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Labour/Le Travailleur

Reviews / Comptes Rendus

Volume 6, 1980

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Éditeur(s) Canadian Committee on Labour History

ISSN 0700-3862 (imprimé) 1911-4842 (numérique)

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Citer ce compte rendu (1980). Compte rendu de [Reviews / Comptes Rendus]. Labour/Le Travailleur, 6, 215–264.

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Avery, 'Dangerous Foreigners:' European Immigrant Workers and Labour Radicalism in Canada, 1896-1932 by Varpu Lindstrom-Best / 217

Wilson and Dahlie, eds., Ethnic Radicals by Jim Turk/218

Avakumovic, Socialism in Canada: A Study of the CCF-NDP in Federal and Provincial Politics by John Herd Thompson / 219

English and Stubbs, eds., Mackenzie King: Widening the Debate and Levant, Capital and Labour: Partners? by Paul Craven / 220

Traves, The State and Enterprise: Canadian Manufacturers and the Federal Government 1917-1931 and Finkel, Business and Social Reform in the Thirties by Colin D. Howell / 222

Alexander, The Decay of Trade by L. Gene Barrett / 225

Richards and Pratt, Prairie Capitalism: Power and Influence in the New West by Allen Seager / 227

Kavic and Nixon, The 1200 Days —Dave Barrett and the NDP, 1972-75 and Persky, Son ofSocred by Andrew Jackson / 231

Wherrett, The Miracle of the Empty Beds: A History ofTuberculosis in Canada by Joel Lexchin / 233

Nash, The Urban Crucible: Social Change, Political Consciousness, and the Origins of the American Revolution by Robert W. Malcomson / 235

Lindstrom, Economic Development in the Philadelphia Region, 1810-1850 by Douglas McCalla / 236 216 LABOUR/LE TRAVAILLEUR

Dublin, Women at Work: The Transformation of Work and Community in Lowell, Massachusetts, 1826-1860 by Florence Bartoshesky / 238

McLaurin, The Knights of Labor in the South by W.M.Dick/240

Green, Grass-Roots Socialism: Radical Movements in the Southwest, 1895-1943 by A. Ross McConnack / 242

Gieske, Minnesota Farmer-Laborism: The Third-Party Alternative by David Montgomery / 243

Betten, Catholic Activism and the Industrial Worker by Gregory Baum / 246

Belfrage and Aronson, Something to Guard. The Stormy Life of the National Guardian, 1948-1967 by Harvey Levenstein / 247

Williams, Marxism and Literature by Richard Twomey / 248

Tilly and Scott, Women, Work and Family by Bettina Bradbury / 251

Strumingher, Women and the Making of the Working Class: Lyon 1830-1870 by Arthur Borghese / 254

Meller, Leisure and the Changing City, 1870-1914 and Bailey, Leisure and Class in Victorian England: Rational Recreation and the Contest for Control, 1830-1885 by Angus McLaren / 255

Kiraly and Jonas, eds., The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 in Retrospect by Mary Gluck / 258

Sher, Praxis: Marxist Criticism and Dissent in Socialist Yugoslavia by Edith S.Klein/ 260

Bernstein, Japanese Marxist: A Portrait of Kawakami Hajime, 1879-1946 by Howard Schonberger / 262 REVIEWS 217

Donald Avery, 'Dangerous Foreigners:' given a date that it did not publish and a European Immigrant Workers and Labour page number 6S0 which it never reached.) Radicalism in Canada, 1896-1932 In addition to Finns the only other radi­ (Toronto: McClelland and Stewart 1979). cal foreigners discussed in any depth are the Ukrainians. The book gives only THEOOVERPftffiKTS recent willingness to spon­ scanty treatment to the Italians and almost sor multiculturalism, coupled with an totally neglects the Jews, Hungarians, increasing number of scholarly articles in Poles, Croatians, Slovaks, and Czechs. The ethnic studies, have made it difficult for role of immigrant women in Canadian historians to continue to ignore the role of labour radicalism has once again been the foreign worker in Canadian society. ignored. Instead, the book offers general­ Donald Avery's 'Dangerous Foreigners' izations; diverse ethnic groups are lumped is the first serious attempt to interpret together as a grey mass with no cultural immigrant radicalism within the Canadian differences. Avery quotes the following context. The book, however, is not about description of Russian workers' protest European immigrant workers and labour movement and states that it would proba­ radicalism as the title suggests, but about bly apply equally to their Italian, Austro- the attitudes and policies of the Dominion Hungarian, and Finnish counterparts: authorities toward the immigrants. "[they represented] a relatively undif­ Avery gives an admirable exposition of ferentiated mass of frightfully exploited, the working conditions and the exploit­ illiterate labourers, cut off from the ation of the immigrants and shows that an world...." This guesswork is con­ important aspect of the government's tradicted by Avery who later explains that immigration policy was systematically to the Finns had a "higher level of literacy" recruit cheap labour. In the first two chap­ (in fact, they were 98 per cent literate). ters the author demonstrates how the Cana­ Furthermore Avery concludes that dian immigration policy between "despite their limited world view, such 1896-1914 served above all else "the dic­ people might constitute the suitable raw tates of the capitalist labour market." material for a militant working class," and Immigrant radicalism is seen by Avery as a later contradicts this by pointing out that countervailing force to their alienation and the Italians were a group "which appeared exploitation. The remainder of the book relatively immune to Communist influ­ discusses the changing attitudes toward the ence." immigrants beginning with the enemy Avery does not acknowledge the use of alien hysteria of World War I and culminat­ translators and seems to have had problems ing in the "Red Scare" of 1931-32. with his primary ethnic sources resulting in The author is the first to admit that his irritating factual errors. Although these do English language sources give a some­ not necessarily detract from his major times distorted view and further suggests arguments they do raise questions about that "the bias can be partly offset by refer­ the sources used. For example, A.T. Hill, ence to the record left behind radicals who, the author says, was an organizer of themselves." A closer examination of the Finnish Socialist locals in Canada between Finnish radicals (who play a major role in 1908-1911, was in fact 11 years old in Avery's book) indicates that the author has 1908 and still living in Finland (he did not not followed his own advice for studying immigrate until 1913). Numerous other the ethnic record. To illustrate, the Finnish Finns who supposedly influenced Finnish Canadian newspaper given as a source of Canadian radicalism, never came to Can­ Finnish Radicalism, Vapaus, translated by ada. Avery as "Worker" or "Truth" instead of More serious, perhaps, than the factual "Freedom," is directly cited only once, errors and generalizations, is Avery's and even then incorrectly. (The paper is acceptance of the view that the foreigners 218 LABOUR/LE TRAVAILLEUR were indeed dangerous and that they pos­ Matti Kurikka, A.B. Makela, Pavlo Krai, sessed inherent traits of violence which set Sam Scarlett, Ole Hjelt, and Tomo Cacic them apart from the rest of the society. An are not likely to be known by most students examination of the Socialist Party of Can­ of Canadian society, although Arthur Put­ ada reveals that its immigrant member­ tee will be familiar to some. The collection ship, mainly composed of Finns, Ukrain­ does succeed in introducing immigrant ians, Italians, and Jews supported parlia­ radicals who were active in Canada but mentary democracy and reformism, leav­ have been ignored to date. Unfortunately, ing the "dangerous" English language most of the articles are little more than locals alone with their dogmatic revolu­ expanded biographies of the sort found in tionary ideology. Further study might Who's Who. Each subject is presented reveal that many of the violent incidents on from birth to death, noting key events in picket lines or street demonstrations were the intervening years. The accounts are in fact reactions to police provocation or to simply descriptive with, at most, a half­ the intimidation of company-hired thugs. hearted attempt to relate the subject to the Violence was surely not the exclusive social context in which his life took domain of the immigrant workers. place. 'Dangerous Foreigners' remains a The major exception is Ross McCor- pioneering effort in understanding govern­ mack's article on Arthur Puttee. McCor- ment attitudes to foreign workers and in mack uses the example of Puttee to explore providing a framework for the study of how the immigrants' lives were shaped by immigrant labour radicalism. The prob­ experiences prior to emigration and by life lems that Avery experiences with ethnic in the society to which they came. He sources will only be rectified by more shows the importance of various mecha­ studies and translations of foreign lan­ nisms (sojourning, visiting home, receiv­ guage sources, thus opening the field to ing travelling leaders) for keeping alive the all historians. Until such studies are pub­ immigrants' old world radicalism. Resi­ lished, writers like Avery, are forced to dential segregation facilitated by chain rely on the available sources and run the migration and the welfare function of radi­ risk of perpetuating the bias of the early cal parties also helped keep their former twentieth-century authorities, but at least political traditions alive in Canada. the immigrant's role in Canadian labour McCormack shows in the case of Puttee, history is no longer excluded. the pattern of expressing "political aspira­ tions through parties" "like they *ave at Varpu Lindstrom-Best ome." He attributes this practice of Multicultural History British workers to the fact that they "were Society of Ontario as much 'immigrants' as Jews or Poles and consequently developed various institu­ tions to reduce their dislocation and to J. Donald Wilson and Jorgcn Dahlie, eds., facilitate their adaptation." He adds, with­ Ethnic Radicals [Special issue of Cana­ out documenting, that Puttee's labourite dian Ethnic Studies, 10(1978)]. parties also developed because they were relevant to Canadian society — "that THE SPECIAL ISSUE OP Canadian Ethnic reformism was most viable in Canada's Studies on "Ethnic Radicals" is both infor­ social order and political culture." As in mative and disappointing. Special editors, his Reformers, Rebels and Revolution­ Don Wilson and Jorgen Dahlie, rightly aries, McCormack's claim for the unique note the insufficient study of immigrants suitability of reformism is indicative of his and offer this collection of articles as an own ideological preference as much as of "attempt to bring to life the exploits of a Canadian life in the early part of this cen­ group of radical Canadians who lived in tury. Still, McCormack's piece is the best the first half of the twentieth century." in the issue and deserves attention. REVIEWS 219 Donald Avery presents a rich portrait reader about the subjects' respective com­ of Sam Scarlett — iww organizer and munities in Canada and the extent and later Communist Party of Canada activist. nature of their ties to these communities. Hampered by the lack of personal diaries All students of Canadian society will or extended recollections about his sub­ profit from reading each of the articles in ject, Avery, nonetheless, shows some of this collection; for they present details on Scarlett's formative influences and gives leading left-wing immigrants who have us the flavour of life as a Wobbly leader in been systematically ignored. But bio­ Canada and the United States. Unfor­ graphies are not a substitute for good ana­ tunately, Avery sheds little light on Scar­ lytic histories of the various ethnic com­ lett's abandonment of the iww in favour of munities, the radicals in those communi­ the CPC. This pattern, common to a number ties, and their contribution to the left in of notable Wobblies, deserves closer Canada. One hopes that these articles will scrutiny. Avery draws out attention again make Canadian social scientists more sen­ to the British domination of the leadership sitive to the work that remains to be done. of the CPC as with other left organizations and ponders the question as to why British Jim Turk skilled workers, like Scarlett, "rejected University of Toronto the lure of middle class respectability." Unfortunately Avery has little to say on either issue. Ivan Avakumovic, Socialism in Canada: The remainingfou r articles while pro­ A Study of the CCF-NDP in Federal and Pro­ viding material heretofore unavailable in vincial Politics (Toronto: McClelland and English, are less adequate. Donald Wil­ Stewart 1978). son's portraits of Matti Kurrika and A.B. Makela, are interesting personal histories IN Socialism in Canada Ivan Avakumovic of a Finnish Utopian socialist and a noted attempts to give the CCF-NDP the same Finnish Marxist. Although Wilson begins "once over lightly" his Communism in by noting the preponderance of Finns in Canada gave the Communist Party. Canadian labour and left organizations, he Although Communism in Canada was fails to use the biographical material to flawed by the author's low opinion of his help us understand the Finnish-Canadian subject, the book filled an historiographi- left and its exclusion from leadership of the cal void and served the additional purpose organizations for which it provided the of providing a reactionary counterpoint to largest number of members. the uncritical party-line histories of Tim Buck and his colleagues. But even though Nadia Kazymyra's paper on Ukrainian Socialism in Canada takes Canadian socialist Pavlo Krat fails to locate Krat ade­ social democracy from its "Pioneering quately in the context of the Ukrainian left Days" to the present and the future, this in Canada. She does not fully consider the new book satisfies no such need. In implications of the West Ukrainian origin Avakumovic's own words the CCF-NDP is of the great majority of Ukrainian immi­ "the most thoroughly investigated party in grants; how their rural background and the Canada,'' and he has added nothing to this socialism of Mikhail Drahomonov shaped investigation that could not be found in the their response to Canada and to socialism work of others. of Ukrainians like Krat who came from the quite different background in the East Although the "Acknowledgements" Ukraine. pay tribute to a lengthy list of archivists, Both Jorgen Dahlie's account of librarians, and former social democratic Norwegian radical, Ole Hjelt, and luminaries, the book is not based on any Anthony Rasporich's study of Croatian new material and suggests no alterations to socialist, Tomo Cacic, similarly are existing interpretations. Since there is interesting narratives that fail to inform the nothing in Socialism in Canada which has 220 LABOUR/LE TRAVAILLEUR not been written by someone else, the book often repeat themselves, sometimes in the will seem to those who teach courses on same words. In chapter seven, for exam­ twentieth-century Canada like a lengthy ple, Avakumovic explains that the NDP rad­ undergraduate essay, thoroughly based on icals of the late 1960s "owed much of their McCormack, McNaught, Lipset, Young, strength to the vast expansion of educa­ Zakuta, Caplan, and Morton and extended tional facilities," while in chapter eight we to 1978 with clippings from the Globe, the again learn that "the New Left" fringe of FreePress, and the Vancouver Sun. There the NDP "owed much of its strength to the can be justification for this sort of a book. expansion of post-secondary education." If it is well-written, effectively organized, Chapters do not always follow one another and clearly documented it may serve to in logical sequence. No sooner has the CCF make a large body of secondary literature suffered a "Decline and Demise" in the accessible and comprehensive to students 1958 general election than it wins the 1944 and general readers. provincial election which starts the "Sas­ Socialism in Canada is unfortunately katoon Story." none of these things. Avakumovic's prose To Avakumovic's credit, Socialism in style labours along on short sentences Canada contains a useful selected biblio­ which state the obvious. In chapter four, a graphy. As an earlier reviewer has noted, description of the "Prophets, Militants however, Gerald Caplan's Dilemma of and Supporters" of the CCF, we learn for Canadian Socialism, an oft-cited source, example that becomes the Decline of Canadian People prominent in the provincial party organi­ Socialism. The end notes are sloppy and zations were often delegates to the national CCF imprecise. Nelson Wiseman is renamed conventions. These were held in different cities. Norman, and titles of scholarly articles are Location had something to do with attendance. rarely given. The most serious problem, however, is that references to manuscript Avakumovic's vocabulary is as tedious as collections, some of which have pagina­ his sentence structure. His favourite adjec­ tion, include nothing more than volume or tive is ' 'fair1' and its variations and his use box numbers. This imprecision is carried of these words demonstrates both his statis­ over to the book's tables. More than half tical and grammatical imprecision. In the are without titles and some lack even col­ space of three pages we are told that "a fair umn headings. number" of union organizers were socialists, that "a fair number" of East These multiple technical problems — Europeans worked in extractive industries, awkward prose, poor organization, and and that "a fair number" of British immi­ poor documentation—limit the usefulness grants supported the Independent Labour of Socialism in Canada as a general survey Party. In one paragraph we discover that of the development of the CCF-NDP. When social democrats presented their pro­ one adds to these faults the total lack of gramme in "fairly fine detail" and pub­ originality, it is difficult to wish this book lished "fairly detailed proposals" out­ anything but speedy oblivion. lining it. Nouns and pronouns agree and John Herd Thompson disagree haphazardly, as the CCF becomes McGill University "they" and "their" rather than "it" or "its." John English and J.O. Stubbs (eds.), Mac­ Avakumovic has organized the 11 kenzie King: Widening the Debate, chapters of Socialism in Canada by com­ (Toronto: Macmillan 1977) and Victor bining the chronological and thematic Levant, Capital and Labour: Partners? techniques in a manner which accentuates (Toronto: Steel Rail 1977). the difficulties of both. The chronological sections become wearisome narratives THE HEART of kings is unsearchable, says while the discussions on various themes the proverb: be that as it may, enquiries REVIEWS 221 into the plumbing of Canada's tenth prime Commons, Ottawa, January 31, 1944.") minister add up to one of the most vigorous All of this is not to say that there are no of academic growth industries. Such antic good things in Mackenzie King et cetera. scrabbling after the nugget of true insight, There are some, and we shall get to them, of course, is bound to be accompanied by but it may be a bit of a wait. One has first to the production of much dross, and we have encounter Blair Neatby's restrained petu­ been presented with several Kings manu­ lance over the fact that his own view of factured out of dust, ranging from the King is not universally accepted by histo­ Mandevillean—all private vice and public rians past and present, Jack Pickersgill's virtue—to the Machiavellian, in the space passable imitation of Little Dog Pat, all of a very short while. Each of the books face-Hcking devotion, and the elder- reviewed here is in its own way a product statesmen anecdotage of Paul Martin and of that industry: one has buried within it a Malcolm J. MacDonald whose contribu­ few gleams of the true gold, while the other tions are for the most part of the sort so is almost unadulterated slag. brilliantly parodied in the Lloyd George One must admire the chutzpah of segment of Tom Stoppard's Newfound­ editors who can subtitle their collection land. "Widening the Debate," and then open it Then come the academic papers. John with essays by Blair Neatby and Jack Pick- Courtney's work with the King diaries in ersgill. One's first impression is that their search of "Prime-Ministerial Character/* enterprise involves not so much widening within the framework of Barber's The the debate as restating the cliches, and Presidential Character, demonstrates the there is indeed far too much of that sort of unhappy truth that when subtle empirical thing in English and Stubbs' Mackenzie insights are married to a crude and inappro­ King. All sorts of uncomfortable questions priate theoretical schema Gresham's Law come to mind: What precisely do they applies. Keith Cassidy, in what must rank think the debate is about? What is wrong as one of the most perverse products of the with its present limits? How are its terms to entire King industry, grapples with the be broadened? The editors' two page intro­ problem of why King does not thoroughly duction provides few answers. We are resemble the American Progressives with­ told, however, that the germ of the book out ever seeming to grasp the fact that King was sown at the University of Waterloo's was, after all, not an American but a Cana­ Mackenzie King Colloquium, held on the centenary of his birth, and this last fact dian, and that this might have had some­ seems to point to an explanation. What we thing to do with it. A better example of have here is not so much a purposive what might be gained from Canadian- attempt to focus the recent King literature American comparisons in understanding and portray its strengths and shortcomings, the nature of reform occurs in William as a sort of belated Festschrift for Berlin's McAndrew's contribution, "Mackenzie most successful Old Boy. This might help King, Roosevelt, and the New Deal," to explain, too, why only four of the eleven which argues that "although King thought articles collected here were actually pre­ he saw his earlier prescriptions reflected in sented at the colloquium: three are "remi­ the New Deal this was a distorted percep­ niscences of King by prominent public fig­ tion at best." ures who knew him well," while the others Three papers provide highly competent were commissioned for the book. The and at times illuminating analyses of par­ standard Festschrift format is followed ticular passages in King's career, although right down to the provision of a biblio­ without "widening the debate" in the graphy. (King's writings are oddly arranged sense of proposing a general ^in­ by alphabetical order of title, rather than terpretation of the man. Norman Hillmer by date; odd when one realizes that a stand­ makes extensive use of the diaries to fill in ard title is "Statement to the House of some gaps in our knowledge of King's role in the 1937 Imperial Conference and to 222 LABOUR/LE TRAVAILLEUR

