­ nizers." (135) This is an essential contri­ zation takes form not only in the recount­ bution to the colonization dialogue, par­ ing of colonial history, but also in the ticularly in an era when the attribution of REVIEWS 281

responsibility is so often linked only to the physical toll, but the emotional, cul­ intentional acts. Kelm observes that ac­ tural, and mental toll that residential tion and inaction, and not intent, are es­ schooling took on First Nation students, sential components of a colonial condi­ their families, and their communities. She tion. draws our attention to the institutionaliza­ Beginning with Chapter 2, Kelm ex­ tion of racially and culturally determina­ amines colonization as an institutional tive and imperial understandings as they mandate. Initially, she reviews health and were entrenched in the residential school ill health in the context of the reserve organizational structure. From health system's impact on traditional foods. education and its role in cultural invasion, What follows is an incredibly detailed to the enforced application of western discussion of the impact that the reserve standards and its impact on Aboriginal system had on Aboriginal people's ability societal standards, Kelm leaves no stone to maintain health and fight foreign dis­ unturned. (62) She does not exonerate eases. She addresses the poor soil pro­ government or missionary societies from vided and the exclusion of cultivated gar­ our understanding of this bureaucratic dens in the selection and allocation of brutality. Government and missionaries reserve lands. She also describes the im­ are viewed as complicit with the residen­ pact that the immigration of non-Aborigi­ tial school bureaucrats in this imperial nal trappers, provincial legislation disso­ intrusion which killed one quarter of the ciating water rights from land ownership, prairie First Nation students on residen­ and fishery regulations had on Aboriginal tial school rolls. (64) people's ability to maintain the health Colonization as political will domi­ standards present in their communities nate Chapter 7 of this work. Disappoint­ prior to non-Aboriginal settlement in ingly, the author is not as able with this their territories. research as she is with the research related Predominant in the discussions of to the role of missionaries and residential colonization via institutions is Kelm's ex­ schools in the attempted colonization of amination of the role of residential Aboriginal people. Perhaps it is because schools (Chapter 4) in creating and per­ it is difficult to gauge the impact of gov­ petuating illness in Aboriginal people. ernmental policy from oral sources or be­ She writes that the establishment of resi­ cause the political will and manipulation dential schools was "predicated on the of the time is not evident in the records. basic notion that First Nations were, by In any event, Kelm seems unable to make nature, unclean and diseased." With this the link between governmental and politi­ in mind, "residential schooling was advo­ cal decision making and policy, on the cated as a means to 'save' Aboriginal one hand, and the illness that swept children from the insalubrious influences through First Nations between 1900 and of home life on reserve. Once in the 1950, on the other. She does condemn the schools, the racially charged and gen­ Department of Indian Affairs; Kelm dered message that Aboriginal domestic states that the Department did not hire arrangements threatened physical, social, adequate staff and that they did not ac­ and spiritual survival was reinforced tively recruit experienced doctors. (129, through health education." (57) Clearly 131) However, given the evidence related evident in this comprehensive analysis to the federal government's obligation are the high morbidity rate of Aboriginal (treaty and/or fiduciary) to provide health youth in residential schools and the at­ care, Kelm does not make a thoroughly tempted "salvation" of the First Nation convincing case for the clear abrogation students who lived at the residential of responsibility by the settler govern­ schools. Kelm's approach to this topic is ment. an interesting one. She examines not only 282 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

Referring in passing to a lack of proac- we had to send our sacred traditions un­ tivity, Kelm never seems to make the link derground or risk losing them. The funda­ between disease, ill health, and Aborigi­ mental understanding that comes from nal people's deaths and the inactivity of this is: if you do not know the protocol, the government of Canada with much vig­ then do not take responsibility for sharing our. She refers to societal responses as "a the information. There are a few instances society that sought control through in this work where I was uncomfortable knowledge and the creation of a colonizing with the degree of information provided archive of data, rather than overt displays about sacred ceremonies. Because our of force" — rather than governmental education and health are intricately tied non-responses in attributing responsibil­ together and are based on experiential and ity for Aboriginal people's health crises. protocol-governed teachings, those de­ (120) This tentativeness is unexpected scriptions seemed contextually orphaned. and diminishes the strength of the work Secondly, frequent references to Abo­ evident in earlier chapters. riginal "witchcraft" in the context of a There is, however, a significant dis­ discussion of medicine and curative and cussion of the role of departmental field harmful powers de-legitimizes the skill as matrons, which broadens the reader's un­ something less than medicinal. derstanding of the shifting perceptions re­ The third point corresponds to the lated to Aboriginal women/motherhood. monomania of Western medicine and its Although she refers to disease as dif­ preoccupation with "curing the disease." ferentially understood by Aboriginal and In the holistic tradition of most Aborigi­ non-Aboriginal people, Kelm does re­ nal societies, health was balanced with view the attempted colonization of Abo­ the alternative. Helpful powers balanced riginal people in light of the under­ with disruptive. Because the goal of Abo­ standings that non-Aboriginal people had riginal health was to live a good/balanced and have about health and wellness. Dis­ life, the eradication of one disease is not ease is perceived as situational and in a good health. The work makes passing ref­ Western context, isolated from holistic erence to this but reviews and interprets health and reviewed on a case-by-case health in the context of eradication of basis. In addition, there seems to be an ill disease. Perhaps, in the Aboriginal con­ fit between the intellectual acceptance of text, the disease is the symptom and living and personal respect demonstrated to­ out of balance is the disease. In any event, wards Aboriginal healing. The author while this imbalance is referred to, a de­ demonstrates an implicit acceptance of tailed examination of the Aboriginal un­ the fact that Aboriginal medicine exists, derstanding of health would have en­ is effective, and is sometimes superior to hanced and grounded the work. In many Western medicine. However, there are Aboriginal societies, disease is perceived three notable "tells" that seemingly estab­ as animate and as an entity in and of itself. lish that the author does not have a full It is an indicator of a larger problem. As understanding of the respect that should well, there is some discussion and separa­ be accorded to Aboriginal health research tion of the human and non-human realm grounded in Aboriginal understandings in this work. Perhaps the larger under­ related to wellness and medicine. standing, and one which would have pro­ vided context for the discussion, is that Just as some pictures and ceremonial they cannot be separated effectively in an accoutrements are not to be photographed Aboriginal conception of health. As the in Aboriginal traditions, some stories are connection between past and future is un­ not to be related out of context. I am not derstood in a discussion such as this, so certain where this line should be drawn as should the link between elements and my history and knowledge of such stories people. may be unduly influenced by the fact that REVIEWS 283

The metaphor of the "Aboriginal purchased in most traditional Aboriginal body" seems difficult to reconcile with societies. this understanding. When Kelm writes that the "(c)olonial praxis has situated Tracey Lindberg Aboriginal bodies as particular sites of Athabasca University struggle," the reader is also reminded that the western understanding of the division of soul and body is one which does not Betsy Beattie, Obligation and Opportu­ necessarily have a correlate in Aboriginal nity : Single Maritime Women in Boston, societies. ( 101 ) In fact, the division seems 1870-1930 (Montreal and Kingston: all the more inapt as the missionaries, McGill-Queens University Press 2000) government officials, and residential school staff members themselves were OVER THE PAST several decades, histori­ aware of the tie between spirit and body ans of international migration have be­ and systematically broke down one know­ come increasingly aware, as have their ing the impact it would have on the other. colleagues elsewhere, of the need to con­ The resultant intellectual split between sider women as distinct historical actors soul and body has a tendency to objectify whose experiences did not always mirror just one part of Aboriginality when the those of their kinsmen. Betsy Beattie's whole was detrimentally impacted. While book Obligation and Opportunity con­ the theory of the construction of Aborigi­ tributes to this corrective effort by recen- nal bodies as colonized bodies is an inter­ tering the narrative of Maritime out- esting one, it is more relevant to the dis­ migration to Boston in the decades around course to examine the attempted eradica­ 1900, a narrative formerly dominated by tion and suppression of Aboriginal the male skilled workers who relocated, personhood and manhood. In this discus­ on the women who made up as many as sion, the body cannot be separated from two-thirds of all Maritime migrants to the spirit. Boston during this era. (5-6) While fe­ Kelm makes some interesting com­ male migrants in the late- 19th century ments about Aboriginal economies and sought work in Boston in order to assist the effect that colonization has had on their families financially, Beattie argues, them, linking this to Aboriginal people's the young women who retraced their steps health. This is a difficult concept to de­ in the early 20th century envisioned this scribe and to capture as there has been sojourn as an essential formative journey, little research done in the area. Further, an opportunity for individual growth on her preliminary discussion of Aboriginal the road to adulthood. women's work, its subsequent devalu­ In Part I, "The Vanguard," Beattie fo­ ation, and the impact of this devaluation cuses on the Maritime women who mi­ on Aboriginal health is intriguing. (51) grated to Boston in the final decades of The economic subjugation of Aboriginal the 19th century. These women's migra­ people as a result of the implementation tion, like that of their brothers, both of the reserve system is also discussed stemmed from and contributed to the re­ convincingly in this work. (55) In her gion's economic decline in the decades discussion of "upward mobility" of Abo­ following Confederation. (31-32) But riginal doctors Kelm states that "healers while men might primarily migrate to gained little wealth with which to confirm help out the family, such migrations were elevated rank." (88) In this discussion, not incompatible with personal ambition Western standards of upward mobility are and the simultaneous or subsequent fulfil­ applied and the result is an awkward anal­ ment of individual career goals. Not so for ogy. Respect, integrity, and honour are women: their journeys to Boston revolved the currency with which mobility was solely around their families' economic 284 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

need. In this sense, seeking work in Bos­ families economically, the experience ton was actually part of a larger tradition changed them for life. (61) For these of Maritime women seeking outside women from rural Maritime farming wages in order to help their families cover communities, their years in Boston expenses. As the increasing industrializa­ marked their firstencounte r with an urban tion of North America minimized young metropolis. When they later returned to women's direct economic contributions their homes in the Maritimes, brimming on the farm, with home production shift­ with tales of adventure and excitement in ing to commercial consumption and the big city, their broadened horizons and farms becoming increasingly specialized new perspective on life were evident, and and mechanized, farm daughters were no they eagerly recounted their experiences longer needed so close to home; moreover to subsequent generations for years to they found fewer employment opportuni­ come. It was these stories of adventure, ties at home than in growing urban centres argues Beattie, which fuelled a second like Boston. wave of migration in the first decades of Boston provided an attractive destina­ the 20th century; it is this second wave of tion to Maritime women because of the female migrants that Beattie addresses in abundance of positions available in the Part Two of the book, entitled "El­ domestic service, the type of work an dorado." In contrast to their mothers, earlier generation would have done in aunts, and older sisters, personal growth neighbours' homes in the Atlantic prov­ and outright adventure — not familial inces. Furthermore, Bostonians appar­ economic need — were the primary mo­ ently found Maritime women to be ideal tivating factors propelling female Mari­ employees; native born women shunned time migrants who sought work in Boston domestic service during this era because after 1900. These women were often bet­ of the long hours, and most Maritime im­ ter educated than their predecessors had migrants, unlike other Boston immigrants been; many of them completed high at the time, were Protestants who spoke school before leaving home, a fact which English with little or no accent. Working bears evidence to their decreasing impor­ in private homes, Maritime women could tance as players in the family economy. accumulate a considerable savings in a Once in Boston, while some continued few years, as compensation included both older patterns by taking work as domes­ decent wages and room and board. While tics or in the garment industry, an increas­ the vast majority of Maritime women thus ing number took advantage of educational laboured as maids or cooks, over one in opportunities not available back home, six was a seamstress or worked in a re­ from nurse training programs to night lated industry during this era. (51) Al­ courses in business, another indication though newspapers back home were full that family financial obligations were less of cautionary tales, often reporting that pressing for this generation of migrants. only tragic consequences befell women Many Maritime women used these educa­ who abandoned home for the dangerous, tional opportunities as a springboard into distant, and foreign metropolis, women a professional career. Still others, enter­ tended to disregard these dire predictions ing the various labour markers that of their fate; instead they relied upon the courted women to fill shortages in the more positive accounts they received early 1900s, became telephone operators, from relatives or friends who were al­ clerical workers, and saleswomen. ready living in Boston. Beattie's sources include contempo­ While this "vanguard," "the first rary newspaper articles, labour bureau group of single women to leave the Mari­ and census reports, letters and diaries, as times in large numbers and go to work in well as more recent interviews and writ­ Boston," went primarily to help their ten accounts. But at the heart of her com- REVIEWS 285 parisons is her extensive research in previous stories on this migration, were United States federal census manuscripts female. Thus, Beattie's work is a valuable form 1880, 1910, and 1920. Using these contribution, and offers one more testi­ manuscripts, Beattie has identified the oc­ monial: failing to consider whether male cupations of nearly every Maritime and female migrants experienced the mi­ woman living in Boston at the time of gration process differently will leave half these three censuses. In addition to com­ the story untold. piling this data in superbly constructed tables within the text, she includes a more Florence Mae Waldron detailed breakdown of every recorded oc­ University of Minnesota cupation for these census years in several appendices. Beattie's maps are also very informative and easy to read, though ge­ Paul Rutherford, Endless Propaganda: ographers might criticize certain omis­ The Advertising of Public Goods sions: for example, none of her maps in­ (Toronto: University of Toronto Press cludes a scale. The occasional photo­ 2000) graphs of young Maritime migrants at work add a personal dimension to the stories that unfold throughout the narra­ RECENTLY, THE FOLLOWING unsigned tive, particularly the changing nature of classified ad appeared in Toronto's work itself for these women over time. weekly alternative newsmagazine, NOW: Together, these sources paint a multidi­ "SMOKERS RIGHTS. Sick control-freaks mensional portrait of the lives and expe­ led by white supremacists are behind the riences of Beattie's subjects. brainwashing enforcement of non-smok­ ing laws. If they were so concerned about As her introduction indicates, Beattie the pollution of air they would be making is familiar with a large body of literature a noise about the exhaust fumes and in­ not only on other women migrants to the dustrial wastes which are at least 10,000 United States during this era, but also on times worse & are the true killers of our women and work throughout the centu­ environment. Why else do you suppose ries. Although her attempts to situate her that might be? Whatever happened to subjects' experiences within this much Freedom of Choice? Or is that something larger historiography might strike some exclusive to the rich?" While this tangled as ahistorical, because of the ways in tale of conspiracy and control in the pub­ which she appears to essentialize the ex­ lic space of Toronto seems particularly periences of women across time and overwrought and poorly argued, it does space, at least she is drawing upon the point to some of the responses occasioned literature. A number of other studies of by anti-smoking regulations and advertis­ Canadian migrants to the northeastern US ing. during this era show little awareness of In his new book, Endless Propaganda: the larger tradition of US immigration The Advertising of Public Goods, senior studies, or of gender as a factor in migra­ University of Toronto history professor tion and work patterns. Beattie's addition Paul Rutherford scrutinizes this field of of women to the story of this migration "advocacy advertising" or "civic advo­ reinforces themes found in existing schol­ cacy" — that is, publicity promoting a arship of young people's exodus from the "public good" such as smoke-free work­ Maritimes in conjunction with economic places and restaurants, or the elimination stagnation. Yet her book provides a of drunk driving. It includes, for Ruther­ unique perspective because it prompts a ford, advertising sponsored by govern­ more accurate understanding of the expe­ ments (a major player in Canada), politi­ riences of the majority of Maritime mi­ cal parties, corporations, and organiz­ grants, who, in contrast to the subjects of ations, and which is directed at achieving 286 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

"a drug-free America, social justice and various theoretical influences on the public health, a united Canada or a sover­ book, Habermas and Foucault are espe­ eign Quebec, economic progress, un­ cially important. The ads themselves, and spoiled nature, world peace, crime-free Rutherford has researched an extraordi­ streets, and on and on." (5) He argues that nary number of them, are from Canada, there has been an explosion of such advo­ the United States, the UK, and France with cacy since the 1960s, and of the identifi­ scattered references to other national con­ cation of "social risks" such as pollution texts such as Chile and Argentina. De­ and AIDS, marking a clear break with the spite this international focus, the argu­ past. What we are seeing, he contends, is ment is not especially comparative and the marketing of public goods along the speaks largely to the American experi­ same lines as commodities. While ence. Rutherford devotes some time to discuss­ The book's first part begins, not unex­ ing reactions to such advertising, includ­ pectedly given Rutherford's main focus ing backlashes to anti-smoking, drunk of inquiry here, with Habermas's under­ driving, and safe sex campaigns, his cen­ standing of democracy, his famous ac­ tral interest in Endless Propaganda is the count of the public sphere, and his cri­ impact of advocacy advertising on the tique of advertising and public relations. public sphere. "Habermas's Lament" serves to introduce Indeed, as far back as the 1930s, a an historical discussion of the origins of central (and pessimistic) strand of the advocacy advertising in World War II and massive scholarly literature on advertis­ Cold War America as business sought "to ing has been preoccupied with its erosion remedy the lamentable ignorance of ordi­ of democratic life and discourse; by the nary Americans about the virtues of free 1950s, this had turned into an obsession enterprise and the villainy of alterna­ with media manipulation and propa­ tives." (28) A brief discussion of Gramsci ganda. In recent years, the analysis of on hegemony sets up two chapters on the advertising has become vastly more theo­ restoration of order following the serious retically sophisticated and wide-ranging, challenges of the 1960s to American pov­ but troubling questions about what has erty, racism, and imperialism. Examples happened to the space of political dis­ include the war on drugs and what course within advanced capitalist socie­ Rutherford refers to as the merchandising ties have, arguably, become more press­ of law and order as "elites regained their ing with the renewed theoretical and prac­ command over the shape of the symbolic tical interest in democracy. Rutherford's universe which constructed politics." project is located within this broad criti­ (66) An outline of Foucauldian notions of cal tradition and shares much of its deep power, discipline, and governmentality pessimism if not all of its approaches. forms the prologue to part three, in many ways the core of Endless Propaganda. Endless Propaganda is divided into Here Rutherford devotes a chapter each to five parts, each part beginning with a contemporary health promotion cam­ short theoretical excursion that serves to paigns (smoking, drugs, AIDS); charity introduce some of the themes, arguments, ads, especially those focused on poverty and interpretations that run through the in the Third World ("save the children"); discussion of the (mainly televised) advo­ and "administrative advertising," a loose cacy ads that follow. Some readers will category through which he analyzes as­ find this organization of the book particu­ sorted attempts to "reconstruct citizens" larly suited to its subject matter and ap­ in ads directed at drinking, discrimina­ proach; others may find it episodic and at tion, and crime, among other instances. times frustrating as the overall argument (141) For Rutherford, these campaigns disappears under the weight of numerous are all about the "new paranoia," but I examples and theoretical tangents. Of the REVIEWS 287 would have liked to have seen here an limits to debate in the corporate media historical discussion about the ways in and to form what some might argue are which they differ from, for example, all alternative public spheres. those paranoid and panic-inducing films More troubling is Rutherford's ac­ of the 1950s (many of which found their count of "the populace" — a rather pas­ way into the schools) about sex, venereal sive and undifferentiated lot who have disease, drugs, dating, communism, the learned that "tuning out" propaganda and Bomb, and the dangers of slovenly per­ avoiding the electoral machine is the best sonal habits. This section's concluding that can be made of a bad situation: "In­ chapter draws on the examples of Benne- creased propaganda, beyond a certain ton and the Body Shop to argue that the point, will provoke neither compliance moral appeals of advocacy advertising nor argument but a collective turn-off, a have now invaded commodity advertis­ psychic blindness and deafness that resist ing. Part four of Endless Propaganda efforts to sell any and all public goods." considers the themes of technological (2SS) As in Baudrillard, there is, ulti­ Utopia and dystopia in advocacy advertis­ mately, No Way Out. This sense of clo­ ing by large corporations and the green sure and pessimism is reinforced by an movement and is anchored by some con­ analysis of advocacy ads that, in many siderations on the work of Paul Ricoeur. cases, emphasizes a one-dimensional The fifth and final part of the book in­ message. Sometimes this works; Ruther­ vokes Baudrillard, not unsurprisingly, for ford effectively points to the questions some concluding reflections on the stag­ and points of view that are systematically ing of politics as advertising, the suppres­ excluded from certain campaigns such as sion of debate and the general coloniza­ those against drugs. Yet there is little tion of the public sphere by propaganda sense that ads, like other texts, might have and marketing. multiple and unstable meanings, or might be organized through more than one set of Can we get out of this place? After all, discourses. Nor does he spend much time propaganda may be endless, but popular on advertising campaigns, such as the re­ tolerance for it isn't. Rutherford spends cent one by a Canadian bank ("Can a bank some time talking about activists such as change?"), which are in part a response to the Vancouver-based Adbusters, prac­ sharp popular critique, in this case of the tices such as "culture jamming" and graf­ banking sector. Sometimes, as in his dis­ fiti, and artists such as the celebrated cussion of safe sex promotion, the analy­ American feminist Barbara Kruger whose sis could have been much deeper and work operates in part through a critique more searching. Citing a journalistic ac­ of contemporary advertising. In the last count that claims that "half of the nation's analysis, however, Rutherford does not 20-year-old gay men will contract HIV think such activist and artistic strategies during their lifetime," Rutherford con­ are terribly effective given the fact that cludes that, "The extraordinary efforts to real control of the media depends on seri­ banish unsafe sex from the gay commu­ ous access to money and power. Many nity in the United States ultimately will agree with him here; others might failed." (113) Aside from the fact that want to probe more deeply and ask how both the statistic and the argument are contemporary social movements such as debatable, this analysis completely ig­ the Zapatistas have nonetheless managed nores the phenomenal efforts by gay men to gain significant ground through the in­ and their allies to challenge the terms of ternational media. Relatedly, there is no conventional public health discourse, to discussion at all in Endless Propaganda create explicit and erotic safe sex materi­ of the fascinating ways in which interna­ als, and to demand a say in setting AIDS tional activists have used the internet to research and treatment agendas. In short, get around some (certainly not all) of the 288 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

government anti-AIDS campaigns (with wanted to do it in your spare time — and all their serious problems) must be situ­ one course was enough for this shrunken ated in a broader context of deep contest­ purpose. This was my baptism as a critic- ation around how AIDS is talked about in in-embryo of the new skills education." the public sphere. Despite the many (3) thought-provoking arguments throughout The debate whether skills or content the book, Endless Propaganda at times should guide education is as important as comes perilously close to a remaking of it is ancient. Socrates and the Sophist 1950s-style media manipulation and con­ school of Athens debated whether the formity theory with Foucault, rather than goals of education ought to be wisdom the psychoanalytic approaches popular in through reflection upon the content of that decade, forming the chief theoretical daily life or the cleverness to be gained in influence. the skills of rhetoric. While the Sophists sold certainty to students about the worth Cynthia Wright of the skills they possessed, Socrates University of Toronto traded in doubt, questioning the often un­ examined ends to which people strove and to which skills were applied. Davis's Bob Davis, Skills Mania: Snakeoil in our position in this debate is clear. Schools? (Toronto: Between the Lines "... I object to ... the current neglect of 2000) what these skills should be anchored in: content, conviction, allegiances, real hu­ BOB DAVIS's 1995 book What ever hap­ man beings and, in general, a commitment pened to high school history? Burying the to helping students understand history, Political Memory of Youth: Ontario learn about the world and consider ways 1945-1995 made me a fan. In that book he to make it a better place to live." (9) documented how history courses from In Chapters 4-11 Davis offers class­ 1949-1995 were replaced in Ontario's room project examples from his long ex­ curriculum by the "age of sociology" perience as a teacher that combine skills courses. In contrast to this kind of history, with meaningful content in history, Eng­ Davis argued these courses were devoid lish, psychology, sociology, citizenship of content and societal goals worthy of education, and elementary and high students's consideration. Unfortunately, school science. From these examples it is the same cannot be said for Davis's latest clear that Davis is an inspiring teacher. effort, Skills Mania: Snakeoil in our His examples of lessons that artfully com­ Schools?. bine skills and content, however, get lost Davis's latest effort is divided into in tangents harmful to his main point. eleven chapters and two appendices of Chapter 4 for example deals with English. course material from his high school In this chapter, starting from the begin­ black history courses. The first three ning, we learn of an inspiring American chapters lay out his version of the skills mentor getting fired from a southern US philosophy and its threat to democratic school for handing out candy, a poem education while Chapters 4-11 focus on written by a student for the mentor, the course examples that combine content author's brother's disappointment with a and skill in various disciplines. In his teacher's feedback in the 1950s, reflec­ introduction, Davis writes how this de­ tions on past classroom texts, before end­ bate began. ing with a student's exam answer to ex­ emplify the worthwhile work possible "The new curriculum advisors said we when students encounter stimulating con­ should no longer teach history; we were tent. No specific examples of competing to teach how to do history (history skills), English curriculum guidelines or objec- in case you ever needed it in your job or REVIEWS 289

