Discover your Neighborhood Heritage by Ian Scott (review)

484 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW scholarly playfulness of thecivilizedand senioracademic, Professor Henry Peyre, formerlyof Yaleand nowof the CityUniversity of New York, digsmorebriefly around the marginsof the sametopics.His essay, 'RandomNoteson a Misunderstanding ,' issprightly andwise andawelcome change ofpace. Afreshviewpoint is offeredin a shortessay by WilliamDowlingwhodiscusses hisownexperience in turninghisdissertation intoa book. It seems carpingandunappreciative tobeless thangratefulforanecessary work from gifted contributors.But one feels that the total effect is somewhatselfdefeating . Thisisasledge-hammer tocrack anut.Evengranting thatitisatoughnut, willthecontents beediblewhentheoperationiscomplete? It is clear that the warningsand directionsof all theseessays are seento a thoughtfulsegment of theacademic worldto benecessary. To a non-academic it is puzzling thatthisshould beso.A PI•nstudent hasspent several years working closely withbooks.How isit possible thatthisdegreeof concentration hasnotdeveloped a keensense ofthequalityofabook, of itsessential natureandfunction, ofwhatmakes a bookgoodandwhereinthelessthangoodfail?Do PI•r)students reallyneedthis amountof guidance atthemoment of completion of theirdissertations? Surelythe young doctors canrespond tothecounsel ofabetter maninabetter cause: 'Physician, healthyself.' If indeedthisisexpecting toomuch,arewenotbeing asked toseePI-t ns as so many clockworkmice,conditioned,programmed- woundup - to move unthinkinglyin onedirectionandnoother? Not surprisingly themainthrustof thebookdevelops a secondary attackon the dissertation asthe crownof graduatestudyin the humanities. This iscountered stoutly thoughbrieflybyWilliamSavage, formerlyaneditoratOklahoma University Press, nowteaching English atthatuniversity. Butthedefence amounts onlytothis, thatthesystem isinplace andwon'teasily beshifted, anditmightbeworse. Thoughthebookfallsintosome ofthetrapsitwarns against, itwillbewelcomed by manyandcouldperhaps bevaluable tomore.It isa modelof theeditor's craftand mightsave manyof themilesthat•,• nsmustgobeforetheysleep. JOHN M. GRAY Toronto Discover yourNeighborhood Heritage. IANSCOTT. Toronto,LearnxsPress, 1976.Pp.vi, 57,maps,illus.$3.95. Localhistoryhasbecome a standard partof thecurriculum of bothelementary and secondary schools. Fortheteacher itpresents special problems. Heisoftenunfamiliarwithboththesubject anditsspecialized sources, which areusually widely scattered and locatedonlywith difficulty.Availability, aswellasthe historyitself,varies significantly amongcommunities. Suggestions for the localhistoryteachermust therefore begeneral, although dealing withasubject thatbristles withdetail. Financed byaWintariogrant,Scott's guideisintended forteachers inOntario.He uses Torontoashisexample, anddescribes thevarious libraries, archives, andother sources therewhichcontainmaterials onTorontohistory.He isnotalways accurate aboutsuchdetailsasthelocation of the mapsin the MetropolitanTorontoLibrary, REVIEWS 485 nor the hoursof the MunicipalReferenceLibrary. For the Ontario Archiveshe describes onlythehistorical atlases andthephotograph collection, withnoreference tothegreatwealthof localmaterialin itsrecords, manuscripts, andmapcollections. Severalobvious institutions and sources are omittedcompletely, althoughthe appendixcontains alistofarchives in OntariotakenfromtheUnion ListofManuscripts, aswellasalistofOntariohistorical societies. Thereisalso abibliography ofToronto history,based onthebibliography published in •969in Stevenson andArmstrong's Approaches toTeaching Local History butwithsomeomissions, mostnotablytheentire section on post-Confederation Toronto.Only four titlespublished since•969 have been added, one with its author misspelled; in this period a number of other significantbookson Toronto have appeared,suchas Morton'sMayorHowland, Goheen's Victorian Toronto, Thompson's Spadina, and,mostimportant,Glazebrook's TheStory ofToronto, probablythebestgeneralhistoryof thecity. Scott's surveyof the possibilities of Toronto localhistoryis sopoor that it isof extremelylimitedvalueevenfor Torontoteachers. Fortheteacherelsewhere in the province itisalmost useless, because thewealthof resources inTorontomakes it very different from most other communities in Ontario. There is, however, some more generalinformation, including briefdirections for oralhistoryprojects andexcerpts from tworeportsof localhistoryworkin elementaryschools in TorontoandCardinal , Ontario. The kit contains material from the Historical and Museums Branch of the OntarioMinistryof CultureandRecreation,theOntario Archives,theToronto Board of Education, and Learnxs Press. In sucha basicguide,it isdifficultto beoriginal,butScottdoesnotalways even rewritehisunacknowledged sources; for example, compare hispage• withpages •2o-• in Approaches to Teaching LocalHistory, or hisdescription of the valueof newspapers onpage2withpage•6 in thesame book. Obviously Scott began withlittleknowledge of hissubject anddidnotspendmuch time in compilinghis guide. The resultis virtually useless for the teachersit is intendedto help. It is unfortunatethat a governmentgrant wasgivenfor such shoddywork. EDITH G. FIRTH Metropolitan Toronto Library Penelope's Web:Some Perceptions of Women in European andCanadian Society. •.w.s. GR•T•S. Toronto,OxfordUniversity Press, •976.Pp.249,illus.$4.95. 'To whatextent...isprejudice anddiscrimination against womenafundamental part of western civilization?' To seek an answer Griffiths has scanned the seventeenth to twentieth centuries choosing theformerasastarting pointfornootherreason thanit is her mainareaof expertise.Shearguesthat althoughthe seventeenth century discriminated against women,it wasnotasexist society. Butthiswastochange. The riseof the stateand itsincumbentbureaucracy eventuallymadeitselffelt on the villagecommune.Coincidentwasthe riseof townsand in them Griffithsfindsher villain. There prejudiceagainstwomen prevailedand oncecommunications increased theruralareas became infected bythesocial normsoftheurbancentres. The ...