correct some misleading impressions left and this is as it should be." by earlier writers who did not have access Victor Levant's Capital and Labour: to this source. Jack Granatstein contributes Partners? is not really a book about King, a useful study of King's relations with his but it is unlikely that it would have been Cabinet during the Second World War, written were it not for the King industry. stressing the prime minister's mature self- One of the first material artifacts of the confidence as "the central factor in Cana­ revived interest in King was the republica­ dian politics" in the period. Robert tion of Industry and Humanity, and a Bothwell's "The Health of the Common lengthy string of quotations from that book People," while it is only peripherally con­ constitutes one entire chapter of this one. cerned with King, provides a masterly Levant advances the unexceptionable analysis of the failure toachiev e a national thesis that it is in the interest of capital to health insurance policy in the 1940s. maintain that employers and workers are The most exciting of the papers in this joined by bonds of mutual dependence, volume is Stephen Scheinberg's "Roc­ while it is in the interest of the working kefeller and King: The Capitalist and the class torepudiat e this view. He provides a Reformer." Scheinberg gives a thor­ rather undigested survey of some familiar oughly revisionist interpretation of King's episodes in Canadian and United States work for the Rockefeller Foundation, one labour history to support his argument and that really does broaden the horizons of the concludes that business unionism fosters current debate. He approaches the problem capital's ideological penetration of the of the social reformer via Gramsci's labour movement. Unfortunately, the job analysis of the intellectual's role, and for of working out the concrete historical once some unfamiliar light is shed on the implications of this is not at all well done. subject of this collection. Scheinberg's Connoisseurs of the rhetorical question, conclusion is worth quoting as an index of and those who wish to make a gesture in the article's approach: support of Levant's thesis without much caring what he makes of it, will want to King wis available to fulfill the role of ruling- buy this book. There is, however, a long class intellectual. He worked within the limit* appendix on contemporary company of the system, supplying ideas and criticism, unionism as expressed in the Canadian making it more functional in a changing social Federation of Independent Associations context, resulting in the exercise of corporate that workers in this field might find power becoming more generally acceptable. interesting. It appears that Levant set out For his part the reformer received financial with the intention of writing an expose of sustenance, a measure of power, and satisfac­ tion that his chosen work had been well done. the Federation: it is a shame he got side­ tracked. One has finally toas k what purpose this book serves. The four papers really worth having — those by Hillmer, Granatstein Paul Craven and Bothwell for their solid analysis, and York University Scheinberg's for its novel approach — could certainly all have found ready Tom Treves, The State and Enterprise: acceptance in the scholarly journals where Canadian Manufacturers and the Federal they would have been every bit as accessi­ Government 1917-1931 (Toronto: Univer­ ble to King aficionados as they are here. As sity of Toronto Press 1979); Alvin Finkel, for most of the other contributions, one can Business and Social Reform in the Thirties only agree with the sentiments expressed (Toronto: James Lorimer and Company by English and Stubbs in their introduc­ 1979). tion: "The interpretations advanced in these essays may not be sustained by a THERE IS A POINT AT WHICH revisionist future generation of Canadian historians scholarship assumes the status of a new REVIEWS 223

orthodoxy. This point has recently been flict. Not only did consumers, working reached in the study of the business com­ people, and hinterland interests attack the munity's relationship to the modern hegemony of a business class dominated capitalist state. In recentyear s historians in by central Canada, but the business com­ both Canada and the United States have munity was itself divided on the question rejected the traditional liberal assumption of regulation. For example, while sugar that the reform of industrial capitalism rep­ refiners saw regulation as an antidote to resented what Arthur Schlesinger Jr. once excessive competition, export-oriented called the efforts "of the rest of society, resource industries like the newsprint under the leadership of 'liberals,' to check industry regarded regulation as a threat to the political ambitions of business." The potential gains in the international market­ work of historians such as Samuel P. Hays, place. By 1921 conflicts of this sort Robert Wiebe, Gabriel Kolko, James brought a temporary end to the regulatory Weinstein, H.V, Nelles, and Alan movement. Artibise, to name but a few, demonstrates The collapse of the regulatory move­ instead that businessmen were active in the ment leads Traves to conclude that Cana­ reform process, working with government dian businessmen were rather more hesit­ to encourage reforms which would ant in putting regulatory provisions into ameliorate some of the unfortunate effects effect than may have been the case else­ of rapid industrialization without funda­ where. After 1921 manufacturers mentally changing the structure of power. attempted to achieve "security without These two books by Tom Treves and Alvin regulation" by returning to the traditional Finkel outline the efforts of Canadian busi­ devices of increased tariff protection, nessmen in the interwar period to erect a industrial consolidation, and the reduction regulatory apparatus which would main­ of labour costs. But in two chapters involv­ tain stability in the capitalist system and ing the operations of the Tariff Advisory preserve the hegemony of the business Board, Traves reveals that the resort to class in the socio-economic order. these informal devices often failed to Traves' book is a particularly subtle achieve the desired results. Although the treatment of the relationship of the Cana­ Tariff Board had been set up to take tariffs dian manufacturing community to the Fed­ out of the unstable political arena, it eral Government between 1917 and 1931. nonetheless allowed for the continual joc­ Beset by problems of excess output and keying for advantage between business, resultant economic uncertainty, many of labour, farmer, and consumer groups. Canada's manufacturers at the end of Unfortunately Traves chose to deal only World War I were convinced that political with the automobile and steel tariff. But regulation of the economy was preferable what of the extensive deliberations before to the vagaries of the market, and the Tariff Board involving other industries advocated the extension of wartime con­ such as the textile manufacturers or the trols into the postwar period. The regulat­ book and magazine publishers? In the lat­ ory impulse of the immediate postwar ter case in particular one finds a graphic years was evident in the establishment of illustration of the inter-regional and intra- the Board of Commerce and in the work of class divisions that Traves wants to por­ the Canadian Reconstruction Association tray. In addition the activities of R.J. which like the National Civic Federation in Deachman and the Consumer's League the United States represented the desire of provide a particularly articulate expression leading industrialists to promote the stabil­ of consumer opposition to business opin­ ity of the capitalist system through reform. ion. But, Traves argues, the postwar commit­ Whatever the reason for this omission, ment to regulation was frustrated by com­ the collapse of the regulatory movement peting interest groups and intra-class con­ and the manufacturers' reliance on a strat- 224 LABOUR/LE TRAVAILLEUR

egy involving tariff protection allows for federal regulation, social welfarism, Treves to present a relatively sophisticated and constitutional change, the reforms description of the relationship of business­ instituted during the 1930s reflected the men and government in the modern limited objectives of the business commu­ capitalist state. Drawing heavily on the nity rather than the aims of those who work of Ralph Miliband, Nicos urged more radical alternatives. Rather Poulantzas, and Franz Schurmann, Traves than adopting legislation that would heav­ shows how businessmen regarded the state ily tax the corporations, break up as an instrument that could provide for the monopolies, or bring about a significant long-term stability of the capitalist econ­ expansion of the money supply, govern­ omy. At the same time, the state demanded ments in the 1930s concentrated on those a measure of autonomy in order that it reforms which would stimulate the private might set aside the short-range interests of sector. Furthermore, because businessmen individual manufacturers if necessary. But were heavily represented on the various this does not mean that the state responded regulatory agencies established during the only to the interests of the business class, depression, those bodies generally or that reform was easily accomplished. inclined to the businessman's conception Traves' real contribution lies in showing of reform. For example, while the devel­ how the particular configuration of Cana­ opment of the Wheat Board and other natu­ dian regional and class conflict made the ral products marketing boards helped to road to regulation perilous and uncertain. stabilize agricultural prices, Finkel shows In so doing he captures the ambivalence how government regulation operated to and complexity of the relationship of the protect the monopolistic interests of pro­ manufacturers to the Canadian state. cessors and distributors. Similarly, Alvin Finkel's study of social reform because government programs to stabilize during the Great Depression picks up the the construction industry, to provide story where Traves leaves off. Unlike mortgage assistance, and to establish a Traves, however, Finkel is much more Bank of Canada emerged from a desire to intent upon establishing direct links stimulate rather than replace private between the business community and the enterprise, few businessmen opposed the state, emphasizing the business affiliations reform program of the depression years. of cabinet ministers and their appointees. Businessmen even saw advantage in social This close affiliation, he argues, explains insurance schemes such as unemployment the favourable attitude of the state towards insurance and old age pensions. Unem­ the business community. Because the state ployment insurance would decrease the "was dominated by the personnel and wasteful burden of relief and by providing ideology of monopoly capital" and purchasing power to the unemployed because "no serious anti-monopoly coali­ reduce the likelihood of another depres­ tion was possible," the Canadian economy sion. Old age pensions would remove came to be dominated by corporate older workers from the work force, thereby monopolies. The existence of this openingjobs to the younger and potentially business-government consensus meant more radical workingman. In the end the that reform in marketing, social insurance, result of reform in marketing, banking, construction, banking, and finance came at construction, and social welfare was the the behest of or with the approval of busi­ same: it stabilized the existing system and nessmen. During the 1930s the state secured the hegemony of the business class became an agency for smoothing out the without bringing about a significant redis­ business cycle in the interests of the busi­ tribution of the nation's wealth. ness class. At times the reforms advocated by the Finkel argues that because business­ business community and the working class men were in the vanguard of the movement coincided. Although Finkel usually REVIEWS 225 regards this as little more than happy coin­ Hopefully these two books will encourage cidence, he also recognizes that reform others to investigate the influence that pro­ helped to avert a serious radical challenge fessionals, consumers, and working peo­ to the capitalist order. My disagreement ple exerted upon the changing face of with Finkel arises in connection with his capitalism in these years. treatment of the reform ideology of the business class. "Businessmen pressed for Colin D. Howell reforms not because they wished to remove Saint Mary's University injustices that existed within the capitalist system," he writes, "but because they rec­ ognized that the system could not survive David Alexander, The Decay of Trade, without some structural reforms." But if Newfoundland Social and Economic businessmen were so transparently self- Studies No. 19. (St. John's: Institute of interested and manipulative bow does one Social and Economic Research, Memorial explain the widespread dominance of mod­ University of Newfoundland 1977). em welfare liberalism? To answer this question we need a more extensive THE Decay ofTrade is the most impressive analysis of the relationship of the reform work by the late David Alexander, the ideology of businessmen to the main­ Atlantic region's foremost economic histo­ tenance of capitalist hegemony. To Finkel, rian. As an economic history of the rise and ideology has no real purpose other than to fall of Newfoundland's traditional saftfish mask self-interest. Ideology, he tells us at trade, it is a detailed account of the merits one point, "gave way to pragmatism." and shortcomings of the Newfoundland Unfortunately, this denial of the impor­ Associated Fish Exporters Limited (NAFEL) tance of ideology (reminiscent of the 1950s in the post-World II era. Alexander's liberalism of Daniel Bell) diverts Finkel's analysis addresses the same central prob­ attention from the issue of class hegemony lem which was the focus of the ARDA study to the domination of society by a powerful by Hedlin and Menzies in 1964: why interest group. Is it not more convincing to 15,000 inshore cod fishermen lost their argue that businessmen and reformers saltfish markets and livelihoods; why so revealed both a desire to secure existing many rural communities in Newfoundland capitalist social relations and a genuine faced possible extinction; and why New­ sense of social or public responsibility? foundland did not develop the full potential This sense of responsibility, circumscribed of its fisheries following Confederation in as it was by class interest and paternalistic 1949. Alexander's central thesis is that though it may have been, helps explain the inadequate postwar marketing strategies ability of businessmen, reform politicians, and organization, framed within an professionals, and other components of the unsympathetic and sometimes destructive ruling class to maintain their influence national trade policy, generated a thor­ over the rest of society. Not merely a oughly "demoralized" climate in the New­ rationale for self-interest, the business­ foundland saltfish industry. In a world of man's reform ideology was an essential uncertainty, weak currencies, exchange component of the authority of the capitalist controls, protectionism, and a rejuvenated ruling class. European fishery, three years of disastrous trade between 1947 and 1950 emasculated All of this aside, Traves and Finkel NAFEL, which, at the time, was the fore­ both make an important contribution to our most cooperative saltfish marketing understanding of the emergence of the organization in the region. At such a cru­ modern regulatory state. Much more yet cial juncture, federal policy failed to help remains to be done. Among other things NAFEL consolidate its position. This insen- we badly need a comprehensive analysis of sitivity precipitated a vicious circle of the origins of social legislation in Canada. 226 LABOUR/LE TRAVAILLEUR

decline whereby it lost ground in market­ consider the merchant class — or any frac­ ing, failed to revolutionize production, and tion of it — as the natural steward of a therefore fell victim to the age-old prob­ cooperative economic strategy? Could the lems of quality control and inefficient pro­ short-term private interests of merchants duction which in turn undercut further its ever be reconciled with the long-term marketing strategies. Ultimately, the social interests of die people of Newfound­ inadequacies of a fishery development pol­ land? Alexander is torn between a theoreti­ icy based on a growth sector model con­ cal perspective which forces him to answer firmed the death of the saltfish trade: over­ yes to these questions, and empirical evi­ developing the frozen fish industry and dence — conscientiously presented — underdeveloping the saltfish industry. The which tends to contradict this position. problems faced by the fishery in the 1970s Alexander's theoretical perspective is are primarily a legacy of this. presented as a revision of the neo-classical The chief merits of this book are two­ position that low income and low labour fold: the structural analysis of the underde­ productivity can be overcome through a velopment of the saltfish industry and the reallocation of labour from backward to central importance given to economic modern sectors of production, and the cooperation. While Alexander takes pain to modernization of the backward sector. In mention that his work is primarily con­ Newfoundland the alternative employment cerned with the question of markets and opportunities which this model assumes not production — and this is certainly very did not exist. Further, the mechanization important and a welcome contribution to of the modern fishing sector did not political economy in the region — it does increase incomes, and it proved politically offer numerous insights into the complex and socially impossible to implement such nature of underdevelopment at the level of a policy completely, in the face of this production. The decline of the saltfish shortcoming. Alexander argues that the trade is not simply the result of an unfor­ low productivity of labour in the saltfish tunate foreign exchange position or foreign industry could only be improved through competition in distant markets, it is also balanced market development which the result of years and years of archaic pro­ would generate greater levels of invest­ duction methods and inadequate quality ment in both the traditional and the mod­ controls, of consignment selling, of cut­ ern sectors. In other words, market devel­ throat competition among merchants and of opment would be the sufficient condition the peculiar demand and supply functions to unify mercantile interests and the suffi­ of the fish trade. Underdevelopment of the cient condition to resolve the contradic­ saltfish industry was as much a conse­ tions between their private interests and quence of inadequate marketing and gov­ the social interests of rural Newfoundland. ernment policy as it was a consequence of divisive class interests in Newfoundland. Considerable historical evidence While cooperative efforts in marketing seems to call this theory into question. were made by merchants as early as the First, the general issue: could merchants 1920s, these efforts were limited and ever be relied upon to revolutionize pro­ undercut by opposing mercantile, finan­ duction on a voluntary and cooperative cial, and government interests. Conse­ basis? That is, would the benefits of quently the very nature of underdevelop­ improved markets automatically generate ment posed fundamental problems for the technological innovation and with it higher viability of a cooperative economic strat­ rural incomes. In 19SS the membership of egy; even if it was confined to marketing. NAFEL defeated a proposal for a This relationship raises some funda­ cooperative production effort. Alexander mental questions: how realistic was it to comments ' 'In opposing the proposal they affirmed their traditional role as traders REVIEWS 227

pure and simple, and chose a conservative for the salt fishery as elsewhere. The unor­ path mat was to lead them to virtual extinc­ ganized and cheap labour of inshore fisher­ tion."(132) So they found it hard to coop­ men and their families in outport New­ erate. Could they be counted on at least to foundland provided the social and political innovate new production techniques under milieu of mis "handicraft" industry. The optimal conditions? It seems not. In dis- form of production only revolutionized in custing the quality control problem of Lab­ small degrees in response to exogenous rador cured saltfish, Alexander concludes: pressures such as market competition, "Probably, the only way to eliminate the government policy, exchange problems, problem was through machine-drying; but and labour shortages. On the whole capital in Newfoundland, during these years, mer­ fled the industry rather than develop it: sac­ chants relied on cheap labour rather than rificing the long-term social needs of the machines to do the job." (74) communities in favour of its short-run interest. Ultimately Alexander's term "me Lastly could the business class be demoralization of the Newfoundland relied upon, if forced to innovate under fishery" is only a euphemism for the optimal market conditions, to pass along private "nonprofitability" of the New­ the benefits of increased productivity to foundland salt fishery for capital. the people of their communities. Again it was unlikely. Merchants were notorious for making fishermen and their families L. Gene Barrett bear the burden of market and price uncer­ Saint Mary's University tainties. In fact in 1947 the Government of Newfoundland forced MARL to guaran­ tee that the benefits of currency reserves made available to it would be passed on to John Richards and Larry Pratt, Prairie fishermen. Cooperative marketing, even Capitalism: Power and Influence in the as far back as Coaker's policy in 1920, New West (Toronto: McClelland and assumed mat benefits to exporters would Stewart 1979). find their way down to fishermen. Alexan­ der noted that "... fishermen who were No part of Canada hu more to gain from the heard or reported disputed that mis inter­ adoption of a policy of adequate protection than pretation of organized marketing was suf­ Alberta Alberta is naturally well-adapted ficient, or mat any of the gains that come for the development of manufacturing indus­ from it found their way into the producer's tries Edmonton, which seems destined to pocket." (20) be one of me great manufacturing... cities of the Canadian Northwest has coal right at its It would seem therefore mat an equally doors. Imagine what Ontario would give for plausible alternative interpretation of the Alberta's coal! decline of saltfish could be made: one Industrial Canada (Jury 1903) which stresses the close relationship CANADA'S prairie west has not been par­ between social and political conditions, ticularly well-served by the Canadian forms of production, and marketing prob­ political economy tradition. The quite lems; one which is based on the central large volume of work on the region has proposition that production methods tend stressed its "quasi-colonial" status as an to vary spatially, in accordance with social agricultural hinterland, but has also and political factors as much as purely eco­ obscured much of the complexity of the nomic factors such as levels of competition historical development of its economy and in similar or related branches of produc­ polity, and left us ill-prepared to under­ tion. The old adage that "capital has to be stand the dynamic quality of the modem dragged, kicking and screaming, into the west. The student left unsatisfied by the twentieth century" may be as appropriate usual drab portrait will thus find much of 228 LABOUR/LE TRAVAILLEUR