tives are examined, no understanding of topics." (34) By failing to provide evi­ the subtleties of the debate are rendered. dence for the existence and extent of the Rather, as with other chapters, too much skills mania that he opposes, Davis under­ patience is asked of readers subjected to mines his own argument that a skills ma­ unrelated anecdotes that diminish the nia, rather than the well documented cor­ author's examples to illustrate how skills relations between socioeconomic status and content need not and should not be and school performance, threatens acces­ mutually exclusive. sible education. Unrestrained by a clearly While Davis's book is an attempt to defined debate to address, at times "resist this era's claims that curriculum Davis's claims are simply irresponsible: content and student conviction be kept out of school," the existence and extent of At its worst, then, collaboration in group learn­ those claims remain unclear. (14) Davis ing [in classrooms] may produce collaborators with business who operate like collaborators quotes American William Spady, a skill- did in World War II: the tune is called entirely centred education advocate from a 1993 by the big piper you're collaborating with. (34) Ontario conference address. Spady ar­ gued that school subjects should be re­ Davis's book exemplifies a need for placed by domains of competency: Ver­ the skills of scholarship. The book con­ bal, Qualitative, Technical, Strategic, So­ tains many claims and few references. cial, and Evaluative. ( 13) A cursory check Among many examples, claims that CEOs of Ontario's recently revised curriculum send their kids to private schools, "skills indicates that Spady has been unsuccess­ zealots" are eroding meaning from educa­ ful. Textbooks approved by the govern­ tion and "big corporations which spend ment of Ontario for Grade 10, for exam­ millions retraining staff in attitude shifts, ple, include "Canadian history in the 20th will cheerfully advise government that Century," "Civics," "Career Studies," teacher retraining is an unnecessary "English," "Math," and "Science." thrill!" leave readers unfamiliar with (www.curriculum.org) Davis quotes a Davis's anecdotes unconvinced. (7, 19, 1990 government report, prepared by 19 186) Editorial sloppiness and poor writ­ company presidents, 7 politicians, 5 aca­ ing further undermine the persuasive demics, and 3 trade unionists to further quality of this work. provide the reader with a sense of the "Now a very interesting thing about era's claims to which he is opposed. Snow: I had forgotten what he said his "With the advent of new information- original title was; he was interested in based technology and the shift to a more things that really surprised me. It is flexible and multi-skilled workforce, em­ shown by this quote." (153) ployers are finding that generic work­ Fifteen pages later, the reader is asked place skills are becoming increasingly to "recall that he [Snow] had meant to title important relative to job-specific skills. the essay The Rich and the Poor" (168) Generic skills ... include analytical, prob­ The final chapter is the strongest of the lem solving, workplace interpersonal book. The weakness of the previous chap­ skills...." (7) ters are overcome with a clearly focused Course descriptions in Ontario indi­ question, "Why should we turn away cate that content and theory have with­ from the skills mania and what should we stood, thus far the opinions of academics try instead?" Drawing form Arendt, Ein­ and business interests with majority stein, Globe and Mail columnist Rick Sa- status on government committees that lutin, and educator Eleanor Duckworth, lack teacher representation, (www.cur­ Davis argues that education must be an­ riculum.org) Davis himself parentheti­ chored cally acknowledges that "... many teach­ "... in people, in their minds, in their ers ... thankfully support the stress on history, in their common bonds, in their 290 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

lives as integrated wholes...." (191) His volved in the processes of continental kind of school would be one that "in the economic integration including such no­ words of radical Canadian educator tables as James Baker III, Simon Reis- George Martell ... 'educates all students man, Carla Hill, and Clayton Yeutter. for personal integrity, challenging work, Moreover, the Canadian business elite in­ meaningful citizenship and the pursuit of cluding Thomas d'Aquino (head of the social justice.'" (202) Business Council on National Issues) par­ Of course, many whom Davis would ticipated in the conference and make con­ consider "skills zealots" and "right tributions to the volume. wingers" also believe in this vision for While the list of members of the North schools. The weakness of this book is that American political and economic elite is Davis fails to document how schools are impressive, it is unfortunate that in most failing this vision, to specify to what de­ cases, the calibre of these chapters is un­ gree skills mania actually exists, and to able to match the cachet of the names provide a balanced rendering of the de­ behind them. To be fair though, it must be bate so that readers can themselves judge noted that the vast majority of these the state of affairs and measure what pieces that laud the implementation of Davis has to offer. continental free markets appear to be di­ rect transcriptions of speeches that were Kent den Heyer delivered at the conference. As a result, University of British Columbia the celebratory, a-theoretical "show and tell" is understandable, though still disap­ pointing. L. Ian MacDonald, éd., Free Trade: Risks More importantly and even more tell­ and Rewards (Montreal and Kingston: ing is the general tone of the chapters McGill-Queen's University Press 2000) coming from the policy-making and busi­ ness communities. Jim Stanford, one of THIS EDITED VOLUME is a set of pro­ the participants, remarks at the beginning ceedings from Free Trade® 10, a confer­ of his chapter that the primary purpose of ence organized by the McGill Institute for the conference seems to be "an opportu­ the Study of Canada, held in Montreal, in nity for mutual congratulation and back June of 1999. The editor of the volume patting" rather than a serious and critical claims to "provide a historical framework discussion of the issues at hand. Pictures for the ongoing discussion of economic interspersed within the volume of the and environmental issues." Although the "big-name" conference participants re­ volume does indeed meet this lofty goal, flect the victory of style over substance it does not do so in the way that was and are reminiscent of a research centre probably intended. brochure or high school yearbook. The Free Trade: Risks and Rewards con­ book is replete with references to the pro­ tains a dazzling array of contributors that gressive vision of the political leaders is largely made up of what could be con­ who pushed for free trade, clichés about sidered the North American political the role of political will in the process of elite. The volume boasts several pieces realizing free trade, and disdain for those featuring the views and opinions of for­ who in any way questioned the prudence merly and currently elected officials in­ of a free-trade deal. Perhaps most guilty cluding George Bush Sr., Brian Mul- of this unreflexive cheerleading is roney, John Turner, Michael Wilson, Bob d'Aquino, whose salute to Presidents Rae, Jean Charest, Donald MacDonald, Reagan and Bush and Prime Minister John Crosbie, and Pierre Marc Johnson. Mulroney is almost enough to make the There is also a strong representation of most seasoned of sycophants blush. Mul- non-elected government officials in­ roney's contribution is equally wince-in- REVIEWS 291 ducing as he attempts to justify his place merits of individual chapters as from in history as an economic visionary way what the reader can take away in aggre­ ahead of his time, to replace his current gate. This volume not only provides a standing as the most despised politician framework for ongoing discussions of in Canadian history. This is not to say economic and environmental issues but though that the chapters by the policy and also reveals the actual framework within business communities are completely which issues are discussed among the without merit. In particular, Victor Licht- North American political and economic inger's (founding executive director of elite, or are defined as outside discussion the NAFTA Commission for Environ­ altogether. The problematic nature of this mental Co-operation) short paper on framework should be quite apparent to the NAFTA and its institutional environ­ reflective reader. For example, most of mental safeguards comes across as a bea­ the contributors on NAFTA miss the point con of honesty and critical engagement that the legacy of this agreement is not with the shortcomings of North American free trade or its dispute-settlement proce­ continental economic integration. dures but rather the Chapter 11 provisions The chapters in the volume written by which essentially usurp popular sover­ academics and those involved in the trade eignty in favour of corporate profit. The union and other civil society movements inattentive silence on this issue is almost generally offer more sophisticated and deafening. compelling explorations of free trade and This volume offers incredible insights its consequences for Canada. Many of the into who is allowed to speak with author­ contributors to the volume make refer­ ity on the issue of free trade. Unsurpris­ ence to John McCallum's report regard­ ingly limited to the upper strata of North ing the economic consequences of free American society, with a heavy bias to­ trade on Canada which is included as an wards American and Canadian authori­ appendix. Michael Hart is able to give ties, it is also predominantly men, with some historical depth to the concept of male contributors to the volume outnum­ free trade in Canada. Jim Stanford and bering their female counterparts at over Gerald Larose give critical assessments 14 to 1. This glaring imbalance says much from the standpoint of Canadian workers about the gender divisions that still exist of the impact of free trade in Canada today. Furthermore, policy/corporate while Andrew Jackson emphasizes the contributors outnumber their civil soci­ differences between the myth and reality ety/trade unionist counterparts by almost of trade liberalization by zeroing in on 8 to 1, another reflection of current asym­ macro-economic indicators. David metries of power within North American Schorr provides an interesting assessment society. This volume also clearly illus­ of the tensions between sustainable devel­ trates that with a few exceptions, free- opment and the NAFTA system. Richard market fundamentalism, the world's new­ Lipsey and Guy Stanley offer chapters est and most powerful religion, has a firm that are as thought-provoking as they are grip on the elite of North American society. unabashedly pro-free trade and pro-neo- liberalism. Stanley truly distinguishes In brief, Free Trade: Risks and Re­ himself by being the only author in the wards meets and surpasses its lofty goal volume to devote sufficient attention to of providing a framework for the explora­ the ideology/praxis nexus. As a result, tion of economic and environmental is­ these chapters make up for much of the sues by revealing the current theory and analytical poverty of the policy and busi­ practice in North American trade. It is a ness community contributions. must read for anyone interested in the history of North American free trade and The importance of Free Trade: Risks the history of neoliberalism in Canada, and Rewards comes not so much from the particularly those who approach these is- 292 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

sues from a critical perspective. It offers book is to elucidate the reasons behind its important insights into how members of decline. The authors' aim in this is explic­ the North American policy and corporate itly revisionist in that they want to chal­ elite have constructed a highly problem­ lenge existing explanations for this de­ atic discussion of free trade and its ef­ cline and the pro-welfare-state assump­ fects. tions that underpin them (one of the authors is an economist, seemingly of the Kyle Grayson neoclassical variety). York University Existing explanations point, in vary­ ing combinations, to the unsound finan­ cial practices of friendly societies, the George Emery & J.C. Herbert Emery, A Great Depression, and to competition Young Man 's Benefit: The Independent from more efficient commercial insur­ Order of Odd Fellows and Sickness Insur­ ance and government programs. All, the ance in the United States and Canada Emerys note, implicitly assume that the (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University need for sickness insurance was at least Press 1999) constant from the mid-1800s onward (the pro-welfare-state assumption), and in­ THE MIDDLE OF THE 19th century wit­ creased over an adult's life span — since nessed the proliferation of "friendly so­ sickness tends to increase with age cieties" in North America — fraternal —making it an "old man's benefit." The orders that provided insurance, typically Emerys concur that the incidence of sick­ sickness and funeral benefits, along with ness increases with age, but contend that their more general aims of promoting the need for sickness benefits among friendship and character development friendly society members actually de­ among their members. These societies clined with age, since they could turn to grew substantially until the World War I savings (self-insurance) and/or the earn­ era, at which point most entered into a ings of family members (family insur­ long steady decline during which their ance) to replace the income lost due to insurance benefits became quite periph­ illness. Consequently, the sickness bene­ eral to the organization if not discontin­ fit was really a "young man's benefit," ued altogether. The class composition of and as the Odd Fellows' membership these societies, and their role in working- aged, internal support for the sickness class formation has been much debated, benefit waned and this explains its de­ but there are large gaps in the literature, cline. with very few studies examining any of The early chapters of the book provide these societies over any appreciable pe­ an overview of the beginnings of the IOOF riod of time. in North America, its internal organiza­ A Young Man's Benefit begins to ad­ tion and governing bodies, and examine dress this lacuna. It is based upon a case in some detail the people who comprised study of the Independent Order of Odd its membership up to the late 1920s. An­ Fellows (IOOF), the largest of the friendly alysing the membership records of a societies with some 1.9 million North number of local branches in BC and On­ American members at its peak in 1921. tario in the early 1900s, they show that in The Emerys do not attempt to provide a addition to being overwhelmingly Protes­ history of the IOOF; their focus is on the tant, white males (the code of laws were sickness benefit. From 1863 to 1929 this explicit on the latter two requirements; benefit was a right of every member, at women were confined to an auxiliary), which point it became an optional benefit the IOOF membership was comprised pri­ with many IOOF local branches no longer marily of skilled workers and providing it. The central objective of the clerks/shopkeepers, although the relative REVIEWS 293

size of these two groups varied quite sub­ competitors in its core "market" of skilled stantially among branches. While never workers, clerks, and shopkeepers prior to stating it explicitly, the intent here is to 1915, and most did not provide compara­ establish the presumption that the typical ble benefits. But, in any case, the IOOF's Odd Fellows' income was sufficient to sickness benefit began to decline much allow for the possibility of "self-insur­ earlier, in the early 1890s when branches ance." were exempted from the decision (made They then turn to the IOOF benefit at the start of the decade) requiring them system and the reasons for its decline, to pay a specified minimum benefit, and devoting most of their attention to chal­ the ensuing years saw further exemptions lenging the conventional explanations for of various types, as well as a steady de­ it. They allow that the benefit system did cline in the real value of the average bene­ have some actuarial shortcomings: it fit received by IOOF members. lacked a centralized pool of funds (each Finally, the Emerys examine the mem­ branch was responsible for funding the bership records of six Canadian IOOF benefit claims of its members), and the branches roughly between 189S and 1925 lOOF's flat-rate dues structure, the main to directly substantiate their argument source of revenue to fund the sickness that the real explanation for the decline of benefit, precluded use of "risk-based" the sickness benefit lies in its loss of sup­ assesments. Nonetheless, they argue that port among the IOOF's aging member­ the system was efficient; using volunteers ship. To this end they employ a statistical (members) to recruit members kept over­ technique called cliometrics (quite appro­ head costs low; the requirement that a priately I was assured by a colleague well designated IOOF member (who could re­ versed in it) to calculate a member's prob­ quire evidence of illness) visit claimants ability of leaving the IOOF for each year before any payment was made controlled that he remains a member. The analysis for moral hazard; and age-related initia­ reveals that this probability does increase tion fees discouraged older men (with a (statistically) significantly with each year higher likelihood of sickness) from join­ of membership, and this, they contend, ing. substantiates the claim that the sickness This argument is reinforced by a re-ex­ benefit is really a young man's benefit. amination of key financial reports which Unfortunately, it really doesn't. To be­ purportedly showed that many IOOF gin, a look at the actual data (Fig.6.1,114) branches faced financial ruin. This sug­ reveals that the statistical finding is an gests that the danger was much exagger­ artifact of the fact that the probability of ated, as they typically substantially un­ leaving increases so dramatically from derestimated branch revenue while over­ year one of membership until year five; stating the cost associated with the from year six to 30 it steadily declines. sickness benefit. The Emerys also analyse Secondly, this analysis tells us absolutely the financial records of 27 local branches nothing about why members left. The in British Columbia between 1890 and Emerys claim that it was because they no 1929, all of which paid the maximum longer needed the benefit, but they have allowed sickness benefit. Employing so­ no evidence of this. It is moreover im­ phisticated actuarial techniques to assess plausible; we are asked to believe, for the financial status of these branches, example, that some 25 per cent of IOOF they provide evidence showing that all members, who overwhelmingly joined but two branches had sufficient funds to while in their 20s, could, within five years cover claims, and that the probability of of joining, turn to their savings or their any of them confronting financial ruin children's income to replace income lost was extremely low. As for competition, to sickness. Indeed, when the authors they point out that the IOOF faced few looked at which branches chose to make 294 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL the sickness benefit optional in 1925, they Jo Ann E. Argersinger, Making the Amal­ concluded that branches with "older" gamated: Gender, Ethnicity, and Class in members (the measure is indirect, but it is the Baltimore Clothing Industry, 1899- the authors' inference) are no more likely 1939. (Baltimore: John Hopkins Univer­ to have done this that those with sity Press 1999) "younger" members. This may perhaps explain the odd location of this analysis JO ANN ARGERSINGER offers readers a in the middle of the chapter on the finan­ refreshing perspective on the growth and cial status of the IOOF. development of American unions during At the same time, the Emerys' argu­ the pre-World War II period. The book ments that the decline of the sickness focuses on the rise and fall of Baltimore's benefit cannot be attributed to flawed ad­ men's clothing industry and the endeav­ ministration, the rise of competitors, or ours of its ethnically and gender-divided financial collapse, at least through to the labour force to gain union recognition. mid-1920s, are quite persuasive. How, The needle trades have a disreputable his­ then, might it be explained? Ironically, tory: low wages, economic instability, a the book supplies much of the answer. reliance on immigrant and female labour, The more historical analysis of the IOOF's and cut-throat competition between large benefit system shows clearly that the fi­ manufacturing firms and small contract nancial status of the benefit system was shops. American historians such as Eileen an ongoing concern with a good number Boris, Steve Fraser, Alice Kessler-Harris, of branches in some financial difficulty at Susan Glenn, and many others have writ­ any time. It would seem, as pro-welfare- ten extensively on the same subjects. state analysts assumed, that the need of However, what makes Argersinger's IOOF members for sickness benefit re­ study unique is the in-depth focus on the peatedly exceeded their financial capaci­ needle trades in a city prominent in the ties to meet it. To their credit, the IOOF industry. made themselves aware of the problem, Argersinger is familiar with the city's considered various alternatives and in­ labour history. In New Deal in Baltimore, variably decided that the only practical she examined the city's unionization ex­ way to deal with it was to reduce the periences during Roosevelt's New Deal. benefit in one way or another, solving one Now, she turns her attention to the gar­ problem by exacerbating another. The on­ ment industry. The author sets out to ex­ set of the Depression can only have made amine the "interplay among politics and matters worse, but any analysis of the reform, regional market shares and eco­ ensuing trajectory of the sickness benefit nomic policy, and community building would at least have to take into account and political mobilization in an urban set­ the growth of the welfare state and ting." (4) The central role of the Amalga­ changes in the class composition of the mated in Baltimore makes it an excellent friendly societies. choice for the study of the relationship between the industry's economic vitality Donald Swartz and the union's evolution. Her research is Carleton University based on evidence from union records, local newspapers, government docu­ ments, and to a limited extent, trade pub­ lications, personal papers, and interviews with some ACW (Amalgamated Clothing Workers) leadership in Baltimore. The book begins with a look at the needle trades during the late-19th century and ends with an epilogue that outlines REVIEWS 295 the present state of the garment unions their efforts to rationalize labour relations now shaped by conditions in a global and create co-managed production stand­ economy. However, the main focus of the ards that would establish industrial peace study is on the men's clothing industry as and economic growth. In 1914, one of it gained prominence after World War I. Baltimore's largest men's clothing com­ Jo Ann Argersinger argues that her ap­ panies, Sonneborn, offered Hillman an proach is particularly well suited, exam­ opportunity to co-manage their factory. ining "all the processes attendant upon Jo Ann Argersinger depicts that moment building a union even as it unravels the and then, as economic conditions in the complex connection affecting the work­ industry declined, she shows how the out­ place and the market. "(5) come of their efforts is placed in jeop­ These were the formative years for the ardy. Amalgamated. The union arose in 1914 In Making the Amalgamated, Arger­ out of the rank-and-file demand for indus­ singer presents a detailed examination of trial-based unions in the needle trades. the industry's growth and decline, over Politically the union was a strong sup­ one of the most interesting periods of the porter of the "new unionism." As Steve Amalgamated's history. The study de­ Fraser, the biographer of long-time inter­ picts the tensions between the rank-and- national union President Sidney Hillman, file (mainly female) and the union leader­ pointed out in his book Labor Will Rule: ship (mostly male). In closely charting Sidney Hillman and the Rise of American these tensions at a local level, the author Labor: shows the interconnections between the local union's successes and the industry's Hillman and the ACW came of age at, and were economic viability. By focusing on the shaped by, the momentous historical juncture economic viability of Baltimore's gar­ of two vastly different systems of work and ment industry, Argersinger is able to social hierarchy. On the one side stood the make visible the daily effect of the logic circumscribed intimacies of craft producers and skilled labour, family enterprise, local in­ of capitalist enterprise as it influenced dustries producing for local markets, immemo­ ACW union practices. This approach of­ rial customs, and personalized authority; on fers both an opportunity and a challenge the other, semiskilled operative, bureaucratic for the author. hierarchy, functional management of anony­ The book's description of union rela­ mous corporations supplying far flung markets with standardized products, and the imper­ tions at an organizational level reveals the sonal regime of rules.(144) structural restraints and situational op­ portunities provided in these years. The These systems of work and their corre­ author's description of how local trade sponding social hierarchy were reflected unionists navigate their way through the in two very different ideas of unionism relations of power generated at the central and industrial democracy: the craft union­ office of the union is invaluable. The or­ ism of the AFL United Garment Workers ganizational dilemma posed by a frag­ (UGW) and the industrial unionism of the mented labour force was/is a troublesome ACW. Argersinger documents the trans­ concern for many unions and while it formation as both forms of unionism must be resolved at the local level, union played out during these years. building was not just a local affair. Union The ACW's new unionism promised an rules were frequently set by national lead­ inclusionary union where brothers and ers outside the local. The study of Balti­ sisters stood arm in arm against the harsh more needle trades provides an opportu­ conditions set by the employers in the nity to examine how the various social trade. In the large production centers of relations of power, generated from differ­ Chicago, New York, Baltimore, and ent locations, connect at a local level. The Rochester, Hillman and the ACW focused author describes these tensions extremely 296 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

well. However, the work is also restricted their work in the mainstream of the un­ because Argersinger does not focus on a ion? How did the transformation of larger analytical context to explain the women's place in the larger society alter tensions she documents here. She does trade union women's trade union strate­ little to situate the union in the larger gies? If far more of Baltimore's needle Baltimore political/union community. In­ trades women held skilled jobs than was stead, her focus remains squarely on the true in other centers, did this affect how internal politics of the ACW in Baltimore. women participated in the union there? This research becomes somewhat Were gender struggles in Baltimore problematic in the chapter, "Sisters in the played out any differently than in New Amalgamated." Argersinger shows that York or Toronto? Unfortunately, she does while ethnic and gender differences not provide insights about how women's served as effective union recruitment working-class culture contributed to tools, at the same time they "also impeded women's sense of themselves inside the the achievement of a larger unity within union. Jo Ann Argersinger gives the the union." (71) However, the author's reader a rich descriptive narrative of analysis of the actual circumstances in women's experience, but the book falls which race and gender played a role in the short of explaining ongoing male resis­ shops is limited, as both have little active tance to women's equality in the ACW. voice. This is partially a result of the The book's strength lies in its ability limited range of her sources. She claims to show the complex relationships be­ her "research challenges those studies tween the economic viability of the nee­ that suggest that all women responded dle trades and the unions' success and similarly to inequality in unions or that failure. The book's focus on the internal limit women's aspirations to fantasias of politics of the Amalgamated in the con­ mass culture or vision of home and text of market changes makes it useful to hearth," (5) but in this chapter of the book both labour and business historians. her focus on the union movement's inter­ While the case study of the Amalgamated nal politics hampers Argersinger's ability in Baltimore offers a rich narrative of the to provide a larger analytical framework tensions, it fails to provide answers to the for working class gender dynamics during larger question it raises. It will be up to these years. As the author documents future researchers to build on the rich women's fight for separate locals, she ar­ history. gues that "Political, economic, and social changes in the post war environment, along with the concerns among union men Mercedes Steedman about women's visibility in the ACW, fig­ Laurentian University ured prominently in making separate in­ stitutions more suspect and susceptible to rejection."(119) Yet she provides only James R. Barrett William Z. Foster and limited evidence to support this assertion the Tragedy of American Radicalism and does not analyse how separatist or­ (Chicago: University of Illinois Press ganizing strategies were influenced by 1999); and Albert Vetere Lannon Second the predominant ideologies of the period. String Red: The Life of AI Lannon, Ameri­ After the defeat of women's locals, trade can Communist (Lanham, Maryland: union women took advantage of trade un­ Lexington Books 1999) ion education programmes to draw women into the union community, mak­ SINCE THE DEMISE of the Soviet Union ing the programmes a central site of gen­ there has been a small explosion in the der struggles in the union. Did women's volume of work published concerning experience in separate locals facilitate many aspects of Soviet-United States re­ lations. Diplomatic historians have been REVIEWS 297 taking full advantage of the new opportu­ is Barrett's biography more readable than nities afforded by the opening of Soviet Johanningsmeier's, but it is also more nu- archives to write several rich histories. anced. The earlier of the two biographies However, access to documents previously states that the Comintern's influence over unavailable has not only led to more com­ Foster was important, but not perhaps as prehensiveness but also made earlier sim­ important as Foster's roots stretching plistic stories more complex. In some back to his early organizing days and be­ ways, following on the coat-tails of these lief in a French version of syndicalism. new diplomatic studies, there has been a While Barrett partially agrees with Johan­ smaller outburst of published work detail­ ningsmeier's contention, he also plainly ing the history of American Communism. states that the key to understanding Foster New access to archives has also made is to appreciate the balance between the these current histories of American Com­ two forces that shaped much of his life: munism not only richer but also much directives from Moscow on one hand and more intricate than previously published uniquely American working-class cir­ work. Two recent publications within this cumstances on the other. "In this regard, new genre of American Communism I differ from Johanningsmeier, who ar­ studies, James R. Barrett's William Z. gues, 'Once Foster's Communism is Foster and the Tragedy of American grounded in the history of modern Ameri­ Radicalism and Albert Vetere Lannon's can radicalism the influence of the Second String Red: The Life of AI Lannon, Comintern becomes less important'.... On American Communist, add much more to the contrary, the essence of Foster's radi­ our understanding of both American cal experience lies precisely at the junc­ Communism and radicalism in the 20th ture between these two great influences in century. A comparison of these two biog­ his life." (4) The difference is an impor­ raphies is useful because while the two tant one and Barrett returns to it through­ men occupied different levels within the out his work by frequently stressing the American Communist Party (CPUSA), significance of international Communist both suffered similar lives of hardship policy on Foster's thinking. and persecution while remaining loyal to their ideological roots. Barrett's biography of William Z. Fos­ ter, as suggested by the title of the work, The first question that must be an­ serves two main functions. It is both a swered in a review of James R. Barrett's biography and a detailed account of the work on William Z. Foster must be, why American radicalism. Although the open­ the need for a second major study of Fos­ ing chapter of the book, covering the ter so soon after publication of Edward P. years from Foster's birth in 1881 to his Johanningsmeier's Forging American becoming politically active in 1904, is Communism: The Life of William Z. Foster? rather bereft of significant detail (both Appearing in 1994, Johanningsmeier's Barrett and Johanningsmeiere state that study, taking advantage of new access to little has been left to historians concern­ Soviet archives, details, if somewhat pon­ ing Foster's early life), the remainder of derously, Foster's significant impact on the work is replete with information. All 20th century American Communism, of the stages and ideological changes in radicalism, and the labour movement. Al­ Foster's life are chronicled: early support though both historians used many of the of syndicalism and the Industrial Workers same sources, including Foster's papers of the World (IWW), effective organizing in Moscow, the answer to the question during and after World War I (most nota­ lies not so much in the area of expanding bly during the Great Steel Strike of 1919), our knowledge of the late National Chair­ support for the radical Trade Union Edu­ man of the CPUSA, but rather in the area cational League (TUEL), infighting with of emphasis. Stated quite simply, not only Earl Browder at the highest levels of the 298 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

