Immigrants: A Portrait of the Urban Experience, 1890–1930 by R. Harney, and H. Troper (review)

REVIEWS 501 men he wasin turn often boorishlyinsensitive to hiscolleagues andjuniors. In additionhewasunfriendly: J.C.DentsaidthatBlakepossessed' amannerasdevoid of warmthasisaflakeof December snow.' EdwardBlakewasalsogrossly irresponsibleonoccasion . Hisbehaviour duringthe 187os andlate 188os iswellknown.Schull citesanotherexample.In 1894,twoyearsafter he enteredthe Imperial Houseof Commons, hewrotetoJ.G.Bourinot:'It maysurprise youtoknowthatsocasual doI feel my situationI haveneverread the rulesof thisHouse.'It isincrediblethat he exercised astrong holdoverCanadian Liberals inspiteofnumerous andwell-known foibles. DanielLivermoremightbecorrect in hisanalysis of Blake's mentalproblems and behaviour. Hispolitical failurecan,however, beexplained moreprosaically. He was a brilliantman,but a conventional politician.He failedbecause he waspersonally unsuited topubliclifeandbecause hewasoutclassed byMacdonald, whowasavastly superiorpolitician.He wasalsounlucky.EdwardBlakeseemed tobeanintellectual, and certainlyactedlike an academic primadonna.It is arguablethat when some scholars try to excuseBlake's behaviouror accountfor hisfailuretheyare really gropingwiththe problemof theacademic in publiclife andtryingto explainwhy Anglophone intellectuals, atleast, havehadsolittleinfluence inourpolitics. Theconcluding volume ofJoseph Schull's lifeofBlakeiscarefully researched and wellwritten.It easily meets thestandard ofcurrentbiographical writingin Canada, asperhaps itshould inviewofthefactthatSchull was assisted by'aconsultative body consisting of' J.M.S.Careless, R.C.Brown,P.B.Waite,andM.A. Banks.The lawof diminishing returnsapplies to Canadianpoliticalbiography,andnotmuchthat is newemerges in Schull's discussion of topics likethec•'R,Riel,theriseof Laurier,or thegrowthofcontinentalism. Wedohowever learnmuchaboutBlake's relationship with the Universityof Toronto, hisfamily,and hisunending'personalagonies.' EdwardBlake'sstoryisnot a happyoneand is sometimes evenpathetic.But he remains animportantfigureinCanadian liberalism, andSchull's work,thoughbyno means the lastword on Blake, should be read with care. DONALD SWAINSON Queen's University Immigrants: A PortraitoftheUrbanExperience, x89o-x93o. •. HARNEY and I-I.T}toP•.}t. Toronto,Van NostrandReinhold,1975.Pp.x, 2lO,illus.$14.95. HarneyandTroper haveputtogethera fascinating, revealing, andmovingbook. The combination of tellingphotographs, carefullyselected writtensources fronlthe period,togetherwith a lively,well-written,andprovocative text makethisbooka majorcontribution tourbanandethnichistory. HarneyandTroper dealwiththeimmigrantexperience in Torontofrom 189oto 193o.In total,thebookcontains overonehundredandfifty photographs, selected fromarchives andfamilycollections. The bookisarranged topically withsections on The Comingof the Immigrants,Shelterand StreetLife, Work and Enterprise, Education andtheCanadian Way,Religion andPolitics, andChangeandPersistence in ImmigrantLife. Thus, the authorsare ableto givefull coverage to almostall 502 THE CANADIAN HISTORICAL REVIEW aspectsof immigrant life during the period. They describeboth the nativeCanadians ' reactions to the immigrants,aswellasthe immigrants'experience. Not onlydotheydemolish themyththatTorontowassimplyanAnglo-Saxon citypriorto WorldWarII, buttheygetinside theimmigrant experience inawaywhich illuminates the sameexperience today.They donotattemptto drawparallels withthe present situationin Toronto (and there are of coursemanydifferencesfrom the period whichtheydiscuss) buttheirtextilluminates questions whichremainwithus. The bookhasmanystrengths. Byfocusing ontopics ratherthangroups(theusual practice inthefieldofethnicstudies), theauthors areabletogiveamuchbroaderand fullersense ofthedynamic ofimmigrantlifethanisusualinacademic studies. Wesee immigrants andtheir childrenat work,atplay,in their neighborhoods andhomes, andintheirbusiness relationships withothersof theirowngroup.Theyarenotseen simplyaswaves of immigrants, ciphers intheclass structure, or participants inethnic organizations, whichisoftentheapproachinethnichistories. Byfocusing onabroadrangeof groups inToronto,theauthors areabletoadopta comparativeapproach which makesit easierto understanddifferenceswhich emergebetweendifferent groups,suchas in the developmentof occupational specialties. The authorsarestrongest whendealingwiththetwogroups theyknow best, theItalians andJews, butthereisalso some interesting material onothergroups like the Macedonians. There are solidintroductions to eachchapterwhichsummarizemuchrecent scholarship in the immigration historyfield.They alsoraisemanynewquestions and offei new interpretations. In discussing the immigrants' socio-economic background, transiency andoccupational flexibility, thecommerce ofmigration, and the business structures and nationalfeelingwhichdeveloped withinimmigrant communities, the authorsbring togethermuchnewmaterial.By combining the expertise of historians specializing in bothEuropeandCanada,theauthors areable to dojusticeto boththe old and newworldexperience of the immigrants. For the urbanhistorian, therearenumerous insights intothenatureof work,thedevelopment of industry,and the processes of residentialsegregation and succession in pre-depression Toronto. HarneyandTroper revealanothersideof the storyof Toronto'thegood.'They showthe starkrealitiesof the exploitationof immigrantworkers,racism,and discrimination .For manyreformers,in order to becomea 'good'Canadianan immigranthadto notonlygiveup oldworldcustoms butbecomea Protestant aswell. Inevitably,therearesomeweaknesses inthebook.Althoughthereareadmittedly certaindifficulties in usingcensus datadealingwithethnicorigin,theauthors could havedonemoreto giveussomesense of thenumericalimpactof thegroups which theydiscuss. There are no figureswhichcomparethe relativesizeof the different groups.Nor isenoughexplanationgivenastowhytheseimmigrantscametothecity ata timewhenofficially stated immigration policy was'OnlyFarmers NeedApply.' And althoughthe bookostensibly covers the periodup to •93o, it doesnotreally discuss immigration duringthe •92os.Historians whoemphasize theimportance of visualhistorywill complainthat the authorsusephotographs more asillustrative material rather than as the basisof their historicalinterpretation.Quantitative REVIEWS 503 historians will bedissatisfied with assertions aboutsocialandeconomic mobilityand assimilation whichare basedon impressionistic evidence rather than quantitative analysis. Although the written sources whichthe authorshavereprinted are extremelyinteresting ,theypresentmostlythe whiteAnglo-SaxonProtestant viewof theimmigrant,ratherthantheimmigrant's viewof hisownexperience. Immigrants doesnot answer,nor wasit intendedto answer,all the questions or coverallthetopics thatscholars wouldwantconsidered in acompletely comprehensivestudyof thetopic.Butwiththehelpof strikingphotographs, theauthorshave penetratedto the core of immigrantlife and havegivenus somesenseof how immigrants themselves viewedtheir Canadianexperience. This isa...