interest in Richards and Pratt's path- of political commitment the authors bring breaking study. to their task. This accounts for their con­ The theme of the book is that of'' prov­ cern with a host of subsidiary issues such ince building" over the last 40 years in as the thought of the League for Social Alberta and Saskatchewan. The "broad Reconstruction (its uncritical admiration pattern of development" in these two juris­ for "forced industrialization under Sta­ dictions since World War II, the authors lin," [95] offers an insight into the 1930s conclude "can be summarized as a move­ intellectual milieu often missed in anti- ment away from dependent regional communist polemics), or the "tragic capitalism." (237) This has occurred fiasco" (255) of the Waffle movement. through diversification of the agricultural Indeed, at several points in the narrative, base by way of the exploitation on increas­ the authors engage in sustained debate with ingly favourable terms of mineral staples the ghost of the Waffle, the "left- under the direction of local elites, and par­ nationalist" political perspective which it ticularly, local state structures. Oil, gas embodied, and the broader, but intimately and potash are used as case studies, to related, issues of dependency theory. which list might be added coal, Saskat­ Richards and Pratt are not merely local pat­ chewan's "heavy oils," and uranium, which riots offering a celebration of the "New are not discussed in any detail. West" or a brief for provincial rights. Rather, they are attempting to make a Work around this main theme touches theoretical contribution by rejecting the upon a good deal of hitherto neglected static model of core-periphery relations ground. Aside from material on the logis­ and natural resource development. Thus, tics of petroleum and potash, there is also a their observations about the changing useful historical critique of C.B. MacPher- terms of trade in oil, gas, and potash, and son's famous theory of the "single class" their insistence on the "relative auton­ nature of pre-World War II Alberta soci­ omy' ' of local state structures in relation to ety, and a discussion of the quirks (some the multi-national corporation, present a might say opportunist errors) of the early challenge of a profound character to the CCF in that province, which do much to "left-nationalist" tradition. The analysis, explain its absence from the political main­ incidently, sets the authors apart quite stream. The placing of both the CCF and sharply from the radical mainstream in Social Credit in an ideological and cultural Alberta. Those currently engaged in the context of "populism" is hardly original, fight against the Lougheed regime will but it is done with a greater degree of sen­ probably find Prairie Capitalism a disturb­ sitivity to both the history of populism and ing book, because Alberta's workers and the broad range of political options avail­ farmers need hardly be told that "their" able under that rubric than is usually fraction of the bourgeoisie is somehow encountered. The chapters on Saskatche­ deserving of support. wan government and politics since 1944 are especially rich and rewarding, although, as the authors admit, a good deal Richards and Pratt are clearly impa­ of the credit must rest with the officialdom tient with the "image of the provinces as of that province, who, in sharp contrast to the captive dependencies or instruments of their Alberta counterparts, allowed international capital," (8) which they see Richards and Pratt free access to the rele­ as inappropriate to either social- vant archives. democratic Saskatchewan or free- enterprise Alberta. In the latter case, they argue that the state has abandoned its tradi­ What may engage readers of this jour­ tionally passive "rentier" role, in favour nal who have otherwise only a tangential of an activist stance under the direction of interest in the subject matter is the degree an "essentially new" class formation: the REVIEWS 229

"arriviste bourgeoisie," child of the oil are well-known, others not. The history of boom, which has, since the Conservative the Medicine Hat Woolen Mill Co. Ltd. triumph of 1971, been reshaping Alberta provides a case study in the failure of local society in its own image. This new class entrepreneurship, which falls in the latter (personified best, perhaps, by Bob Blair of category. "We were unable to secure... Alberta Gas Trunk, a sincere nationalist sufficient capital to run the business," a and also a leading figure in the province's spokesman told a reporter for the peculiar brand of state-capitalism) is seen UtkbridgeHerald (12 My 1906), "every as pursuing a strategy oriented towards not individual who had $500 to invest was only maximizing resource production and making a strong endeavour to corner the the garnering of "rents" therefrom, but of real estate market." If the story is apocry­ actually building an indigenous phal .couklinodera dreams of an industrial industrial-capitalism within Alberta's bor­ revolution in Alberta founder on what ders. The authors note Peter Lougheed's Richards and Pratt, in a more sober "near obsession with prairie economic moment, call "the negative effects [of the diversification" (155) and put forward the resource boom] due to the crowding out of claim that "under Tory hegemony... potential manufacturing investment by the much of the surplus (from oil) will be used demands for resource industries for avail­ to create the infrastructure for an industrial able capital and labour?" (187) One hat a economy." (242) sneaking suspicion that under "Tory hegemony," capital will continue to seek, This is undoubtedly the most controv­ and to find, the easiest and quickest outlets ersial hypothesis put forward in the book, for its own reproduction, and that these and this reviewer remains skeptical. The will be found mainly in the lucrative authors seem unaware that the rhetoric of resource sector, "real estate," road- industrialism is some of the oldest political building, and so forth. currency in Alberta, as suggested, for example by the passage from Industrial Meanwhile, "Tory hegemony" will Canada (the organ of the Canadian Manu­ continue, greased by the systematic brib­ facturers Association, part of the unholy ery of the electorate with the oil revenues, alliance of "eastern" interests which and made more palatable to the intellectu­ allegedly imposed the wheat staple upon als by continued minting of the old rhetori­ the prairies) cited above. Albertans, like cal coin. The Alberta of 1980 is a much one of many legislators who addressed his different place than the Alberta of 1930 or colleagues on the subject (in 1908), were 1950, but, as Richards and Pratt admit, "lost fn contemplation" of the "useful "little diversification of the province's commodities of trade" which could be economy has occurred as yet." (235) The made with the hand of man in the province. question, "can the Tories plan?" remains And why not? The pioneers knew about unanswered. Alberta's "coal... natural gas and oil," her "bitumen" and iron ore. And they saw, The case of Saskatchewan is different, in the early years, the embryo of an indus­ as witnessed by the title of a recent popular trial society, not only in a mighty develop­ journalistic celebration, "Socialism Pays ment of collieries, but in the fields of iron- Off (Canadian Weekend, 23 February working (particularly mine machinery), 1980). The fact that the province offers, cement, glass, and brick-making, smelter- for the careful analyst, a context in which ing, sugar-refining, boot and shoe- the theorizing which has absorbed the left making, and even textiles. Despite all this, wing of the Canadian political economy however, Alberta manifestly failed to tradition may be supplemented by a con­ "take off." crete case study of "socialist" and "free enterprise" developmental strategies There are many reasons for this. Some should make Richards and Pratt's discus- 230 LABOUR/LE TRAVAILLEUR

sion of its experience useful reading for all munity in the case of the CCF's shoe man­ concerned scholars. While situated along ufactory, and, in the case of the box fac­ the broad continuum described above, the tory, the absence of the necessary raw theme of "two roads" is central to this materials to adapt to changing market experience. As the authors correctly point demand (from wood to paper containers). out, in contrast to the "quasi-corporatist" In any event, the lack of stunning suc­ political culture in Alberta, there have cesses in these fields, coupled with the been, and continue to exist "well- rolling-back of the socialist movement as a entrenched ideological and class whole in the Cold War period, caused the antagonisms within Saskatchewan," advocates of public ownership to retreat at marked out by the CCF/NDP on the one a critical juncture: the granting of conces­ hand, and the forces traditionally aligned sions to the oil monopolies. This was done with the Liberals (now wrapped in more over the protests of the CCF rank-and-file fashionable Tory garb) on the other. This in the province, but with the full blessing point is stressed because it is often lost on of national figures such as Frank Scott. Toronto-centred observers inclined to This set the precedent for the granting of write off the social-democratic tradition as even more favourable concessions to the a "petit-bourgeois" protest embodying the mainly-American potash companies aspirations of the whole of Saskatchewan towards the end of the CCF's regime. The society. fact that one of the first acts of Ross Thatcher's Liberal government was to In this context, the Saskatchewan "marginally increase taxation of the bourgeoisie occupies a problematic posi­ (potash) industry" (195) suggests that tion . The historical weakness of this c lass, free-enterprise regimes are really better relative to Alberta's, which is noted by the equipped to do this sort of thing than authors, explains much of the strength of socialist ones. the social-democratic tradition, and in a perverse sense, the two themes have been Thatcher's government, though an mutually rc-inforcing. Save for the inter­ active promoter of economic development lude of Liberal rule (1964-71), Saskatch­ (it fathered the province's first pulp and ewan's businessmen have tended, since paper mill for example), was, however, a 1944, to view the local state as a kind of kind of archetype of the "captive" provin­ enemy, and throughout the period under cial state. So deeply enmeshed in the discussion have perhaps been blind to its affairs of the potash companies did it become that in the end, it was manoeuvred potentialities as a vehicle of capital into acting as a crucial accessory to a accumulation. Though the local business­ scheme of "rationalization" which men are probably deserving of more atten­ "forced the province to accept the status of tion than is accorded them in this account, a residual supplier (of a product in the pos­ it is true that most of the developmental ini­ session of which it held front-rank) without tiatives in Saskatchewan have come any (compensating) advantage in terms of directly from the state. royalties." (210) Richards and Pratt see the early period of OCF rule as unfulfilled "years of prom­ In this context, the partial nation­ ise." They criticize the government's ini­ alization of Saskatchewan potash (1975) tial experiments in' 'going into business,'' represents a break from the traditional which were mainly in the manufacturing policies of both parties. The authors see field, because they allegedly ignored the this act as part of the same dynamic as rep­ "fundamental cost disadvantages" (116) resented by the aggressive oil policies of involved in such ventures. This picture is the Alberta Conservatives, but here, of over-drawn. The authors cite instances of course, the main motor of policy is not the economic sabotage by the business com­ businessman's government, but a bureau- REVIEWS 231 critic elite, aligned with the social- elites to play battledore-and-shuttlecock democrats, which experienced a rebirth of with a regionally fragmented working its residual "Fabianism" in the 1970s. class. The workingmen, of course, have The authors are less sanguine in their always stood for fair play. However, the interpretation of this phenomenon than the old game is still being played, and proba­ analagous developments in Alberta. bly with increased gusto. Back in 1923, a Indeed, they seem worried lest the mantle group of coal miners in Drumheller, of economic leadership in Saskatchewan Alberta organized a seminar on "political should pass out of the hands of the prov­ economy." They concluded that "the ince's present governors. Their most tell­ Montreal dictatorship must be displaced by ing point is that "social change effected by a proletarian dictatorship." This language a bureaucratic and political elite with little may seem anachronistic today, but perhaps attention paid to the cultivation of popular the miners stumbled on a grain of truth. participation and support is fragile and Canada — including Sir Wilfrid Laurier's tenuous." (274) It is not clear to what two stepchildren, who are not as scrawny degree the authors see the decline of the as they used to be — still needs "a plan,** radical political culture of Saskatchewan and the kind of political movement which as a function of structural change in can put it into practice. agriculture (which has transformed a large segment of the farm community into bona fide businessmen), or of the limitations of Allen Seager the social-democratic vision of the NDP, Simon Fraser University but there is perhaps room for criticism on this latter score. Subscribers to Labourite Travailleur will probably be saddened to read that "pressure for some measure of L. KavicandG. Nixon, Thel200Days — control... over the management of our Dave Barrett and the N.D.P., 1972-75 plants [by] rank-and-file employees... (Coquitlam, B.C.: Kaen Publishers 1979) who have been exposed in CCF circles to and S. Persky, Son ofSocred (Vancouver: much loose thinking on this subject" was New Star Books 1979). regarded as just * 'another of the problems with which we are faced" by a leading DESPITE THE APPEARANCE of the two books under review, the world of B.C. politics government advisor as early as 1947. (141) remains terra incognita. Certainly there is It might have been helpful if the authors a dearth of the theoretically informed liter­ had provided some background on the con­ ature which has deepened our recent temporary relations between the Sas­ understanding of Prairie and Quebec pro­ katchewan Potash Corporation and the vincial politics. This is unfortunate steel and mine workers of the province. because the acute polarization of contem­ porary political life is exciting and distinc­ From the working-class perspective, tive enough to warrant something more Prairie Capitalism poses, but does not than even the most sophisticated book- answer the question, what is to be done? length journalism. Richards and Pratt implore us to abandon "centralism." But one wonders how much As Martin Robin argued in The Com­ meaningful political content would be pany Province, class conflict and class found on a platform of "regionalism." consciousness are themes winch are cen­ The thoughtful observer will applaud the tral rather than incidental to B.C.'s political phenomenon of the "New West," insofar history. The bitter class struggle of a capi­ as h tends to undermine the uneven devel­ tal intensive resource frontier polarized the opment of the national economy, which province along enduring and, for Canada, has, among other things, allowed regional exceptional lines from an early period. Yet 232 LABOUR/LE TRAVAILLEUR

the contemporary political culture is some­ tion to gain control of Crown-owned thing more, and something less, than pure resources which had been all but alienated class politics. Social Credit historically to a handful of integrated corporations. As expressed the disaffections of small busi­ might have been expected, public owner­ ness and the northern and interior hinter­ ship was to be confined to failing concerns, lands and its right-populist past was not but Williams did act as a public entrepre­ entirely submerged in the party's rein­ neur, albeit one outside the Fabian mould. carnation as a corporate dominated coali­ In essence he argued that maximization of tion of the right. For Its part, the NDP has economic rents and labour-intensive indus­ grown well beyond the resource- trial development were dependent upon proletarian base of the CCF. Under Barrett, creating a competitive environment never the most avid believer in organized beneath the watchful eye of the provincial labour's cause, social democracy has state. Intervention was to take the form of gained a disparate incremental following temporary state resource ownership at among professionals, small business, various stages to break up the integrated farmers, environmentalists, and others. companies, bid up stumpage values via We now find two broad coalitions engaged competition, and direct resources to the in a bitter conflict between "free most efficient users. While never brought enterprise" and "socialism," but the pre­ to fruition, this policy incorporated an cise content of this symbolic dialectic is innovative stress upon integrated resource not easily discovered. management at the local level and it envis­ The signal weakness of The 1200Days aged various forms of community involve­ is that it offers no theoretical frame within ment. Williams' strategy was a clear which to interpret the NDP'S brief tenure of attempt to develop an indigenous socialism power. A hasty collation of press clippings which would break the "statist" mould. thrown together to pour maximum dis­ Indeed vociferous union and traditional credit upon the Barren Government, the left critics found more of Rousseau than work is so devoid of any guiding theme that Marx in the Minister who was character­ the only lasting impression is one of ized as the Allende of the North. socialist disarray and incompetence. This Nixon and Kavic neglect these sub­ dovetails well with the Social Credit depic­ tleties while detailing the eclectic range of tion of misguided idealists throwing NDP initiatives and to that limited extent money at social problems while allowing their work is a useful chronicle of events. the economy to collapse, but the question The achievements of three short years — of what broader aims and purposes were car insurance, Pharmacare for the aged, articulated and pursued is almost totally increased welfare spending, preservation ignored. of agricultural land, rent controls, creation To take one example, government of the B.C. Petroleum Corporation, pioneer­ management of the crucial forestry sector ing labour legislation — were, as they is discussed in ten pages which fail to argue, traditional social democratic develop an analysis of the structure of the policies which were in this instance marred industry or NOP response to it. The topic by inadequate planning and, on occasion, deserves better treatment in view of the sheer incompetence. Yet their reading of fact that Resources Minister Bob Wil­ events is unduly myopic. To understand liams, easily the most influential Cabinet the NDP in power one must appreciate the Minister other than Barrett and certainly impact of the unreconstructed "free the most capable, developed an innovative enterprise" creedofW.A.C. Bennett upon and coherent strategy which tells us a great the province and the B.C. left. Confined to deal about West Coast social democracy. perpetual and unavailing opposition for Over many years the industrial unions more than 40 years, the NDP and its constit­ and the CCF-NDP had advocated socializa­ uency experienced 1972 as an event REVIEWS 233

analagous to Quebec's Quiet Revolution. ownership seriously, big business aban­ With the assumption of power, a deluge of doned the hapless federal parties and bank­ demands and criticisms broke forth from rolled the discredited party of the ancien the labour movement, teachers, social rigime. workers, native people, women, and a host Son of Socred was a major success for a of hitherto powerless and virtually disen­ local left-wing publishing house and its franchised groups. Some of the resulting acerbic tone captures the mood of those policies were genuinely innovative but the who are now willing to give their critical government did foil to impose clear support to the NDP. Certainly Persky, the priorities and this sustained the charge of enfant terrible of B.C.'s now defunct "new incompetency levelled from the rightwhil e left " offers a reasoned statement of why antagonising the left. the NDP is the only show in town for its As noted by Nixon and Kavic, Bar­ former critics. Yet his depiction of Social rett's personal management of the econ­ Credit as the B.C. counterpart of Lyon's omy left much to be desired and deter­ drastic counter-revolution in Manitoba is • iorating relations with the labour move­ shade too simple. The coniemporary amal­ ment climaxed in back to work legislation gam of managerial technocrats and small which would have made Social Credit capitalists has sufficient political acumen blush. Other left constituencies, most not­ to avoid a total relapse into W.A.C. Ben­ ably the teachers, felt cheated and resent­ nett's version of frontier capitalism, ft is ful and party disaffection was to play an disappointing that Persky gives us little important role in the fall of the govern­ insight into the internal dynamics of what ment. remains an unstable coalition. Hopefully Far more crucial, however, was the his work will stimulate others to examine construction of a new right-wing coalition this question and to chart what we continue around the corpse of Social Credit. Kavic to lack, an appropriate socialist response. and Nixon wholly ignore the acute class polarization which underlay this realign­ Andrew Jackson ment because they portray government University of British Columbia defeat as the inevitable product of disarray and incompetence. Certainly Stan Persky G.J. Wherrett, The Miracle of the Empty does not make the same mistake in his Beds: A History ofTuberculosis in Canada lively account of the debacle of the NDP and (Toronto: University of Toronto Press the counter-revolution of Bill Bennett. Son 1977). of Socred is a masterpiece of populist invective. Biting, witty and, less often, IN JULY 1932 Norman Bethune argued that theoretically focussed, this muckraking "The treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis tour deforce lays into Social Credit with a involves... infected individual, regarded will while offering a balanced assessment as a whole, acting and reacting in his social of the NDP. and physical environment." George As Persky acidly comments, the thesis Jasper Wherrett's book unfortunately does that social democracy is the best vehicle of not reflect Bethune's thinking. What bourgeois rule finds few believers among Wherrett has given us is the type of history that favoured class. For all its hesitations book we read back in grade six, a list of and mistakes, the NDP stampeded B. C busi­ names and dates, and almost no analysis. ness en masse into Bennett's "car dealer" His second chapter is on the development coalition because it posed a fundamental of the Canadian Tuberculosis Association, challenge to the stability and growth of a with the list of its founder, benefactors, singularly exploitative form of resource presidents, and lecturers and all their capitalism. Unwilling to live with a gov­ travels and speeches. The names of ernment which took its nominal resource Governor-Generals, professors, senators 234 LABOUR/LE TRAVAILLEUR