CPUSA, falling in and out (and in again sympathetic towards its main topics, Fos­ and out again and finally in again) of ter and American radicalism. Rather than favour with Comintern, increasing aliena­ provide the reader with a clear bias, the tion from the American working class and strength of Barrett's work lies in its nu- the final days in Moscow before his death anced approach to complex subjects. there in 1961. Barrett suggests through­ However, perhaps quite importantly, the out that although Foster was in many author does provide a slight glimpse of ways a complicated man, he found him­ his biases in the conclusion. "If William self in increasingly complex situations, Z. Foster's life story can be seen as a especially after 1920. These were often tragedy, then we might ask ourselves if it caused by the strain of trying to juggle is not an American tragedy as well as a directives from Moscow with what best personal one. Many of the problems that appeared to him for American workers. In moved Foster in sometimes erratic politi­ his final years Foster increasingly sided cal directions are still with us. It is in the with Moscow and this would ultimately struggle to find solutions to them that we lead not only to his isolation from the continually create our own history." CPUSA but also from his beloved Ameri­ (277) After writing such a well-balanced can working class. account, the author can perhaps be for­ Barrett's work contributes perhaps its given for one small expression of per­ most useful function to readers when it is sonal opinion. fulfilling its second purpose, providing a Writing biography, as has been sug­ history of American radicalism in the first gested by many historians, poses certain half of the 20th century. As has already unique difficulties. If this is indeed the been stated, one of Foster's main dilem­ case then writing about one's own father mas, especially after 1945, was juggling must bring with it its own set of distinct Moscow directives with the apparent problems. The strength of Albert Vetere need of American workers. This, in a Lannon's Second String Red: The Life of much larger sense, was also a major prob­ Al Lannon, American Communist, lies lem for radical individuals and organiza­ partially in the fact that the author was tions throughout the United States. The unable to write such an unbiased biogra­ pervasive nature of the Red scare atmos­ phy of his father. In a similar fashion to phere that dominated America in post- Barrett's work on Foster, Lannon de­ World War II years did not lend itself to scribes his father not so much as a com­ radical industrial organizing, something plex individual, but rather as someone that Foster had been committed to for who often found himself in complicated much of his life. For American unions and situations. The author never shirks his radicals this meant the choice of either responsibilities as an historian and chron­ becoming more conservative or being left icles several episodes from Lannon's life out in the cold. William Z. Foster, accord­ that do not throw an appealing light on his ing to Barrett, chose to remain loyal to his father. Referring to himself throughout in earlier strict Leninist ideals while many the third person, the author manages to key members of the CPUSA and important keep his own views out of the story until American unions chose to move to the the very end. However he does allow him­ right. This overall move to the right, leav­ self, in a rather touching last chapter titled ing Foster and a few other radicals iso­ "A Son's Reflection," to bring his own lated on the left, would have an enor­ unique perspectives to bear on trying to mously negative impact on American understand AI Lannon as both father and workers in the years following his death Communist. This biography is only in 1961. strengthened by this somewhat unusual but distinctly insightful last chapter. Barrett's biography ultimately avoids being emphatically sympathetic or un­ REVIEWS 299

Written in a refreshingly straightfor­ The lives of Al Lannon and William Z. ward prose style, Albert Vetere Lannon's Foster run parallel to each other on many biography chronicles the life of a man levels. Both men lived in poverty for who spent most of his days in poverty. much of their lives, travelled around the From his birth in 1907 until his death 62 country and worked at an early age, re­ years later, Al Lannon never moved out mained fiercely loyal to the CPUSA and of the ranks of the working class. He often Soviet Union, and were persecuted under fought passionately for the rights of this the Smith Act (ill health alone prevented same class. This also meant that he and Foster from serving prison time). But per­ his family would endure considerable haps most importantly of all both Al Lan­ hardships until the very end. Any nega­ non and William Z. Foster can be best tive feelings that Lannon may hold to­ remembered for fighting courageously wards his father concerning this situation for the rights of American workers. The are not revealed in the study. Al Lannon climate of the country was often hostile was a committed member of both the Na­ as Lannon attempted to organize sailors tional Maritime Union (NMU) and the in the 1930s and Foster steel workers in CPUSA, and even after 1945 remained 1919, and yet both men were successful fiercely loyal to both Communism and his in improving the lives of many. beloved Soviet Union. During the Red Albert Vetere Lannon and James Bar­ Scare years of the 1950s Lannon would rett have written important biographies. spend time in prison for his political be­ Barrett has been able to bring to life and liefs (thus the title of this biography) and add complexity to the story of a well yet never wavered in his revolutionary known American Communist. Lannon commitment to radical social change in has done much the same for a lesser America. Towards the end of his life he known, but in many ways equally impor­ fell out of favour with the CPUSA and tant person from the history of 20th cen­ apart from a brief comeback at the CP's tury American radicalism. Biography, for 1969 Los Angeles convention, spent many years ignored by labour historians many of his last years in political exile. in the United States, has been making a His health had been poor for some time comeback of sorts recently. If we are to and it would be his eighth heart attack that understand the full scope of the American would kill Al Lannon in 1969. experience in the 20th century, then there Perhaps the primary significance of must be a place for biography alongside both of these biographies is the simple studies of the rank and file, labour organi­ fact that they disabuse many of the Cold zations, and communities. These two War myths that remain throughout works are welcome additions to this most American society. The nature of domestic recent trend in working-class history. Communism during the Cold War era has been hotly debated by historians for many Steven Cotterill years, and with new access to Soviet ar­ West Virginia University chives the debate has recently taken on renewed vigour. Al Lannon, while re­ maining loyal to the Soviet Union throughout his life, fought courageously for American workers. In a political cli­ mate far more hostile than the one many so-called radicals find themselves in to­ day, Lannon placed fighting for worker's rights above his own health, financial comfort, and maybe even above his own family. 300 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

Jessica Wang, American Science in an nuclear proliferation. The US became a Age of Anxiety: Scientists, Anticommu- global security state dedicated to the con­ nism and the Cold War (Chapel Hill and tinued containment of Russia and China London: University of North Carolina with operational ized programs to fight Press 1999) and win a nuclear war, including the first use of nuclear weapons. It also led NATO PROFESSOR JESSICA WANG's book is to adopt its global agenda. At the same the most detailed and scholarly account of time it spawned a world movement dedi­ the sociopolitical relations of science and cated to the abolition of nuclear weapons. the history of a critical period, 1945 to America, born out of a revolution, be­ 1950, which was to leave its imprint on came the leading anti-revolutionary state the future and to become the basis of our in the world. Most of us are familiar with age of anxiety. Her book is an important the rampant anti-communism of the post- contribution to understanding the global World War II period quickly evolving to problems of today. the period of the Cold War and beyond the There is great merit in the author's demise of the Soviet Union to the policy choice of the period 1945-1950 to analyse of ideological cleansing in the 1990s. As the relationship between science and poli­ the author states, "Long before the onset tics. With the dropping of the atomic of the Cold War, anti-radical nativism bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Au­ was already a familiar part of American gust 1945 the future was forever altered politics." (4) The targets of these politics and the age of anxiety firmly established. were radical movements, elements of As Robert Oppenheimer later admitted, FDR's New Deal, and the labour move­ the scientists who built the bomb and sup­ ment. Nativism is the ideology that rejects ported its military use had known sin. all foreign influence while focusing on Professor Wang's book is a major contri­ communism as the target of its venom. It bution to understanding the dynamics of demands unconditional loyalty. Anything that time, the focus of a hysterical nativ- less is un-American. It places America ism against communism, and the obses­ first, foremost, and forever, with its self- sion with secrecy. In this period the roots identification of being Number One. of the future were planted and the com­ It was the impact of the Great Depres­ plex relations between science and poli­ sion in the 1930s that radicalized both the tics became the engine of history driving labour movement and elements of the sci­ us into the troubled times of the present. entific community and their organiza­ The communist target of nativism became tions. It was in this period that the Ameri­ a global policy of the US to complete the can Association of Scientific Workers ideological cleansing of the world and (AASW), composed of scientists on the globalize capitalism with the US as the progressive liberal left, was formed in the leader. In effect, the essence of nativism US and Britain. They not only questioned was globalized, with Pax America to en­ the capacity of capitalism to produce so­ force it. cial justice, but organized in opposition to The events of that critical period led the rise of fascism in Europe. That social directly to the decades of the Cold War, elites like scientists would identify them­ the ultimate demise of the Soviet Union , selves as a part of labour, i.e. scientific and the emergence of a unipolar world. It workers, speaks directly to their left-wing conventionalized the huge nuclear arse­ ideology. Later, in the period following nals of the US and Russia, creating the the atomic bombings, the Federation of ultimate threat to global survival. It American Scientists (FAS) emerged from spawned the spread of civil nuclear power an earlier organization first appearing in and, through its fatal link with the mili­ the 1930s.Also the American Association tary, it led to the current problems of for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) REVIEWS 301 was formed and the new journal, The Bul­ The case of Dr. Wen Ho Lee came letin of the Atomic Scientists, first ap­ after Professor Jessica Wang's book was peared. published. In regard to this case, C. Paul It is of interest that decades later a Robinson, director of Sandia National World Federation of Scientific Workers Laboratories, described the magnitude of (WFSW) emerged. This author partici­ Lee's alleged offence: "These tapes could pated in a failed attempt to form a Cana­ truly change the world's strategic bal­ dian affiliate in the late 1950s following ance.... These tapes would allow the de­ a visit by Professor J.D. Bemal to Mont­ sign of weapons that would kill several real. More recently, he attended the Mil­ million people if a single weapon was lennium Conference held at the Univer­ detonated in a city." The claim about sity of Regina, August 2000, where rep­ changing the world's strategic balance is resentatives of the 60-nation WFSW met so ridiculous as to be outrageous. Profes­ with Canadian and American delegates in sor Wang provides us with an early case the hope ofattracting affiliates from these of which this reviewer was unaware. In latter countries. 1955 the US deported Tsian Henueshan, a Cal Tech professor and one of the world's Professor Wang correctly identifies a experts in rocketry, on the grounds of his powerful theme in American social and friendship with a member of the Ameri­ political life. This is the phenomenon of can Communist Party. Ironically, the ex­ "nativism." The hysteria derived from na- cessive zeal of anti-communism turned tivism, with its "Red scare" component is out to be a gift to China. Professor evident in the case of the trial of Ethel and Henueshan became director of China's Julius Rosenberg. In part, in sentencing ballistic missile development, now begin­ them to death, Judge Irving R. Kaufman ning to haunt the US. The obsession with stated, "your conduct ... has already secrecy combines nativism, the "Red caused, in my opinion, the communist scare," and even a strong strain of racism aggression in Korea, with the resultant that persists in American culture. casualties exceeding 50,000 and, who knows, but that millions of innocent peo­ An extreme example of nativism was ple may pay the price of your treason." a statement by the late US Senator Richard Later evidence proved that the informa­ Russell, "If we have to start again with tion supplied by the defendants was not Adam and Eve, then I want them to be critical to the Soviet nuclear bomb pro­ Americans, not Russians, and I want them gram. Decades later, on the floor of the on this continent, not in Europe." One House on 8 June 1999, Congressman might note he didn't mean Canada or Dana Rohrabacker, responding to Energy Mexico. This paranoid statement re­ Secretary Hazel O'Leary's massive de­ flected the organizational/judicial power classification of so-called "secrets," of the House Un-American Activities stated "This is worse than the Rosen­ Committee (HUAC) and the notorious bergs.... This is someone who has a fanati­ Senate hearings conducted by the infa­ cal anti-American attitude, in a position mous Senator Joseph McCarthy reviving to hand over to our enemies secrets that the witch hunts of Salem. The conse­ put our young people and our country in quences were indiscriminate purges and jeopardy.... Those who benefited most firings, loss of security clearances, with­ were the minions of the People's Repub­ holding of passports, and other arbitrary lic of China, the Communist Chinese." violations of civil liberties. Guilt by asso­ This equates a rational process of declas­ ciation and suspicion was even extended sification with treason. The US is hysteri­ to guilt by exoneration. To be interro­ cal about secrecy. By 1999 they had al­ gated by Senator Joseph McCarthy was a most 90 million secrets in their classifica­ sufficient basis to infer a questionable tion system. 302 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

loyalty to the US. Un-Americanism be­ spirit" or rather that which "might be came the house built by nativism. safely called ideology." It is from this The dropping of the bombs on Hi­ standpoint that Paul Apostolidis, in his roshima and Nagasaki created significant book Stations of the Cross: Âdorno and divisions among the scientists involved. Christian Right Radio, takes aim at Chris­ Even in advance of these events some tian right culture in the United States. scientists were opposed and recom­ The book is based on the author's mended a demonstration of the bomb's analysis of about 80 half-hour broadcasts power to which Japan would be invited to of "Focus on the Family," a program send observers. The above divisions which, since 1977, has dominated the deepened and became enmeshed in the Christian radio airwaves south of Can­ politics of nativism. Professor Wang's ada's border. It is important to note, as case studies of individual scientists in­ Apostolidis points out, that Christian ra­ volved in this conflict provide a penetrat­ dio ranks third in popularity, just behind ing analysis of issues and events. Divi­ country and adult contemporary music sions of understanding between scientists stations. The host of "Focus on the Fam­ on the entire issue of nuclear weapons ily" is psychologist Dr. James Dobson, persist to this day. Scientists like Albert "the undisputed king of Christian radio," Einstein and Leo Szilard, who played a and also a best-selling author and well- significant role in launching the Manhat­ known leader of the Christian right. tan Project, realized too late that they had Apostolidis contends that Dobson and been co-opted by the military and the US "Focus on the Family" has been instru­ government. mental in moving the political debate in I can recommend this book without the US to the right —- not simply in terms reservation, not only to students in the of delivering votes but also in terms of academic fields of the history of science, promoting an ideology which has signifi­ political science, and social studies of sci­ cant bearing on public policy. Dobson's ence, but to the millions of people con­ prescriptions include a ban on all abor­ cerned with the fate of the earth. And tions, the re-introduction of spoken particularly for practicing scientists, the prayer in public schools, tax cuts, and lesson is powerful, namely the perversion rejection of human rights protection for of their profession by the goals of the gays and lesbians. However, Apostolidis establishment. "Faustian bargains" have a feels there is a need to more fully under­ predictable fate. stand the Christian right and to look be­ hind their public rhetoric. To do this, he F.H. Knelman examines the Christian right culture in the context of the experiences of the post- Victoria Fordist political economy. The most fascinating part of the book Paul Apostolidis, Stations of the Cross: concerns the fraying of health care provi­ Adorno and Christian Right Radio (Dur­ sion and human services. As in Canada ham: Duke University Press 2000) today, in the US the state has less of a commitment to social welfare programs THEODOR ADORNO, a major 20th cen­ than it did a generation ago, bearing in tury philosopher and critic, contends that mind the US started out with a much as soon as culture is set down, a film is weaker welfare state than Canada. A ma­ made, or a symphony is performed, it jor shift in policy was former president becomes part of the culture industry, an Bill Clinton's putting a stop to federal industry he links to capitalism. According assistance for poor families with depend­ to Adorno, the best that can be said for the ent children, a social program which had endured for more than 65 years. George culture industry is that it "celebrates its REVIEWS 303

W. Bush has pledged that social services the well-meaning "heart of gold" figure will be provided by nonprofit and/or re­ who promotes individual charity and ligious organisations and groups of vol­ "feels" for the underprivileged dominates unteers — this despite the fact that many not only US media culture but also the religious organisations want to serve their business culture. Further, quite often own minions rather than the general pub­ these people spill over into the political lic. There is also the question about realm, and that is what has happened with whether faith-based services would in­ the Christian right. deed be accessible to non-Christians or Apostolidis argues vigorously against those who want nothing to do with relig­ the agenda and policies of the Christian ion. Apostolidis points out that though the right. He gives many examples from the evangelical churches historically have "Focus on the Family" broadcasts — been less concerned with social mission which, mercifully, are not yet beamed and doing good works than the Catholic into Canada—that the root of most social and most Protestant churches, the fanfare ills are mothers who go out to work or generated by Christian right television gays, who have a "developmental disor­ and radio programs, like "Focus on the der." Despite the fact that more than 40 Family," has created new programs and million Americans have no health care services within the evangelical culture. insurance, the Christian right insists For example, the "Focus on the Family" Americans should trust their doctors' ex­ website advertises a new social program: pertise and professionalism and reject the the World Wide Day of Prayer for Chil­ tyranny of government, with its high dren at Risk. The site (http://www.fam- taxes and intervention into people's lives. ily.org/fofmag/sh/a0015800.html — 22 What can Canadians learn from Sta­ May 2001 ) explains there are many home­ tions of the Cross? Perhaps not to be com­ less and hungry children in India who need help and "simple as it sounds, we can placent about the social programs we still all pray" for them. Evangelical churches enjoy, such as medicare. The Christian are encouraged to set out tracts about the right, albeit much smaller than their US horrors of life in India, poster the church counterparts, exists in Canada and when with photos of needy children, and hold coupled with the Canadian Alliance's group prayer sessions. According to "Fo­ populist agenda is a formidable force cus on the Family," all these things will against progressive social change. help. Apostolidis maintains that this and other examples of evangelical ministry Judy Haiven are not benign. He says that Adorno and Saint Mary's University Horkheimer in Dialectic of Enlighten­ ment (1947) make the point that good- hearted people who personally intervene Julie Roy Jeffrey, The Great Silent Army in a situation to "make curable individual of Abolitionism: Ordinary Women in the cases out of socially-perpetuated miser­ Antislavery Movement (Chapter Hill, NC: ies" make human suffering a permanent University of North Carolina Press 1998) feature of human existence. For the mis­ guided, the way to combat problems is on SCHOLARS HAVE LONG acknowledged a person-to-person rather than on a socie­ women's role in the antislavery move­ tal level. Evangelists, like Dobson, epito­ ment. In The Great Silent Army of Aboli­ mize love and understanding and at the tionism: Ordinary Women in the same time profess the scientific and pro­ Antislavery Movement, Julie Roy Jeffrey fessional expertise to solve most social takes this truism and demonstrates the problems. Apostolidis argues that in the complexity, variation, and evolution of wake of the decline of the welfare state, female participation in abolitionism. In a carefully researched study which goes be- 304 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

yond the customary boundaries of New for fairs and for fugitive slaves. They England and white middle-class women, attended, sponsored, and even gave anti- Jeffrey examines how black and white slavery lectures. They wrote and publish­ women lived out their commitment to an- ed antislavery tracts and fiction. Defying tislavery. The "what" of this phenomenon social conventions and prejudice, some may be familiar, but the details of "how" publicly "associated" with African are illuminating and challenge several as­ Americans in attempts to break down dis­ pects of received wisdom on this subject. criminatory laws and practices. And by Antislavery built on a long-standing the thousands, they drew up, circulated, tradition of female benevolence, drawing and signed petitions to Congress pressing strength from Quaker traditions and suc­ for legislative attacks on the "peculiar cessful British women's antislavery ac­ institution." tivism. Nevertheless, in its Garrisonian These activities changed women. Fun- form, America abolitionism was a radical draising efforts, especially the antislavery movement tinged with unsavoury conno­ fairs, increased their awareness of busi­ tations that often deterred would-be sym­ ness and economics, as women dealt with pathizers. Women had to be informed and questions of efficiency, organizing pro­ then persuaded to give whole-hearted duction, pricing, and advertising. Partici­ commitment to activism on the slave's pation in female antislavery societies pro­ behalf. By reading, attending lectures, vided training in organizational proce­ and discussing the issue, women under­ dure and public speaking. Petitioning went a moral awakening that bound them enhanced their awareness of the political to work for the enslaved. No sooner "con­ process and broadened their under­ verted" themselves, these women under­ standing of participation. More impor­ took to bring family members and friends tantly, participation in antislavery, Jef­ to the same point of view. Jeffrey ex­ frey argues, constituted an important as­ plores how "women's influence" actually pect of middle-class formation. These worked. Women included antislavery in experiences helped to define middle-class family prayers, proselytized relatives and status by exploring its boundaries particu­ friends, and permitted antislavery to in­ larly as they pertained to women. Anti- form decisions about domestic consump­ slavery fairs, for example, repeatedly tion of slave produce. They brought sub­ challenged gender conventions. Sewing tle and not-so-subtle pressure to bear on for antislavery raised few eyebrows, but fence-sitting pastors, sought the use of what happened when women sold these churches for abolitionist functions, and articles? Similarly, needlework was a when all else failed, separated themselves useful accomplishment, but when women from pro-slavery churches to join with embellished household items with anti- like-minded friends in antislavery con­ slavery emblems, domesticity became gregations. In these ways, abolitionist politicized. women directed conventional behaviours to unconventional ends. Jeffrey explores women's response to various turning points in the antislavery Women also undertook a wide range movement. Instead of reiterating the role of antislavery activities. Their role in fun- the woman question played in splitting draising underwrote the economic sur­ the movement in 1840, Jeffrey argues that vival of the movement. From small cent- the division actually permitted antislav­ a-week societies in rural villages to the ery to become more inclusive as it fos­ great antislavery fairs of Boston and tered a range of women's activities, pro­ Philadelphia, women raised thousands of viding options to suit those with different dollars for the cause, encouraging sup­ understanding of appropriate roles for porting agents, newspapers, and pam­ women. The Fugitive Slave Law re-ener­ phlets to spread the word. Women sewed gized many longstanding abolitionists REVIEWS 305 and also provided a propaganda opportu­ girded the movement required freed peo­ nity that Harriet Beecher Stowe and other ple to be left on their own to stand or fall women readily exploited. However, the according to their own devices. focus on the fugitive created tensions One of the strengths of Jeffrey's work within female abolitionism. Emerging is her determined effort to explore the middle-class values exerted a powerful distinctive experience of African-Ameri­ influence on antislavery literature and can women in antislavery. Their different rhetoric that laid the groundwork for an priorities, different opportunities, and image of the thankful slave filled with different modes of action not only had gratitude for the efforts of his, or more different outcomes, they sometimes often her, white female rescuers. Such brought black women into conflict with preconceptions caused real difficulties their white co-workers. Black women when white abolitionists came into con­ were permitted to be members of some tact with black abolitionists with their white antislavery societies if they con­ own priorities and agendas. In addition, formed to white standards of respectable concerns were raised in white societies demeanor. For black women, however, about whether efforts expended on the respectability was a means to undermine fugitive left the fundamental problem of prejudice and discriminatory attitudes slavery untouched. and not simply about establishing social The conflict in Kansas and the Dred position. In contrast, Jeffrey notes, their Scott decision moved antislavery into the white counterparts often seemed much mainstream. As abolitionism gained re­ more concerned about slavery in the ab­ spectability, a second generation of fe­ stract than African Americans in their male abolitionists emerged and these midst. As a consequence, black women younger women did not experience the often formed separate societies of their ostracism their mothers had risked. Dur­ own. Jeffrey also points out that given the ing the Civil War, women continued sew­ economic circumstances of most black ing, fundraising, and petitioning but in­ families, black women undertook anti- vested these activities with new meaning slavery activities in addition to paid la­ as they attempted to steer the national bour and family responsibilities. The Fu­ struggle toward emancipation. This gitive Slave Law did not divide black proved problematic after the war insofar women; it increased the unanimity of the as most abolitionists had no clear pro­ African-American community because it gram for what was to follow the end of put them all, free and fugitive, at risk. slavery. Here Jeffrey might have drawn a Similarly, since the well-being of the race useful comparison to women's experi­ had always been a priority for African- ence following the achievement of suf­ American women, they experienced no frage. In 1920 a similar focus on a politi­ uncertainty following the Civil War. cal objective as a panacea also forestalled Jeffrey brings nuance and complexity detailed consideration of what the after­ to an oft-told tale and deepens our under­ math might bring, leaving campaigners at standing of the dynamics of protest move­ something of a loss once their goal had ments in the process. This excellent study been achieved. In this case, however, Af­ is marred only by some peculiar editorial rican Americans became the victims of practices. In much of Jeffrey's account white antislavery success. Indeed the abo­ white women are referred to by their litionist vision meant that there could be given names whereas black women are no post-emancipation program. Although designated by their surnames (including the paternalistic ethos of some white abo­ one instance where Frances Ellen Wat- litionists mandated continuing oversight kins Harper is referred to as "Harper Wat- of the experience of African Americans, kins"[233]). Whatever the logic, the re­ the liberal/bourgeois values that under- sult is jarring both in the belittling of 306 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

