Macdonald: His Life and World by P.B. Waite (review)

322 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW Macdonald: HisLifeandWorld. P.B.WAITE. Toronto,McGraw-Hill-Ryerson, 1975.PP. ee4,illus.$1e.95. Macdonald: HisLifeandWorld presents aninitialpuzzle.Whatkindofbookisit meant to be?It is handsomelyand lavishlyillustratedbut it is not large enough nor expensive enoughtobeacoffeetablebook.It isequippedwithacertainamountof scholarly apparatus butthetextitselfismuchtoobrieftopermitanyrealanalysis in depthof eitherMacdonald's lifeor hisworld.Presumably, then,thebookisaimedat somepointin publisher's no-man's land,aboutmid-waybetweenthescholarly and the Christmas markets. Giventhe ambiguousformat within whichhe wasworkingit wouldhavebeen surprising if Professor Waitehadproduceda majororiginalwork,thoughit isnot surprising thathehas,asusual,produced alively,readable book.Muchofthetextisa synthesis of hisownandotherpeople's workon Macdonaldandhistimesfleshed out with favourite anecdotes(someof which are of dubious provenance)and with snatches of nineteenth-century poetry(whichsomereadersmay find a bit overblown ).Nonetheless, Professor Waitehasusedhisopportunitytomakeagoodmany points,all of whichare sensible and someof whichare new,and alsoto raisesome intriguingquestions. In dealingwith MacdonaldhimselfProfessor Waitepaystheusualtributesto his politicalmeritsbut isalsorefreshinglyfrank abouthislimitations.He rightlydescribes Macdonald asanorthodox,evenatimid,politician whowasonlyinnovative, if innovativeisthe right word, whilein opposition, and he alsochargesMacdonald, againprobablycorrectly,with a generalandlife-longignoranceof mostof Canada eastof Montrealandwestof Toronto. Macdonald's politicalhorizonswereformed, andseemto havegotstuck,sometime in the 185os. Unlike Macdonald,ProfessorWaite is well awareof the historicimportanceof Canadianregionalvariations. His discussion of the differing natureof municipal governments, amongothersubjects, isespecially valuable. Anotherover-neglected topic on which ProfessorWaite is both informativeand frank is the matter of governmentpatronageand howit washandled.The onlything wrongwith these sections of thebookisthattheyaretantalizingly brief.In thesame waythereaderis intriguedbut hardlysatisfied bytwoshortdissertations on theimportance of lawin Canadianhistory.'Law,' Professor Waitewrites,'mustunderlieall societies, and its character,mostespecially its administration, mayvery well determinethe shape society takes.'This mayverywellbetruebut the notiondeserves a gooddealmore development. Alwaysaskingfor more,in a shortreviewof a shortbook,isprobably justbeing hardtogetalongwith.Thebookisappealing andevenmildlyprovocative. If anyone is going to capture that elusiveCanadianbeast,'the intelligent generalreader,' Professor Waite is the one to do it. J.K. JOHNSON Carleton University ...