and doctors are prominent, but nowhere which exuded "from the gums around their does Wherrett comment on the class com­ abscessed teeth and roots."' position of the Association and what that There also existed among prominent might have meant about its various members of the public health movement a activities. Nor does Wherrett say anything great fear for the purity of the race; to be about the fact that when talking about T.B. countered presumably by preventing the the Association seems to have been singu­ procreation of those people most suscepti­ larly silent about any need to change social ble to disease, includingT.B. In 1912, Mrs. and economic conditions leading to T.B. Adam Shortt of the executive committee of The rest of Wherrett's book is in the the National Council of Women wrote a same vein; an institutional history that revealing article entitled "Some social 9 does not acknowledge that any influences aspects of tuberculosis." In it she com­ outside of the Tuberculosis Association or mented at great length on the "well known the health care professionals had anything medical fact" that "degenerates" and to do with the fight against T.B. SO we have "feeble-minded" people develop tuber­ chapters on such topics as "The BCO Vac­ culosis to a much greater degree than other cine in Canada," "Tuberculosis Nurs­ people, and went on to argue for a pro­ ing," and the international anti­ gramme of eugenics. These views of hers tuberculosis groups. The last 12 chapters were echoed by Dr. Helen MacMurchy, basically just list the tuberculosis program­ the Ontario inspector for the feeble­ mes in the provinces and territories. Even minded, and Dr. C.K. Clarke, the dean of in his chapter on "Tuberculosis in Native medicine at the University of Toronto. Races." Wherrett cannot see beyond his Later Mrs. Shortt divided humanity into narrow institutional focus. three great groups: "1st, that lower strata, that great weltering mass of people whose A class analysis of the public health lives are merely enlarged expressions of movement shows why their activities con­ their two primary biological instincts of centrated on education and detection of tuberculosis. As the germ theory of disease reproduction and self-preservation It gained wide acceptance in the late is from this group that our social problems nineteenth century, the middle and upper mainly spring, as well as dangers that classes became increasingly aware of how threaten our race and country."9 Her other easily disease could be transmitted to them two groups were a selfish class who and their children. These people identified refused to see and believe that there were the protection of their own self-interest social problems which affected them and with notions of social progress and became finally the group of men and women who the leaders in the public health movement. were to be the saviours of the others. In this Even in such unlikely areas as dentistry latter group. Mrs. Shortt included herself there was the fear of the spread of disease and others of similar persuasion. from the poor to the rich. Dr. J.G. Adami, Another major factor behind the public an early twentieth-century dental reformer health movement was the growing indus­ in Toronto, put it bluntly and vividly: trialization of Canadian society. As more "From a selfish point of view... [the workers were gathered in larger factories, wealthy could not] afford to neglect the the conditions for the quick spread of con­ children of the poor" and still let their own tagious diseases such as T.B. were mag­ youngsters "sit in the same room, side by nified. It became in the best interests of side, with these neglected children and employers to try and control these diseases inhale the vile gases, constantly emanating in order to maintain production. Wherrett from them, caused by their rotten teeth" or comes close to making this point when he "drink out of the same cup these children says that "the well-being of the populace have fouled with the poisonous pus" was the key to the growth of Canada REVIEWS 235

because it was on the shoulders of the ships, their changing character, the con­ masses that the political and economic flicts that were rooted in class relation­ structures would rest." (8) but he fails to ships, and the various changes—informed carry his analysis any further. (in put) by class identities — that can be Chapter 5 is devoted to' 'Medical Edu­ detected in people's social and political cation in Tuberculosis." Wherrett's pri­ consciousness. **I have tried to discover," mary concern is that medical students be writes Gary Nash, "how people worked, taught to diagnose T.B. properly and he lived, and perceived the changes going on never mentions that medical education is about them, how class relations shifted, notorious for ignoring the occupational and how political consciousness grew, and environmental factors behind disease. especially among the laboring classes." He In fact, Wherrett's book makes very few is concerned almost exclusively with the references to occupational factors associ­ precociously commercial societies of the ated with T.B. He has almost ten pages on three main American seaboard cities, Bos­ drug therapy, which is enough to bore even ton, New York, and Philadelphia, whose a doctor, and there is an equally turgid comparative social histories and changing chapter on bovine tuberculosis, but the political cultures he carefully reconstructs word "occupation" is not even in the for the (roughly) 90 years up to the Ameri­ index. can Revolution. Nash sees these cities as "the cutting edge of economic, social, and Wherrett has written a book which political change," and as the source of focuses on how tuberculosis was detected "almost all the alterations that are associ­ and treated and so we have the story of edu­ ated with the advent of capitalist society." cational programmes, pamphlets, x-ray*, His book, then, is essentially an enquiry and drags. The alternative would have into the culture of urban capitalism in colo­ been a book on how tuberculosis could nial America. And one of its main objec­ have been prevented, a book that would tives, as he says — an objective that domi­ have considered the social and economic nates much of his discussion— "is to show factors behind tuberculosis. that many urban Americans, living amidst historical forces that were transforming the Joel Lexchin, M.D. social landscape, came to perceive Halifax, N.S. antagonistic divisions based on economic and social position; that they began to References struggle around these conflicting interests; 1 and that through these struggles they "School-Children*! Teeth — Their Univer­ sally Unhealthy and Neglected Condition," developed a consciousness of class." (This Dental Register, 50 (1896), 484-5, quoted in manner of approaching past experiences Neil Sutherland, Children in English-Canadianwil l have a familiar ring for those who Society (Toronto 1976), 19. recall the perspectives of E.P. Thompson's * Mn. Adam Shorn, "Some Social Aspects of The Making of the English Working Tuberculosis," Public Health Journal. 3 (June Class.) 1912), 307-12. 'Ibid., 311. The Urban Crucible opens with a skil­ ful reconstruction of urban society in the Gary B. Nash, The Urban Crucible: Social late seventeenth century. Although Change, Political Consciousness, and the wealth was certainly unequally distributed Origins of the American Revolution and social privilege already well estab­ (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University lished, labouring people were undoubtedly Press 1979). better off in the New World than they would have been in any European city. THIS IS A BOOK about class relationships: There was little desperate poverty, roost the material contexts of these relation­ people could enjoy a "decent compe- 236 LABOUR/LE TRAVAILLEUR

tence," political rights were (by European vergence between these local traditions of standards) widely enjoyed, and the social political conflict and the unfolding strug­ gap between rich and poor was not yet felt gles prior to 1776 over the new and (from below) to be especially oppressive. unpalatable assertions of British imperial While there is some evidence from these power. early years of popular discontent and social Nash's work does a good job of making dissension, class consciousness and class sense of the popular political culture of antagonisms were not much developed, these colonial cities. He discusses, fruit­ and ideas that stressed the virtues of an fully and generally persuasively, the limits ordered social hierarchy and service forthe to deference; the reasons for periods of "commonweal" were still widely political quiescence; the tradition of inde­ accepted. With time, however, and the pendent, self-initiated popular political widening of social divisions (both great action (claims about the importance of wealth and permanent poverty increased in patron-client dependencies and upper- prominence), social conflict became much class manipulations of crowd actions must more pronounced in urban America, and be seriously qualified); and the resistance Nash is especially concerned to explain of labouring people to parts of the ideology these conflicts, and to chart their ups and of capitalism (its acquisitiveness, its downs, for the first three-quarters of the atomistic individualism), and their prefer­ eighteenth century. He is consistently ence for communitarian and egalitarian careful to situate these conflicts within a commitments (not shared, of course, by broad material context: a context that most men of wealth). One chapter includes attends closely to the pressures (for some) an excellent account of the Great Awaken­ and opportunities (for others) of warfare ing and the political implications of (which were present so much of the time, evangelicalism; another analyzes well the particularly for Boston), the fluctuations in various popular responses to the Stamp Act trade and employment cycles, and the of 1765. The book as a whole benefits from changing configurations of property own­ Nash's familiarity with the literature of ership. And what he is always working English social history, which has clearly towards through these contextual recon­ influenced the framing of his questions and structions is a better understanding of the manner of his approach to an under­ political consciousness, especially the standing of social relations. The Urban political consciousness and political dis­ Crucible is an impressive achievement: contents of the labouring people — their authoritative, carefully constructed, views of established authority, their ideas informed by wide reading, rich in detail, of political legitimacy, their skepticism of and intelligently sensitive to the impor­ certain ideologies of privilege, tneir(inter- tance of class relationships — relation­ mittent) resistance to mercantile and ships as seen from both sides — in oligarchical power. The politics of Boston eighteenth-century experience. are particularly prominent throughout much of this discussion, largely because of the almost chronic economic malaise of the Robert W. Malcolmson Massachusetts city (which gave rise to Queen's University considerable popular protest against the city's elite), in contrast to the generally more buoyant and dynamic economies of Diane Undstrom, Economic Development New York and Philadelphia. By the 1760s in the Philadelphia Region, 1810-1850 traditions of collective popular action, (New York: Columbia University Press organization, and agitation were well 1978). established on the urban seaboard. The book concludes with an account of the con­ PHILADELPHIA was the leading British North American port and city in 1775. As REVIEWS 237

late as 1800 to 1810 its share of direct sey, and Delaware. She finds that it was American imports was from 18 to 20 per developments here that explained the cent and hs share of exports was 16 to 18 city's growth, in an "essentially self- percent. By the 1850s, the former propor­ contained" process. Over the period from tion had fallen to less than seven per cent 1810-15 to 1836-40 the economics of and me latter to between two and four per both the city and its hinterland were re­ cent. Yet me population of the city and organized in a process of core-periphery county of Ftiiladelphia grew from 111,000 interaction and specialization that yielded to 1810to 258,000 by 1840 and 409,000 in cumulative and mutually supporting 1850. In the tame years, the city's eco- growth. Crucial to the process were trans­ nomic and industrial structure underwent a port improvements, chiefly canals, which major transformation, as me city (already a sharply reduced transport costs within the considerable centre of crafts and manufac­ region. Cheaper transport enabled the turing even in 1810) developed a large tex­ extractive economy of the hinterland, tile industry and major industries in based on coal and iron (the former still machinery; drugs, medicines, paints, and largely for domestic heating, not industrial dyes; and precious metals. This indus­ use), to grow rapidly. Spurred by market trialization was well advanced in the opportunities provided by the city's 1830s. Lindstrom wishes to explain the growth and the rise of coal and iron output processes underlying mis transition; to do in the hinterland, agriculture changed so, she focuses on demand for Philadel­ strikingly to produce a more diversified phia's goods and services. agricultural sector, rather than a com­ pletely wheat-focused one. Fanning She first looks at the staples model, as became a more specialized occupation, applied to American intersectional trade by and household production of manufactured authors such as Callender and North, in goods fell sharply. Lindstrom argues that which western wheat and southera cotton the growth in intra-regional demand was are viewed as the engines driving the ante­ enough to account for all of Philadelphia's bellum economy forward, providing the increased manufacturing output in the basis for economic interchange among die years before 1840. sections and for eastern urban and indus­ trial growth. She then considers the' 'east­ This argument is, prime facie, very ern demand" model, which sees growing convincing, and it is sustained by evidence specialization and exchange within the east that is abundant, if in various ways incom­ as more crucial to its growth in her period; plete or difficult to manipulate. Lindstrom this would explain Philadelphia's growth explains thoroughly and fairly her data and by its patterns of trade with the other lead­ assumptions and the limitations she sees in ing eastern ports. Neither approach can be them. Numerous footnotes and three supported by Lindstrom's data. The city's appendices explain crucial segments of the transformation went on in face of stagnant data for coastal and inland trades and the or declining foreign and southern trade, commodity breakdowns of these. It is and nearly all of the growth in its exports perhaps unfortunate that she has had to rely within the east occurred only in the 1840s, so much on data from 1837, because it was after the city's economic transformation a panic year, but the problems arising are was well under way. Thus, she finds no well-handled. empirical or logical basis to explain Philadelphia's growth before 1840 in Both directly and by implication, the terms of extra-regional demand for the book has much to say about patterns of city's goods. American growth in general, although Lindstrom is careful not to overstep her Lindstrom therefore looks to processes data. She wonders, for example, what data of change within the Philadelphia region, a on "national" growth actually mean in the 46-county area of Pennsylvania, New Jer­ light of the quite particular experience 238 LABOUR/LE TRAVAILLEUR

that her region underwent. She has much to and mid-nineteenth century is black say regarding the rise of New York, in indeed. order to explain what was happening in the Readers of Labour/Le Travailleur may foreign and coastal trades. In doing so, she find the book's rather orthodox economic convincingly rebuts Albion's well-known framework somewhat annoying or disap­ arguments on the entrepreneurial and pointing —labour is simply a factor of pro­ institutional causes for the rise of New duction, and population movements are York as the United States' main import- simply desirable responses to economic export centre. She is also critical of Allan stimuli. When the "benefits of special­ Pred's analyses of urban growth in the era ization" are considered, these are viewed of the "mercantile" or "commercial" in terms of area, not class. Yet the book city: even by the 1820s, she contends, does offer a good deal of data on income Philadelphia's economic health and originating in differing sectors and on per growth very largely depended on industry, capita incomes in city and hinterland. In not commerce. all, it is a most impressive and thorough As an approach to regional economic argument regarding the processes of history, this book has a good deal to teach nineteenth-century industrial development Canadians, notably on the need to express in a major American city and its region. models of regional or national develop­ ment in ways that permit them to be subject Douglas McCalla to empirical verification. It is striking that Trent University Philadelphia could grow so markedly (though, as the author reminds us, its growth was not exceptional in terms of Thomas Dublin, Women at Work: The American rates for the years before the Transformation ofWorkandCommunityin 1840s), despite its declining position in Lowell, Massachusetts. 1826-1860 (New staple trades. The shift from a commercial York: Columbia University Press 1979). to a complex industrial economy could be made within a metropolitan region without DUBLIN CALLS THIS "unashamedly a case the need to rely throughout on a staple study," but it does what the best case export. Coming into the process later, of studies must—it clarifies issues of general course, Canadian cities faced different cir­ importance beyond the case at hand. cumstances, but we may well need to re- Women at Work contributes to larger ques­ exam ine the roles of the home market more tions of preconditions for worker action, closely: certainly Toronto and Montreal's the uniqueness of the experiences of growth between 1860 and 1900 would bear women workers, and the effects of a closer examination in these terms. change in population on labour activity. The Lowell mill girls and the It must also be said that Lindstrom is "Waitham system" under which they able to draw not only on much quantitative carded, spun, and wove cotton have a long data but also on a great deal of directly rele­ history of scrutiny, praise, criticism, and vant secondary literature. Philadelphia documentation. The women themselves was an important city early in American tried to clarify — for themselves and for history and it has been much studied since. the public — the meaning of their working Lindstrom can, for example, rely on the lives. Contemporary debates in the press fine Bezanson two*volume study of whole­ flared and subsided over the virtues of the sale prices at Philadelphia from 1784 to boardinghouse system vs. the danger of 1861; this permits quite confident handling reproducing a Lancaster in New England. of complex questions raised by changing Visiting dignitaries, official investigating prices. By comparison with her period, committees, and the simply curious took often called the American * * statistical dark note of Lowell and the girls as a phenome­ age," the Canadian picture for the early non apart. REVIEWS 239

Scholars since then have produced tories, federal manuscript censuses, and much work on Lowell, from many points published vital records of three New of view. There have been economic, archi­ Hampshire towns which sent many of its tectural, technological, and biographical daughters to the mills. Four clearly written studies of the mills and the owners, and appendices explain in detail his method; labour and women's history treatments of they can be used as a handbook for work in the work force. Dublin's thorough biblio­ similar sources. Since he took three sam­ graphy will send the interested to these ples—in 1836, 1850, and 1860 — his pieces. Labour historians concentrated on quantitative data illuminate the residential the uniqueness of the Lowell mill girls; and economic effects on the Lowell com­ they wens as fascinated as were contempo­ munity as the industry and the city raries by their articulate vigour, self- matured. confidence, and sense of well-being. The The community which the Yankee apparently scanty and short-lived farm girls and the Boston Associates built organized labour resistance tended to be was one of close ties and cultural coav explained by the paternalism of the sys­ tinuities for the young women. Diaries and tem, and the supposed marginal nature of the quantitative data show that first- and the factory experience to the young second-bom sisters often went to Lowell, women. Often, the Lowell story ends with living together in the same boardinghouse the driving down of wages and the hiring of and working in the same room. Networks Irish immigrants in the 1850s. like this extended to cousins and to home­ Dublin, in a truly impressive work, town friends, who taught one another how corrects many of the conclusions of previ­ to dress, speak, and deport oneself prop­ ous scholars, and describes more fully the erly in town. There was frequent visiting demography and households of the Irish. back and forth between village and city, He has brought to bear on the Lowell expe­ and letter-writing. The forty-mile journey rience three tools which predecessors did and two-year stay caused a change, how­ not have: the methodology and electronic ever. Although the girls stayed close to technology of record linkage; the theoreti­ their families, they worked primarily on cal work of the new labour history; and the their own account, and became more inde­ feminist notions of "sisterhood" and fam­ pendent of village ways than they had ily responsibility. He synthesizes theories been. Though perhaps most returned to the and methodologies to place the "unique" country, they tended not to marry farmers, Lowell mill girls in the context of the for­ but village craftsmen. mation of industrial workers from pre- Inside the spinning or carding or weav­ industrial farm people. Like scores of other ing room, the closeness of village life and populations in Europe and the United the town boardinghouse was continued. States at the dawning of the Industrial Rev­ Worktime was just as shared as off-time. olution, these women left farm work to Company policy placed new hands with tend machines with others like themselves experienced operatives for weeks of train­ in strange work environments. As with ing; operatives tended one another's other worker populations, we have needed machines; overseers were expected not to to know who came and what they left, what see the games and conversation with which values and customs they brought with the girls amused one another as the them, what their work was like, whether machines hummed along. they remained rural people, how and why In the early decades the girls were gen­ they responded as they did to this new life. erally satisfied with urban mill life, but To answer these questions, Dublin twice in the 1830s sections of the work­ used payroll records from the Hamilton force walked out over wage cuts and rent Company, linking samples of workers to hikes. Using traditional sources like news­ other company records, Lowell city direc­ papers and a set of informative company 240 LABOUR/LE TRAVA1LLEUR