white women and in the sharp contrast American workers in the 20th century, between the naming of black women and Laslett invites us to explore the social and white women. This practice is particu­ historical origins of the acknowledged larly puzzling in a work that succeeds so differences. well in respecting the specific experi­ The formation of the industrial work­ ences of different groups of women. ing class in the Lanarkshire coal towns in the decades after 1830 provides an impor­ Margaret Kellow tant foundation for this discussion, for University of Western Ontario Laslett clearly demonstrates the range of experiences and responses that emerged in this environment and the historical John H.M. Laslett, Colliers Across the contingencies that gave rise to what are Sea: A Comparative Study of Class For­ sometimes assumed to be inevitable out­ mation in Scotland and the American comes. The traditional artisan-collier, Midwest, 1830-1924 (Urbana and Chi­ with his assumptions about respect­ cago: University of Illinois Press 2000) ability, skill and independence, worked alongside or in contention with less FROM GLASGOW and Chicago alike, it is skilled semi-proletarianized workers and only a small distance up the river from the newcomer-rebels from the countryside, cities of commerce and industry to the Ireland, or the European continent. Mean­ country of coal — a territory centred in while, as the coal industry entered its these cases on such mining towns as Lark- boom period, the coal operators intro­ hall, Wishaw, and Blantyre on the River duced innovations in technology and so­ Clyde, and Braidwood, Streator, and cial control that fostered resistance, both Spring Valley on the Illinois River. Build­ at the workplace and in the community. ing on a wealth of local research, John Out of this process came the occupational Laslett has constructed a powerful com­ solidarity that, in the long run, produced parative study that includes assessments the militant unionism and political activ­ of economic growth, social structure, ism often associated with the Lanarkshire class formation, and political behaviour. coalfields. But Laslett makes it clear that The selection of these communities in the this was indeed a long-run development. southwest of Scotland and the midwest- The class harmony ideology of the influ­ ern United States was not accidental, as ential union pioneer and Member of Par­ considerable numbers of Lanarkshire liament Alexander McDonald prevailed workers participated in the movement of for decades. From the 1870s onwards, experienced coal miners to the 19th cen­ however, this approach was challenged tury American industrial frontier and set­ by a new generation of leaders such as tled in northern Illinois; in 1870 almost Keir Hardie, whose unionism was prem­ half the miners in Illinois were British- ised on a recognition of the realities of born. Yet this book is much more than a class conflict. This new unionism helped venture in comparative local history or an make the Miners' Federation of Great account of the emigrant worker experi­ Britain the strongest union in the country, ence in North America. Rather, this is an but plans to encourage increased state in­ exceptionally well-conceived study that tervention through an independent labour uses the tools of the social historian to politics were less successful. Laslett pro­ address major questions concerning the vides a useful reminder that the participa­ similarities and differences in the process tion of the coal miners in the political of class formation in Britain and the process remained far from complete, as United States. Rejecting essentialist ex­ most coal miners could not vote prior to planations for the divergent political tra­ the 1884 franchise reforms and even then ditions associated with British and the vote was not extended to all male adult REVIEWS 307 citizens until 1918. Hardie (and others) the coal operators and the state in the failed to persuade the Lanarkshire miners following decades. Moreover, in both to follow their political lead until well countries the perceived threat of bureau­ into the 20th century. Although individ­ cratization in the unions was answered by ual miners were often elected to Parlia­ rank-and-file revolts emphasizing direct ment as Liberals and independent labour action and syndicalist ideas. Socialist in­ politics had some success at the commu­ fluence was certainly present among the nity level, Lanarkshire failed to elect even coal miners in Illinois, who emulated the one Labour MP to Parliament until 1918. British miners in electing socialists to lo­ The impact of the Great War on British cal office and organizing co-operative workers had much to do with the change stores. But the political consequences of in perceptions, as did the broader class the formation of the Labour Party (1900) conflicts in British society and the ongo­ and the Socialist Party of America ( 1901 ) ing crisis of the Liberal Party in this pe­ were ultimately dissimilar. While British riod. This proved to be an historic break­ miners had engaged in a protracted strug­ through, and after the promise of mines gle to achieve political recognition and nationalization was betrayed by the state, win the franchise, the political process in the coal miners helped to carry the Labour the republic had remained relatively open Party to its first taste of power in 1924. for American trade unionists, or at least From this perspective on class forma­ for those who were male and white and in tion in southwest Scotland, developments command of the language of politics in in northern Illinois appear to have been America. This presented a difficult quan­ remarkably similar. The timing, of dary for militant unionists with social course, was different, as the take-off pe­ democratic ideas. The Illinois miners' riod for this coalfield arrived in the period leader John H. Walker, for instance, a of urban and industrial expansion after Scotsman generally sympathetic to Keir the Civil War. Initially the American min­ Hardie and a moderate socialism, none­ ers enjoyed better housing and higher theless endorsed pro-labour Republicans wages than their Scottish contemporaries, for state office and affiliated the Illinois and this was a factor in attracting emi­ miners to the American Federation of La­ grant coal miners to the American prairie. bor's state federation of labour, with its However, the breakdown of ideals of well known policy of non-partisanship. class harmony was apparent in both Walker himself later ran for governor on places in the 1870s and 1880s, and Laslett a Farmer-Labor ticket in 1920, but by that draws a series of parallels between the time with little prospect of success. local strikes of this period on both sides Laslett argues that the ultimate parting of of the ocean. In many respects the issues the ways between American and British affecting workplace and community ex­ political practice did not arrive until the periences in both Scotland and Illinois time of World War I, which exacerbated proved to be similar ones that involved ethnic and cultural divisions within the rivalries between local and immigrant American working class and marginal­ workers, contests over workplace disci­ ized the socialists as a political force. pline and community institutions and Meanwhile, the UMWA under the leader­ struggles for union recognition and state ship of John L. Lewis had succeeded in intervention. Growing class polarization burying the programme for public owner­ resulted in the formation of strong na­ ship of the coal industry, thus helping to tional unions in both countries in the form reduce the expectations that workers of the Miners' Federation of Great Britain would direct at the American state. The (1893) and the United Mine Workers of success of the Labour Party in Britain America (1890), and both were engaged accordingly coincided with the collapse in a series of major confrontations with of mass politics on the American left, 308 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL symbolized by the failure of Robert M. record of historical irrelevance, he has LaFollette's 1924 presidential campaign. shown how the disciplined use of the While this divergence was an outcome of methods of social history can shed light considerable significance to the history of on major themes in national history. both Britain and the United States, Laslett concludes that there was nothing inevita­ David Frank ble about it, and that the case of the coal University of New Brunswick miners cannot be used to deny existence of class conflict or class consciousness in American society. James Jaffe, Striking a Bargain: Work In all, this is a compelling study that and Industrial Relations in Industrial contributes new perspectives to the de­ England, 1815-65 (Manchester: Man­ bates around such themes as American chester University Press 2000) exceptionalism and the failure of social­ ism in the United States. While consider­ THIS BOOK is both a useful contribution ing some of the perennial big questions in to the study of early industrial labour re­ the field, this is also a multi-dimensional lations, and a symptom of the current con­ discussion that examines the significance dition of labour history. Jaffe's strength of social and geographic mobility, stand­ as a researcher lies in his ability to pene­ ards of living, temperance, education, trate the opaque surface of the 19th cen­ gender, ethnicity, religion, and race as tury workplace. He is very adept at using contributing factors in each of the con­ a range of scattered, fragmentary evi­ texts. Without qualifying his general ar­ dence to understand the underlying rela­ gument, Laslett readily notes some of the tionships between employers and differences that were apparent only a few employees. In his first book, on early 19th miles away in the east of Scotland or the century Tyneside coalminers, he dis­ south of Illinois, and his approach accord­ played these skills to good effect. Now, in ingly invites further comparative studies this present volume, he seeks to apply his involving more local contexts. There are insights to the wider industrial field. Nev­ some tentative references as well to class ertheless, at the level of argumentation, formation in Germany and other coun­ the relationship between the two volumes tries, but, not surprisingly in a study of is not entirely clear. Whereas the first this scope, there are only a few brief ref­ book contended that labour relations erences to the Canadian context in these hinged on a "struggle for market power," pages — not enough to make the index. this present volume argues that the entire Of course, it is obvious that the charac­ system of collective bargaining, gener­ teristics of the Canadian coal country ally regarded as a late-19th century inno­ have been shaped not only by complex vation, was already well developed by the local conditions and regional variations early-19th century. but also by both British and American influences; in some ways it may be more Jaffe begins by taking issue with the appropriate for comparative studies in early-19th century political economists Canada to begin with inter-provincial who assumed (with scant evidence) that rather than international comparisons. wages were set by the labour market. The Meanwhile, Laslett has written a model notion that capitalists and labourers were comparative study that shows how stimu­ equally endowed rational actors, each lating comparative history can be when it pursuing his self-interest, was nothing is driven by a vigorous historical intelli­ more than a pious myth. This, of course, gence and a thorough command of is hardly a new observation. But whereas sources. Moreover, at a time when social most labour historians of the 1970s and history is increasingly caricatured as a 1980s tended to infer an inherent conflict of class interest (sometimes open, some- REVIEWS 309 times hidden) from this fact, Jaffe draws tury as an epoch of class antagonism and a very different conclusion. He acknow­ strife. ledges that the resources of capital and This, Jaffe believes, is too simplistic. labour were inherently "asymmetrical" Collective bargaining, albeit of a more but suggests the relationship between informal and intermittent kind, can be them was generally co-operative and mu­ found throughout the entire period of the tually respectful. industrial revolution in England (Jaffe Jaffe's aim, as he makes clear, is not has nothing to say about Scotland and to offer any grand counter-narrative to the Ireland). Given the complexity of the classical master narrative of labour's in­ workplace rules, wage rates, and local crease in organization and class-con­ circumstances, industrial disputes should sciousness. Nevertheless, he presents a be reinterpreted as narrowly framed en­ series of concrete vignettes and situations counters (often theatrically scripted) over in which work militancy was nowhere in particularistic grievances, enacted by an­ sight. So, far from producing an intensi­ tagonists who would ultimately appeal to fication of class antagonism, the early the same rhetoric of justice and equity. In industrial era, as Jaffe depicts it, was an a world where employers held the advan­ era of ever more effective class collabo­ tages of authority and position, workers ration. Even when their material interests were still able to obtain redress of particu­ came in conflict, capitalists and labourers lar grievances inasmuch as they retained remained part of the same community of de facto control over the conditions of discourse. Masters and men (Jaffe has work. Both sides had an interest in resolv­ little to say about women) could resolve ing disputes without strikes, violence, or their disputes amicably because they were lock-outs. Hence, they were willing to use both fundamentally committed to the a wide range of intermediaries, from le­ same reciprocal notions of a fair day's gally empowered magistrates to infor­ wage for a fair day's work. mally chosen "honest brokers" to break through otherwise intractable impasses. The great strength of Jaffe's approach Arbitration, Jaffe contends, was no new (which is ultimately also its weakness) is innovation of the 1860s. More informal the assumption that social relations be­ instances were ubiquitous throughout the tween capital and labour were sorted out, entire 19th century. provisionally, on the workshop floor. "Shopfloor bargaining," Jaffe concludes, All this is interesting and some of it is "was an intrinsic element of work experi­ novel. The question remains, however, ence during the late-18th and early-19th what does it mean? Rooted as his work is centuries. Its presence in the workshop, in the inherently contingent and evanes­ on the factory floor, and down the pits cut cent, Jaffe offers no assessment of the across the levels of skill, occupational typicality of his examples, or of how far specializations and regional diversity." his analysis might be extended to under­ Previous historians, according to Jaffe, stand social relations as a whole. But to have underestimated the significance and introduce this wider perspective is to see ubiquity of this shopfloor bargaining be­ more clearly the limitations of his work. cause it was carried on through informal Relations between labour and capital contracts, codes, and conventions, be­ were not played out exclusively at the cause it did not leave much of a paper point of production, and not all work­ trail, and because it lacked a visible, insti­ places permitted grievances to be peace­ tutional base. The result, he believes, has ably redressed. The alienation felt by been to reinforce a distorted chronology, working people was often reinforced by which assigns class compromise and col­ their precarious relationship to the mar­ laboration to the second half of the 19th ket, their abysmal living conditions, their century, and depicts the early-19th cen­ strained family circumstances, their ex- 310 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL elusion from the polity, and their coercion "gift relationship," associational psychol­ by the state. Inevitably such distress fed ogy, and magnetic fields of force — none back onto their experience of the labour of which bear much relationship to the process. To read Jaffe's book, one might actual substance of his research. not even realize that his subject was co­ In one of his more interesting theoreti­ terminous with the world's "first indus­ cal digressions, Jaffe contends that Hodg- trial revolution," an era of utterly wrench­ skin was engaged in an exercise in ing, rapid, and dramatic social and eco­ Brownian epistemological decoupling nomic change. when he claimed that "circulating capital Yet, without considering these larger was nothing less than 'co-existing la­ processes and experiences, even his own bor'." (52). But then, a few pages later, examples cannot be adequately under­ Hodgskin and Brown are dropped, as stood. Consider, for example, his analysis London's compositors are re-inducted of the London publishing and Coventry into the "civilizing mission" which the ribbon trade. Jaffe is impressed with the language of commerce entailed. (55) "In­ consistent commitment to retaining stable deed Pocock's 'commercial humanism' wages and prices on the part of both mas­ may accurately identify an important ters and men. No less striking, however, strand of working-class ideology." (60) is the fragility of such arrangements in the Here, one suspects, it is not only the la­ face of shifting economic conditions and bourer who is trying to adjust to a world outside competitors not party to the in which commerce is hegemonic, but agreements. Might the compositors adop­ also the labour historian who is trying to tion of a more aggressive bargaining adjust to an historiography in which "dis­ stance, with the onset of inflation in 1783, course" appears to be the only game in help us to understand the more general town. political and social mobilization of the artisans that began in this year? Jaffe Theodore Koditschek notes the intervention of the Coventry University of Missouri, Columbia authorities to resolve industrial disputes in 1819 and 1831, when existing agree­ ments collapsed. Might this sudden elite commitment to arbitrating industrial rela­ Stephen Heathorn, For Home, Country. tions have something to do with Peterloo and Race: Constructing Gender, Class, and the reform crisis which loomed so and Englishness in the Elementary large over these two crisis years? Jaffe School, 1880-1914 (Toronto: University never even asked these questions. of Toronto Press 2000) Throughout his book, from the Intro­ THE GOAL of this book is to illuminate duction onward, Jaffe betrays a tone of the role of English elementary schools extreme nervousness that anything he between 1880 and 1914 in instilling in might say will offend the reigning post- working-class children a particular sense structuralist orthodoxy. "Of course, post­ of national identity and citizenship, a "na­ modernists will have already smelted the tional patriotism" infused with concep­ foul air of materialism and its repre- tions of race and gender. As Heathorn sentationalism and it would be foolish to puts it, his purpose is "to suggest the way defend myself against such charges." (6) in which classroom reading set the con­ While Jaffe will not dispute that the con­ ceptual boundaries and shaped the imagi­ cept of class is still relevant to his subject, native 'experience' of the mostly he carefully avoids employing it any­ working-class children of the English ele­ where within his book. Instead he scurries mentary school." (216) industriously in search of more flashy To do this, Heathorn relies largely on sounding frameworks — game theory, the a content analysis of elementary school REVIEWS 311

readers, and especially of their treatment Other studies have investigated textbooks of history and geography. As he rightly in history and other subjects, but none to observes, history and geography were sel­ date has explored the readers in the de­ dom taught as formal subjects in English gree of detail contained in this book, and, elementary schools in these years. But, to as Heathorn rightly observes, it was compensate for this, the graded readers through these readers that teachers taught contained a considerable amount of his­ history and related subjects to working- tory and geography, usually presented in class children. the form of story and romance designed What Heathorn does not explore, how­ to appeal to children with what were as­ ever, is the extent to which these children sumed to be rudimentary reading skills actually believed what their teachers tried and little cultural capital. In addition, to teach them. There is something metho­ Heathorn makes some use of school log­ dologically old-fashioned about the way books, with their descriptions of lessons this study was conducted. Heathorn and school activities. rightly rejects old social control notions The analysis of these materials turns of schooling, but his investigation none­ up no surprises. It is hardly news that theless seems to fall within that research schools in these years — as in later years paradigm. Time and again one comes also — defined citizenship in consensual across phrases that say or imply that terms, designed to smother differences of working-class boys and girls were merely class and culture in an ideologically con­ the objects of the schooling they received. structed sense of national citizenship, as In Heathorn's words, his book is "a study defined in schools, emphasizing duty, of the means by which the English masses service, conformity, patriotism, and the were taught their national identity." (vii) like. Similarly, though Heathorn has It is "a study of how working class indi­ some useful things to say on this point, we viduals were directed to understand them­ have long known that citizenship was de­ selves as part of a social whole." (x) fined in gendered and racialized terms, It is not at all certain, however, that with different roles and dispositions for working-class children so readily did boys and girls, and emphasis on what what they were directed to do or internal­ were said to be the distinctive charac­ ized what they were taught. They did not teristics of Englishness, especially when come to school as empty vessels or as contrasted with all those whom Kipling cultural vacuums; nor were they all so described as "lesser breeds without the illiterate as Heathorn seems to assume. law." In this regard, Heathorn makes the They and their parents had their own ways valid point that the distinction that is con­ of seeing the world and of interpreting ventionally erected between civic and their experience that were often in con­ ethnic nationalism is far too neat and tidy, flict with the officially inspired views of especially in the years covered by this citizenship and identity that the schools study, when English schools infused their were trying to teach. It could well be that celebration of the British heritage of free­ children were more influenced by their dom and self-government with a substan­ domestic and everyday surroundings than tial dose of Englishness. The suggestion by anything they were taught in the class­ was that, thanks to its Anglo-Saxon "ra­ room. After many years of working in and cial" heritage, England had a special pro­ with public schools in Canada, I have pensity for constitutional government and learned to view with scepticism any imperial rule. claims about the impact of schooling. None of this is especially novel, but Years ago I learned that what teachers Heathorn successfully fills in what had teach is not necessarily what students been a broad and overly generalized pic­ learn. It is a commonplace of curricular ture with a mass of informative detail. research in the study of education to dis- 312 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

tinguish among the curriculum-as-in­ this is an event on which Heathom is tended (the syllabus and its associated silent. resources); the curriculum-as-delivered Teachers themselves, often from (what teachers actually teach, both know­ working-class backgrounds, did not al­ ingly and otherwise); and the curriculum- ways accept the version of citizenship and as-experienced (what students actually identity they were expected to teach. learn). But this kind of analysis is missing They were not merely transmitters of of­ from this book. Here, as elsewhere, ficial ideology. They were variously Heathom ignores what could have been secularists, socialists, feminists, suffra­ useful insights to be gained from educa­ gists, and dissenters of various kinds, and tional theory and research. their training, no matter how meagre, Nor is it at all certain that teachers often opened their eyes to alternative effectively taught what their programmes ways of looking at the world. In addition, of study and classroom readers required as Heathhorn acknowledges, pedagogical them to teach. As Heathom recognizes, orthodoxy in these years was swinging to elementary school teachers were not es­ a child-centredness that emphasized what pecially well trained or educated and usu­ was thought to be best for children, so that ally faced overwhelmingly negative teachers increasingly found themselves working conditions, as evidenced by torn between the demands of the official large classes, lack of preparation time, syllabus, with its emphasis on citizenship, inadequate resources, and the rest. The and what they saw as desirable pedagogi­ result was that lessons could often be ster­ cal practice, with its emphasis on meeting ile, boring, imaginatively and intellectu­ the needs of students. ally narrow, and little more than exercises We do not know, and probably never in imposed discipline. As H.G. Wells ob­ can, what proportion of teachers sub­ served in 1921: "If you go into any school verted, or at least modified, the official today, in ninety-nine cases out of a hun­ curriculum, but such teachers certainly dred, you find an inexpert and ill-pre­ existed and were probably more influen­ pared teacher giving a clumsy, vamped up tial than Heathom is prepared to allow. lesson ... and a halting and faulty dis­ Certainly, contemporary observers course will be eked out by feeble scratch­ thought so. As one conservative commen­ ing with chalk on a blackboard, by queru­ tator put it in 1908, in a tract significantly lous questioning of pupils, and irrelevan- titled, John Bull and his Schools: "The cies." (The Salvaging of Civilization Socialist leaders already perceive what a 160-1). splendid field the elementary schools af­ In such circumstances, schools were ford for their peculiar propaganda. What unlikely to have accomplished all that better career can they offer to their sons much, especially when the citizenship and daughters than to enter the teaching they tried to teach, based as it was on profession and in a discreet way play the visions of a consensual community set in socialist missionary?" Heathom concedes a mythically romanticized ruralism, flew that some teachers resisted curricular or­ so obviously in the face of the daily expe­ thodoxy, but claims that most were rience of working-class children. Lessons "oblivious" to the ideological messages in citizenship and identity, for example, conveyed in their teaching, or were in no did not prevent children around the coun­ position to do other than what they were try joining the children's strikes of 1911, told. He provides no evidence for such a walking out of school in sympathy with conclusion. their striking parents and making their He refers to instances where school own pedagogical demands in addition (no boards, trades unions, socialists, and oth­ homework and the like). Surprisingly, ers objected to the militarist or imperialist biases of citizenship exercises and read- REVIEWS 313 ers, but he tends to underestimate their adolescent purpose, "they had to have impact, arguing that school authorities first understood the dominant meanings were largely able to absorb such protests of the marching and the patriotic songs in and carry on undisturbed. In this regard, order to poke fun at them." (216) Heathorn might have paid more attention The argument seems too ingenious for than he does to those who not only dis­ its own good. It seems obvious that to sented from, but actively opposed, offi­ understand something does not necessar­ cial curricular policies. One such, for ex­ ily mean to accept it. Research on educa­ ample, was Frederick Gould, a London tion in the former Soviet Union and the teacher whose secularism put him at odds Soviet bloc has shown that students with his employers, and who became a learned to master the officially imposed much published and widely read apostle ideology they were taught but that they of secularist education, taking a particular did not internalize it. This distinction be­ interest in history as a vehicle for a secu­ tween mastery and internalization is miss­ larist and globally oriented moral educa­ ing from Heathorn's book. It seems tion, embodying a very different vision of downright contrary to say that children citizenship from that found in official cur­ who turned official ideology upside down ricula. He, and others like him, such as and who conspicuously mocked it were Annie and Tom Higdon of the Burston nonetheless its products. Strike School, do not appear in Heathorn ends his book by suggesting Heathorn's pages, which as a result make that the rush to the colours in 1914 shows educational policy and school practice that working class schooling "was a key seem much more ideologically mono­ part of a certain kind of 'nation building' lithic than it was. Heathorn mentions a after all." (218) Perhaps so, and H.G. London headmistress, Sophie Bryant, for Wells was later to blame history teachers example, as writing that schools should and their teaching of the "poison called promote social peace, and that "the duty history" for the militarist chauvinism that of the citizen was to be loyally obedient." made the Great War possible. But young However, Sophie Bryant was also a suf­ men had many reasons for enlisting. To fragist and an Irish home ruler, who or­ the extent that working-class soldiers in ganized mock elections in her all-girls the Great War were patriotically moti­ school, even though women did not have vated, it seems likely that their patriotism the right to vote, precisely as an exercise sprang from many sources other than the in feminist consciousness raising. Her ex­ schools, not least from the mass circula­ ample suggests that the teaching of citi­ tion press, entertainment, and advertis­ zenship was more complex and conflicted ing. And patriotism apparently had its than Heathorn allows. limits, since the British government In his conclusion, Heathorn comes found it necessary to introduce conscrip­ close to saying this, turning to two work­ tion in 1916. It is well known that the ing-class autobiographies to see to what common assumption in 1914 was that the extent their authors were influenced by War would be short and that it would be their schooling. Both in fact show stu­ a great adventure. In these days of dents defying or distorting the official counter-factual history, it is interesting to messages they were taught in school, but speculate how many men would have Heathorn argues that this very defiance rushed to volunteer if they had known indicates that schooling achieved its de­ what really faced them. In such a case, sired effect. Examining a case where a would school-induced citizenship have group of boys converted a drill exercise been enough? into a release of ribaldry, Heathorn notes Surprisingly, though he refers to it than though the boys turned the symbols briefly through a quotation, Heathorn and language of citizenship to their own makes no use of the Gramscian concept of 314 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

