Reasoning Otherwise: Leftists and the People’s Enlightenment in Canada, 1890–1920 (review)

The historiography of the left in Canada presents an uneven tapestry; some areas are well defined, others much less so. Largely as a result of the deep investment mid- to late-twentieth-century socialists had in the socialist formations of the interwar period, the 1920s and 1930s have been extensively, if often problematically, explored. The preceding period of ‘first formation socialism’ has received less attention, largely having been seen as a prequel to the much more important stories of communism and social democracy, the dominant socialist movements of the century. Each, in its own eyes, transcended a series of shortcomings of an allegedly ineffectual and isolated pre-1920 left.

As Ian McKay effectively demonstrates in this sweeping and incisive reconnaissance into the era, a rich first formation socialism (to use his term) set itself against the emerging liberal social order and attempted to ‘reason otherwise.’ McKay argues that each historical formation had its own, often quite distinct, concepts and ideals and he carefully explores the cross-currents of ideas from Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, and especially Herbert Spencer that collectively shaped the scientifically informed, organic evolutionary socialism of the period. The impressive scope of McKay’s work allows him to examine complex developments and important shifts, particularly on the eve of the First World War. For instance, he sees in the Social Democratic Party of Canada – an organization that has never received its historical due, and whose place has often been misrepresented as simply standing to the right of the Socialist Party of Canada – a site of new politics that could provide an arena for those who wanted to develop a more inclusive strategy, both in working-class political allies and immigrant communities. It presaged both future bolshevism and social democracy, but was at the same time very much a first formation movement. Similarly, McKay’s exposition of the nature of pre-war socialism, as well as the nature of the crisis of the liberal order in the last half of the war, provide a perceptive view of the character of the post-war revolt. In addition to all of this, chapters specifically devoted to race, to religion and to women provide insight into the diversity of the left despite themes that held it together.

It is appropriate to assess this book as a project associated with MacKay’s much discussed article ‘The Liberal Order Framework: A Prospectus for a Reconnaissance of Canadian History,’ published in this journal in 2000. In particular, he pointed out the ways in which increasingly hegemonic liberal ideas and practices were challenged in Canada by a ‘civic humanist’ left. Reasoning Otherwise expands on this analysis, although the difficulties of identifying such breaks from the liberal order are apparent, partly as a result of the diversity of those who challenged it. Here McKay discusses not only the clearly selfidentified socialist spokespeople of the day, but other voices as well: rationalist Marshal Gauvin, novelist Alice Chown, and agrarian radical E.A. Partridge. While their critiques are important and interesting responses to the liberal order, their inclusion raises the question of the place of socialism within this broad ‘left.’ McKay clearly makes choices, although the criteria for doing so are not always clear. He struggles valiantly to include Winnipeg radical liberal Fred Dixon in the first formation, but tends to exclude, in general, labourites. The latter decision is not unreasonable and McKay quite rightly notes the tendency of some labour historians, at least in the past, to downplay liberal influences within the political labour movement. However, as labourites increasingly entered into a more overt struggle with capital in the postwar labour revolt, important distinctions emerged among them. They too ‘reasoned otherwise,’ but they did so through a negotiation with liberalism that characterized, in fact, much of the left that McKay examines.

These issues are important because McKay ends this volume with the post–First World War revolt, which was self-consciously (and to...