treasurer's books, Dublin recounts how the scholars fill out the experience of the entry girts considered the company's actions as of the Irish into the mills. Ten years ago, insults to daughters of "Patriotic Ances­ historians said that women could not be tors who preferred privation to bondage." traced in census records; but here Dublin In the second turn-out, internal leaders has traced them from farm, to factory, to gave a pre-arranged signal to start the family after marriage. But more than that, strike, staged turnout raids on a room- he has produced an important contribution by-room basis, and organized a Factory to the study of rural-industrial work transi­ Girl's Association. Building on his tion, and the particular experience of analysis of closely shared work and home women workers in that process. life, Dublin shows how the terms of pater­ 1 nalism, and the girls short career in the Florence Bartoshesky mills, were actually preconditions for con­ Baker Library certed action, rather than barriers to it. Harvard University Here Dublin highlights the sense of sister­ hood and feminist content of the strikes Melton Alonza McLaurin, The Knights of and of the Ten-Hour agitations of the Low­ Labor in the South (Westport, Connec­ ell Female Labor Reform Association of ticut: Greenwood Press 1978). the 1840s. The PLKA, a thoroughly labour association, nevertheless addressed the "MUCH depends," as Melton McLaurin operatives as women, and saw that part of reminds us, in referring to the Knights of their debility came from the social and cul­ Labor's racial policies and practices, "on tural handicaps of their gender. whether the viewer sees the bottle as half Dublin sees the subsequent decline in full or half empty.'' Thus, on the one hand, labour activism as a transitional phase the Knights argued that black and white between the breaking up of the Yankee workers had the same economic interests, farm girl community and the formation of and by recruiting black members and giv­ an Irish community inside and outside the ing them positions of authority they factories. We know much more about the showed that the colour line could be bro­ new Irish operatives from Women at Work ken. On the other hand, these liberal racial than we did before — how they went to positions were more often taken by the work younger and lived at home longer leadership than by the rank and file. In than their brothers, how they bore a greater fact, racial co-operation in some quarters share of increased productivity than the helped drive skilled whites out of the order Yankees, how much more economic fam­ and turn it into an organization for rural ily responsibility they carried than their blacks only. Should we therefore be predecessors in the mills had. Unfor­ impressed by the Knights' performance or tunately we do not have the richness of not? "Both sides," McLaurin tells us, sources on the Irish to answer so many of "can be substantiated:'' so take your pick. the questions which Dublin answered for If intellectually a bit frustrating, it is an the Yankee girls. At present, Irish letters, honest enough assessment. diaries, and reminiscences have not sur­ faced, and may never do so. The time is Unfortunately, the author of The long gone for oral histories of people who Knights of Labor in the South is unwilling worked in the 1860s and 1870s like the to admit mat the half full/half empty option remembrances which Tamara Hareven has can be applied not only to our assessment collected for the French Canadians in Man­ of the Knights in racial matters, but also to chester, New Hampshire for a later period. our evaluation of the place of the Knights Perhaps church and school records, parish in the entire range of American labour his­ and local newspapers, and work on Irish- tory. On this broader question, McLaurin American genealogies will help future has no doubts. With no qualifications he REVIEWS 241

espouses the view that the Knights of result was "disillusionment" at least on Labor were merely the final product of a the part of the more advanced workers. long tradition of reformism, a backward- The general picture the reader is left with is looking organization that failed to provide one of a brief flourishing in 1886, followed "any immediate concrete benefits" for by inevitable decline as the more advanced America's increasingly industrialized white and urban workers abandoned the work force. It was an interesting relic of order and left it to the more backward and the past and bound soon to pass. largely black workers in the rural workers Within these narrow limits, McLaurin — an organization now more ridiculed writes an eminently sensible, if rather than feared. plodding, account of the Knights in the The thesis of this work can therefore be South. Two chapters survey the Southern summed up as follows. First, the overall economy and labour force. Here are dis­ record of the Knights in the South shows played the peculiarities of the Southern that southern workers were far from docile industrial scene, in particular, the patriotic (a point that McLaurin makes in his previ­ and paternalistic image of management ous work. Paternalism and Protest), and which intensified hostility toward labour that they contributed as much to the order unions as Yankee incursions. The South­ as did Northern workers. Second, the ern labour force was also more rural, less effort was largely futile since the Knights educated, and, since Blacks still played a of Labor, in terms of both organization and significant role in industry apart from the ideology, belonged to the past. Its relative Alabama textile factories, more divided on success in the South, in fact, is merely wit­ ethnic lines than its Northern counterpart. ness to the fact that the pre-industrial (The North before 1890 had not yet reformist tradition lingered dure longer. received the full impact of the new immi­ But clearly it had little to offer modern gration.) All this added up to a very bleak workers. In expressing such views picture for the prospects of any labour McLaurin is scarcely treading new ground. organization in the South and conse­ The same thesis was applied to the Knights quently, according to McLaurin, the of Labor by John Commons and his school accomplishments of the Southern Knights and it was reiterated even more forcefully appear all the greater. by Gerald N. Grob in his Workers and Utopia: A Study of Ideological Conflict in Yet as we advance through subsequent the American Labor Movement (1961), a chapters on organization, strikes and work to which McLaurin admits his indebt­ boycotts, politics, education and co­ edness. operation, ethnic relations, and internal dissension, what becomes abundantly But it is precisely this long prevalent clear is the hopelessness of the cause. model that the "new labour historians" Thus, strikes and boycotts were largely have sought to challenge in recent years. emotional responses which could not Inspired by the English Marxists E.P. deliver the immediate benefits that the rank Thompson and E.J. Hobsbawm, the new and file really sought. So with the several school insists that instead of recounting the co-operative ventures described by history of particular institutions — usually McLaurin — largely dreams of the a dismal exercise — we should observe the national leadership and having little rele­ activities of the American working class as vance to the needs of most workers. Politi­ a whole. What we then observe is a consis­ cal efforts were marginally more promis­ tent pattern of protest manifested in a ing since at least the southern establish­ myriad of late nineteenth-century political ment was challenged and since some foun­ parties and labour movements of which the dations were laid "on which the Progres­ Knights of Labor was only one example, sives would build;" but again the final even if a very important one. Admittedly, 242 LABOUR/LE TRAVAILLEUR in making their protest, American workers James R. Green, Grass-Roots Socialism: used the experiences of the past — and in Radical Movements in the Southwest, that sense were ''backward looking" — 1895-1943 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State but they were also consciously driving in University Press 1978). the direction of an alternative moral order, very different from that being created by FOR 13 SUMMERS after 1904,1000s of East American capitalism. If the working class Texas dirt farmers crowded the shady ultimately failed, this is a measure of the groves of Progress Park in Grand Saline to strength of their opposition, not of their attend the grand-daddy of all socialist lack of resolve nor of their obsession with encampments. Combining recreation and "practical" benefits. The much vaunted education, these radical revival meetings "pure and simple" unionism claimed to be constituted the southwestern movement's so characteristic of American workers, principal propaganda vehicle. In part belongs to the twentieth century. because agitators such as "Red Tom" It is an interesting comment on the state Hickey retained the forms, and often the of labour history that much of the detail in content, of evangelical preaching, share­ McLaurin's work could be used by the croppers, lumberjacks, and miners took "new labour historians" in their counter- hope in a new gospel of salvation — thesis. It is significant, for instance, that socialism. In 1910 the Oklahoma party had Melvyn Dubofsky's discussion of the a larger membership than that in the state period in Industrialism and the American of New York, and in 1912 it gave Eugene Worker 1865-1920 (1975) specifically Debs his most numerous vote. cites McLaurin's previous book as an argu­ In his discussion of the encampments, ment against the Grab thesis! Unfor­ James Green captures the rural and agra­ tunately, the new school has not yet pro­ rian character of this socialist tendency duced an overall synthesis of the period, so because he recognizes that, despite the McLaurin can scarcely be faulted for any impact of rapid industrialization, tradi­ glaring omission in his secondary sources. tional values and attitudes persisted among Still, David Montgomery pointed the way the men and women of the southern plains. in his Beyond Equality: Labor and the The book focuses on progressive politics in Radical Republicans 1862-1872 (1967), the southwest between the populist revolt and suggestions for the alternative view of and the Great Depression, but Green Gilded Age labour history have appeared firmly locates the movement in its social in many articles since then. The alternative and cultural context. The result is a gritty scheme was the theme of last year's realism that goes far beyond conventional Chicago conference devoted to the history political history. Green's achievement of the Knights. Perhaps the safest thing a results primarily from impressive research reviewer can say is to repeat the point made in a broad range of manuscript collections at the beginning of this review that all and dozens of local newspapers. This com­ depends upon the eye of the beholder. bined with a sophisticated Marxist per­ What we see depends upon the values we spective makes his analysis of the move­ bring.to the study. Thus McLaurin is per­ ment sensitive and sympathetic. Green fectly entitled to his views. But he would pays southern socialists the compliment of have written a more exciting book had he at treating their movement as a popular and least seemed aware mat there was another genuine expression of agrarian discontent argument. and for that reason, he argues, a viable political force. Socialism took root in the southwest in part, Green believes, because its advocates W.M.Dick were "organic intellectuals" who used tra­ Scarborough College ditional forms to propagate the new REVIEWS 243 doctrine, and he perceptively devotes a continent-wide phenomenon? Apparently good deal of attention to the style and sub­ Green himself does not really think so. stance of propaganda. His description of After offering the pat answer he goes on to "salesmen-soldiers" — only 21 per cent, admit that the farmers of the southwest for instance, had belonged to earlier radi­ never abandoned their "frontier indi­ cal organizations — constitutes a unique vidualism." He should have made this profile of the rank-and-file activists who more sophisticated formulation explicit. provide the dynamism in all parties. These But as much as anything this criticism "hustlers," 6,000 strong by 1912, sold reflects a difference in perspective which subscriptions to Julius Wayland's Appeal should do nothing to detract from an to Reason which stirred rebel hearts from admirable piece of scholarship. the Rio Grande to the Canadian prairies. Sensational and moralistic, the Appeal A. Ross McCormack became "a school for Socialists" because University of Winnipeg it reached the isolated fanners of the south­ west in a way that more conventional forms of propaganda could not. Green uses Millard L. Gieske, Minnesota Fqrmer- his discussion of propaganda to emphasize Laborim: The Third-Party Alternative the socialist movement's roots and vitality (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota among the natives of America's rural Press 1979). heartland. ANY OBSERVER OP THE United States will Clearly socialism inspired the lumber­ ask sooner or later why that country has jacks and mill hands, black and white, who produced no labour party. What better had to be disciplined to capitalist work place is there to begin an answer to mat habits in the Louisiana-Texas piney question than Minnesota? The Farmer- woods. In 1910 they established a radical Labor Party of that state functioned for 22 industrial union, the Brotherhood of years, was organized on the basis of dues- Timber Workers. To guard against rep­ paying membership (rather than can­ ression by ruthless employers, the union didates and campaign staffs), developed a adopted the mythical and secret rites which platform calling for public ownership of the Knights of Labor had employed. More industry and transportation and replacing important, in Green's view, the BTW bor­ of the profit system by "production for rowed the Knights' interracial structures. use," and at its apogee (1936) selected five Integration was consolidated when the of the state's nine Congressmen and gar­ rww gave the union's radicalism a harder nered 58 per cent of the vote for its guber­ edge. natorial candidate. Yet two presidential The Brotherhood of Timber Workers elections later the party had disappeared, and the Renters' Union were certainly sig­ and Minnesotans were left with the alterna­ nificant manifestations of socialist influ­ tives of Democratic or Republican admin­ ence. But did they represent the proletarian istrations of post-New Deal capitalism. solidarity which Green posits, perhaps Millard Gieske's view of the FLP is that considers politically essential? Not all his­ of a political scientist who assumes that a torians would place a similar construction "third party" is an anomaly, destined on the evidence. Garin Burbank has ultimately to fuse with either the Republi­ reached different conclusions on, for cans or the Democrats, and that the only instance, the collapse of the movement. realistic and meaningful purpose of politi­ Does the assertion that "wartime repres­ cal activity is to seek office by astutely sion and patriotic coercion killed the trimming one's program to the prevailing Socialist party in the Southwest," con­ winds of the "popular mood." (96) A pro­ stitute an adequate explanation for what gramme committed to fundamental social was after all only one dimension of a change strikes him only as an obstacle to 244 LABOUR/LE TRAVAJLLEUR

that goal, and revolutionaries in a party's who gained a local influence unique in the midst are an embarrassment at best, a Tro­ United States through their able leadership jan horse at worst. Even the support labour of Minneapolis' truckers, mobilized AFL gave the Farmer-Labor Party, Gieske forces within the FLP for a red-baiting argues, "carried a considerable price and crusade to expel communists and neutral­ occasionally [during strikes] was in danger ize the cio during 1937 and 1938. of becoming a net liability." (95) In fact, Neither Farrell Dobbs, Teamster Power, he concludes, the "movement's major cul­ nor Art Preis, Labor's Giant Step, as much tural contribution was not its third- as mentions the role of the Minneapolis partyism, nor its sometimes uniquely dif­ teamsters inside the FLP. Similarly, Gies- ferent economic theories, but rather the ke's evidence reveals that the state-wide fact that during the turbulent mid- 1930s, a vote of the Communists (in this state which crucial period of time, it preserved and car­ ranked among the CP'S strongholds) never ried forward the tradition of effective lead­ exceeded one per cent of the total from the ership." (172) 1920s through the 1940s. It was their role Given this perspective, it is not surpris­ in the cio that made them the dominant ing that Gieske offers only the most group on the Left after 1935. Prior to that meager glimpses of Minnesota's social his­ time the most influential advocates of tory and of the reasons why some 100,000 socialism within the FLP were associated people paid hard-earned money for sub­ with the Socialist Party and the League for scriptions to the Minnesota Leader. Independent Political Action (chaired by Although he makes passing references to John Dewey). the conservatism of the German Catholic The story of the FLP, however, begins or Scandinavian countryside and to the with the fanners. In the decade of World rigidly Irish quality of the Democratic War 1 they were more numerous than ever Party in St. Paul, he betrays little sensitiv­ before or since in Minnesota's history, ity to the immigrant character of the ethnic locked in desperate economic battle with mosaic found in both rural and urban Min­ the grain millers and dealers of Min­ nesota. His chronicle simply moves from neapolis, and increasingly well organized party convention to primary election to through their own co-operative exchanges. general election and back to the next con­ Their struggles produced rural legislators, vention, in the traditional manner of co-operative officials, and small-town American political historiography. editors (who could challenge the rabidly Nevertheless, this book has three vir­ Republican press of the Twin Cities), at the tues which make it well worth reading. same time that worker-based Socialists First, the story of the FLP not only ranks briefly won control of Minneapolis, and among the most exciting chapters in the the Nonpartisan League swept into power history of American labour, but also sheds in North Dakota. Enthusiastic experiments important light on the political character of with Nonpartisan League activity in Min­ the period between the two world wars. nesota's Republican primaries during the Second, Gieske has made excellent use of war met with such severe repression that the papers of various friends and foes of the NFL meetings were outlawed in 19 counties movement, most of which have only and two top NFL leaders were jailed, while recently become available to scholars. headlines of the Minneapolis Tribune Third (a most unexpected reward) the advised the electorate: "Vote in Minnesota book's discussion of the activities of Com­ the Way the Boys Shoot in France." (43) munists and Trotskyists within the FLP dur­ Although the NPL victories of 1918 and ing the 1930s supplies considerable infor­ 1920 were almost all rural, it was the mation which official and sympathetic his­ labour wing of the movement that linked it tories of both those groups have studiously to efforts to form a national labour party, avoided. For example, the Trotskyists, injected the demand for public ownership REVIEWS 245