hegemony, though it would seem to be Galenson examines here, Denmark, Nor­ especially appropriate in a study of this way, and Sweden (Given its strong his­ kind. As is well known, hegemony is not torical, socio-cultural, ethnic, and a simple, top-down exercise by which linguistic ties to Scandinavia, Iceland is dominant elites impose their view of the commonly included as one of the "Nor­ world on society at large, but rather a dic" nations). However, it is unfortunate process of negotiation, resistance, impo­ that he did not elect to include Finland in sition, subversion, and continuing inter­ his comparative study. Finland is, of action among social groups and classes. course, ethnically and linguistically dis­ Much of the most fruitful work in curricu- tinct from the other Scandinavian coun­ lar research in recent years relies on some tries. And unlike the other three version of Gramsci and it is strange to see Scandinavian nations, Finland is not a him so conspicuously ignored in a study constitutional monarchy. Nevertheless, in such as this. As it stands, Heathorn's book addition to its obvious close geographical is not so much a study of the actual con­ ties — it forms part of the same peninsula struction of citizenship, but rather of what linking Norway and Sweden and has the policy-makers hoped they could make it. same rugged topography and inhospitable This said, however, this book makes a climate — Finland's similarities with useful contribution to the history of edu­ Scandinavia are much more significant cation. Its value lies in its empirical find­ than its differences. Indeed, in some re­ ings and in its exploration of classroom spects, Finland is more similar to Sweden materials that have been largely ignored than is Norway. They are both more in­ until now. It deserves to be read not only dustrialized, and with a greater emphasis by historians of education, but by anyone upon high tech industry, than elsewhere interested in the role and use of history in in Scandinavia. Finland was a province of the schools, which ought to mean all his­ Sweden until 1809, when it was lost to torians in these times of increasing public Russia in the war against Napoleon, and debate about which and whose history Swedish remains one of the nation's two should be taught in the schools and what official languages today. And, as in the kinds of citizens it should aim to produce. other Nordic nations, a greater degree of cultural uniformity and the dominance of Evangelical Lutheranism as the official Ken Osborne and most widely (if dispassionately) em­ University of Manitoba braced confession have served to attenu­ ate the religious conflicts that have sometimes rent other parts of Western Walter Galenson, The World's Strongest Europe. Perhaps most significantly, it is Trade Unions: The Scandinavian Labor Finland's relatively strong labour move­ Movement (Westport, CT: Quorum Books ment, lower levels of poverty, commit­ 1998) ment to greater equality, and highly-developed social democratic wel­ OVER THE PAST four decades labour fare state that have prompted its inclusion economist and historian Walter Galenson in most comparative studies of the nations has produced numerous books and schol­ of Europe's northernmost region — a arly articles on the labour movements and group of countries sometimes collec­ industrial relations systems in Asia and tively referred to as "Norden" to highlight other regions and nations of the world, their shared history and remarkably simi­ with a particular emphasis upon the US. lar social and politico-cultural traditions. His most recent book, published a year The nature and efficacy of the welfare before his death in 1999, focuses on Scan­ state and social policy in the Scandina­ dinavia. Strictly speaking, "Scandinavia" vian nations have been the subject of sev- typically includes only the three nations REVIEWS 315 eral comparative studies, typically ap­ than S.S million), and twice the size of plauding their achievement in social jus­ Norway's. And, Sweden is more industri­ tice, but occasionally castigating them as alized than either Denmark or Norway, overly-bureaucratized capitalist, social­ the least industrial of the three nations. ist, or corporatist socio-economic sys­ These factors have influenced the nature tems. Galenson, instead, foregrounds and of their respective labour movements, as contrasts the labour movements of Scan­ evident in the varying rates of union den­ dinavia. The eleven central chapters of his sity. study touch on several of the key dimen­ Union density refers to the ratio be­ sions of the Danish, Norwegian, and tween actual union membership and po­ Swedish systems of industrial relations, tential union membership. Some caution including the structure of their trade-un­ must always be exercised when compar­ ion movements, union policies, the links ing union density rates cross-nationally between the major union federations and because the issue of which organizations social democratic parties, white-collar should be treated as trade unions and who unionism, the relationship between blue- should be included as a union member collar and white-collar labour confedera­ may be handled somewhat differently tions, the role of women in the trade union from one nation to another. For example, movement, and the changing nature of some estimates of union density in Swe­ collective bargaining. Not surprisingly, den include retirees and the unemployed. the author spends somewhat more time on This is quite logical. Although they are Sweden, where the labour movement has not part of the labour force, they are still been strongest, has implemented a part of the union and, in addition to un­ number of very innovative policies and employment benefits, may also obtain in­ programs, and realized the greatest gains. formation and advice about training pro­ (And, where it presently faces the greatest grams, full-time or supplementary part- challenge from a powerful and well-or­ time jobs, pension rights, and other ganized capitalist class and employer of­ programs, as well as several other serv­ fensive). He is understandably impressed ices, through their unions. However, their by the incomparable strength and durabil­ inclusion can considerably inflate Swe­ ity of the Scandinavian labour move­ den's union density rate. Thus, during the ments relative to their counterparts else­ early 1990s, when Sweden experienced a where in the capitalist world; while trade severe recession with very high levels of union density, for example, has experi­ unemployment, its "gross" union density enced long-term stagnation or decline in rate was over 111 per cent. Union density Britain, North America, and much of con­ rates must also be distinguished from col­ tinental Europe, it has continued to ex­ lective bargaining coverage rates, which pand in Scandinavia over the past two measure how many workers are under un­ decades. ion contract rather than the proportion of the workforce that is unionized. For Swe­ Galenson's book is centred around den, the two measures are quite close, two broad questions: (1) what accounts between 85 per cent and 90 per cent. for the extraordinary strength of the Scan­ However, for some nations, such as dinavian labour movements?; and, (2) France, the union density rate (10 per what lessons can labour movements in cent) and the coverage rate (90 per cent) other nations learn from the Scandinavian differ dramatically. experience? Although the similarities among the three nations are most striking, In the latter half of the 1990s, trade as Galenson points out, there are some union membership as a share of employed noteworthy differences too. Sweden's labour was relatively high in Denmark population (just under 9 million) is con­ (71 per cent), Norway (57 per cent), and siderably larger than Denmark's (less Sweden (90 per cent). Norway's union 316 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

density rate is considerably lower than 1889) actually established the LO in 1898 Denmark's and Sweden's, but it too has (not in 1902, as stated on page 9). Second, seen growth over the past two decades. he notes the success that these three na­ However, it is only Sweden that has expe­ tions have had in organizing white-collar rienced a decline in traditional (blue col­ workers and professionals, and in estab­ lar) union membership. The high levels of lishing separate white-collar confedera­ unionization in Denmark and Sweden, tions. In Sweden, in particular, the blue- Galenson notes, have been encouraged collar labour central played an instrumen­ and bolstered by the early creation of vol­ tal role here, helping white-collar groups untary unemployment insurance schemes to organize their own central rather than administered and managed by bodies attempting to incorporate them into its closely affiliated with union organiza­ own ranks. As Galenson notes, this was tions, an approach known as the "Ghent partly because the LO did not want to system." Norway had also introduced a dilute its programs and orientation with Ghent system early on, but it did not sur­ those of white-collar workers, who were vive and was soon replaced by a compul­ viewed as less radical and less likely to sory, public unemployment insurance support strikes, and partly because many system. Centralized bargaining was a key white-collar workers did not want to be part of the industrial relations system of part of a confederation (LO) so closely all three nations but especially in Den­ tied to the social democratic party (SAP). mark, where it was first established, and This was also the case in Denmark, if to a in Sweden, where it has been most devel­ lesser extent, but not in Norway, where oped — although it began to break down the white-collar unions that were not ab­ in the early 1980s. All three nations have sorbed into the Norwegian LO have been also introduced solidaristic wage policies weaker and less accommodating. Outside and have had some considerable success of Scandinavia, of course, these groups in reducing wage differentials to a greater often remain largely unorganized or di­ (Sweden) or lesser (Norway) extent. Swe­ vided amongst numerous organizations. den's exceptional gains here are closely Finally, Galenson acknowledges the very related to the early establishment and pre­ high levels of female participation in the dominance of industrial unionism. In Scandinavian labour forces, the role Denmark, in contrast, where craft union­ women have played in the unions, and the ism remained quite strong, the labour gains women have made working within movement was more often beset by splits long-established labour organizations among skilled, semi-skilled, and un­ and parties. This is in marked contrast skilled workers, and their respective or­ with other nations, such as Canada or the ganizations. US, where the labour movements have been much weaker and greater emphasis Largely sidestepping the large and ex­ has been placed upon setting up separate panding body of literature that points to a women's organizations. variety of cyclical, structural, political, and/or institutional variables to try to ac­ Galenson's book provides an excellent count for the decline of unions in recent and informative overview of the Scandi­ years, Galenson instead highlights three navian labour movements. However, in­ related factors to explain labour strength cluding the introductory and recapitula­ in Scandinavia. First, he points to the tory chapters, the book is only 153 pages early emergence of the Scandinavian in length. Most of the chapters are very blue-collar confederations (the LOs) and short (only 10 to 12 pages of text), leaving their long and close historical and organic very little space to actually explore what connections to social democratic labour is unique about these labour movements parties. In the Swedish case, for example, in any kind of depth, or to introduce much the social democratic party (founded in that is not already familiar to those with REVIEWS 317 an interest in Scandinavia. There is little studies (e.g., Mikko Kautto, Matti Heik- discussion of recent developments, in­ kila, Bjorn Hvinden, Staffan Marklund, cluding globalization, the EU, the pro­ and Niels Ploug, Nordic Social Policy: nounced employer offensive (especially Changing Welfare States, (Routledge, in Sweden), rising levels of inequality, 1999). and the recent attacks made on labour, the industrial relations systems, and the wel­ Gregg M. Olsen fare states — or of labour's response to University of Manitoba these new challenges (see e.g., Gregg M. Olsen "Re-modeling Sweden: The Rise and Demise of the Compromise in a Donna R. Gabaccia, Italy's Many Diaspo­ Global Economy," Social Problems 43, 1 ras (London: UCL Press 2000) (1996) 1-20; and "Half Empty or Half Full?: The Swedish Welfare State in Tran­ THIS IMPORTANT conceptualization and sition," Canadian Review of Sociology survey of world-wide Italian migration in and Anthropology 36,2 (1999) 241-267). terms of transnational identities and dias­ Galenson also spends little space discuss­ pora is part of the series "Global Diaspo­ ing the growing divide between the social ras," edited by Robin Cohen, University democratic labour parties and their long­ of Warwick. His own Global Diasporas: time, blue-collar allies or the emerging An Introduction (1997), Nicholas Van and widening splits within and among the Heer's New Diasporas: The Mass Exo­ major labour federations. He does note dus, Dispersal and Regrouping of Mi­ that many of the more highly skilled and grant Communities (1998) as well as a highly educated workers and their unions study of the Sikh diaspora by Darsan have become increasingly dissatisfied Singh Tatla have already appeared. In the with solidaristic wage policies that em­ announcement of the series Cohen notes: phasize equality (a general reduction in "The assumption that minorities and mi­ wage differentials, rather than equal pay grants will demonstrate an extensive loyalty for equal work) over social justice (fair to the nation-state is now questionable." wage differentials given different levels Nationalist politicians and ideologues of skill and education). And, he suggests who have always questioned such loyal­ that this divide will make it harder to ties often have turned migrants and mi­ organize more highly-skilled and edu­ norities into refugees. Thus the real cated white-collar workers in the future if question is: Why have historians and other the old wage policy is supported. A simi­ social scientists remained welded to the lar problem in the social policy field, ideology of nation states and of delimited however, was headed off when social ethnic groups rather than looking at democratic governments oversaw the in­ transcultural lives of migrants? Even eve­ stallation of a set of income-related social ryday language points in that direction. It programs on top of the flat-rate (and rela­ is not accidental, Gabaccia notes, "that tively modest) universal benefits in order the modern Italian word for country is the to maintain support for the welfare state same as for village (paese)." (3) Further­ among higher-paid, white-collar workers. more, as all of us know, "citizenship" of To his credit, Galenson explicitly re­ a country conceptually derives from minds us that the Scandinavian model(s) "city-zenship," membership in politically cannot be adopted holus bolus or easily active sections of delimited urban popu­ imported into the US or any other nation. lations. However, if we are to learn from this more "labour-friendly" region of the world, Gabaccia, who has long pursued the Galenson's useful little book must be sup­ study of international working-class plemented by other, more wide-ranging movements, transcultural immigrant lives, and transnational co-operation of 318 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL diaspora groups begins her narrative with global economy that had developed since a chapter on migration from the Appeni- the 16th century and in the late 19th cen­ nes peninsula from 1200 to the 1780s. tury developed from colonialism to impe­ Dynastic Europe — nations had not yet rialist strategies of domination and accu­ been invented — was often divided by mulation. Colonies in Africa were popu­ warfare, but was unified by trans-Euro­ lated by migrants; former colonies, as pean nobilities and trans-European intel­ independent states, began to attract mi­ ligentsias. Among the latter, "Italians" grants from Europe: "To govern is to played a particularly important role in populate" was a policy-guiding concept science, architecture, and several in Argentina. In a North American histo- branches of high culture. "To feel Italian riographical perspective, Italian men and was to identify culturally with 'civiltà women have often been described as "un­ italiana' — an elite culture that had devel­ skilled." Many, in fact, came as highly oped in and spread from Italy to Europe skilled railroad workers, drilling tunnels, between 1000 and 1600." (8) In the cen­ and laying tracks. In particular, the immi­ tury from 1790 to the 1880s, a process of grants spreading from Montréal along self-definition (my liberal translation of railroads and to construction sites as far "risorgimento") began and resulted in one as the Rocky Mountains are an example. Italian state but two "races," northern (su­ Often these men had migrated to similar perior) and southern (lesser) Italians. In jobs within Europe before crossing the consequence, Gabaccia raises the ques­ Atlantic. Similarly, women's work in the tion whether migrants formed one dias­ garment industry demands high skills, pora or two. She discusses the creation of even if a gendered labelling of jobs does nationality in the diaspora — "Italians not always accept this. Italian migrants made abroad." As among all immigrant moved internationally to segments of la­ groups a contraction of the many local bour markets accessible to non-natives. In cultures into one ascribed national cate­ addition to their skills they carried with gory occurred. No receiving society was them traditions of peasant rebelliousness, able to distinguish between someone artisanal radicalism, and urban labour or­ from Biella (Piedmont) or from Cosenza ganization. Both the socialist parties and (Calabria). The immigrants themselves the Catholic Church developed institu­ did distinguish by village, province, and tions to advise prospective emigrants and the north-south dichotomy but needed the to aid them in their new locations. Ethnic larger "Italian" identification for project­ entrepreneurs, padrones, facilitated mi­ ing an image of themselves to their immi­ grants' insertion at their destinations but grant neighbours as well as for political also often bound them into relationships clout. They had to homogenize their mu­ of economic dependence. tually unintelligible dialects to even ar­ rive at a common Italian language. Italian Migrants selected among destinations national consciousness was made at home and developed transcultural lives. Even if and abroad, and both variants interacted, village relationships were reconstituted reinforcing or contradicting each other. by patterns of living and working, after migrations such relationships spanned Three chapters cover the global labour several continents. From the southern migrations from the 1870s to the early town of Picinisco, to give only one exam­ 1920s with a major break in 1914. Gabac­ ple, one third of the migrants worked in cia first outlines the migrations. Accord­ Paris, one third in towns and cities in ing to official statistics, 16.6 million men England, the last third in places as varied and women left in five decades, though as Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Sweden, many returned or, because of multiple Denmark, and Russia. (71) Members of a migrations, were counted more than once. family or a community spread across sev­ They moved within a Europe-focused eral states but remained in contact, re- REVIEWS 319

turned, left again. For purposes of mutual politics to class and increasingly associ­ support and to ease the transition to dif­ ated with socialism, anarchism, and com­ ferent social patterns they congregated in munism, a new labour internationalism ethnic neighbourhoods. To acquire an posed a challenge to the many national­ economic base they concentrated in par­ isms in the decades before 1914. "The ticular niches of labour markets. Thus relative importance of class, nationalism, "Italian" quarters and labour market seg­ internationalism, region, and religion var­ ments emerged, "national patterns in a ied enormously in the 'other Italies' that world economy." (74) Italian women gradually coalesced from the satellites of made the transition to industrial work Italy's many village-based diasporas." more quickly than immigrant women, (107) Proletarian attitudes at home — shunning positions as domestic labour. "for us there are no frontiers" — merged The image of the male-controlled Italian with and were informed by those of po­ wife staying at home is another of the litical exiles from Italy, who in turn were many clichés to which historians have influenced by existing movements and succumbed. radicalisms in the respective host socie­ Migrant men often worked in outdoor ties. Italian migrants in France could join occupations, living in boarding homes, an established labour movement whereas bunkhouses, or camps. Some migrated in North Africa and Latin America, espe­ seasonally between harvest labour in Italy cially in Argentina and Brazil, they had to and Argentina, for example. Construction create labour movements. In North Amer­ workers destined for Canada delayed ar­ ica, both Italian men and women became rival until the frost was off the ground. In involved in several of the AFL unions, Italian language such lifestyles were de­ those of the garment trades in particular. scribed as of "outsiders" or "beyond civi­ Out of these activities "other Italies" lization." Seasonal or multi-annual mi­ emerged, communities based on interna­ grants' wives remained in villages at tionalism and anti-clericalism. Ybor City, home, a threat to traditional concepts of Florida, cigarworkers with their connec­ social respectability since female sexual­ tions to Havana, Manila, Hamburg, and ity was viewed "as a powerful and poten­ many other craft-class communities, pro­ tially disorderly force." (85) When the vide an example, though their three major "men without women" (Harney) called local mutual aid societies remained cen­ for "women who wait" (Brettell), com­ tred on culture: Italian, Asturian, Cuban. munities emerged and patterns of life in­ Everywhere "articulate" internationalism corporated several regional cultures was divided, however, along the ideologi­ (transcultural) within the distant frames cal lines of the Left parallel to the labour of states. Thus "international family movement. Catholic priests reinforced a economies" emerged in which the real labour migrant consciousness as well as value of cash earnings had to be known an Italian-Catholic consciousness. for the several locations of family life. In the 1920s and 1930s, states, claim­ Highly informed accounting rather than ing the objective of creating monocultural vague images of opportunities explain nations, turned hostile to immigration migration decisions of men and women, and, in particular in the case of the fascist and decisions to send children to seek countries, hostile to emigration. While waged work. For those who returned, the slowdown of labour mass migration however, cash was turned into social was thus ideology-driven, its collapse prestige rather than into investments. came with the Great Depression after Internationalism began with the pan- 1929. The old labour diasporic communi­ European revolutionary attitudes in sup­ ties were now joined by political exiles, port of popular rule of the followers of while some of the prominenti supported Garibaldi and Mazzini. Shifting from the "new" state. Only in the late 1940s 320 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

and in the 1950s did mass labour migra­ the focus of this reconsideration of Aus­ tion resume, especially to Northern tralian labour history towards the centre Europe and to Canada. (Chapter 7) The of the Australian continent. take-off of the Italian economy, however, The chapters are grouped into themes first involved large internal south-to- with numerous individual authors cover­ north migrations and, second, turned Italy ing a large array of topics. In their intro­ into an immigration destination with con­ duction the editors identify some features siderable in-migration from Northern Af­ of a distinctly Australian interpretation of rica, sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia, some labour history as an aspect of a society of it undocumented. and emerging culture with many features The Italian proverbs, "All the world is and multiple "personalities." They pro­ a village," and "All people everywhere vide a good background account of the are the same," emphasize the face-to-face history of Australian labour, but focus global community. However, at the same their analysis on the problems and possi­ time, Italians across the world developed bilities emerging from the new form of cultures specific to everyday life and in­ globalized capitalism. The founding and stitutional frameworks of the host socie­ sustaining myth of the political Labor Par­ ties. Donna Gabaccia's study is a model ties was their role in civilizing capitalism of a differentiated assessment of a global and smoothing its periodic crises; the re­ community of migrants, since the 19th ality, as time passed, was sometimes the century mainly working-class migrants, deputing of Labor governments to admin­ on five continents. Her knowledge is ister the same sorts of restrictions on world-wide, the analysis penetrating. No workers earlier sought in the name of single disaspora emerged, but concepts of capitalism. By the time of the Hawke and ethnic enclaves and hyphenated cultures Keating governments the pressures "to cannot capture the multi-faceted patterns decide" were towards "deregulation," a of migration, acculturation, and mili­ process which accelerated wildly tancy. In her discussion of the global, throughout the 1990s as Labor fell out of individual men and women remain in the office in the federal and state spheres of centre. politics. The impact on organised labour was extensive, but it helped to broaden Dirk Hoerder alliances and widen outlooks, and the ef­ fect on labour historiography was to­ University of Bremen wards the diversification of ideas well represented in this book. David Palmer, Ross Shanahan, and Mar­ The chapters which follow discuss tin Shanahan, eds. Australian Labour patterns and themes in the new labour History Reconsidered (Adelaide: Austra­ history of contemporary writing. These lian Humanities Press 1999) themes include culture, gender, and the Australian worker; the political culture THIS BOOK is dedicated to the memory of and organized labour; communities of a former South Australian Labor premier. working-class people; myth and reality in And one of its innovatory features is to Australian egalitarianism; alternative shift the perspective on labour history to­ identities based on colour or marginality, wards that neglected state by extending and the place of intellectuals in relation to geographical coverage well beyond the the working class and to labour historiog­ usual emphasis on Eastern Australia. The raphy. Some of the many authors in this editors, David Palmer, Ross Shanahan, collection offer vignettes, and there are helpful summaries by the editors, but the and Martin Shanahan, all write from chapters are extensively researched. South Australia, and the publisher is There are some typographical errors here based at Unley. It very successfully shifts REVIEWS 321 and there throughout the text, which de­ In part three Bradley Bowden traces tract from an otherwise excellent and high the emergence of labour identity in Ips­ quality book production. wich in the years after 1861. The second Part one of the book consists of a study city of Queensland had a geographical of the ethos of the Australian Workers proximity to Brisbane which ensured that Union by Mark H earn, and an essay on Labor representation finally followed the women and the professionalization of growth of a sizable workforce based in Australian nursing, by Glenda Strachan. mining and industrial activities. Never­ Both provide an excellent survey of work theless, the hegemony of the old order in the field, and both cast their nets wider remained intact until 1912 and it was not than the conventional mainstream his­ finally broken until 1915. Wagga Wagga, tory. Henry Lawson, Australia's world- on the other hand, is presented by War­ class short-story writer and poet, for ex­ wick Eather as a case study of the come­ ample, is recognized by H earn as quite back of conservatism in a rural setting and central to the creation of the bush myth in the circumstances presented by the around which the Australian Workers Un­ 1950s. The people of Wagga Wagga be­ ion developed. He also takes fully into lieved that their city had become the so­ account the research of John Merritt that cial and political capital of the Riverina, from the beginning the shearers' inclina­ and warmed to the purge mentality of the tion to a radical industrial stance in the Menzies era, notwithstanding its earlier shed, or workplace, never excluded their role in the creation of the Labor myth. hopes and aspirations to own a farm or An interesting discussion of the ele­ make something of their lives outside and ments of myth and reality in Australian beyond their work. William Lane, the egalitarianism follows. Like America, in radical socialist writer and editor, whose some respects, Australia has often been literary personae "John Miller" and "Lu- seen as a "classless" society, though this cinda Sharpe" symbolised the functional is perhaps more a matter of perception schizophrenia of the shearing shed and than reality. Ross Shanahan discusses industrial confrontationism, proceeded to something of the reality in terms of mak­ lead his followers on to the New Australia ing and judicially enforcing the idea of project overseas. Australia henceforth re­ workplace agreements as contractual in mained behind for a time in such radical the industrial disputations of the 1890s thoughtstreams, but a continuing haven and in the present era of "deregulation"; for the practical man and woman. The Martin Shanahan looks at the personal descent of such activism and functional wealth of labourers prior to World War I; egalitarianism into the world of nursing and Glenn Giles looks at award restruc­ in the course of the 20th century nicely turing and changes in the workplace, a makes this point of its wide acceptance in chapter which provides an interesting the community. challenge to the famous de-skilling thesis Part two of the book looks at the links proposed by Braverman and others. between culture and labour institutions. Part five begins the real divergence David Palmer examines the experience at away from traditional labour history in its Broken Hill and Mount Isa of union strug­ discussion of identities. Christine gles over safety problems between the Nicholls and Ross Shanahan provide a two world wars. Chris McConville com­ piece on oral history in central Australia, pares waterfront unionism in Buenos Ai­ while Robin Haines looks at the expecta­ res, Melbourne, and San Francisco. tions and positive response of new arri­ Workers in such port cities had direct vals to South Australia during the last contact with workers elsewhere and were century; Desmond O'Connor reviews the consequently an advanced sector of the confrontation between Italian and Anglo- union movement. Celtic workers in Adelaide during the 322 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

Great Depression, and Murray Couch re­ series Queer Politics, Queer Theories, ed­ views a research project on Broken Hill. ited by Steve Phelan, Hunt's collection Just as the earlier chapters provide an reaches beyond a single country, where up-to-date survey of recent research, so such an exploration would be daunting too is part six of the book at the forefront enough, given the range and diversity of of labour history writing. Ray Markey issues, activists, and unions typically en­ takes the history of the Labor Council of countered in each country. Instead, it pro­ New South Wales right up to the era of vides a broadly comparative perspective "deregulation"; Robin Gollan reviews the on these alliances and their effect on writing of labour history from its accep­ workplace-based issues related to sexual tance as a scholarly discipline in 1960 orientation across several countries, con­ until recent times; Terry Irving and Sean sidered in three major geographic con­ Scalmer look at labour historians as la­ figurations: North America, Europe, and bour intellectuals, their efforts and a piece of the southern hemisphere in­ achievements amongst the "most ambi­ cluding the South Pacific, Australia, and tious and innovative" achieved by Austra­ South Africa. The collection will appeal lia's intellectuals; and Verity Burgmann to those interested in the stories, strug­ looks back in reflection upon her essay gles, and history of ordinary people in­ about the strange death of labour history volved in gay and lesbian liberation, in Australia in its earlier circumstances. organized labour, and the intersection of It seems now that the rumours of La­ the two. Readers will find this book to be bor's fall into the darkness of a deregu­ wonderfully rich in historical detail, re­ lated world were somewhat exaggerated freshingly varied in both the analytical and labour history has regained its elan approach and individual perspective of and something of its earlier standing. the contributors and — best of all — de­ There is enough evidence now available cidedly readable. to suggest that the future of both labour As with many comparative analyses, and its intelligentsia is bright enough for the choice of what is being compared will survival, even if in an election year the be criticized. Some will wish for greater policies of parsimony are to be slapped depth, or "thickness," in looking at indi­ into reverse. Whatever the outcome there, vidual countries and even individual un­ it seems likely enough that politics will ions. Others may wish for greater breadth, soon become more about people than just to include accounts from Latin America dry statistics, and that history will reflect and the Middle East, where vibrant union­ the change, as it did in decades that were ism often exists side-by-side with institu­ better than the 1990s. tional and societal oppression of gays and lesbians. Leaving readers with an appetite Frank Farrell for more information, however, is hardly University of New South Wales a shortcoming, particularly given that this collection is the first scholarly foray into this (mine)field. Rather, the international, Gerald Hunt, éd., Labouring for Rights: comparative nature of this collection should be seen as providing a great base Unions and Sexual Diversity Across Na­ — and one might hope incentive — for tions (Philadelphia: Temple University future scholarly examinations that aim to Press 1999) improve both the depth and breadth of our knowledge of this subject. On the whole, THIS COLLECTION sets out a very ambi­ the approach taken by Hunt is amply jus­ tious goal: to "explore the motivations tified, both by the "connectedness" of the toward, impediments to, and outcomes of individual scholarship, and by the space alliances between organized labour and sexual diversity activists." (5) Part of the REVIEWS 323 limitations of a single volume (this one is Jaqueline Leckie's study ofthe Pacific 300 pages). Islands emphasizes the cultural context in Six of the fifteen chapters deal with explaining why unions are slow to recog­ North America. The Canadian situation is nize women's equality and have remained addressed by Hunt who provides an over­ silent on sexual diversity and associated view ofthe activity of umbrella organiza­ legal rights. Examining the situation in tions and a number of case studies show­ Australia, Shane Ostenfeld shows how ing union leadership on sexual orientation gay and lesbian movements have, for two issues. Cynthia Peterson then traces the decades, recognized that unions were an participation of organized labour in the important part of their struggle, how the Canadian cases of litigation around same- response of organized labour was "con­ sex spousal benefits. Both chapters high­ sidered, incremental, and hotly debated light the extent and commitment of Can­ among members," and how Australia pro­ ada's labour movement to issues of sexual duced "arguably the best developed rela­ diversity. tionship of this type in die world." (181, Each ofthe four chapters dealing with 6) In the "new" South Africa, the first the Unites States focuses on a distinct country to provide full equality to gays aspect of the relationship between labour and lesbians in a national constitution, and queer activism. On the basis of a Mazibuko K. Jara, Naomi Webster, and historical review of the increasingly as­ Gerald Hunt show that, while there may sertive involvement of organized labour remain a considerable gap between con­ in fighting discrimination based on sexual stitutional pronouncement and actual orientation, Christian Bain is optimistic practice, coalitions between labour and about the future of the alliance between sexual diversity activists are forming. organized labour and queer activism. The need for those coalitions is great, but Miriam Frank, who analyses the phe­ the authors express cautious optimism nomenon of gay and lesbian caucuses that the widespread recognition of equal­ within unions, is also generally optimistic ity as a cornerstone of the new social about future activity. Desman Holcomb, order will, with quick and assertive action in explaining how even hostile admini­ by sexual diversity activists, come to be strations have been pressured into provid­ reflected within organized labour and ing benefits for domestic partners, high­ then broader society. lights the strategic importance of both The four-chapter section covering formal and informal alliances between Europe begins with a chapter by David gay and straight workers. After the opti­ Rayside in which he provides a broad mism of the preceding five chapters, overview of activism across Europe, Jonathan Goldberg-Hiller provides a "re­ drawing on representative examples from ality check" by chronicling the indifferent Britain, Germany, France, and the Neth­ response of organized labour to the rec­ erlands. Despite a high level of activity in ognition of same sex marriage in Hawai'i. three of the four countries (France lags Taken together, the US chapters sug­ behind in the development of alliances gest that organized labour's support of and in political activism), issues of sexual sexual diversity is strongest when "eq­ diversity have not assumed much promi­ uity" is framed narrowly around benefit nence in the new European Union. Ronald coverage and other issues traditionally as­ Holzhacker then provides a closer look at sociated with workplace and collective Germany, showing that alliances between bargaining. When the issues at stake in­ organized labour and queer activists have clude much more controversial measures only recently begun to offer the promise of equality (such as marriage) the support of growth and influence. Drawing on ex­ of organized labour is much less enthusi­ tensive survey data, Phil Greasley's chap­ astic. ter on Britain highlights a curious contra- 324 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL diction: In the home of Queen Victoria, section of queer and union activity means societal attitudes towards most things that the book could be used effectively in sexual have remained somewhat conser­ a variety of courses, although the absence vative and the leadership of British un­ of both an index and a comprehensive ions has tended to reflect that reality. bibliography limits its usefulness as a ref­ Nonetheless, a mutually beneficial rela­ erence book, a role for which it is other­ tionship has developed between queer ac­ wise well suited. Nonetheless, Gerald tivists and the labour movement. Perhaps Hunt has edited a collection valuable to the Thatcher era motivated labour leaders any university or college library. It should to take their allies where they could find also find a place in the personal libraries them. Indeed, Fiona Colgan, in the final of anyone interested in organized labour, chapter on Europe, argues that "Over the workplace equity, social movements, or last decade, trade union interest in lesbian queer history. and gay issues has increased steadily as has lesbian and gay participation within Neil Thomlinson trade union structures." (262) Her chapter Ryerson University is based on a detailed case study of UNI­ SON, the largest public sector union in Europe (formed from the 1993 merger of Judith Glover, Women and Scientific Em­ NALGO, NUPE, and COHSE). Its long­ ployment (London: Macmillan Press standing recognition of gay and lesbian members and concern for their repre­ 2000) sentation adds to our understanding of I HAVE A SIZABLE collection of photo­ how large unions are able to integrate graphic images of Marie Curie. In several sexuality issues into the broader context she is looking directly at the camera; her of workplace issues. countenance is intelligent but there is no In a mere ten pages, the editor draws hint of a smile. Her expression is dour on the preceding chapters to reach for even in pictures with her beloved Pierre some broad conclusions. He traces three or her daughters. The historian of science related developments: the increasing Margaret Rossiter has attributed Curie's strength and stability of unions that success in science to a strategy of "delib­ emerged from the post-war settlement erate overqualification and personal stoi­ and the later reversal of fortunes as neo- cism." A century after her brilliant work liberalism took hold; changing demo­ earned her two Nobel prizes, women still graphics within the labour movement, accept her approach as necessary to gain and the strength and visibility of the admittance to the world of science. women's movement within the ranks of In Women and Scientific Employment, organized labour. In addition to permit­ Judith Glover examines the theoretical ting some conclusions about what ac­ discourses that have framed the issue of counts for the growing number of alli­ women in science and presents selected ances between organized labour and "sex­ empirical data to illustrate the continuing ual diversity activists" in the studied problem. Glover has focused primarily on countries, this review also challenges the women in academic science as this is the social movement orthodoxy that would data set that has been available through characterize queer activism as "new" so­ university and government records for cial movement activity and labour activ­ many decades. Measures of persistence ism as "old" (or traditional) social move­ and promotion are readily extracted. As ment activity. Glover indicates, women scientists in the The book is a valuable addition to a private sector and women with lower lev­ field of scholarship desperately in need of els of education employed in scientific additional study. The focus on the inter­ jobs are rarely captured in these data sets. REVIEWS 325

Similarly, women who are members of tative feminization sustained over many trade unions in university or government years. laboratories are seldom mentioned in sur­ It is unfortunate that the most recent veys of scientific employment or in the data was more than five years old at the type of secondary analysis performed by time of publication. Although researchers Glover. This gap makes it difficult to as­ in this field know how consistent the par­ sess the impact of trade unionism on ticipation rates are over time (and space ! ), women's employment in science. Tech­ science and education policy makers want nology and trades organizations are be­ to believe that their efforts are paying off. ginning to fill in this missing piece. They are not content with last year's num­ Glover makes a distinction between bers and often demand the most current two types of feminization of the sciences: statistics. quantitative feminization refers to in­ Glover pays considerable attention to creasing the numbers and proportion of the lack of resistance by women scientists women in science, while vertical femini­ to their situation. She outlines a variety of zation refers to the movement of women arguments about the socialization of into top positions or high academic rank. women scientists to relatively conserva­ She refers to these as measures of "getting tive values, and their persistent belief in in" and "getting on," respectively. Both the fairness of systems of evaluation in­ are essential for monitoring employment cluding the mythology of the operation of equity in science. an objective "scientific method" in deter­ Glover has conducted research on gen­ mining hirings and promotions within sci­ der, science and technology, and on the entific fields. Faith in peer review and representation of women in scientific objectivity remain almost untouchable work for the European Union. She is pres­ even in the face of evidence of their limi­ ently Reader in Sociology and Social Pol­ tations. To those explanations I would icy at the Roehampton Institute in Lon­ add that women scientists are highly edu­ don, England. In this book she reviews cated, paid well for interesting work (al­ the extensive international work on the though not as well as their male col­ "problem" of women in science, and pre­ leagues), and admitted to an elite profes­ sents the key authors, debates, and rele­ sional class. In general they are unlikely vant employment statistics. Although to think of themselves as oppressed by there are more than two dozen charts and almost any criterion. Involvement in graphs, this is not a compilation of end­ "women in science" organizations or the less columns of raw data. Rather it is an "women's caucus" within scientific so­ exposition and interpretation of informa­ cieties is viewed as suspect by many sci­ tive comparisons within and between entists, including women, and as evidence countries. One chapter is devoted to for a lack of the requisite absolute com­ analysis of the situation for women in the mitment to science and only science. United Kingdom. In a separate chapter Glover argues that it is time to stop Glover presents representative data from thinking of science as one giant monolith, the US and France that parallel the British and to start thinking about discipline-spe­ situation. She highlights the differences cific exclusions of women and their and the striking similarities. In all three causes. An entire chapter is devoted to the countries, attrition between first and particular case of physics which has been graduate degrees is markedly higher for largely refractory to efforts to increase women than men. The comparative data participation of women. For comparison, also confirm that vertical sex segregation Glover presents Witz's study of the exclu­ remains rampant in academic science, sion of women from medical education even in disciplines such as biology that and practice in the 19th century. She ar­ have experienced a high level of quanti­ gues that both power and knowledge ac- 326 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL crue to "disciplines" in the sense of the Finally, Glover is critical of the as­ word used by Michel Foucault: accepted sumption from feminist standpoint theo­ techniques and paradigms within a disci­ rists that women will change the face, pline serve to examine, control, and limit agenda, and conduct of science. Such es- behaviour. Glover also presents the work sentialism ignores the larger players in of historian David Noble on the Christian science. In the time of Da Vinci and today clerical origins of universities, and the as well, scientific agendas have been set evolution of authority from the church to by the material forces of capitalism. No science within the same institutions. wonder Marie Curie never smiles. Women were not just excluded, but were viewed as the antithesis of the monastic Janice G. Dodd life of the mind. Glover acknowledges University of Manitoba that one of her purposes in discussing Noble's work is to bring it to the attention of more European readers. It is unfortu­ Anders Hayden, Sharing the Work, Spar­ nate that the work of another scholar on ing the Planet: Work Time, Consumption, the issue of "getting on" in science was and Ecology (Toronto: Between the Lines not addressed. Gerhard Sonnert is the 2000) author of a substantial sociological sur­ vey of successful American scientists en­ ANDERS HAYDEN is commonly known titled The Project Access Study and pub­ as the guy who works 24 hours a day for lished as Who Succeeds in Science? Son­ a shorter work week. As a staff person for nert identified the ongoing accumulation the Toronto-based 32 Hours campaign of small disincentives as an issue for and as a volunteer activist, no one has women in science that alters their career done more than Hayden in helping to over the long term. build political support in Canada for poli­ In all of the chapters Glover presents cies to reduce average working hours. a critical review of a substantial body of Now, with the publication of Sharing the literature in a clear and concise manner. Work, Sparing the Planet, Hayden also The reference lists at the end of each makes an impressive intellectual and em­ chapter are extensive and useful to read­ pirical contribution to our understanding ers looking for the primary sources. of this important but complex issue. The Glover makes extensive use of footnotes, book describes a holistic vision of pro­ and they provide insight into her thinking gressive social and economic policy re­ and rich anecdotal evidence for her argu­ forms, rooted in reductions in working ments. hours combined with measures, espe­ Glover's conclusions have significant cially ecological tax reforms, to enhance implications for both education and sci­ the "eco-efficiency" of current economic ence policy. In countries like the US, UK, activity. and Canada, large national programs and Shorter working hours are commonly local grass-roots initiatives have focused advanced as a simple solution to unem­ on increasing the participation of girls ployment. If there is a shortage of job and young women in science education openings, then a shorter work week will and employment. Modest improvements spread available work around to more in the rates of entry into science and en­ people, thus reducing the incidence of gineering have been observed ("getting unemployment. Hayden is more careful in"), but enhanced persistence and suc­ than most shorter work-time advocates in cess ("getting on") has been much more noting the limitations of this rather elusive. Glover contends that these are mechanistic argument. He cautions that separate issues with separate solutions shorter work-time should not be seen as a and no stoichiometric relationship. form of "collective austerity" that is, as a REVIEWS 327 means of sharing unemployment. Rather, Indeed, the history of working-time a stronger campaign for shorter work- struggles indicates strongly that more time will be built by viewing it as a posi­ progress on this issue will result not from tive goal in and of itself, as a means of naive appeals to employers that shorter capturing the benefits of technological work-time can be good for them, as well. development and productivity growth in Rather, it will require the adoption by the form of increased leisure time (rather workers of shorter work-time as an im­ than material consumption), and as a portant goal (in both collective bargain­ means of reshaping our economic activi­ ing and in broader political struggles), ties to become more harmonious with and the successful mobilization of those ecological as well as economic priorities. workers and their allies to impose that Hayden also offers a careful critique preference over the resistance of their em­ of what he terms the "productivist" trend ployers. in the shorter work-time movement. It is One especially useful feature of Shar­ often suggested that shorter working ing the Work, Sparing the Planet is its hours can enhance hourly productivity detailed review of the successes and fail­ (because workers are more rested and less ures of various concrete shorter work- harried), thus delivering cost savings time initiatives, in Canada and numerous which can largely or even wholly offset other countries (both industrialized and the cost to employers of the work-time developing). Both the politics and the reduction. In this analysis, employers practicalities of work-time reduction in­ must be somehow irrational not to see the itiatives can be very tricky, and Hayden's win-win potential in reducing regular international overview gives us valuable working hours. and concrete insights. There are numer­ But for Hayden, this approach misses ous ways in which lifetime hours of work the point on at least two grounds. One can be reduced — a shorter work day, a fundamental rationale for reducing work­ shorter work week, longer vacations, ear­ ing hours is to shift our overall lifestyle lier retirement, leaves for parenting or away from material consumption and in education — and different approaches favour of leisure time. The productivist tend to demonstrate different degrees of argument inverts this to propagate shorter success in maintaining worker support working hours as being conducive to and stimulating new job creation. Hay­ more output (and hence consumption). It den's Chapters 6 and 7 provide a dense, also underestimates the extent of em­ convenient, and invaluable primer of ployer resistance to demands for shorter "best practices" for anyone wanting to work-time. There are concrete economic learn quickly about the plethora of ways factors behind the desire of employers to in which work time can concretely and impose longer hours on an ever-smaller effectively be reduced. group of well-paid "core" employees, and Like most economists, I still have the consequent polarization of working some difficulty with the broad ecological hours between that core group and an­ critique of economic growth which un­ other group of underutilized peripheral derpins many of Hayden's policy pre­ workers. This dominant trend in employ­ scriptions. Hayden is more careful and ment practices over the past two decades nuanced than many environmentalists on reflects the socially destructive but pow­ this point, but he still tends to portray erful bottom-line interests of employers; economic growth in general as damaging we should not be naïve about the likeli­ to the goal of environmental sustainabil- hood of winning them voluntarily to the ity. I would argue that this approach, cause of shorter working hours in the face broadly shared within the green move­ of these economic pressures. ment, ultimately undermines the strug- 328 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

gles for both shorter work-time and envi­ sumption and global warming. But on the ronmental protection. other hand, if we equate a green economy In the first place, given the green with a no-growth economy, then the po­ movement's obsession with the measure­ litical constituency for a green economy ment errors implicit in conventional eco­ is likely to evaporate quickly. Average nomic concepts (like Gross Domestic workers will quickly conclude (wrongly, Product), Hayden, like others, at times in my view) that ecological goals are in­ ironically conflates economic growth compatible with their legitimate desire with the production of what he calls for a higher standard of living (measured "more stuff."A full 70 per cent of Can­ correctly, and not by how much "stuff ada's GDP is composed of services, not they consume). A no-growth economy, "stuff." Much represents the value-added far from constituting a green utopia, in the production of public caring services would in reality be marked by growing which progressives value highly (and poverty and inequality, a popular back­ which Hayden himself wants to see more lash against both ecological rules and of). government in general, and a chronic lack To be sure, we need to think carefully of real resources to dedicate to environ­ about how economic growth occurs, and mental goals (such as improved infra­ what types of goods and services are pro­ structure or the amelioration of environ­ duced, in order to regulate and limit the mental damage). And it will take a lot environmental consequences of that more than Hayden's environmental taxes growth. Some types of economic growth to bring about the necessary pro-environ­ are grossly destructive of the environ­ ment regulation of the economy. (To be ment (such as monster home suburbs, fair he also discusses, albeit in less detail, sport-utility vehicles, and tar sands devel­ other possible forms of environmental opments). Other types of economic regulation to promote his goal of "eco-ef- growth seem benign: like the caring serv­ ficiency.") Environmentalists and pro­ ices we need more of. A few types are gressive economists need to do some net­ even environmentally beneficial, like in­ working about the limitations of market vestments in emissions reduction or the price signals in bringing about desired construction of new parks, expenses changes in economic behaviour, before which show up in the GDP as surely as any we jump so enthusiastically on the "green purchase of a new Ford Explorer. tax" bandwagon. In many cases, direct regulations of the command-and-control The challenge, I would argue, is not to type will be infinitely more effective than try to stop economic growth (which is the the ecological tax reforms so popular with ultimate if often unstated conclusion of market-oriented reformers. the assumption that growth is generally bad for the environment), but rather to More convincing and appealing to me radically regulate growth, ensuring in is Hayden's clarion call to build a new particular that we get more public serv­ cultural politics which rejects the domi­ ices consumption and less private goods nant ideology of consumerism. If we can consumption. The GDP can still grow, struggle against the commercial notion jobs can still be created, average incomes that one's happiness is directly correlated can still rise, and human living standards with the amount of one's private con­ will improve (in both material and non- sumption (and generally with the most material ways). But the impact of eco­ ostentatious and shallow forms of that nomic activity on the environment could private consumption), then we will build be moderated significantly. a stronger basis for all kinds of progres­ This is a daunting challenge, admit­ sive goals. This new politics would tedly, especially in light of the growing clearly assist in mobilizing support for and bleak evidence regarding energy con­ shorter work-time, since the assumed REVIEWS 329 trade-off between material consumption amid concerns from my fellow workers and leisure time will become less worri­ about the air quality in our sealed work some. It will also assist in the all-impor­ environment. At the same time, there tant struggle against tax cuts, and to pre­ were news broadcasts about the struggle serve popular support for public forms of by Ontario firefighters to receive com­ consumption (such as public or caring pensation for what they believed were services, parks, and public transporta­ work-related cancers. In both cases, de­ tion). spite reassurance from various scientists Hayden correctly identifies that it will and officials, these workers continue to be a huge challenge to overcome the cul­ believe that toxins in the air are causing tural factors contributing to the "work- some of their health-related problems. and-spend" mentality which dominates so This book provides a theoretical frame­ many Canadians' lives. But this goal work, research methodology, and case seems to me to be an important prereq­ studies for concerned workers to use to uisite for future progressive success, on investigate work-related risk, hazards, the work-time issue and on many other and health concerns. issues as well, and Hayden challenges us Knowing Doyal's earlier critical work convincingly to take up the challenge. on women and health (1995), I looked Working hours have become more po­ forward to reviewing this new edited col­ larized in Canada over the last decade. lection, and I was not disappointed. Employers are demanding the right to im­ Doyal's strengths in political economy pose longer hours on a select group of and gender studies play a strong influence core workers, while other workers scrab­ in this book. The authors focus predomi­ ble to find enough hours of work in part- nantly on women's occupational health time jobs to survive. Right-wing govern­ and safety issues. Most of the earlier ments, like the Harris regime in Ontario, chapters are case studies that deconstruct have targeted the rollback of existing and challenge traditional occupational work time-regulations, inadequate as they health and safety rhetoric and practice. are, as a major political priority. Anders The last few chapters elaborate on the Hayden's book couldn't have come at a deconstruction of concepts and rhetoric, better time to help labour unions and and on participatory research. other activists resist these regressive The authors make a consistent effort to trends, and seize the initiative once again provide comparative analysis. They com­ in the fight over time. I heartily recom­ pare the situation for women in various mend it for anyone with an academic or occupations, and the health risks of work­ an activist interest in this important issue. ers in countries of the North and South. Special attention is paid to the impact of Jim Stanford global economic restructuring on all these Canadian Auto Workers workers. The authors raise concerns about the resultant intensification of work and "flexible" employment within indus­ Norma Daykin and Lesley Doyal, eds., trialized countries of the North. At the Health and Work: Critical Perspectives same time they caution against any addi­ tional transfer of occupational risks to (New York: St. Martin's Press 1999) workers in the South. THIS BOOK is particularly relevant to Through various case studies, the paid and unpaid workers struggling to authors illustrate the failure of the top- have their voices heard concerning unac­ down, biomedical approach to adequately knowledged health and safety related research work-related health problems. problems related to their work. I read this This book promotes a more holistic, criti­ book as I settled into a new work setting, cal, and participatory approach to occupa- 330 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

tional health and safety research, and pro­ titioners on the diagnosis of health-re­ vides examples using case studies. I rec­ lated problems. There is in general a lack ommend that readers hoping to learn of resources committed to occupational more about participatory research check health and safety. Employers, govern­ out the recent book titled Uncertain Haz­ ments, and insurance companies often ards (2000) by Sylvia Tesh. Her book lack the political will to address preven­ complements Doyal and Daykin's book tion, detection, and compensation issues. by providing insight on the values that All of these problems are exacerbated influence scientists. She illustrates how by economic restructuring. Work gets environmentalist science is emerging as a moved to sweatshops and private homes, result of a paradigm shift in society. So­ or subcontracted to smaller firms, which cietal understandings of risk are chang­ generally have fewer health and safety ing, and there is a growing field of re­ precautions than large firms do. Risks in­ search that is informed by experiential creasingly get exported to countries in the knowledge. South where their impact is greater be­ Within the book Health and Work, cause of double standards and weaker some authors focus on the impact for paid controls. and unpaid workers of economic change, Lay and professional researchers seek­ and of the changing definitions of work. ing to investigate occupational health and The authors call for the development of safety issues can learn from this book's gender-sensitive health promotion poli­ case studies. The last few chapters elabo­ cies, with specific chapters on unpaid rate more specifically on the postmodern caregivers and domestic workers, dis­ approach of deconstruction which guides abled workers, and sex workers. Current this book. There are also more specific occupational health notions ignore cer­ illustrations of effective participatory re­ tain workers at risk, and prioritize the search in Italy and Latin America. health of some workers over others. For This book needs to be supplemented example, while nursing journals acknow­ by books by Tesh (2000), mentioned pre­ ledge the physical and psychological viously, as well as Phil Brown and Edwin stress on paid care providers of HIV/AIDS Mikkelson, No Safe Place: Toxic Waste, patients, they fail to discuss the risks that Leukemia, and Community Action ( 1990), unpaid caregivers face in their work. in order to prepare researchers for the There is an insightful article on the short­ scientific debates that participatory re­ comings of health promotion efforts re­ search provokes. The participatory re­ garding HIV/AIDS in many sex workers. search illustrated in this book has much in Researchers tend to blame prostitutes for common with the "popular epidemiol­ HIV transmission, while failing to ac­ ogy" approach which has been very effec­ knowledge the poverty that leads many tive in documenting community health girls and women into this form of work, problems due to exposure to industrial their appalling working conditions, and toxins. the health risks that they face. I found the article on the problems of Ella Haley epidemiological research particularly in­ Athabasca University sightful. Workers are subject to multiple exposures to toxins, and they change jobs, making it difficult to trace these expo­ sures. Exposures to toxins and occupa­ tional health problems are frequently un- derreported. There are disagreements among scientists on "acceptable risk" lev­ els, and among occupational health prac­ REVIEWS 331

Fred Magdoff, John Bellamy Foster, and brand of economic pseudo-science. It is Frederick H. Butt el, eds., The Agribusi­ refreshing to read a book in which a group ness Threat to Farmers, Food, and the of scholars, including many from a new Environment (New York: Monthly Re­ generation of social thinkers, demon­ view Press 2000) strate the urgent relevance ofthe Marxist paradigm in addressing key aspects ofthe THIS IS A TIMELY and useful book. It is world capitalist system. Whether dealing timely because we are in the midst of with issues of biotechnology, environ­ another major shake-out/restructuring of mental collapse, modern social structural agriculture on a global basis in a time of transformation, sustainable agriculture, a capitalist world hegemony. Further, this farmgate-to-supermarket analysis of the restructuring, and related crises in the transnational capitalist food system, the food industry, has provoked deepening Marxist paradigm continues to clarify, to concern among the general population explain, to criticize, and to pose, as al­ over the unregulated and poorly re­ ways, the possibility of alternatives. searched applications of biotechnology in As a whole new generation of activists the food system. This current of public battle world capitalism, the resurrection, concern has contributed to the growing clarification, and novel application ofthe "anti-globalization" movement, provid­ Marxist paradigm is an especially impor­ ing one of the conditions leading to the tant intellectual task. And this time possibility of a period of sustained politi- around, that task will be less encumbered cization of large numbers of people by the albatross of the distorting lens of around the world. the official dogmas of the Soviet Union It is a useful book because the thirteen and of Maoist China. Only Cuba remains chapters, each written by a leading of the 1917 promise in Russia, and the scholar in the area, provide a surprisingly 1949 promise in China. Yet Cuba remains comprehensive presentation of many key a special case because its social experi­ issues in this most recent crisis in world ment was rooted in its own autonomous agriculture, as well as reminding us of revolution and only turned to the Soviet central features of the historical context. model in desperation during the relentless As a result, this reader could be useful in siege by the United States. Cuba provides a wide range of social science courses today not so much a demonstration ofthe dealing with issues in political economy, classical Marxist paradigm as an example the environment, rural sociology, science of an alternative approach to agriculture and technology, class and power, and the in a hostile world capitalist market. As move to world free trade. Peter Rosset's chapter on Cuba demon­ strates, Cuba found itself in crisis after the The book is also an antidote to the collapse ofthe Soviet Union and a loss of received wisdom not only in the media privileged, subsidized access to the mar­ and politics, but also among a depress- kets of the Soviet bloc. Blockaded by the ingly widening circle of intellectuals that US, deprived of the Soviet market, many the Marxist paradigm is dead and best predicted Cuba's ultimate collapse. That consigned to the museum of historical has not yet happened partly because intellectual curiosities. Many of us con­ Cuba, out of desperate necessity and not tinue to argue that the Marxist scientific for any ideological reason, retreated to a paradigm has never been so useful, nor strategy of sustainable agriculture. As has it been so clearly relevant, than in Rosset concludes, these years following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the breaking ofthe iron rice bowl in China leading to the ascen­ The Cuban experience illustrates that we can dancy of the global triumphant capital­ feed a nation's population well with a small- ism, with its free market ideology and its or medium-sized farm model based on appro­ priate ecological technology, and in doing so 332 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL we can become more self-reliant in food pro­ relatively small-scale (by today's standards), duction. Farmers must receive higher returns local production in agriculture, using technol­ for their produce, and when they do they will ogy appropriate to a given set of social/histori­ be encouraged to produce. Capital-intensive cal/ecological conditions — it is well to re­ chemical inputs — most of which are unneces­ member that such issues are essentially secon­ sary — can be largely dispensed with. The dary under present circumstances to the important lessons from Cuba that we can apply question of the commodi fication of agriculture elsewhere, then, are agroecology, fair prices, (and indeed of nature itself) promoted by the land reform, and local production, including capitalist economy with only one end in mind: urban agriculture. (212-213) the production of profits. "The moral of the tale," Marx wrote in Capital (vol. Ill, chapter Although I recommend the entire 6, section 2), book, there are a few gems worth noting. The editors' overview is excellent, char­ "is that the capitalist system runs counter to a acterized by clarity and force, providing rational agriculture, or that a rational agricul­ ture is incompatible with the capitalist system a unifying justification for what follows (even if the latter promotes technical develop­ by weaving the diverse strands of the ment in agriculture) and needs either small book into the Marxist paradigm focused farmers working for themselves or the control on "the political economy of agriculture, of the associated producers." (21) food, and ecology." (8) As the editors say, I have already exceeded the editor's Capitalism presents us with the paradoxical thousand words and have only scratched reality of a rapid growth of food production the surface of a book packed with and perpetuation of overproduction (relative thoughtful ideas and challenging analy­ to markets and income distribution) on one hand, accompanied by the reinforcement of ses. Given my own work on the agrarian social exclusion and thus the growth of hunger petite bourgeoisie in Canada, I found on the other. The latter is not, as is sometimes Wood's article on the agrarian roots of thought, mainly a result of population growth capitalism, Lewontin's chapter on the (which has generally been surpassed by the proletarianization of farmers, and growth of productivity in agriculture), but in­ Araghi's piece on the peasant question on stead a consequence of the fact that the imme­ the cusp between millennia lucid and con­ diate object of food production is not human troversial. But having satisfied the sustenance and well-being but the growth of reader's historical and social structural profits. The coincidence of hungry mouths curiosities, the book then challenges the with overflowing grain silos may seem to be a paradox, but it is a paradox not of our analysis, reader with the moving front edge of con­ but of capitalist agribusiness itself. (9) troversies in biotechnological applica­ tions in agriculture. The editors have The editors also affirm a commitment done an excellent job in the selection of to Marx's dictum, "Philosophers have articles and/or the assignment of topics. only interpreted the world, the point, They have packed a great deal into what however, is to change it," by always in­ is really quite a short and tightly edited sisting on a focus on the multi-faceted manuscript. struggle to change the system. This is best Though edited collections usually find expressed when they conclude their over­ little sympathy from this reviewer, this view with these words: book is definitely an exception.