of industry, and transformed an alliance of were but obstacles to Olson's capable but nonpartisan leagues into a political party in beleaguered administration. Strikes and time for the elections of 1922. In that demonstrations whittled away at his elec­ depression year the new FLP established toral majorities, and the radical FLP con­ itself as the second party of the state with vention of 1934 was "a political disaster." almost 40 per cent of the vote and sent Hen- (185) But the party's urban strength grew rik Shipstead off to the U.S. Senate. as its support among farmers dwindled Although William Mahoney, Robley (especially in the more prosperous south­ Cramer, and their progressive associates ern part of the state). In 1936 with Olson from the unions were subsequently able to recently dead, the intransigent champion create the Farmer-Labor Association, of public ownership Elmer Benson won 58 based on dues-paying members of ward per cent of the votes, beating even Olson's clubs and affiliated organizations, the 1930 record, while Franklin Roosevelt defeat of unionism in basic industries after took 60 per cent of the presidential ballot, 1921 and Mahoney's and Cramer's con­ where he faced no FLP opposition. flicts with both the national leaders of the Organized labour was now the solid AFL and the Workers (Communist) Party in base of the movement, but labour itself 1923 and 1924 killed off the national divided bitterly with the splits of both the movement, isolating Minnesota's FLP, and American union movement and the Third shifted the party's centre of gravity back to International. As Communist activists and the countryside for the rest of the decade. their allies in the new industrial unions Between 1928 and 1934, however, the fought to make the FLP the political agency FLP gained a new lease on life. The eco­ of a popular front, AFL leaders (among nomic crisis not only produced massive them the Trotskyists) bitterly opposed the desertions from the Republican column, but effort. At the 1937 Minneapolis conven­ also aggravated divisions within the tion, writesGieske, "speakerafter speaker Democratic Party to the point that, arose with a laundry list of Red charges although their party gained votes, it could which made the campaign oratory of not capture the coveted second place. Intel­ Republicans [in 1918 and 1920] .. .seem lectuals and trade unionists within the orbit almost restrained. Yet these were Farmer- of the Socialist Party revived nation-wide Laborites declaring that members of their efforts for a labour party, using Minnesota own party were Communists or Commu­ as a model. Militant popular struggles, like nist sympathizers!" (246) The red-baiting the farm holiday movement, the teamsters' begun there was picked up by Hjalmar strike, and the people's lobby of 1934 (left Peterson in his two-year campaign to dis­ unmenuoned by Geiske, who does berate place Benson as the FLP'S gubernatorial the less successful lobby of 1937), roused candidate, and mixed with increasingly city and country alike. Amidst this activity virulent anti-Semitism. By the elections of Floyd Olson was three times elected gov­ 1938 both the FLP primaries and the general ernor on the FLP ticket, but also with the election occasioned orgies of anti-Semitic covert aid of influential New Deal Democ­ propaganda, featuring great billboards rats and the overt aid of the All-Party Vol­ with Jewish-looking FLP Reds riding unteer Committee for Olson, headed by roughshod over the assorted nationalities people with important business connec­ of Minnesota and Ray Chase's infamous tions. pamphlet about the FLP, Are They Commu­ In Gieske's view the Farmer-Labor nists or Catspaws? While the White House Association, with its "disciplined democ­ studiously ignored the FLP's pleas for help, ratic centralism" [!] (84) and its conven­ Martin Dies' Committee on UnAmerican tion demands for "production for use" (a Activities came to Minnesota to inves­ phrase which became the 1930s counter­ tigate its governing party. Harold Stassen part of "the cooperative commonwealth") 246 LABOUR/LE TRAVAILLEUR promised the voters a Republican adminis­ that the author hoped to unearth more tration supportive of the New Deal and a radicalism than he actually found, but that bulwark against Communism in any form. he is quite willing to praise the Catholic In November his party swept the PLP from participation in the labour struggles of the office. early years. The author does not interpret The FLP survived only six more years. the support given by the Catholic Church So bitter were the movement's internal divi­ to the moderate wing of the labour move­ sions that in 1942, when Hjalmar Peterson ment as part of an ideological policy to finally won the FLP's nomination for gov­ defend the interests of the ruling class. He ernor, the state CIO endorsed Stassen. takes the Catholic spokesmen at their Meanwhile, discussions of possible mer­ word. gers between the FLP and the Democrats had The book first examines the position become commonplace, while all talk of a adopted by the Catholic bishops from the national third party was jettisoned in favour mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth cen­ of a third, then a fourth, term for Roosevelt. tury. When the industrialization of Between 1939 and 1942 fusion proposals America began Catholics were to a large came mainly from the FLP'S right wing, and extent working-class immigrants and con­ were coupled with efforts to expetl "Com­ stituted about half of the labour force in the munists." After 1942, however, (and espe­ country. The American Catholic bishops cially after Teheran) the party's left took supported the labour movement and the the initiative, leading to the ultimate merger creation of trade unions long before this of 1944, thus securing leading offices for its was done by the Protestant Churches, the own adherents. At the inaugural celebration government, and local authorities. The of the new Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party bishops' support of unions even preceded the master of ceremonies was a rising young Pope Leo XIH's 1893 encyclical, Rerum star of the Democrats, Hubert H. Hum­ novarum. From the beginning, therefore, phrey. Four years later, in the setting of the there was a strong Catholic presence in the Cold War, he was to preside over the purg­ labour movement, especially in the Ameri­ ing of those leftists from leadership and the can Federation of Labor. This Catholic dissolution of what remained of the participation helped the labour movement; Farmer-Labor Association. The anti- at the same time it kept it within moderate Communism of 1938 and 1948 provided the lines and opposed any socialist ideas. The ideological environment in which New Catholic workers, following their church's Deal Democrats and Republicans could teaching, were opposed to class war. They restore Minnesota's political game to what entertained a cooperative image of society; Gieske considers its proper rules. they wanted class cooperation and a fair share of the wealth produced by them. David Montgomery Yale University In the chapter on Catholics and the no, the author shows that Catholics were more divided in the 1930s. Yet outspoken Neil Betten, Catholic Activism and the leaders, priests as well as bishops, Industrial Worker (Gainesville: University defended the new labour organization, Presses of Florida 1976). demanded Catholic support, and opposed the socialist ideas emerging in the CIO. Catholics, though largely working class THIS INTERESTING book is a history of the and exposed to bigotry, were not radicals. involvement of Catholics in the labour The book examines the careers of the so- movement of the USA. It is written by a called labour priests in the 1930s. While labour historian who, while not a Catholic, they were radical personalities, they fol­ is sympathetic to Catholic action on behalf lowed the church's official teaching and of labour. The reader gets the impression REVIEWS 247 repudiated socialism. A special chapter that from the outset they envisaged it as deals with the notorious Father Coughlin, "fellow-travelling" with the CPUSA, but who began as a labour priest and ended up emphasize a number of points at which it as a populist with fascist leanings. differed from the Party. The only radical response to However close the paper was to the capitalism, beyond the church's teaching, Party, to travel with it at all was, for most was the Catholic Worker movement, of the Guardian's days, an act of great which the book treats in a special chapter. heroism. The Guardian fought for many of The Catholic Worker vehemently rejected the most unpopular causes in the country, the capitalist system. Yet despite Dorothy defending those who were persecuted, Day's socialist past, the Catholic Worker imprisoned, fired, and, in the case of the did not favour socialism. Its radicalism Rosenbergs, executed, in the many years was derived from Christian anarchist when McCarthyism ran roughshod over ideas, mediated by Peter Morin, the co- America. It was one of the few voices in founder of the movement. The Catholic the media which consistently questioned Worker mistrusted all big organizations, American policy in the Cold War and including a socialist party or a centralized denounced the Warfare State at home. Nat­ planning of the economy. Hope for them urally, the paper's staff, contributors, and was only in small communities, working subscribers were hounded incessantly by together, following the simple life, and the FBI and congressional committees. siding with the poor in their social strug­ Cedric Belfrage, its British born co- gle. Radical Catholics gathered around the founder, was deported. It often seemed Catholic Worker. Thanks to this radical that no sooner had it become clear that the interpretation of the religious tradition, Guardian was simply a voice of the CP, they felt that they could remain in the than it would depart from that mould. The Catholic Church. The author claims that aftermath of Khnischev's revelations of the Catholic Worker was the training Stalin's crimes left it as confused and hesit­ ground for the Catholic radicals of the ant about following the CP leadership as 1960s. much of its readership, who deserted the Party in droves. The Sino-Soviet split also This is a very useful book. It provides a threw it for a loop and the paper resolved to bibliography of the research done in the present both sides of that story, rather than area. There exists no equivalent study for simply siding with the Moscow-line the Catholics in Canada. CPUSA. The authors try to make too much of these differences, though, such as when Gregory Baum they emphasize their having taken up the University of Toronto cudgels for the Rosenberg defence in the face of CP indifference. (The CP was mes­ merized, at first, by the simultaneous pros­ ecution of its entire leadership under the Cedric Belfrage and James Aronson, Smith Act.) Something to Guard. The Stormy Life of the National Guardian, 1948-1967 (New The ex post facto emphasis on their dif­ York: Columbia University Press 1978). ferences with the CP make it difficult for the authors to explain perhaps the most sig­ THIS BREEZILY-WRITTEN memoir by two of nificant aspect of the Guardian's the founding editors of the American radi­ ' 'stormy" life: its collapse amidst the New cal weekly, the National Guardian, is only Left upsurge of the mid-1960s. Aronson's somewhat less cryptic than the paper itself brief description of the conflict with the about its real relationship to the Commu­ new generation of staffers and their allies nist Party of the United States. They do say which led him and Belfrage to abandon the 248 LABOUR/LE TRAVAILLEUR

paper is interesting as far as it goes, center­ ist cultural theory. Part m applies cul­ ing, as he sees it, on the kind of demands tural materialist theory to the field of litera­ that everyone on the left climb aboard the ture. Thus the book pulls together the con­ latest hobbyhorses of the "countercul­ cerns of both social historians and literary ture" that split so many enterprises of the theorists, who may, depending on their time. Yet it ignores one of die central rea­ generosity of mind, differ over which of sons for the failure of the Guardian to the book's two concerns has more value. enlarge its'readership among the new Left: Labour and social historians at least that, despite the number of ex- and crypto- will find value in both. By demonstrating Communists among them, most "Move­ what a complete, "constitutive" social ment'1 activists were something the theory should look like, Williams reminds Guardian never was: resolutely anti- us of the centra] place literature must have Soviet. The New Left love affair with the in such a theory. What social historians Cuban Revolution, for example, was have recently tried to do for law, technol­ based on a much different premise than ogy, ideology, and other not strictly eco­ that of the Guardian: that is, on the hope nomic aspects of the social process, Wil­ that Cuba was moving in an entirely differ­ liams here does for literature — that is, to ent direction than the Soviet Union. Both ^conceptualize it, or better, to deconcep- the Soviet and American models were tualize it in order to reveal it as a form of regarded as repulsive. (Whether equally so material social production, and then to remained a matter of debate but not much show what this means regarding author­ interest.) The Guardian, identified so ship, aesthetics, kinds of writing, signs closely with the pro-Soviet apologias of and notations, and a host of other elements the "Old Left" could never develop a fol­ of literary theory. It is forbidding territory, lowing among the New Left despite the but it may be comforting to discover that fact that much of its reporting in the early many problems associated with social his­ and mid-1960s provided invaluable tory are also confronted by literary and lin­ ammunition for radical battles. guistic theory in different though not tot­ ally unintelligible ways.

Harvey Levenstein, If social historians will have lost their McMaster University, and literary virginity, it is doubtful that the Centre for the Study of Social History, introduction will lead to marriage or will convince them to abandon their traditional University of Warwick. interests. The analysis of "basic con­ cepts" and of Marxist cultural theory in Raymond Williams, Marxism and Litera­ Parts I and II is another matter, for here is a ture, (Oxford: Oxford University Press more lasting, if not more novel, contribu­ 1977). tion: the most complete and timely theoret­ ical exploration of the relationship of soci­ APPEARING W THE Oxford University Press ety and culture available, and one of the series entitled "Marxist Introductions," most compressed examples of what a this book, no mere introduction in the Marxist social theory should contain but expected sense, is the fruit of Raymond has never achieved. Williams' recent thinking. The product of The contribution here is twofold. First, a life-long dialogue with Marxism, it it satisfies what has always been the most offers a theory of "cultural materialism" pressing need of Marxist theory — a deci­ developed in three parts. Part I is a history sive clarification of the entire question of of four "basic concepts" of modern culture and society. Williams shows that, thought: "culture," "language," "litera­ taken as a whole tradition of thinking, the ture," and "ideology." Part D is a critique Marxist contribution to the understanding and an extension of the elements of Marx­ of culture, language, literature, and ideol- REVIEWS 249 ogy is best characterized as uneven, inde­ his own creation. Yet what has been cisive, even unidentifiable, and finally attended to about Marxism is everything misunderstood. The source of both its per­ but what it is about. That Marxism has suasiveness and its rejection, its com­ itself contributed to this evasion is at once plexities and simplifications, these are the the theme of the book, the most conse­ characteristics that go unnoticed by the quential irony in Marxist thought, and the intellectually disaffected (Marxist or not), occasion for Williams' theory of "cultural though they may be the source of Marx­ materialism." ism* s contemporary vitality. Marxism has Williams' theory differs from existing been inconclusive, wavering between a theories of cultural materialism — such as conception of culture as a material and pas­ that of the anthropologist Marvin Harris — sive reflection of social and economic in its emphasis on culture as "social mate­ "reality," or as an immaterial force rial process" rather than as a reflection of actively shaping, more often actively not some prior or basic or material cause. For shaping, that "reality." In either case it has Williams culture is not reducible to society retreated from its original, radical recogni­ but is constituted in it. Demanding "the tion of culture as a fully social and material specification of material cultural and liter­ process. Having pursued this indecision ary production within historical material­ for many years, Williams clarifies and set­ ism," his theory is rigorous yet inclusive. tles it in the direction of materialism: his is, While insisting on the variability of litera­ he writes, decidedly "a Marxist theory." ture (its forms, its multiplicity of writing), Far from being a "cultumlist" then, Wil­ he also insists on the materiality of literary liams establishes himself as one of the few — of all cultural — production. This Marxists to have shown us what material­ requires the radical recognition that what ism means. Who else speaks so effortlessly we have known as "literature,'' "language," and revealingly of language as a means of "ideology," and "culture" are in fact limit­ production, or (as in a recent article) of the ing, specialized categories, pure abstrac­ tact that a renewed sense of possibility will tions, which should be seen rather as have to be "produced?" "problems," "historical movements." Only then can they be reconstituted in a The second contribution goes beyond theory of society that neither decomposes the particular requirements of Marxist cul­ into the empiricist excuse for evading the tural theory to a more important task with­ wholeness of social life, nor sacrifices spe­ out which these requirements would cificity to "confused projective general­ appear inconsequential. For it reminds us isation." what Marxism is, what the "central think­ A brilliant, illuminating analysis, this ing of Marxism" is all about — not the is also an important Marxist theoretical mechanical and simplistic formulations achievement. For while it is a materialist with which it is usually associated, but theory, it finally overcomes the ironic the crisis of human self-understanding into devaluation of culture — and of man — which, as "the most important intellectual often implied, in different and opposite advance in all modern social thought," it ways, in both materialist and idealist, Marx­ originally intervened. While Marxist ter­ ist and non-Marxist social theory. Cast minology has been in turn absorbed and not as a defence but as a critique, it recov­ abused, the central challenge of historical ers the original challenge of Marx's mate­ materialism has been evaded: that men not rialism. This recovery, however, requires only make their own history (Vico and either an abandonment or an extension of Herder), but that they make it in material the formulations upon which materialism ways; in short that they make themselves. has traditionally depended, especially that Marxism is nothing if not a challenge to of "a determining base and a determined man to recognize himself and his world as superstructure." It demands a refinement 250 LABOUR/LE TRAVAILLEUR

of "determination," an expanded defini­ raphical risk. At times it was inescapable, tion of "productive forces," a rejection of as when (63) Marx sought to exploit the the dualism that separates the "social real progress "scientific rationality" was order" from "culture," and a recognition making — a rationality which, however, of the woithlessness of "reflection" and persisted in the abstraction of "man" and "mediation" theories which these self- his "world" as given and natural. At times defeating formulas have required. it was an intellectual and ideological eva­ sion, an expedient, as when Engels The point is that most of the received appealed to critical knowledge in the name concepts of Marxism are at odds with the of the very scientism and empiricism he initial emphasis on the wholeness of his­ was supposed to have been challenging. tory, on the understanding of society as an Finally, Marxism, with so much else, often interrelated and man-made process. Hence enough collapsed under the pressure of the development of a truly constitutive capitalist materialism, as in the concept of social theory has been at once one of the "productive forces" where culture, again, special tasks and central failures of Marx­ was allowed to be displaced from an eco­ ism. To be sure, it is questionable nomic "base." whether "alternatives to Marxism" can be said to have failed in this task since they What Williams is suggesting about the never reached so far as to try. Nor does historical development of Marxist thought Williams fail to acknowledge and build is not new. What is different about Wil­ upon significant Marxist theoretical work, liams is the completeness of his insistence especially in linguistics, that has gone far upon the irreducible importance of histori­ to overcome the difficulty. Still, with Wil­ cal materialism, and his equally complete liam Blake, Marx might well have longed sensitivity to the urgency of its failures. for enemies for friendship's sake. Having Marxism, he argues, has endured a history set out to rectify the failure of idealism to of abstractions away from life as "social recognize society and culture as the mate­ material process." It has been neither crit­ rial creations of man, Marx, but especially ical enough of its adversaries, nor, Marxism, almost immediately separated paradoxically, insistent enough on its own culture from material social life and dis­ materialist understanding of culture. This placed it in a superstructure, thus repro­ is not a critique bom of disaffection from ducing "the very tendency in idealist cul­ the Marxist tradition. tural thought" Marx had sought to over­ On the contrary, Williams' apprecia­ come. It then required the confusions and tion of the enormous cost of Marxism's abstractions of "Marxism" to clarify the ironic contribution to idealist thought may original proposition, which receded the be his most telling Marxist trait, the surest more these were pursued. The intellectual sign of his materialism. Marxism, he advance that made it possible for the first shows, has driven artists to the safety of time to recognize what appeared to be nat­ bourgeois individualism, in full flight ural as, in fact, man-made and historical, from the collectivist cultural nightmare. It perpetuated concepts which allowed the has allowed itself to place much of history product of conscious human intervention and culture, especially contemporary liter­ in history to appear "natural." ature and art, beneath importance — in Williams' typically non-polemical terms, How and wriy Marxism drifted from "theoretically inaccessible." More costly the thrust of its intervention constitutes a yet, it has encouraged the theoretical vac­ central theme of the book and a compelling uum "alternatives to Marxism" have intellectual history. At times this was inad­ sought to fill, without, however, having vertent: the revisionists's unwitting legiti­ to confront the central challenge of Marx. mation of the orthodoxy he seeks to All of this, Williams argues, has served a supplant is a common enough historiog- REVIEWS 251 hegemonic function. Since the failure to seen as bringing about a split between the develop a truly constitutive social theory home and the workplace. Along with these has always served the interests of existing tenets went a refusal to deal with class dif­ society, readers of Williams' book will feel ferences and a tendency to view change as a certain urgency in getting on with their an agentless process. work. Subsequent historical studies have In the last analysis this may be the shed some of this heritage only too evident book's luting importance. Once again it in works such as those of Smelser, Goode, asks us to overcome the remarkable aliena­ and Shorter. Demographers, especially tion by which we perceive our own crea­ Peter Laslett and his colleagues, have tion as "natural" and our best effort to call questioned whether families were in fact it our own as a slur upon our humanity. We ever predominantly extended. Shorter, are back to the original intervention. More Stone, Trumback and others have stressed than twenty years ago, as one who was ideas over economics and especially the "not a Marxist," Williams asserted that importance of the rise of individualism. "the human crisis is always a crisis of self- The heritage of functionalism has been understanding." Does it not suggest some­ exposed and questioned by Vogel, Pleck thing about Marxism that Williams, pursu­ and others. Some steps have been taken ing the same problem, now feels "at toward a marxist feminist approach to fam­ home" with Marx. ily history.'

Tilly and Scott's work first appeared Richard Twomey largely as a criticism of the stress on ideas St. Mary's University made by Goode and later Shorter. Their Louise A. Tilly and Joan W. Scott, 1975 and 1976 articles stressed not the Women. Work and Family (New York: acquisition of new ideas but the impor­ Holt, Rinehart and Winston 1978). tance of the retention of old familial tradi­ tions in explaining women's work in a WOMEN, WORK AND FAMILY is one of the changing economic context.* Both their growing number of books that have been articles and the book transcend some appearing over the last decade on the his­ aspects of the functionalist heritage, while tory of the family. Some have stressed the retaining others. The categories of family analysis of family structure, avoiding economy which they develop suggest that explanation and a sense of time and place family form adapts in a semi-automatic (Peter Laslett). Others have assigned pri­ way to economic change, despite their macy to ideas as the major force bringing insistence on the continuance of old ways. about change in the nature of the family The central question remains "the impact (Goode, Shorter, Stone). Most, in one way of industrialization on women's work." It or another continue to be influenced by the is not an unimportant question. Yet it can functionalist heritage that informed the and does, as Lise Vogel has pointed out, early writing of family history (Smelser). lead to confusion between the origins of Parsonian functionalism bequeathed to the capitalism and the onset of indus­ study of the family three major tenets. trialization. Firstly, industrialization was viewed as the In Women, Work and Family, Scott and important explanation of family change. Tilly examine the "economic, demog­ What industrialization meant, however, raphic and familial influences on women's was never made clear. Secondly, families work in England and France between were believed to have changed from approximately 1700 and 1950. Their extended to nuclear, from somewhat dif­ focus is on the "working of popular fuse to very private institutions with indus­ classes," the groups from which the major­ trialization. Thirdly, industrialization was ity of women involved in productive activ- 252 LABOUR/LE TRAVAILLEUR ity were drawn. They argue that the "level much more for them. After World War II, and character" of industrial development both the stress on children and the likeli­ determine the demand for women as work­ hood of women working for wages ers, reproducers, and childbearers. They increased further as the reproductive aim "to set straight the historical record on period of a woman's life contracted and the women's work and to analyze the interrela­ desire for consumer items increased. The tionships among changes in the economy, expansion of the tertiary sector opened up a in women's work, and in the organization vast new area of women's work. Thus, and structure of working-class family over the period covered, married wo mens' life." There is no simple or single answer involvement in productive work followed a to the question of the impact of indus­ "U-shaped pattern... relatively high in trialization on women's work, they sensi­ the pre-industrial household economy,... bly insist. And yet, their analysis could lower... in industrial economies... lead to a simple answer. The book is higher... with the development of the organized around the identification of modern tertiary sector." (229) three different family types, within which Women, Work and Family makes women's experience is located. The first important contributions both to family and they call the family economy, or "house­ women's history. Scott and Tilly have hold mode of production." It was, they integrated women into the family in their argue, typical of the pre-industrial econ­ analysis much more successfully than pre­ omy — of the landed peasant or the city vious historians of the family. Further­ artisan. All family members were involved more, they have integrated demographic in productive tasks. Married women who changes carefully into their explanations worked in the home or on the farm could of changes in women's lives and work. balance productive and domestic activities Demography in this book becomes part of because work was at home and children lived experience and not an abstract pattern were not given much special attention. or series of dry rates. Sensibly they have Unmarried women worked either with put aside the whole debate about whether their family of origin or in someone else's the family changed from extended to family. nuclear, and their treatment of the split between home and workplace shows that The industrial mode of production was this was a much more subtle and slow pro­ accompanied, they argue, by a new kind of cess than previous writers had suggested. family economy which they term the "fam­ Finally, they attempt to deal with the work­ ily wage economy." Men's jobs increas­ ing class, to show what proletarianization ingly took them away from the home. meant to women and their families. While the type of work women did, did not Despite never defining class rigorously, change, the pattern did. Because more they do give a picture of working-class women's work took place outside the women's lives which is especially strong home, it was harder for mothers to balance when they deal with the twentieth century. productive and reproductive activities. The book essentially follows the pro­ In the late nineteenth and early twen­ gramme set out in their earlier articles. tieth century this family economy was They have filled in the gaps in their and our replaced by the family consumer econ­ knowledge. Their tracing of the involve­ omy . Women were more likely to go out to ment of women in wage labour over time is work, not purely out of necessity, but to especially valuable. The book is based provide small luxuries for the family, as largely on recent and contemporary sec­ male's wages had risen. Concomittant^, ondary literature, but draws also on their greater stress was placed on the mothering own researchi n several cities. The persis­ role. Women had fewer children, spent less tence of pre-industrial values are still of their lives raising them, but tried to do stressed as a key to understanding families' REVIEWS 253