Those who wish to radically transform the J. F. Conway present agricultural-food system often focus on issues such as the proper scale of agricul­ University of Regina ture, the question of whether food should be organized in local or global systems, and the appropriate technology to be adopted. Al­ though all of these questions are significant — and we should emphasize the importance of REVIEWS 333

Catherine Panter-Brick and Malcolm T. colm T. Smith delineates the costs of Smith, eds., Abandoned Children (Cam­ foundling care in the Azores and con­ bridge: Cambridge University Press cludes that high mortality rates were es­ 2000) sential to the functioning of the system. Had most of the children lived, the system A GROWING LITERATURE on abandoned would have collapsed under its own children is enhancing our understanding weight. Pier Paolo Viazzo, Maria Bor- of the extent, diversity, and ramifications tolotto, and Andrea Zanotto offer an over­ of abandonment. Catherine Panter-Brick view of the changing patterns of abandon­ and Malcolm T. Smith make an important ment, care, and mortality of 375,000 chil­ contribution to the field in Abandoned dren who passed through the Florence Children. They bring together the work of foundling home over five centuries. Scare eighteen contributors including anthro­ resources meant hard choices. The direc­ pologists, historians, psychologists, re­ tors at the Innocenti in Florence shortened search officials, and an economist. Those the period they paid wet nurses in order familiar with studies of abandonment and to raise their wages. This attracted more those for whom this book is a starting nurses and meant the babies moved out of point are well served by the citations that the home faster. Sadly, however, the re­ conclude each article. Not only are the sulting decrease in infant mortality was references wide-ranging, but taken to­ offset by a correspondingly higher wean­ gether they reveal a core of works which ing mortality. anchor abandonment studies. Together these four articles reveal the In her introduction, Catherine Panter- market economy of the foundling homes Brick explores the complexity of the that integrated city and countryside. Wet book's central concept. She argues that nurses from remote rural areas, foster the category of "abandoned" children has families, and transport drivers who oper­ emerged as "other" to the contemporary ated regular routes moving thousands of Western idea that a proper childhood is babies, were all integral to the system. In domestic and dependent. Today this can addition, a multitude of officials oversaw result in inappropriate cross-cultural in­ the elaborately regulated process. Chil­ terventions that ignore existing self-help dren were part of this market economy as systems. For Panter-Brick, abandonment well. Their labour repaid their room and is a social construct that must be exam­ board when they were old enough to work. ined analytically and empirically. She Two articles deal with children and further argues that abandonment studies war. Eftihia Voutira and Aigli Brouskou must take into account children's per­ outline the eerily similar programs of the spectives and their agency. warring Greek Communists and National­ Four of the articles in the book deal ists who by 1949 had separated 50,000 with the long-lived European foundling children from their parents to bring them system that by 1850 took in an estimated up inculcated with "appropriate" ideolo­ 100,000 new children a year. Isabel Dos gies. While many eventually returned in Guimarâes Sa examines the circulation of a repatriation process that continued into children in 18th-century Portugal. Chil­ the late 1970s, they often failed to put dren sent as infants from the Porto found­ down roots where they had started and ling home usually returned at age seven moved on to urban areas or abroad. Helen to be redistributed once again. David I. Charnley looks at responses to the sepa­ Kertzer finds that children from the Bolo­ ration of children from their families in gna foundling home had lives comparable the Mozambique war during the 1980s. to their non-foundling neighbours and She argues that efforts to help the children often integrated into the families and should have derived from indigenous communities where they grew up. Mal­ community-based responses. 334 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

Four of the articles are based on field- Paul Taggart, Populism (Buckingham: work studies, primarily from the 1990s, Open University Press 2000) with street children. Tobias Hecht argues the term "street children" is an oxymoron AS A CONTRIBUTION to the Concepts in that homogenizes a diverse population. the Social Sciences series, Paul Taggart's He estimates the actual number of street Populism provides an insightful introduc­ children in Brazil is only half of one per tion to the concept of populism and a very cent of the seven million claimed by useful overview of some of the most im­ UNICEF. Rachel Baker and Catherine portant cases of populist politics. For Panter-Brick study abandonment in Ne­ those who are familiar with populist poli­ pal and conclude there is a need for lon­ tics and the scholarly literature on popu­ gitudinal studies comparing the later ca­ lism, however, this new monograph may reers of street children with other local prove disappointing. The series publish­ children. Heather Montgomery turns her er, Open University Press, promises that attention to child prostitutes in a Thai Taggart "provides a new definition of community. She argues that it is the soci­ populism." Unfortunately, there is little ety and state that provide no support for in Taggart's attempt to define populism desperately poor families who have aban­ that is truly new. Nor are there any sig­ doned these children. nificant new insights into the five cases of The final articles focus on refugee populist politics that he reviews. Thus, children. Rachel Hinton studied Bhutan while Taggart's Populism is a very good refugee camps in Nepal. She found the introduction to the subject, and a worth­ children did not share their parents' sense while read for scholars of populism, it of abandonment. Rather they exhibited does not substantially advance our under­ resilience, adaptability, and agency. Fail­ standing of populist phenomena. ure to recognize this can result in inappro­ Although the burden of Taggart's priate intervention. The volume con­ Populism is to define a genuinely univer­ cludes with Mia Flores-Bôrquez who, sal ideal type of populism, over half of the partly from her own experience, explores book is dedicated to surveying many of the sense of abandonment felt by Chilean the classic cases of populist politics. He children in protracted exile in Britain. makes no pretensions to comprehensive­ Their sense of isolation was exacerbated, ness. Nevertheless, over the course of five not alleviated, when their families re­ chapters, readers are introduced to a turned with them to Chile. range of American populisms, the case of The subject matter of the articles in 19th-century Russian narodnichestvo, Abandoned Children is unquestionably dis­ Peronism and other examples of Latin parate. The editors have conceptualized American populism, Alberta Social "abandonment" in the broadest possible Credit, and what has come to be called the terms. Is that the strength of the book or its new populism of the contemporary radi­ weakness? In fact, the articles do intersect, cal right. Informative, but too often lack­ making the book viable as a single entity. ing in depth, this survey of populist poli­ The historical and contemporary studies tics is uneven. Particularly disappointing collected here inform one another in multi­ was the chapter on the populism of Al­ ple ways. There is a continuity of themes in berta Social Credit. Less than six pages in regard to abandoned children that tran­ length, and relying almost exclusively on scends space and time. Perhaps the most studies published in the 1950s by C.B. important of these is that, with rare excep­ Macpherson and John Irving, this chapter tions, "abandoned" children are working never confronts the substance of the theo­ children. retically rich and empirically informative debates regarding the character of Social Helen Brown Credit populism and the relationship be- Malaspina University College REVIEWS 335 tween this and other cases of prairie popu­ nitions characterize populism as a defen­ lism in Canada. sive reaction against social and economic Taggart, unlike his predecessors writ­ change and/or the power of some sort of ing in earlier decades, is able to examine entrenched elite. Running through these the new populism as a contrast to earlier definitions are attempts to capture what populisms. This is very valuable. It would populism is a reaction against. It is ar­ be an impoverished understanding of gued, for example, that populism is populism that did not take into considera­ against, among other things: the estab­ tion the politics of the likes of Jean-Marie lished order, the social, political and eco­ Le Pen, JOrg Haider, Pauline Hanson, and nomic establishment, modernization, in­ Preston Manning. Unfortunately, how­ dustrialization, social differentiation, and ever, Taggart's treatment of the new entrenched liberalism. In place of these populism sacrifices depth of analysis for evils, populism is said to offer moralistic breadth. His discussion of new populist nostalgia, a defence of community as it parties ranges across nine countries — was, small-scale production, and more lo­ France, Austria, Germany, Scandinavia, cal politics. Italy, Switzerland, Australia, Canada, and In the end, the one thing that ties most America. Almost by necessity in a short of these definitions of populism together monograph, many of these cases receive is an anti-elitist exaltation of "the peo­ no more than a few paragraphs of atten­ ple." But, unlike many earlier students of tion. In the case of Canada, for example, populism, Taggart argues that focusing only four paragraphs are dedicated to the on "the people" is a "dead end because it case of Preston Manning and the Reform is too broad" and amorphous as a concept. Party. Then, to make matters worse, this (98) Taggart argues that the populist com­ brief discussion references only a single journal article on Reform's populism. mitment to "the people" is actually "de­ This is insufficient to the task of gleaning rived from a sense of heartland." (3) The lessons about populism from individual "heartland," he explains, "is a territory of cases. the imagination ... an evocation of that life and those qualities worth defending It would be unfair to be overly critical ... that place, embodying the positive as­ of Taggart for particular exclusions when pects of everyday life." (95) For Taggart, the range of potential populist case stud­ then, populism is a political commitment ies is so large. All the same, some readers to advancing the political interests of the will find it striking that Taggart makes "heartland." absolutely no mention of an important But there is more to Taggart's populist and much written about case of populism ideal type than this. He draws six themes that shaped British politics for over a dec­ together and suggests that, at bottom, ade — that is, the "authoritarian popu­ populism can be characterized as follows: lism" of Thatcherism. Not only was this (i) Populism is a reaction to a sense of an important case of populist politics, but extreme crisis; (ii) It is a set of ideas that the unique Gramscian theoretical frame­ are hostile to representative politics; (iii) work that influenced much of the scholar­ It champions an idealized "heartland" ship on Thatcherism deserves to be con­ within the community. Moreover, he con­ sidered more closely by Taggart in his tends that (iv) populism is an ideology attempt to come to terms with the essence that lacks core values because (v) like a of populist politics. chameleon, it adopts the colours and val­ For those interested in this question of ues of its environment. And, finally, Tag­ defining the essence of populism, Taggart gart argues that (vi) populism is episodic provides a concise and useful review of and self-limiting because its hostility to almost a dozen approaches to defining representative politics creates insur­ populism. Most, but not all, of these defi­ mountable institutional dilemmas for 336 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

populist movements attempting to enter acterize his populist ideal type, no direct and influence formal politics. mention is made of the fact that most For a variety of reasons, it could be definitions of populism have highlighted argued that populism's lack of core val­ that populists challenge the power of ues, its chameleonic character, and its some sort of entrenched interests. self-limiting nature are observations In suggesting that the "heartland" can about populism that are not central, or only be understood in relation to those essential, to the concept's definition. The aspects of the community that are demon­ fact that populism is a reaction to "crisis," ized and excluded by populism, one does on the other hand, is potentially important not lose all the positive content associated to understanding populist politics. Unfor­ with the idea of "heartland." It remains tunately, Taggart does little to theorize useful, in other words, to suggest as many crisis or to adequately clarify the link have before, that "the people" can only be between crisis and populism. Thus, what understood in relation to the "entrenched remains at the unstated core of Taggart's special interests." The people/heartland own conception of populism is the cham­ and the demonized/special interests are, pioning of "heartland" and the hostility to from this perspective, simultaneously representative politics. Indeed, these two constructed. The notion of the "heart­ themes dominate all three of the chapters land" retains its usefulness for under­ that are dedicated specifically to detailing standing "the people," but it is no longer the "characteristics of populism." In superior. One is not the device of the those chapters, Taggart does a very good other, and neither is objectively given. job exploring populism's antipathy to In the end, Taggart's Populism is a representative politics and the institu­ very useful introduction to populism and tional dilemmas that flow from this. In the the classic cases of populist politics. end, however, Taggart's primary theoreti­ While there is little that is truly new in this cal contribution is the significance he monograph, it is a worthwhile read. places on the notion of "heartland." Moreover, Taggart's advocacy of the use The usefulness of Taggart's notion of of the notion of "heartland" to provide a "heartland" is that it provides a positively positively defined sense of "the people" defined continuity to "the people" of of populism is worthy of scholarly atten­ populism. Too often "the people" is nega­ tion. tively constructed in contrast to those so­ cial groupings that are demonized and Steve Patten excluded by populist discourse. Too University of Alberta often, Taggart contends, the lines of ex­ clusion are clearer than the lines of inclu­ sion. Unfortunately, in making this im­ Susan Buck-Morss, Dreamworld and Ca­ portant point, Taggart overstates the im­ tastrophe: The Passing of Mass Utopia in portance of focusing on the positive East and West (Cambridge, Massachu­ content of the "heartland." He overplays setts and London, England: MIT Press the need to disentangle populism from 2000) "the people." He wants us to understand "the people" as merely a rhetorical device A WIDE READERSHIP, inside and outside that serves to express the soul and spirit the academy, will welcome Susan Buck- of the "heartland." At one level, this line Morss' superb new book. Lavishly illus­ of thinking is most useful, but Taggart trated with the iconographie debris of a goes too far. Not only does he verge on suggesting that populism and an objective disintegrating Soviet Union, and studded "heartland" exists before "the people," with parallel examples from the rival but in outlining the six themes that char­ symbology of Fordist consumer capital­ ism, her study offers a profound, schol- REVIEWS 337

arly, reflection on the "mass Utopias" of the Bolshevik Revolution is repeating it­ 20th-century industrialism, grasped at the self. Worse: the dreamer is awakening to moment of their disillusioned end-of-the- another dream already gone stale. This Cold-War collapse. As the book's title moment of extreme disillusionment, at suggests, its focus is especially on the the same time, has a revelatory signifi­ official dreamworlds that faced one an­ cance. The very process of liberation in other, in complicity as well as hostility, which the statues in which Bolshevism across the East-West (meaning Soviet- had attempted to monumentalize itself are American) divide. Other mass Utopias are toppled, has, temporarily at least, un­ set aside, including the atavistic national­ hinged the collective memory. Alongside isms and fundamentalisms that have the rebuilt churches and palaces of Rus­ rushed to fill the post-Cold War gap. It is sia, and alongside the eagerly embraced indeed that gap itself which is her main capitalist signage pouring in, old images concern — a disorienting ideological vac­ are welling up from the fading "Commu­ uum most palpable, perhaps, in the rap­ nist" past itself. Discredited ones of idly becoming ex-"socialist" world where propaganda art, of Stakhanovite posters, the book (in a confessedly touristic sense) of tractors, collective farms and industrial locates itself. Many will already be famil­ mega-projects, of Mayday parades, and iar with Dialectics of Seeing (1989). This cults of Lenin and Uncle Joe. But also earlier text brilliantly reconstructed Wal­ images from before, from the Revolu­ ter Benjamin's unfinished "Arcades" pro­ tion's springtime: the images of Vertov, ject (on the consumer culture of Livitsky, Mayakovsky, Eisenstein, of all Baudelaire's Paris), and established the exuberant artistic experimental ism Buck-Morss both as an authoritative com­ which, for a giddy moment, and before mentator on Benjamin and as a major cul­ being suppressed, had seemed to put aes­ tural thinker in her own right. thetics and politics in the sublime service Dreamworld and Catastrophe seeks, in of one another. More recent images swirl effect, to extend Benjamin's dialectical about too: of the post-World War II space investigations into the imaginary of mod­ and arms race, of the ironising art of the ern culture to another time and place. The Brezhnev years, of Glasnost and Solidar- moment is similarly one of danger, simi­ nosc, and, finally, of those crazy juxtapo­ larly involves the play of trauma and rec- sitions of global brands and Leninalia in ollection, and similarly provokes the streetscapes of Moscow which her­ reflection on the place of the messianic in alded, just as visibly as the fall of the history. But the scene shifts from Paris to Berlin Wall, the "Soviet socialist" dream­ Moscow, from les Galeries Lafayette and world's irrevocable fading. the Hollywood dreamworld that fascism was about to shatter in the 1930s, to So­ Despite, but also because of, its Ben- viet socialism at the hallucinatory mo­ jaminian inspiration, Buck-Morss' disin­ ment of its Gorbachevian disappearance terring of these stratified layers of collec­ 50 years later. This double transposition, tive memory forgoes melancholy for a Buck-Morss makes clear, involves more soberly guarded hope. In the revolution­ than a mere updating. In late 1980s Mos­ ary art of the 1910s and 1920s, even in its cow new themes present themselves, in­ ambiguous corralling by the Party, she cluding the shift from modernity to sees an excess that points beyond the lim­ postmodernity, the fate of the socialist its set by the actual course of events, dreamworld, and the prior over-determi­ beyond those set, indeed, by the produc- nation of the ideological field, in both tivism and techno-enthusiasm that such camps, by the binaries of the Cold War. art shared with the whole industrial age. The wager is that in the whole collision of All in all, Buck-Morss suggests, the images, and of that past with this present, trauma of historical erasure that attended the Utopian meanings buried beneath the 338 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

bones of Stalinism might become radi­ Others (perhaps sniffily) will note the antly, and shatteringly, accessible once book's origins in the jet-setting alterna­ more. At the same time, on the basis of tive international intellectual circle that her Moscow and other encounters, she is gathered, behind the lines, to witness, and honest enough to note the refractoriness discuss the implications of the East's ver­ of East bloc progressive intellectuals, tiginous demise. It is a provenance which, however much in tune with the latest in as Buck-Morss frankly acknowledges in Western critical thought, to any such re­ her closing chapter, reveals all too clearly kindling of left-wing hope. The Western­ the political isolation and social privilege ers in her company — which included of contemporary critical theorists. It also Jameson, Derrida, and Lyotard —were reveals the aporias of critical theory itself constantly met by bafflement that such once history (as such theory may claim) hope could still be entertained, or that the has "objectively" dissolved the revolu­ equation of markets with freedom and tionary subject and stalled the transfor- democracy could be seriously questioned. mist project. Under the circumstances, There is much here to ponder, not only the best that can be done, no doubt, is for historians, sociologists, and cultural what Buck-Morss herself does: that is to theorists, but also for all those who con­ eschew the pretence of speaking from no­ tinue to aspire for a post-capitalist future. where, lay bare the immediate context, How is the horizon of such an aspiration and critically reflect on the biases that now to be imagined? Or is the moral of such situatedness may impart. This she the story that it should not be imagined at attempts in the last chapter, though its all? There is the question too of the status almost embarassing chattiness (one is re­ of such questions. For some, Buck- minded at times of the Warhol diaries) Morss' very emphasis on the visual, the risks a self-indulgence that would under­ symbolic, and the discursive will seem cut its serious intent. too culturalist. In the scene setting Chap­ More seriously, perhaps, the book's ter 1, for example, the Cold War is itself self-reflection is more in evidence at the presented as a contest between two social-political level than the conceptual. "imaginaries," each a kind of mirror op­ Here, indeed, one of posite of the other — the heroic (collec­ the book's great vir­ tues — its conscientious effort to make tive) producer vs. the happy (private) con­ widely accessible and intelligible a most sumer— a capitalist dreamworld founded complex analysis — is linked to a weak­ on the colonization of space confronting ness, or at least to a self-imposed limita­ a socialist one premised on the coloniza­ tion. It hides, to a large extent, and espe­ tion of time. There is power in this analy­ cially at a second-order level, its own sis, but is it enough? Actually, however, conceptual workings. Buck-Morss makes Buck-Morss anticipates the "materialist" explicit use of Benjamin's ideas (in The­ objection (which Adorno had made to ses on the Philosophy of History) about Benjamin) through the device of a "hy­ "dialectical images." But what precisely, pertext" that runs along the foot of the in that appropriation, has been retained page. Here, the rival imaginaries are re­ and what rejected from the larger Ben- lated not merely to one another, but to the jaminian framework? And with what material conditions of Fordism and primi­ theoretical and ideological conse­ tive accumulation, and to the further capi­ quences? What operation, more widely, is talist dynamic which in the end under­ Buck-Morss performing, and arguing for, mines not only the islands of "actually on the field of radical/critical theory it­ existing socialism" but the legitimizing self? Meta-reflection on such matters may myths which throughout the 20th century be too esoteric for all but a specialised helped sustain order on both sides of the audience. But it is presumably needed if Wall. we are to advance that critical engage- REVIEWS 339

ment with the categories of progressive Those who make a pilgrimage to Marx's thinking that the book's presentation of monumental grave in London's Highgate its rich historical material is otherwise Cemetery might notice, if they look care­ brilliantly calculated to provoke. fully, a small unkempt grave located almost opposite. On the small head-stone atop this Andrew Wernick grave, overgrown with weeds and in danger Trent University of falling over, is carved the name of Her­ bert Spencer. Spencer may have towered over Marx in life, but in death the tables Peter Singer, A Darwinian Left: Politics, have been turned. Evolution and Cooperation (New Haven: Interestingly, although Karl Marx Yale University Press 2000) himself had enormous admiration for the work of Darwin, as did Marx's collabora­ IF YOU HAD ASKED an educated English tor and close friend Friedrich Engels, the gentleman, towards the end of the 19th Left has predominantly come to associate century, to name the most important po­ Darwinian evolution with Herbert litical philosopher of the century, the an­ Spencer's right-wing doctrine of social swer you received would very likely have Darwinism and its associated defence of been: Herbert Spencer. The same ques­ the competitive marketplace. tion asked of an educated American gen­ In this little book — really, a longish tleman during this same period would (60 page) essay—the Australian philoso­ have produced the same answer. If any­ pher Peter Singer attempts to rehabilitate thing, the American response might have Darwin for leftists. If the Darwinian been a shade more enthusiastic even than struggle for existence has seemed more the British response. congenial to thinkers of the right, the fault Spencer was, among other things, a fol­ rests partly with Herbert Spencer, but also lower of Charles Darwin, and the core of his with evolutionary biologists themselves, political philosophy was an attempt to apply who until comparatively recently have to society key insights garnered from the neglected the important role that co-op­ Darwinian theory of biological evolution. eration can play in improving an organ­ On Spencer's reading of the Darwin­ ism's survival prospects. ian theory of evolution, featuring the The central political question, accord­ principle of natural selection, the biologi­ ing to Singer, may be simply put: "How cal principle of the "survival of the fit­ can we build a society that is co-operative test" could be extended in such a way as and offers a strong safety net for those to justify a laissez-faire marketplace so­ who are unable to provide for their own ciety. Wealthy capitalists prospered and needs?" Singer argues that the answer to deserved to prosper because they were the this question can be found by modifying fittest to survive, while the poor, being the insights of traditional Left thinking unfit, should be allowed to perish. Or so and blending them with those of Darwin­ Spencer argued. Indeed, government as­ ian Left thinking. Singer tries to persuade sistance to the poor, in the form of social his reader that the phrase "Darwinian left welfare payments, was likely to do more thinking" is not an oxymoron. Despite the harm than good by protecting the unfit extreme brevity of his treatment of this from their deserved fate. By allowing the complex issue, Singer presents his ideas poor to survive and procreate, one was clearly and comprehensibly. defying the natural order of things and Singer contends, then, that some weakening society. Little wonder that widely accepted traditional leftist as­ Spencer quickly became as big a hit in sumptions need to be modified in the light early capitalist America as he was already of what Darwinian biology has to teach in middle-capitalist Britain. us. We are probably not capable of being 340 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL transformed into the saintly altruists of Darin Burney, Prometheus Wired: The socialist day-dreams but, at the same Hope for Democracy in the Age of Net­ time, we aren't necessarily doomed to work Technology (Vancouver: UBC Press remain the greedy egoists described by 2000) capitalist ideology. Against the traditional Left, Singer ar­ THE EXPLOSIVE GROWTH of the Internet gues that it is simply unrealistic to sup­ has provoked intense debate over its so­ pose that human nature can be perfected, cietal and political impact. All too fre­ or that either socialism or communism is quently this debate, like many debates capable of ushering into existence a soci­ about technology, tends to divide into two ety in which all conflict and competition camps: the Utopians or techno-optimists between human beings will be absent. on the one hand, and the dystopians or Equally, however, it is unrealistic for the techno-pessimists on the other. Each Right to imagine that most people are camp, in turn, projects its hopes and fears incapable of responding positively to onto this new technology. Barney's well- genuine opportunities for co-operation. researched, written, and argued book is a Our species evolved by a natural proc­ timely contribution to this debate. The ess of competitive struggle, yes, but mu­ book's subtitle, The Hope for Democracy tually beneficial co-operation and indi­ in the Age of Network Technology, how­ vidual sacrifice on behalf of group flour­ ever, does not represent Barney's posi­ ishing have also been important tion, for he plants himself squarely in the evolutionary strategies. Evolutionary the­ pessimistic camp. He takes issue with ory, properly understood, shows that peo­ those who argue that network technology ple can be motivated by altruism as well will provide the infrastructure of a demo­ as by narrowly self-seeking behaviour. If cratic age that will transform politics. society were organized under a different Those who project their hopes onto net­ socio-economic system it is likely that the work technology as a potentially demo­ prevailing balance could be shifted some­ cratic medium are not unlike Prometheus what away from competitive individual­ who stole fire from Zeus thereby giving ism, towards a more co-operative and human beings hope that they were "free community-oriented kind of society. No­ to light the way to their own destiny." (5) tice how cautious this claim appears to be: This hope lives on in those who believe the balance can be shifted, but competi­ that modern technology can create a tion may well turn out to be an inescap­ democratic future. In the digital age able and important part of human nature. Prometheus is not only unbound but We are not infinitely malleable, carrying wired. What follows is a determined, but within our nature, as we do, the evolution­ in my estimation, unsuccessful effort to ary baggage of our spcies. prove that network technology "is more likely to be democracy's enemy than its Singer acknowledges that this is a saviour." (190) Even so, Barney never sharply deflated vision of the Left, but he fails to stimulate and provoke. offers it as Barney starts by rejecting the argu­ a realistic alternative to Utopian socialism, and ments of postmodern thinkers such as as a highly attractive alternative to the trium­ Mark Poster that computer technology phant marketplace capitalist ideology which currently holds sway in most western liberal represents a break with modernity. societies. Rather, insists Barney, network technol­ ogy represents an extension of modernity. Arthur Schafer Postmodern theory being inadequate, University of Manitoba Barney draws upon traditional sources of political thought to analyze the impact of REVIEWS 341

digital computer networks upon democ­ tribution, and organizational life. Unlike racy. Mark Poster who analyses network tech­ Barney defines democracy as "a form nologies in cultural terms as a "mode of of government in which citizens enjoy an information" providing a means of recon­ equal ability to participate meaningfully stituting subjectivity in multiple, de-cen­ in the decisions that closely affect their tred, and non-identical ways, Barney common lives as individuals in communi­ clearly sides with Marx, arguing "net­ ties." (22) His democracy is a constitu- work technology has developed ... tionalized gathering of private individu­ squarely within the capitalist mode of als deliberating on their public and com­ production." (105) Network technology, mon life. This implicit, but clearly, thereby, represents a continuation with Habermasian notion of democracy, it modernity. Barney takes great pains to must be noted, is contested by a host of demonstrate that network technology is a scholars such as Joan Landes, Mary Ryan, constitutive element of the capitalist Geoff Eley, Iris Marion Young, and mode of production, particularly in terms Nancy Fraser. They argue that the ideal, of its capitalist ownership, control, and unitary, official state-centred public corresponding class relations. Thus the sphere described by Habermas never ex­ information society is first, and foremost, isted and, in fact, historically marginal­ a capitalist society. ized women, working-class men, and vir­ So totalizing are the control and sur­ tually everyone else of non-European ori­ veillance capacities of networked com­ gins. These groups had to create their own puters over workers that Barney argues public spaces outside existing political that these technologies, in effect, infantil- institutions as a first step in their own ize workers, "socializing them to accept struggles for recognition and equality, a their incapacity to exercise good judg­ remarkable parallel, I argue, to those net­ worked groups, social movements, and ment independent of omnipresent super­ non-governmental organizations resist­ vision." This unsubstantiated observation ing neo-liberal globalization, a point to has an eerie parallel in 18th-and 19th-cen- which I shall return. tury bourgeois arguments as to why cer­ tain groups could never become full and Democracy defined, Barney then equal citizens. "It is difficult," Barney draws upon the philosophical insights of argues, "to imagine how anyone could Plato, Aristotle, Heidegger, Marx, and advocate letting these same people loose Grant, particularly the latter three, to dis­ in the public sphere as genuine demo­ cuss the impact of technology upon de­ cratic citizens." ( 163) In sum, the chances mocracy. He then proceeds to rebut in of computer networking fostering democ­ detail those who view network technol­ racy are slim. ogy in terms of a break with modernity, At this point this reader parts company arguing forcefully that computer technol­ with Barney. No doubt Barney makes a ogy represents a continuation of moder­ compelling argument that network tech­ nity insofar as "everything a computer nologies represent continuity with key does involves calculation." (219) This in­ features of modernity including capitalist sight is taken from Heidegger who argued domination and a willing state underwrit­ that technology had a distinct bias in that ing and fostering capital accumulation. it "enframes" or encompasses ever more The problem is that this is all Barney sees. realms of experience, imposing the mod­ While he employs Marxian analysis he ern emphasis on calculative thought upon omits any sense of resistance and agency. society and nature. The storage and calcu­ However, historically, communication lative capacities of computers and net­ technologies have had unintended conse­ worked technologies make excellent in­ quences. Fanon, for example, under­ struments of control over production, dis­ scored the central role of the radio in the 342 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

Algerian revolution. Perhaps, more than roams the globe, Barney's concept of the any other medium, network technology political and democracy remains bound to facilitates resistance whether from a dis­ the sovereign constitutional state. Capi­ gruntled worker spreading a virus, strate­ tal, it seems, expands while the political gically placed workers threatening to and democratic shrink. Yet, this is not the withdraw their labour power, or by mar­ entire story. Facilitated by network tech­ ginalized groups in society utilizing the nology, the nation-state is losing its con­ Internet to resist neo-liberal globaliza­ trol over publicity and the political. Pub­ tion. A case in point that Barney over­ lic spaces are becoming multiple, democ­ looks was the extensive use the Indian racy and politics antagonistic and peasants and guerillas who formed the de-territorialized. In another paradox, Zapatista Army in Mexico made of the those utilizing network technologies to Internet to circulate their ideas and pro­ resist economic globalization are doing mote their cause around the world. Once so in defence of place and local decision­ the Zapatistas brought their struggle making. State, electoral, and bureaucratic against oppression into the global spot­ politics, no doubt, will continue to exist light of publicity it made it extremely but will have to confront the challenge of difficult for the Mexican government to these changing senses of the political and use repression on a large scale. Sub­ democracy. sequently, network technology proved in­ Barney has made a significant contri­ valuable to social movements resisting bution to the debate on the relationship the Multilateral Agreement on Invest­ between technology and democracy. ment and the World Trade Organization What we need to know about, however, negotiations in Seattle in 1999. Paradoxi­ are not only the conditions in which net­ cally, despite capitalist ownership of net­ work technology facilitates domination working technology, the Internet remains but also the conditions in which network largely uncommodified and capable of technology facilitates resistance and de­ constructing new kinds of political mocracy. Barney's book is an important spaces. Through adept use it has served to contribution to the former but is silent on reveal what was previously hidden the latter. whether it be the oppression of the indige­ nous peoples of Mexico or the secret trade Peter J. Smith negotiations that threaten the democratic rights of citizens. Athabasca University In sum, network technology has con­ tradictory features. Network technology Robert E. Babe, Canadian Communica­ is, as Barney ably demonstrates, capable tion Thought: Ten Foundational Writers of promoting homogenizing and anti­ (Toronto: University of Toronto Press democratic forces. However, at the same 2000) time, network technology has been adeptly used to promote heterogeneity MY FIRST THOUGHT on examining this and democratizing forces. Thus, I argue, book was, "Now where was this when I that network technology should be seen was revising the Communication Theory as contested terrain representing both course last year!" Teaching communica­ continuity and discontinuity, domination tion theory in Canada today reminds me and resistance, the modern and the post­ of what it was like teaching the rules of modern. English grammar before the advent of As cogently written and argued as Chomsky: an exercise in the use of excep­ Barney's book is, it is limited in its ap­ tions. It is so refreshing to find a textbook proach. In an age when capital, assisted that treats Canadian thought as central by network technology and nation-states, REVIEWS 343 and relevant to the history of communica­ to this new work. After a brief discussion tion theory. of the historical development of transmis­ Inundated as we are with American sion models of communication, Babe out­ communication textbooks, Canadian stu­ lines his own four-fold typology of Com­ dents seldom have the opportunity to con­ munication Studies. There is only one sider what the contribution of their own word for this typology: slick. Babe uses scholars has been to the field. We can the horizontal axis to outline the diamet­ easily distinguish between British theory rically opposed approaches to communi­ and the American and between a more cation taken by scholars in the arts and generalized European theory and the sciences with additional detail for the American; we are less able to articulate modified positions taken by the humani­ what is distinctly Canadian. This book ties and social sciences. His typology al­ attempts to do just that and Robert Babe lows him first of all to broadly define is to be commended for it. communications research according to Despite its ambitious objectives, the ontological and epistemological Babe's Canadian Communication premises employed by these four areas of Thought is readable and interesting. Its the university; then, according to the Ca­ lucid prose is complemented by extensive nadian communication tradition in gen­ notes that make good reading on their eral; and finally to the ten thinkers chosen own, an excellent reference section, and for this book. Babe uses the vertical axis full index — in short, a book useful for to discuss the dichotomy between admin­ both teaching and background research. istrative and critical research in commu­ nication and comes to the conclusion that Canadian Communication Thought the Canadian tradition favours the criti­ has four clear goals: to introduce students cal, or values-driven approach. to the work of ten Canadian writers; to understand how their thoughts about Having set out the disciplinary pro­ communication relate to their personal clivities of communication research and formation; to discover whether there placing his Canadian thinkers within seems to be a pattern of thinking about them, Babe describes the defining fea­ communication that is distinctly Cana­ tures of American communication dian; and to present a critique of that thought, beginning with the early human­ thought with reference to contemporary ist approach of the Chicago School society. Babe's underlying assumptions (Dewey, Cooley, and Park), the contribu­ are that communication is connected to tions of Thorstein Veblen, and the even­ culture and that communication theorists tual shift to the more empirically-driven (like anyone else) are the product of a effects research of Lazarsfeld, Lewin, particular family, place, and time. Lasswell, Roper, Hovland, and Schramm. Robert Babe himself has been thinking In outlining how and why American re­ about the history of Canadian communi­ search developed as it did, Babe lists its cation thought for some years. His essay, effects on the Canadians trained in Chi­ "Emergence and Development of Cana­ cago. But, more interestingly, he suggests dian Communication: Dispelling the in some detail the culturally specific limi­ Myths," in Lorimer and Wilson's Com­ tations there were on those effects — that munication Canada: Issues in Broadcast­ is, why the American-ness of those ideas ing and New Technologies (Toronto: Ka- did not translate into the thought of Cana­ gan and Woo 1988, 58-79) is an excep­ dian communication scholars. tionally useful and succinct contribution It is here that Babe begins to skate on to the field. thin ice. His argument takes an essential- The result of years of mulling over the ist turn that leads to broad generalizations myths and realities of Canadian commu­ about Canadian and American culture. nication is evident in the "Introduction" But, for those readers who agree that the 344 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL defining difference between the two peo­ munitarianism and pluralism, but mostly ples is the fact of revolution (that is, that to a dialectic cast of mind. the Americans had one and the Canadians The ten scholars Babe has chosen to did not), the rest of his discussion may highlight are: Graham Spry, Harold Innis, seem defensible, even insightful. As a John Grierson, Dallas Smythe, C.B. defining factor in the formation of our Macpherson, Irene Spry, George Grant, national identities, the notion of revolu­ Gertrude Robinson, Northrop Frye, and tion is not new, but its application to the Marshall McLuhan, most of whom were field of comparative communication born within IS years of one another at the studies is novel and therefore worth con­ turn of the last century, although Babe sidering. So, setting aside the many other divides them into first and second genera­ factors which may have contributed tion thinkers in the field. What he notes equally to the creation of a peculiarly about these ten founders is a pattern to Canadian communication mind-set, let us their early lives and educational histories read on. that he proposes as significant for their Babe argues that not having had a later writing. All of these writers, for ex­ revolution (indeed, having lived next ample, experienced intense religious door to one and having resisted it) meant training as children and kept strong relig­ that Canadians became preoccupied with ious sensibilities for the rest of their lives. the idea ofpreserving order and maintain­ This, Babe posits, may account for the ing the common good, with the idea of proclivity of Canadian communication social democracy, in short, with a general thought for ontological and epistemologi- concern for and appreciation of the col­ cal questions and the application of high lectivity. These values, Babe claims, are moral standards to issues of social con­ not served by the individualistic, "Ameri­ cern. More specifically, it allows him to can" transmission model, which is one categorize these thinkers as generally tak­ reason that Canadian communication ing a critical stance. thinkers have not made much use of it. Babe argues that all of these writers Babe writes that they are generally more have a predisposition for the dialectical. concerned with the culture of communi­ What factors in their personal lives might cation, rather than with the effects of have contributed to this penchant, which communication. They see Canada as ex­ runs counter to the traditional linear cau­ isting because of the creation of certain sality of American communication communication systems: the fur trade, the thought? The male writers, he points out, railroads, Air Canada, the CBC, Hydro were all raised in homes dominated by Québec, and so on. Communication women — a fact which may have affected thinking has concentrated, therefore, the ways in which they interpreted their more on the creation of technology than environment. He notes that all of the writ­ on its content. ers (with the exception of Innis) were At the heart of his argument is the idea unusual in that they read widely as chil­ that Canadian interest in public commu­ dren; this may have enhanced their ability nication arises from certain central and to see more than one point of view. All of unrealizable tensions that are peculiar to the writers were outsiders, either by birth the Canadian fact: the French/ English or disposition. All sought graduate school cultural blocks; the organization of Can­ abroad, at some point changed disci­ ada into centre and periphery; and the plines, and then chose to work in Canada balance Canadians have always had to —away from the usual loci of power. maintain between their own and Ameri­ Might not, Babe wonders, this combina­ can interests. These factors lead, Babe tion of factors have given these writers argues, to a balancing act between com- "stereoscopic vision," or the capacity to accommodate more than one perspective? REVIEWS 345

The dialectical approach, Babe writes, mocracy and human rights. They urge us keeps alive notions of conflict and contra­ all to free ourselves from media practices diction which must be either synthesized that do not promote the public good. In or kept in some sort of balance. Babe other words, they urge us to resist and, in claims that such notions are central com­ doing so, become more free. ponents of the Canadian identity and of And, then, in case we haven't been the thinking of these ten scholars. paying attention, Babe reminds us that Beyond these initial similarities, Babe this habit of Canadian communication adds that the ten thinkers are all con­ thinkers of asking important ontological cerned with mediation — with what al­ questions, taking a critical stance based lows people to interact, and with the con­ on values, and employing holistic meth­ sequences of relying on particular media ods of analysis, flies in the face of the for those interactions. They all believe in very tenets of American communication the indomitable human spirit; that is, in thought and policy. Resistance, it ap­ the ability of people to overcome the vari­ pears, is not futile; it is Canadian! I like ous determinisms of communication. And it. Say no more, Robert. Say no more. they all reject the notion that technologi­ cal change necessarily means human bet­ Evelyn Ellerman terment. Athabasca University Although it occasionally causes him some strain, Babe eventually manages to stuff his ten thinkers into the same Cana­ ne World Guide 2001/2002: An Alterna­ dian box. As an exercise in trying to de­ tive Reference to the Countries of Our fine an archetype of Canadian communi­ Planet (Oxford: New Internationalist cation thought, this book goes some little Publications 2001) way to identifying themes and motifs that others will no doubt accept, reject, or re­ THEORETICAL WORK challenging the organize. new liberal world order abounds. Both But the "Implications" section of Ca­ academic literature and progressive In­ nadian Communication Thought gives a ternet sites exposing the consequences for clue to Babe's own representation of the various nations of capitalism's latest work of these Canadian scholars. The last guise are proliferating. But one encyclo­ few months have witnessed the academic pedic source encapsulates the essential writer rising like a Canadian phoenix details of this rich literature: the semi-an­ from the effects of corporate globaliza­ nual (since 1995) World Guide, published tion. It is a marvel to behold. After nearly by Britain's New Internationalist Publi­ a decade of mute disbelief, scholars in the cations and distributed in Canada by humanities (in particular) are finally find­ Garamond Press. ing their voices in addressing the global Useful both as a reference aid and as a experiment in social engineering. Robert teaching tool, The World Guide combines Babe now adds himself to that growing a commitment to a more progressive chorus. world order with a careful attention to In his ten communication thinkers, details — or, as noted below, as careful Babe tells us that he discerns a condem­ attention as limited editorial resources nation of the market as the chief means of may allow. It begins with a "Global Is­ both organizing human activity and sub­ sues" section of short essays and docu­ ordinating communication systems to ments. For 2001/2002, this includes "Call commercial concerns. These scholars de­ for the rights of indigenous cultures" cry the individuality emphasized by the (from the Continental Meeting for Hu­ marketplace, which destroys community manity and Against Neoliberalism in and notions of ecology, and erodes de­ Chiapas, Mexico), "Rising Death Rates in 346 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

the South," and "Water: Running out lice in Eldorado de Carajas assassinated Faster than Ever." The "Economy" sec­ ten peasants associated with the MST. tion features a piece called "Confession- But, the following year, 100,000 peasants time for IMF ideologues," exposing poli­ marched to Brasilia to press MST de­ cies of super-exploitation of workers to mands. As the editors note, the Brazilian benefit investors. Various tables follow, MST is part of a continent-wide move­ demonstrating the distribution of income ment in Latin America whose best known within various nations and other meas­ section is the Zapatistas of Chiapas state ures of both well-being and equality. A in Mexico. Less well known to North sobering "Communications" section Americans are the landless movements of notes the gap between the two per cent of Chile, Paraguay, and Ecuador. the world's people who use the Internet The landless movement in Guatemela, and everybody else. mainly of indigenous peoples dispos­ But the meat of the book is a country- sessed by Europeans, is better known. by-country section that provides an over­ The editors remind us that state repres­ view of its history, its recent politics, and sion, aided by the Americans who helped its encounters with the new world order. to overthrow the reformist Arbenz regime While the information provided is dense, in 1954, resulted in about 80,000 deaths writing is clear and without jargon. The from 1954 to 1982. This was a heavy toll members of the editorial team, whose in a country whose population in 1999 names never appear, work hard to high­ was 11,090,000. The reduction of forest light the struggles ofthe masses and to lay cover in the country from 41.9 per cent in as bare as possible the social structures of 1980 to 33.8 per cent in 1990 threatened each nation. the delicate ecosystem ofthe country. A few examples demonstrate the ap­ The fate of the former bureaucratic proach of The World Guide. The Brazil socialist world of the Soviet Union and section traces the long history of colonial eastern Europe is also detailed here. The oppression of Brazil's Native peoples, World Guide, while faithfully explicating and the epidemics, dispossession, and en­ the programs tried by successive post- vironmental degradation they face, to the Communist regimes in countries like present day. There is also material here on Russia and Ukraine, demonstrates the the Brazilian workers' movement and its catastrophic failure of integration with relative political success. The latter led the American-led "global economy" to the Brazilian military, encouraged by solve economic problems of the Soviet aristocratic and bourgeois forces, and period. In less-developed areas ofthe for­ backed by American military might, to mer Soviet world, the situation is espe­ overthrow the elected Labour govern­ cially precarious. In Mongolia, in June ment in 1964. A special section called 2000, there were an estimated 4000 street "The Landless Movement and a New Bra­ children, an increase from 300 in 1992 zil" outlines current struggles in the coun­ when the country abandoned commu­ try against neoliberal forces that focus on nism. The government of Mongolia pri­ agricultural production for international vatized state enterprises via a popular dis­ markets. The Movimento dos Sem Terra tribution of shares. But in this country of (Landless Movement) denounces this ori­ nomadic hunters with no history of capi­ entation both because it has led to squeez­ talism, most shares ended up in the black ing small fanners and farm labourers out market with a small group of Mongolians of a living, and it ignores the food needs soon in control of much of the economy. ofthe Brazilian people. MST demands for A long-standing strategy for survival of land reform and a national foods policy nomadic hunters involved sending chil­ have not enchanted the supposedly demo­ dren to work in the city when rural life cratic regime now in place. In 1996, po­ could not feed the whole family. Rising REVIEWS 347

urban unemployment in this newly main­ returned to power in 1989, his party had tained capitalist state has wrecked this also accepted the need to adopt economic strategy. prescriptions blessed by the Americans. One can easily get lost in facts and As useful a compendium as The World figures in The World Guide. But it is strik­ Guide is, it gives hints that its authors are ing that socialist Cuba, despite the con­ not familiar with the nuances of politics tinuing American embargo and the loss of and economics in all the countries that its Soviet trade partner, continues to pro­ their book covers, for example, Canada. vide its citizens with a decent, if Spartan, While most of the Canadian material ap­ quality of life. As the 20th century closed, pears sound, the coverage of Quebec's Cubans had a life expectancy of 76 years, sovereignty movements is hopelessly just one less than the wealthy United muddled. The Parti Québécois and the States and 12 more than Guatemala. In­ Bloc Québécois are consistently con­ fant mortality at 7 per 1000 matched the fused, and the latter is misspelled Bloque US and compared favourably to Guate­ Québécois. The Bloc is said to be "feder­ mala's 41 per 1000. The daily average calo­ alist," as opposed to a federal party . rie supply of 2357 per capita was dwarfed Some nuances are also missing in the by the Americans' 3642, but thanks to ra­ broad brushstrokes of a generally good tioning, was fairly equally distributed. description of Canada's economic rela­ The editors are under few illusions, tions with the United States. however, that it is easy for any country to But quibbles of this kind aside, The resist American economic and military World Guide is an invaluable source of pressures and subscribe to a Cuban-style information and insight into the nations of economic model. The section on Jamaica today's world and how their current poli­ recounts the IMF's effective efforts to end tics and socio-economic structures have the socialist experimentation of Michael evolved. Manley's government in the 1970s. When Manley, defeated by the neoliberal "La­ Alvin Finkel bour" party of Edward Seaga in 1980, Athabasca University 348 LABOUR/LE TRAVAIL

Libraries & Culture

$ablic jCibrary Libraries A Culture is an interdisciplinary journal that explores the significance of collections of recorded knowl­ T3kt- edge — their creation, organization, preservation, and ISwtooob utilization — in the context of cultural and social history, fibun&ation unlimited as to time and place. "Feature articles, which are refereed, are well written and usually very interesting. Anyone with an interest in the history and social context of books and libraries will enjoy this publication" — Magazines for Libraries 2000

BOOKS, LIBRARIES, READING AND PUBLISHING IN THE COLD WAR, Vol. 36, No. 1, WINTER 2001

DTLA and the Cold War DONALD O. DAVIS, JR. A Soviet Research Library Remembered EDWARD KASINEC Censoring Canons: Selling, Silencing, and Reading Czech Books JIRINA SMEJKALOVA Control of Literary Communication in the 1945-1956 Period in Poland OSKAR STANISLAW CZARNIK "International Harmony* Threat or Menace? U.S. Youth Services Librarians and Cold War Censorship, 1946-1965 CHRISTINE JENKINS Reading in the Context of Censorship VALERIA STELMAKH Symbolic Censorship and Control of Appropriations: The French Communist Party Facing 'Heretical' Texts during the Cold War BERNARD PUDAL American Literature in Cold War Germany MARTIN MEYER Foreign Libraries in the Mirror of Soviet Library Science during the Cold War BORIS VOLODIN Single copy rates: Individual $15, Institution $24, Canada/Mexico, add $3; other foreign, add $5 (airmail). Yearly subscription rates: Individual $33, Institution $64, Student/Retired $18, Canada/Mexico, add $12; other foreign, add $20 (airmail). Refunds available only on unshipped quantities of current subscriptions. University of Texas Press Journals Box 7819, Austin, Texas 78713-7819 Phone * 512-232-7618, Fax # 512-232-7178, [email protected]