and women's behaviour. "Values, behav­ form a base for class struggle. John Fos­ iour, and strategies shaped under one mode ter's work, for instance, suggests that of production continued to influence families were crucial in transmitting 4 behaviour as the economy changed working-class values and consciousness. The family continued to influence the pro­ Jane Humphries has argued that the very ductive activities of its members." (232) maintenance of the working-class family The book is thus a continuation of and an in a period of proletarianization reflects advance on their previous work in terms of labour's realization that the family was one the information collected and the breadth institution they could control themselves and coherence of its presentation. There is, and through which they could influence however, little change in the explanations their material well-being and the labour offered, little sophistication of the theory supply." Such issues are perhaps outside or explanation. the boundaries of such a book. Yet, a more It is at the level of theory and explana­ dynamic conception of the role of the fam­ tion that the book is disappointing. Like ily and of change might have improved the functionalist writers, Scott and Tilly their analysis. fail to explain how or why change is occur­ Moreover, their stress on the con­ ring. The agents of change, the direction of tinuance of old values appears to have led causality, and the place of the family them to downplay the importance of new therein is missing. Thus the family wage ones. They come close to implying that the economy is described, but not the pro­ family itself is a pre-industrial value. Their cesses that created it. The property- families exist without any apparent influ­ holding peasant family is viewed as essen­ ence or control over their lives. They tially the same as those families involved in respond to change by lowering their birth rural industry because all work and live in rate, by sending children or wives out to the same space — the home. Yet the works work. But they are not involved in com­ of Braun, Medick, Mendels and others munal or class struggles, either at home or have made it clear that the diffusion of put­ in the workplace. ting out into the countryside had important These reservations apart, this is an implications not only for family fertility important book. Scott and Tilly have and family control of production, but also drawn together vital aspects of women's for the very way in which industrial capital lives and work in the context of the family. 3 ran, organized and re-organized industry. They have done so intelligently and with This kind of dynamic analysis is missing. good sense. Their contrast of the French and English experience is useful for it cau­ Similarly, the "consumer wage econ­ tions against simplistic, overall explana­ omy" appears to be the result of women's tions . The different involvement of women desire to provide luxuries for their in wage labour in the two countries, in con­ families. There is no consideration given junction with their stress on regional dif­ to the changing nature of capital, or to the ferences highlights the importance of role of advertising in instilling the idea that understanding the very varied nature of families need to consume ever novel com­ capitalist development. However, their modities. This lack of consideration of the categorization of family types downplays agents of change means that the working- the importance of such differences. Hope­ class families exist in a political vacuum. It fully it will not be simplified by others into also leads to a kind of economic deter­ an evolutionary model. They are also to be minism. The growing role of the state in commended on co-authoring a book that areas such as regulation of child and reads as if it were written by one person. It female labour, the promotion of schooling, is written for an undergraduate audience and the regulation of family life is not con­ and is clear and coherent, although slightly sidered. Nor is the idea (hat families could condescending at times. For instance, 254 LABOUR/LE TRAVAILLEUR

"We will begin by defining women." Laura S. Strumingher, Women and the Necessary? Women are defined, yet more Making of the Working Class: Lyon complex ideas are not. "Mode of produc­ J830-1870 (Montreal: Eden Press 1979). tion" is used in a manner which is never explained and which is peculiarly their WHAT PREVENTED workers from uniting to own. throw off their chains of bondage in The book is ambitious. It collects a lot nineteenth-century capitalist Europe? This of important information into a coherent is the question that Laura S. Strumingher and readable whole. It should be of interest addresses in her monograph in women's to the general public as well as to studies — a series edited by Sherri women's, family, and labour historians. Clarkson. The book concentrates on The question of the impact of indus­ France's major centre of silk textiles pro­ trialization on women's work has not yet duction during the period 1830-70. been answered. It has, however, been Wage-earners, she hypothesizes, did not clarified. acquire the requisite "proletarian con­ sciousness," due to a divergence in the way Bettina Bradbury males and females viewed each other and Concordia University their respective positions as workers. As capitalist industrialization shattered the family workshop and separated economic activities from household life, women became vulnerable to excessive exploit­ ation in both the workplace and the family. 1 Lise Vogel, "The Contested Domain: The Within the working class, men denied Family, Early Capitalism and Indus­ women membership in protective associa­ trialization," Marxist Perspectives, 1 (1978); tions, opposed equal pay, and even their Elizabeth Pleck, "Two Worlds in One: Work and Family," Journal of Social History, 10 right to work. In society at large, women (1976). fell subject to bourgeois propaganda and * Joan W. Scott and Louise A. Tilly, "Women's socializing institutions, reinforced by Work and the Family in Nineteenth Century sympathetic intellectuals and public Europe," in Charles E. Rosenberg, ed., The authorities. While feminists advised sister­ Family in History (Pennsylvania 1975), Scott hood, socialists advocated sexual equality and Tilly, "Women's Work and European Fertil­ and equal pay, yet they still upheld the pat­ ity Patterns," Journal of Interdisciplinary His­ riarchal family. The Catholic Church tory (1976), 1 adopted a strategy of labour organization Rudolph Braun, "The Impact of Cottage Industry on an Agricultural Population," in in the form of mercantile-backed convent- David Landes, ed.. The Rise of Capitalism, factories, only to hasten the demise of the (New York 1966). Hans Medick, "The proto- family workshop and the secularizing of industrial family economy: the structural func­ the labouring poor. Clerical and public tion of household and family during the transi­ schools used a "carrot and stick" pedag­ tion from peasant society to industrial ogy, promising upward mobility to the capitalism," Social History. 3 (1976). F. Men- self-disciplined and destitution to the dis­ dels, "Proto-industrialization, The First Phase orderly, while instilling resignation in all. of the Industrialization Process," Journal of Economic History, 32 (1972). For women in particular, these agents of 4 reform and philanthropy reiterated the John Foster. Class Struggle and the Industrial same message: females are temporary Revolution. Early Industrial Capitalism in Three English Towns (London 1974). employees, naturally destined for mother­ s Jane Humphries, "Class Struggle and the per­ hood and dutiful service in the family sistence of the Working Class Family," where husband reigns supreme as the Cambridge Journal of Economics (1977, 1). acknowledged breadwinner. The author REVIEWS 255 concludes that Lyonese workers generally H.E. Meller, Leisure and the Changing yielded to a dual integration into capitalist City, 1870-1914 (London: Routledge and society. On the one hand, embourgeoise- Kegan Paul 1976) and Peter Bailey, Lei­ mem co-opted those who survived factory sure and Class in Victorian England: competition, forming a conservative Rational Recreation and the Contest for labouring elite who dissuaded collective Control, 1830-1885 (London: Routledge action subversive to the status quo. On the and Kegan Paul 1978). other hand, those who failed suffered pro­ letarianization that inhibited revolt in an THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY bourgeoisie sought to extend its sway, as Marx and institutional context of triumphant Engels were among the first to note, as bourgeois ideology, which perpetuated much by its monopolization of "culture" sex-biased prejudices against the Canutes, as by its control of production. The Com­ and which generally convinced the work­ munist Manifesto accordingly carried an ing class to accept subordination. attack upon, This attempt to explain why Marx's ... the economists, philanthropists, humanita­ call for class solidarity went unheard in rians, improvers of the condition of the working Lyon depends on the author's view of mas­ class, organizers of charity, members of soci­ eties for the prevention of cruelty to animals, ter weavers as essentially wage-earners to temperance fanatics, hole and corner reformers be comprehended in the same class cate­ of every imaginable kind... [who] want all the gory as factory personnel. The indepen­ advantages of modern social conditions without dent weaver, however, was notably a the struggles and dangers necessarily resulting small-scale entrepreneur-employ eur therefrom. (called "mon bourgeois" by his own work­ In the last decade a growing number of ers) who was a proprietor of the means of English social historians have followed up production. The slanted emphasis that on this insight in turning their attention results throughout the study raises the from the working conditions to the problem whether the author has not mis­ leisure-time activities of nineteenth- construed the lack of inter-class alliances century labourers. The question posed by (like masters failing to espouse Canutes' Gareth Stedman Jones, Richard Price, demands for higher wages in a manoeuvre Stephen Yeo, and others is how was the to raise the price of silk) and the presence late nineteenth-century working class of inter-class conflicts (like masters oppos­ politically pacified. Was it perhaps ing industrialist monopolization of the "embourgeoised" or at least domesticated in accepting via the medium of temperance market, evident in their complaints in or the YMCA the values of middle class cul­ L'Echo de la Fabrique), as indicative of ture? In the main the answer arrived at is dissensions within the working class. The that though working-class culture was thesis of dual integration seems questiona­ indeed remade in the 1880s and 1890s this ble too. Why should the petty bourgeois transformation did not signify a capitula­ weaver succumb to an ideology he already tion of the masses to the cultural dictates of embodied? As for the neutralization of the the upper classes. Workers were clearly proletarianized, sexually-biased by not immune to the ideological pressures of bourgeois conditioning, little is said about press and pulpit but in giving up many of their traditional leisure pursuits they suc­ hostilities between female and male fac­ J tory workers. Nonetheless, this is a worthy ceeded in reformulating conventional and revealing study of conditions women views on sport and recreation to match confronted in an industrializing capitalist their own beliefs and attitudes. society. It is this attempt by the middle classes to bring a liberal culture to the masses and the tatter's response which is the central Arthur Borghese concern of the books by Meller and Bailey. Toronto These case studies of the leisure debate in 256 LABOUR/LE TRAVAILLEUR two towns in the 1860s and 1870s — Meller is at her best in her narrative of the Meller chose Bristol and Bailey, Bolton— socio-religious provisions by which Bris­ nicely complement each other. Meller's tol's elite attempted to civilize the poor. main focus is on the response of the civic While stressing the originality of the elite to the challenge of providing a culture YMCA, the Missions, and the Temperance or style of leisure which would unite all the Movement, she also points out the ways in which such endeavours had to adjust to the citizens of a modernizing city; Bailey's sym­ demands for entertainment made by their pathies lie with the workers' efforts to turn clientele. The YMCA, for example, which such interests to their own ends. Both studies began in the 1840s as a religious organiza­ accept as their initial premise the arguments tion had, by the turn of the century, to pro­ of E.P. Thompson and R.W. Malcolmson vide gymnastic equipment to ensure its that in pie-industrial society there was no lei­ popularity. The Churches, to hold the sure "problem" because work and play were attention of children, had likewise to offer not sharply segregated; likewise there con­ bribes of Boys' Brigades complete with tinued to be no "problem" in the 1830s and band equipment and uniforms. Meller is 1840s Dark Age of the Industrial Revolution also effective in noting the impact that after rituals and festivals had fallen victim to technological change had on recreation. enclosures, entrepreneurs, and Constraints imposed by building develop­ Evangelicalism because there was little time ments, working conditions, and civic regu­ lation hemmed in old spontaneous play, or money for working-class play. Only in the but industry at the same time produced the latter half of the nineteenth century did a bicycle, the roller skate, the vulcanized reduced and relocated block of free time re- golf and tennis ball. Such equipment was, emerge for labour and along with it the ques­ of course, far too expensive both for the tion posed by the middle class: for what pur­ poor and the working-class school; poses would it be employed? working-class sportsmen would long depend on union, factory, church, or pub The chief characters in Meller's study sponsorship. The main weakness in Mel* are those civic worthies of Bristol who ler's study is that so little is said about the self-consciously wrestled with the issue. response of the working classes to such Bristol, the second city of England in the developments. Only one of her nine chap­ early eighteenth century was to fall to sev­ ters has much information on the workers; enth place by 1901 but still provided suffi­ the other eight are primarily concerned cient wealth to ensure the prosperity of the with the concept of "social citizenship" Fry (chocolate) and Wills (tobacco) dynas­ which underlay the interest in providing ties. These and other philanthropic healthy forms of leisure-time activity. As a families — in the main Liberal and Non­ result one looking for information on lei­ conformist — founded libraries, art gal­ sure in the nineteenth-century will And a leries, and museums with the intention of rather curious picture presented of it by establishing, in Meller*s words, a "civiliz­ Meller; her book has an enormous amount ing process" which would bridge social of detail on Temperance but little on pubs, barriers. Success was at least achieved in a good deal of information on the Churches integrating the middling classes: the prob­ but only a word or two on the music hall. lem of reaching the workers for whom a franchise was promised in 1867 and an Bailey also devotes a large portion of education in 1870 remained an intractable his study to documenting the middle class' problem. In any event municipal provision effort to provide the masses with outlets for for the masses came earliest in cities such rational recreation but complements it with as Manchester and Birmingham where chapters on the music hall, the Working social conditions were worse; in Bristol lit­ Men's Club Movement, and sport. Like tle of material advantage was offered by Meller he sees the middle class as first the city council until late in the century to working out the issues of the legitimacy of give some substance to the boast that Bris­ its own leisure. For the aristocracy and the tol's poor enjoyed "social citizenship." working class no problem was posed by REVIEWS 257 free time, but it was viewed with and northern teams freed themselves from ambiguity if not guilt by a class which middle class amateur and clerical control. based its assertion of moral superiority on Professionalism could lead to a distancing devotion to work. A way round the issue within the working class itself. The music was found by presenting "recreation" as hall provided a case in point. Singing complementary, not antithetical, to pro­ saloons evolved under the interested eyes ductivity inasmuch as the former made one of publicans to become by the 1880s 1500 more fit for labour. As far as the middle seat halls with troupes of "stars." The class' view of the masses' leisure is con­ Temperance Movement attempted to cerned, Bailey portrays it as shifting from a respond in kind to the demand for music grudging acceptance of the booze-up or with Coffee Music Halls but large dia­ blow-out as a social safety-valve to a grow- grams on stage of the diseased livers of ing conviction of the necessity of drunkards appeared to put some off. Eco­ indoctrinating them with a disciplining nomic considerations led music hall entre­ recreation. The author is especially suc­ preneurs to "discipline" the music of the cessful in showing how such concerns masses — spontaneity was replaced by were turned by the workers to their own professionalism — but even with the star purposes. The Working Men's Club Move­ system the songs were still sung and writ­ ment, for example, was founded by the ten by members of the working class. Rev. Henry Solly and other paternalists in the 1860s to lure workers from pubs and Bailey's conclusions, though more provide a forum in which contact could be clearly articulated than Meller's, are not made with their social superiors. Solly was too different. Middle class attempts to pro-temperance but if the men were to come beer had to be provided; ironically mould the manners of labour were doomed enough, understanding philanthropists from the start. First, because of their con­ such as Solly found that the revenue earned tradictory nature. Alive to the danger of by such sales allowed the workers by the idleness and dissipation they sought to 1880s to take over the direction of their enforce their own social economy on the own clubs and free themselves of middle masses while promising that such an effort class patronage. The clubs did not turn into could result in the unification of all the forums of radical discussion as some classes. But at the same time the middle feared; they did become a liberated arena class attempted to protect itself from social in which workers were their own masters. contagion, lectured the workers on the The middle class preaching of the values of dangers of excessive expectations, and the new athleticism suffered much the withdrew to the privacy of the suburbs. same fate. Sport has been used effectively The second reason for the failure of the to discipline and instil conformity amongst public school boys at mid-century; by the propagandistic efforts of the middle class 1870s Muscular Christians were suggest­ was the simple fact, which it too often ing that the working class be subjected to ignored, that the workers were far from the same moralizing program. The passive and actively sought to develop churches played an important role in spon­ their own leisure culture. soring teams; Aston Villa Football Club Bailey has uncovered a wealth of was initially backed by a Wesleyan chapel interesting information and could have and Tottenham Hotspurs by the YMCA. What Bailey stresses, however, is that the produced an even better study if he had surge of interest in sport was not simply the subjected his data to closer scrutiny. The doing of the middle class. Workers sought omission of any discussion of the lives of access to athletics and if it was necessary to working-class women is especially strik­ play the role of deferentials to obtain ing. About all we are told is that they were equipment and pitches, so they did. Once not allowed entry to the Working Men's football became popular enough to be a Clubs. Meller does have some insightful paying affair class differentials resurfaced things to say about middle-class women's role in recreation, but one suspects that if 258 LABOUR/LE TRAVAILLEUR

one were to include working-class women ning all ideological positions. For Western in the discussion it would have to be con­ communists, the Hungarian revolt posed a cluded that leisure still did not exist for the serious crise de conscience and in many masses in the late nineteenth century. One cases brought about a genuine re­ also wonders if Bailey would include as assessment of attitudes toward the Soviet "middle class" reformers the many Union. For non-communists, the Hun­ Owenite and socialist writers whose views garian events simply confirmed deeply- on recreation were scarcely different from held opinions and feelings validating the those of the philanthropists. Certainly politics and ideology of the western world. many were as given to temperance, ser­ In a sense, Western reactions to Hun­ monizing, and self-help. And a final cavil. gary in 1956 recapitulated, under different In two books devoted to the subject of lei­ historical circumstances, the responses of sure one is disappointed to come away an earlier European age to an equally from a reading with so little feeling of what unsuccessful Hungarian revolution; that of it meant to have fun in the last century. It 1848, when Hungarians were defeated by could be that Meller's sober, slightly con­ overwhelming military odds wielded by voluted prose accurately conveys the spirit reactionary Austria and Russia. Thus, the of Liberal Non-conformists at play; what image of Hungary as the heroic standard- one misses in Bailey's otherwise excellent bearer of freedom against unlawful inva­ study is some sense of the boozey memory sion and foreign oppression has deep his­ of a Bank Holiday blow-out, the contagi­ toric roots in the European consciousness. ous fervour felt on a football terrace, the It is not at all surprising that the events of maudlin companionship engendered by a October and November 1956 rekindled music hall chorus. this long-lost historical myth or image and that Hungary was once again seen as the champion of human liberty and national Angus McLaren autonomy against alien domination. University of Victoria

The problem with such historical Bela K. Kiraly and Paul Jonas, eds. The myths or images, however, is that though Hungarian Revolution of 1956 in Retro­ they are not necessarily false, they do not spect (New York: Columbia University correspond to the complexity and Press 1978). ambiguity of the actual historical events. IT HAS BEEN almost a quarter of a century Of the great many accounts, articles, and since the outbreak of the Hungarian Revo­ books written about the Hungarian Revolu­ lution of 1956. What started off as an tion during the past two and a half decades, apparently spontaneous demonstration of most have been cast within the emotional solidarity with Poland, quickly turned into framework of the "heroic myth"; few have armed revolt against the Soviet occupation been able to transcend the limitations of the of Hungary. For a few dizzying and trium­ eye-witness account and the apologist. phant days in late October and early Unfortunately, this latest book on the Hun­ November, armed citizens took possession garian Revolution does not even begin to of the streets of Budapest, and under the accomplish the urgently needed task of his­ leadership of Imre Nagy, declared their torical synthesis and evaluation. The book country a free, multi-party, and neutral consists of a collection of essays, the larger state. This unexpected, and briefly suc­ part of which was written by actual politi­ cessful defiance of the Soviet Union, took cal participants in the events ofl956; and a hold of the imaginations of Western smaller part by historians who outline the observers as few events since World War II reactions to the events in Hungary among have. Sympathy for the beleaguered Hun­ the socialist countries and in the West. At garians was intense and widespread, span­ their best, these essays provide invaluable REVIEWS 259

detail about the particular aspects of the insinuations of fascist-type chauvinism and October events, recounted by participants anti-Semitism understandably pursued by the who had first-hand knowledge of them. champions of Soviet policy but unfortunately The pieces by Bela Kiraly on military accepted by honorable Western democrats who events and by George Heltai on Interna­ should know better, must be resolutely rejected. tional events, are particularly valuable and (3-4) illuminating. Theweaknessoftheseessays Unfortunately, this kind of argumentation, is that they do not deal in a systematic and which opposes insinuation by counter- self-conscious way with some of the fun­ insinuation raises more questions than it damental problems of interpretation and settles. It does not even begin to deal with evaluation of the events recounted. the fundamental historical truth of false­ And yet, the actual problems that need ness of these questions. to be addressed and eventually clarified are Another question that is raised tenta­ raised by the contributors of the book tively and then dropped is the relationship themselves. One of the most obvious ques­ of the intellectuals to the mass movement tions concerns the general ideological that was unleashed in the course of Octo­ orientation of 1956. Was it a "predomi­ ber. How widely supported were the nantly emotional, unprogrammatic and demands of the writers and intellectuals, indeed, almost unideological movement," who were these supporters, how did their as Tamas Aczel suggests in the conclusion goals coincide with, or differ from, those of his essay, or was it a well-planned, of the leadership? These questions, again, realistic political and economic movement are merely raised in the reader's mind which attempted to create a humanized without being dealt with in any systematic national socialism on the pattern of Yugos­ way. That there were some tensions lavia, as others argue. We have passionate between the leadership and the masses is assertions, usually supporting the tatter implicit in Paul Jonas' article on economic position, but very little reasoned argument realities. "Our main shortcoming," he or proof. writes, "was obviously that we regarded ourselves as the nation's natural elites. Our One of the most disquieting aspects of elitist approach must have offended many this whole question is the problem of anti- non-intellectuals, creating some anti- Semitism which is raised and then quickly elitist feelings and a certain amount of dismissed as vicious Soviet propaganda by anti-Semitism." (p. 36) a number of the contributors. G.H.N. Seton-Watson categorically denies all such Finally, the question of the long-range insinuations: results and accomplishments of the Revo­ What I do insist on rebutting is die suggestion, lution needs to be tackled. To maintain, as endlessly repealed by more or less well- Anna Kethy and others do, that the revolu­ meaning Western "progressives" ever since tion was ultimately successful since it 1956, that the revolution was marked by a kind achieved the destruction of the old of irresponsible, uncontrollable chauvinism. Stalinist-style leadership and political Quite the contrary is true.... It is also quite practices, is faulty, since the process of untrue to suggest dial anti-Semitism flared up. It de-Stalinization had started before the rev­ might have been expected, in view of the anti- olution and was determined by factors out­ Semitic passions released by the last pro-Nazi side Hungary. In fact, one could plausibly governments of Hungary and in view of the argue that the events of 1956 were them­ prominence of Hungarian Jews in the commu­ selves a result of the increased liberaliza­ nist party. But in fact there was hardly any sign tion of Hungarian society, begun a few of it — perhaps largely because there were still more Jews among the supporters of Nagy than years earlier, rather than the cause of the among the Stalinist rearguard. The attempt to relative liberalization of recent years. In blacken the reputation of the Revolution by any case, the relationship of Kadar's 260 LABOUR/LE TRAVAILLEUR

highly successful "goulash socialism" to forced to cease publication in 1975. Now, the traumatic events of 1956 is still not after some years of reflection on the fate of clear. these and other intellectuals associated The essays of this volume, valuable with the Praxis journal, we have a thor­ ough history and evaluation of the Praxis though they are for factual, eye-witness phenomenon in Gerson Sher's study. information, have not dealt adequately Sher's work will be of wide interest not with these, and other large questions relat­ only to scholars concerned with Yugo­ ing to 1956. The need for a dispassionate slavia, for it places the Praxis circle of scholarly investigation, delving into a Marxists firmly within the context of Euro­ broad range of issues, some of which pean schools of Marxist thought and the might be disquieting or contrary to popu­ growth of critical Marxist philosophy. The larly held opinions, remains. Having discovery of Marx's early manuscripts and stated this, I must go on to admit that the the re-evaluation of Stalinism were two important events leading to a remarkable difficulties in the path of such an undertak­ revitalization of Marxist thought, as phi­ ing are almost insurmountable. All pri­ losophers — especially in Eastern Europe mary documents — memoranda, letters, — came to reject the tenets of dialectical diaries, minutes of meetings — that might materialism as mechanical, impersonal, supply the basis of a genuine, historical and inflexible laws of historical develop­ study of 1956, are without exception clas­ ment, replacing them with an activist phi­ sified material, inaccessible to research­ losophy that was, in the words of one ers. Without such documents, however, Praxis philosopher, "the total, rational, modern East European studies must and critical consciousness of man about the world in which he lives and the basic goals remain a somewhat incomplete discipline, of his activity." dangerously open to the ideological con­ Yugoslav intellectuals were perhaps flicts that have wracked this unfortunate more enthusiastic than their other Euro­ area in the recent past. pean confreres in the drive to re-think Marx­ Mary Gluck ism because their government had Brown University severed ties with the Soviet Union in the Com inform dispute of 1948, thus signall­ Gerson S. Sher, Praxis: Marxist Criticism ing an officially sanctioned rejection of and Dissent in Socialist Yugoslavia Stalinism. The League of Communists, (Bloomington: Indiana University Press over the course of the next decade, 1977). implemented a wide series of measures designed to decentralize the economy and to democratize the work place. The new IN YUGOSLAVIA'S turbulent and often system of self-management, hailed by pro­ unpredictable post-war political history, gressive Marxists as the solution to the the Praxis intellectuals played an indisput­ problem of alienation and reviled by able significant role. Self-described as crit­ Stalinists as revisionism, filled Yugoslav ical Marxists, this group of philosophers established the journal Praxis and for intellectuals with great optimism, and approximately ten years expressed through attracted the attention of Marxists every­ its pages their views on topics ranging where. The "socialist experiment" was from the theoretical continuities between viewed as a return to the "real" Marx, and the early and later writings of Karl Marx to a rejection of Stalinist deformities. One of the potentials of industrial self- the leading philosophers of the Praxis management for freeing man from aliena­ group remarked, "The 'Yugoslav path to tion. A forum for increasingly critical and socialism1 constitutes above all a rehabili­ controversial debate, the journal reached a tation of the category of community (with point where it could no longer be tolerated 1 by Yugoslav political authorities, and was workers self-management and social REVIEWS 261

self-government) and of the category of the group's own views of itself as somehow personality (with the freedom of scientific removed from the everyday political world and artistic creation)." and constituting the humanistic — but The Praxis philosophers, however, always theoretical — conscience of soon became a thorn in the side of the Yugoslav society. Ironically, this self- Yugoslav political authorities. As Sher identity of the group of intellectuals asso­ notes in his analysis of the tensions ciated with Praxis turned out to be one of between the Party and Praxis, the Praxis the causes for its downfall. Isolated from intellectuals were compelled to be critical the everyday political scene, wary of set­ of Yugoslav policy on the grounds mat crit­ ting forth distinctively political solutions icism, in their view, was an important com­ to the problems debated in the pages of ponent of any type of social organisation their journal, and forming a virtual intel­ and that without his critical faculties man lectual enclave, the Praxis Marxists could could not function as an integrated (i.e., perhaps blame nobody but themselves for unalienated) member of society. This was the prediction made in 1974 by Stane precisely the problem they found, for Dotanc, a top-ranking Party leader, when example, with the system of self- he said, "They [the Praxis philosophers] management as it eventually came to be will fall by the wayside of themselves for worked out in Yugoslav society. Expect­ the simple reason that their concept has ing to see a genuine withering away of the nothing in common with the broadest polit­ state in the true Marxist sense, they argued ical and ideological concept that has been that the institutions of self-management adopted by the vast majority of our work­ had in fact penetrated only the lower levels ing people." Indeed, the very central ques­ of the state and the economy, and that the tion of the role of the intellectual in a upper levels of the political structure mass-based, worker-oriented socialist remained untouched by any efforts at society was never adequately dealt with by democratization. Moreover, the Praxis the Praxis group in practical terms, and writers contended, self-management had why that was so is a question Sher might in itself become a bureaucratic doctrine, an have discussed in more detail in his post­ ideology, subject to the stagnating influ­ mortem of the Praxis group. ence that results when a revolutionary In what seems to be a certain destiny of movement becomes institutionalized. In dissident groups, however, the Party did such a situation, no man may be critical, eventually adopt in moderated form some and alienation therefore becomes a self- of the ideas of the Praxis group after perpetuating condition of modem life. silencing their original proponents. It is Thus, every aspect of Yugoslav society quite apparent, for example, that the was put to a critical test by the Praxis Praxis group anticipated the economic authors, and when their scrutiny led to a excesses and their attendant social prob­ questioning of major Party policy and in lems brought about by the economic fact to a criticism of Party organisation reforms of 1965, urging — at the risk of itself, they incurred the wrath of those who being labelled pro-centrists or Cominfor- had previously been tolerant of their brand mists — that the Party take action to curb of healthy criticism, and paved the way to the uncontrolled "fetishization of the mar­ their eventual destruction. ket principle." Only later did the Party Sher presents the Praxis story within come to the conclusion that a return to the broader framework of intellectual crit­ some kind of rational planning mechanism icism, although he avoids drawing strong would be necessary to overcome the some­ parallels between the Praxis group and the times anarchic functioning of the market fate of other intellectual movements else­ economy under conditions of self- where. Instead, he focuses on the Praxis management. Sher gives further evidence 262 LABOUR/LE TRAVAILLEUR

to argue the point that a number of ideas in Praxis group as a potentially powerful the constitutional amendments of 1970-71 opposition group. Under constant pressure may be traced to Praxis spokesmen. And to handle criticism within its own ranks, EdvardKardelj, in the year or so preceding the Party had little patience left to deal with his death, was beginning to use the terms it on the outside. "pluralism" and "plural interests" in his Odd as it may seem to readers of Sher's various treatises on socialist democracy, study, Yugoslavs do not long remember giving signs of an unacknowledged intel­ their discredited intellectuals, preferring lectual debt to the Praxis philosophers. instead to regard them as having over­ Moreover, it is important to point out that, stepped the thin line between criticism and unlike their contemporaries Milovan arrogance. Getting on with the real busi­ Djilas and Mihajlo Mihajlov, the Praxis ness at hand — preparing for life after Tito group, a vocal but loyal opposition, through a further stabilisation of a self- remained committed to the perpetuation of managed economy and a decentralised the one-party system and to the basic political structure — apparently poses theoretical foundations of Yugoslav more urgent questions than the issues of socialism. academic freedom. The ability of the Party, in the future, to develop workable Having said all this, one must look mechanisms for debate and criticism will more closely for reasons why the Praxis perhaps give us some indication of how group came to be viewed as a substantial well these questions wilt have been enough threat to bring about its eventual answered. Sher's study of the Praxis case suppression. Sher's analysis concentrates is a valuable source for examining how on the internal weaknesses of the Praxis they have been answered in the past. group and disagreements with Party theoreticians; he devotes relatively little space to the practical political questions of Edith S. Klein the day, which perhaps go further in University of Toronto explaining why the Praxis group could not survive. During the late 1960s and early Gail Lee Bernstein, Japanese Marxist: A 1970s, Yugoslavia was faced with a wide Portrait ofKawakami Hajime. 1879-1946 variety of internal difficulties, all of which (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University threatened to disturb the fragile stability Press 1976). developed over a period of 25 years. The EVER SINCE the tragic death in 1956 of adoption of an independent road to Canadian diplomat E. Herbert Norman, socialism was not a universally popular Western scholarship on Japan has been choice and Party leaders were not always dominated by an anti-Marxist outlook. willing to be questioned whether it was the Norman's most influential successor, Har­ right one. Nationalist rivalries, a centuries-old problem for the south Slavs, vard's Edwin O. Reischauer spoke for a reached a fever-pitch during this period, generation of scholars at a 1958 conference threatening to undo completely the years of about the blurred vision of Asia as seen work put into the creation of a federal through "Marxist glasses" which for many framework for the Yugoslav state. The Asians "distorted their picture of them­ Party thus had to take up once more the selves and their problems." In conse­ "leading role" it had apparently relin­ quence, English language publications on quished in the 1960s, and prevent the Japan have emphasized Japanese success scope of criticism from becoming in assimilating Western democracy and unmanageable. In such circumstances, it is promoting capitalist economic growth not difficult to understand why the Party (so-called modernization) while the his­ developed an exaggerated view of the tory of the Japanese left and working class has been largely ignored. REVIEWS 263

By contrast with the West, Marxism is A two-year stay in Europe just prior to firmly established amongst Japanese histo­ World War I precipitated Kawakami's rians and intellectuals as the dominant sci­ shift to Marxism, according to Bernstein. ence of society and is the ideological Expecting to be dazzled by the opulence of touchstone of all organized groups on the the world's most civilized nations, left. For Japanese Marxists one of the most Kawakami was shocked by the large num­ important figures in their common history bers of exceedingly poor people he saw. is Kawakami Hajime, the subject of sev­ The hedonistic principles of the capitalist eral biographies in Japanese and whose marketplace, he concluded, did not work autobiography and mass of writings are for the good of the whole society but still widely read today. Gail Lee Bernstein served to concentrate wealth in the hands has offered the first book-length treatment of a few. At first Kawakami thought that in English of Kawakami's life. Drawn to Japan could avoid Europe's problem of Kawakami by his struggle to reconcile poverty under industrial capitalism if the "the Japanese side of his being with what rich voluntarily constrained their consump­ he felt to be the scientific truth of Marx­ tion and produced necessities for the ian," Bernstein concludes that the effort poor. But the sharp criticism of these views was "ultimately tragic." In arguing that by a small group of Marxist scholars, many Kawakami's altruistic ethics, his of them his former students, and the impact humanism, his deepest spiritual needs of such great events as the Russian Revolu­ were incapable of being satisfied by Mar­ tion and the Rice Riots of 1918, pushed xism, Bernstein places herself, in spite of Kawakami to slowly give up his "radical her subject, squarely in the dominant spiritualist" position. By 1927 he had Western rather than Japanese tradition of fought his way to a deep and sophisticated historical scholarship. understanding of the materialist and Bernstein divides herworkchronologi­ dialectical foundations of Marxist thought. cally into three parts: Meiji Nationalist, For the next five years he poured forth Academic Marxist, Communist Revolu­ critiques of bourgeois ideology in his own tionary. Part One is by far the longest amd magazine, Research in Social Problems, most useful. It chronicles Kawakami's wrote the "Basic Theory of Marxist Politi­ development from childhood in an ex- cal Economy," and plunged into a transla­ samurai family in western Honshu, to his tion of "Capital." insecurities as a brilliant student and young Despite the pleadings of family and economics teacher at Tokyo Imperial Uni­ close friends, Kawakami could not versity, to his emotional and religious suppress his impulse to join the struggle crisis of 1905 brought on by what he saw as against the rising tide of Japanese fascism. the failure of either the government or the When the draconian Peace Preservation young socialist movement to reform the Law was first used at Kyoto University in ills of Meiji society. Kawakami resigned 1926 to arrest radical students, Kawakami his position as college lecturer to dedicate spoke up in their defense. Two years later himself to teaching the poor. But by 1908, he went to Tokyo to stump for a friend in Kawakami had withdrawn from the sect, the leftist Labour-Farmer Party. The mod­ turned full-time to journalism, and became est success of the LFP led police authorities famous for his expositions on the govern­ to round up thousands of its supporters. ment as a moral agent reconciling conflict­ The President of Kyoto University, ing economic interests. These nationalist- on orders from the central govern­ tinged views helped earn Kawakami an ment, purged Kawakami and other leftists appointment to the prestigious economics from the faculty. Undaunted by the sudden faculty at Kyoto Imperial University where end to his academic career, Kawakami he remained for the next 20 years. turned his energies not only to his writing 264 LABOUR/LE TRAVAILLEUR but to rebuilding the LPP and eventually than half the book is devoted to delivering its adherents to the Japan Com­ Kawakami's post-World War I radical munist Party, men a small band of under­ career. Some of Kawakami's important ground revolutionaries whose position scholarly works in the last phase of his life grew increasingly precarious. During the are not evaluated. In a recent review essay summer of 1932 the Central Committee of for the Japan Interpreter, Herbert Bix the JCP asked Kawakami to translate the pointedly noted that "Bernstein's attention new Theses of the Comintern which rec­ to Kawakami's actual Marxist discourse ommended a reversion to the strategy of falls off precipitously as his grasp of histor­ support for bourgeios democratic revolu­ ical materialism deepens ... And the more tion. Kawakami agreed and shortly there­ he succeeds in combining Marxist theory after he joined the JCP, to become editor of with revolutionary practice... the more Red Flag, the party newspaper. Pursued she emphasizes the futility, inauthenticity from one hideout to the next by the police and tragedy of his career." and betrayed by an informer high in the One comes away from Bernstein's party ranks, Kawakami was arrested in book ambivalent. Her rendering of January 1933 under the Peace Preservation Kawakami's personality, his family life, Law. At his trial and for the five years of and his struggles along many ideological his imprisonment, Kawakami refused to paths before reaching the Marxist road is win a shorter sentence in exchange for lucid and informative. But by failing to renouncing Marxism. stress and fully appreciate Kawakami's Kawakami emerges in Bernstein's por­ Marxism and the police state conditions trait as a sensitive, talented, recognizable which turned him to political activism human being. But reflecting her disdain for Bernstein's book fails to transcend the con­ Marxism, Bernstein loses interest in strictions of the prevailing ideology of Kawakami's intellectual and political Western scholarship on Japan. development just when he becomes most Howard Schonberger rigorously Marxist and revolutionary. Less University of Maine at Orono